<p>That’s not unusual in these types of patriotic raids, especially ones that happen in far away places. Remember the rescue to Pvt. Jessica Lynch from that hospital in Iraq? Over time that story morphed from one of a daring and desperate shoot out - spiriting her away from the heavily-armed compound and barely escaping under a hail of gunfire into a story of the rescuers going into an unguarded hospital, basically unopposed, and simply taking her away. No desperate firefight. Probably the most dangerous thing that happened to those rescuers would have been a nurse scolding them because it wasn’t visiting hours.</p>
<p>The story of the assassination has changed quite a bit. The latest is that there was no firefight. 3 of the 4 killed were unarmed, including Bin Laden and his 19 year old son, who was coming down the stairs when the assault began. Bin Laden was in his pajamas. The report of a woman being used a shield appears to not have been correct either.</p>
<p>I think the problem is that the first reports are sketchy, based on verbal accounts of participants are pumped up over their success. Their perceptions are understandably subjective and influenced heavily by their emotional state at the time – and the reports are made by someone piecing together the different accounts, and often jumping to the wrong conclusion. “Why did you shoot the woman?” “She was in the way” - becomes morphed in someone’s mind into the “woman was being used as a shield”. </p>
<p>When everyone has a chance to calm down, and each team member separately is debriefed, then more details emerge. Since there is video available from the helmet cams that at least some of the team was wearing, that might also provide detail. Keep in mind that the participants can be fully justified in their decisions but nonetheless turn out to have perceived something wrong. Maybe someone saw Bin Laden make a sudden movement and in their mind thought they saw a weapon in his hand – later on it turns out he was unarmed. That sort of stuff happens all the time for police operating in the field – so of course it can happen for a SEAL team rushing into a dark room.</p>
<p>coureur, I remember that story, it later turned out to be totally different from where the story began.</p>
<p>calmom, I understand what you wrote, but the administration have significantly changed the story: from Bin Laden having a gun and shooting and using his wife as a shield to Bin Laden not even having a gun. How could someone forget this? I thought they were all watching it live? If the initial story was they thought Bin Laden was reaching for his gun and they shot him, but later realized that he was not reaching for his gun, hence a revision of the story, then fine.</p>
<p>I understand that in the heat of the moment, things might look different, but someone shooting at you…</p>
<p>I am not putting any blame on the seals, or the administration, I am just asking questions.</p>
<p>I can’t wait till a Bin Laden look alike sends out another video saying, "It’s all a lie. I am not dead at all. " Obama thinks the birth certificate thing was an issue. This is going to be one big pain.</p>
<p>No, that is a myth stemming from media speculation misinterpretation of the Situation Room photo. They were getting updates via audio/video, but not live feed. Panetta stated very strongly & firmly that there was no live feed when interviewed on PBS – and if anyone would have had access to that, he would. (He was in command of the operation from Langley). At best they may have had audio from the field confirming that Bin Laden had been found – but my guess is that even that would have been second hand, relayed from someone at the back whose job was to facilitate communications, rather than the guys in front. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that special forces teams are HIGHLY specialized in terms of each person’s role and responsibilities. It’s not a movie.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if Bin Ladin didn’t make videos which, in the event of his death, would be released in increments over time, in order to convince people that he was still alive. They would have to be generic terrorist rants, however, which did not reference any current political or world event. In that case, it wouldn’t matter how many bloody photos of his corpse the Obama Administration released. They’d just claim the pictures were photoshopped. Actually, even if Bin Ladin is never heard from again, people who want to believe he’s alive are going to believe it, regardless of the evidence.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about the incident, particularly the 500 euros and the phone numbers. I know we’ll never know the full details of all this. The only thing I can think of is that the phone numbers were to someone in Pakistan who would get him to a safe house, and the 500 euros are an interim sum for the safe house, to bide him over until he could access his bank again. The fact that it’s euros indicates the safe house was in Europe - Germany, maybe? The 9/11 hijackers had strong German connections. I know I’m probably off in left field, but it’s just such an interesting fact (assuming it’s true).</p>
<p>cartera, vis a vis our other conversation, if this makes you feel any better about the teenaged son being killed, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the son had no money and no phone numbers sewn into his clothes.</p>
<p>Joe Biden… needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. I don’t think anyone from the government has said that SEAL team 6 did this, until he did.</p>
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<p>The people who knew were probably the people in that room in the picture, plus any operational support staff in the region and back in the U.S. JSOC personnel, SOCOM personnel, etc that were needed for the mission. That said, probably most of the people at these places did not know. The people on the aircraft carrier did not know. The people who fuel up the helicopters just fuel them up, they don’t have “need to know” to know where they are going, etc.</p>
<p>Most likely the CIA, NSA, and NGA people who were working on this for the last year from the analysis side were not aware of the impending mission. They would not have the “need to know” that you need to get in on this info.</p>
<p>The majority and minority leadership + intel committees in both houses of congress had updates throughout the last year, but likely also were not aware that the mission was actually taking place.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Obama and Biden’s wives do not have security clearances. They wouldn’t have the need. I’m sure they have been investigated though. The more people that know, the bigger the chance it leaks.</p>
<p>It has also been said by US officials that no allies were told of the plan, which includes Pakistan, Britain, Australia, etc.</p>
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<p>IMO this is the administration trying to play a PR game that Osama “resisted” so they shot him. They should have no issues, and just come out and say they went to kill him and they were successful.</p>
<p>Also, there are some pretty cool pictures of the helicopter that crashed. Apparently it was a stealth model, perhaps previously unknown to exist in the unclassified world.</p>
<p>soccerguy, I thought they blew up the helicopter? If they didn’t, they certainly should have. The Pakistani who tweeted the whole ops unknowingly talked about a major explosion, which seems to corroborate the story of blowing up the helo, no?</p>
<p>Hayden, I think that makes me feel worse. No safe house for junior and the missus. The kid didn’t pick his father. Maybe he thought his father was a nut. Dang, is that my bleeding heart showing?</p>
<p>^^ They blew up the helo but from the pictures it looks like the tail section is resting on the inside of the wall - as if it may have crashed into it when it landed and hence why it couldn’t take off again. This tail section with the tail rotor is pretty intact. The pictures of the rest of it show that the rest is pretty completely destroyed.
I also read that these were special stealth helos.</p>
<p>Some of the pictures showed kids who appeared to be taking parts of the wreckage as souvenirs.</p>
<p>I wonder what’ll happen to the Osama compound now. I assume it’ll be razed so it doesn’t become some kind of shrine although maybe they’ll use it as a tourist attraction to help their economy - maybe have a special ‘terrorist package deal’ or something.</p>