The mission to get Osama bin Laden seems to be the raid that keeps on giving for the Obama White House. Whether it is a mention at the top and bottom of the State of the Union address or a highlight in a campaign speech, the president frequently references to the mission as evidence of the his leadership and foreign policy strength.
Vice President Joe Biden jumped on the Obama leadership bandwagon Friday when he revealed that he cautioned the president against signing off on the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideaway. Despite his reservations, Biden said the President made the gutsy decision all alone.
Speaking to a meeting of congressional Democrats in Maryland, Biden shared a few new details about the tense decision making process preceding the president giving the go ahead for the daring Pakistan raid by Special Operations forces.
Biden said that for a four-to-six week period in early 2011 only six people knew that bin Laden might be hiding in the military town of Abbotobad, Pakistan. When enough information finally surfaced, the president convened his national security staff on April 28th.
“The president, he went around the table, with all the senior people, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he said I have to make a decision, what is your opinion. He started with the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, and he ended with me. Every single person in that room hedged their bet, except [then CIA director] Leon Panetta. Leon said go," said Biden.
Biden told the president "my suggestion is don't go," saying there were more details that had to be checked to truly ascertain if bin Laden was indeed in the compound.
"You end up having to make decisions based on the moon, will there be enough light. And we had to make a decision,” said Biden.
According to the Vice President Obama left that meeting and said he would make the decision.
"The next morning he came down to the diplomatic entrance, getting in a helicopter I believe to go to Michigan, I'm not positive for that. He turned to Tom Donilon and said "go," Biden related.
In fact, Obama was leaving for Alabama that morning, not Michigan. CNN previously reported that Obama gave the order at 820aET. Obama boarded the helicopter at 830aET, according to the White House schedule that day.
Obama’s Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan told reporters last May how the inner circle "debated across the board," so the President could ensure "at the end that he had the views of all the principals."
"He goes around the room and he wants to hear people’s views. And so you have a circumstantial intelligence case. And so people will see that either there is insufficient circumstantial evidence to go forward with something like this, which involves a unilateral operation in another country to go after somebody you believe is Osama bin Laden - and there were differences of views that were discussed. That’s what the President wanted to know," said Brennan.
The Vice President isn’t the only who had second thoughts about pulling the trigger. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also admitted he had reservations about the raid.
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