Why not release the order directing action against bin Laden?
There have been many calls for the Obama Administration to release further information about the action in Pakistan and the killing of Osama bin Laden. “Experts” from the U.N. Human Rights Council have requested this and so have others. Following release of a mishmash of information, much of it incorrect, a lid seems to have been clamped down; there may or may not be non-political reasons for this. However, keeping national security interests firmly in mind, it is worth noting that in the absence of well supported facts speculation usually fills the void; with sufficient repetition that speculation often comes to be viewed as factual.
I have not yet seen any specific calls for release of whatever document embodied the Presidential Finding, or whatever, authorizing the operation. Was it done on the basis of President Reagan’s 1986 Presidential Finding which laid out in broad brush strokes the procedures to be used in fighting terrorism? Did President Obama sign a supplemental Memorandum of Notification dealing specifically with Pakistan and bin Laden? When?
It is claimed here that “Unlike Clinton and his National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, Obama actually authorized a strike against bin Laden when given the chance.” If there was no such order, that would be quite interesting. Assuming that a Presidential Order of some type was in fact signed and issued, it should be released. It should be redacted, not for political reasons but to avoid only the disclosure of operational details likely to impair future operations and the identities of operational personnel otherwise likely to be put further in harm’s way. Release of such a document seems both harmless and useful.
Release could possibly answer some of the following questions:
1. Did the order authorize the killing of bin Laden and, if so, in what circumstances?
2. Did the order specify any circumstances under which he was to be taken alive and, if so, in what circumstances?
3. If taken alive, what was to be done with him?
4. Did the order provide any directions as to the disposition of bin Laden’s body in the event of his death, and if so what were those directions?
5. Did the order direct that the operation be kept secret from Pakistani authorities and, if so, did it offer any guidance as to how this could, should or must be accomplished? What was that guidance, if any? Since the operation appears in fact to have been kept secret, no operational harm should occur based on an acknowledgment that President Obama ordered it. Some of the details as to how it was to be accomplished could be sufficiently sensitive to warrant their redaction.
Additional information could possibly be released without harming national security, but without access even to a redacted copy it is not very useful to speculate as to what.
The release of a redacted copy of the order could itself raise additional questions, some of which it could be appropriate to answer. According to President Obama, his administration is the most transparent in history.
Since President Obama is claiming substantial personal credit for the operation and is receiving it, release of the order could put his actual role in proper context.
Powerful cartoon, related to this topic, on “Obama approved Assassinations” at http://drawfortruth.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/obama-approved-assassinations/
“Since President Obama is claiming substantial personal credit for the operation and is receiving it, release of the order could put his actual role in proper context.”
Problem is, according to Washington Insider’s source, Leon Panetta made the call, not Obama.
question: if panetta gave the authorization to kill thereby keeping obimao’s fingers clean, why not do what he always does, release the order with panetta’s sig and throw him under the bus to save his own six?
I don’t buy it. The saudi’s hated bin laden too, because he was a major threat to the house of saud.
Leon Panetta has said that President Obama signed the order authorizing the attack. So there almost certainly is an order.
“as long as I am president I’ll never stop fighting.”
While he was senator the only person he was willing to fight was Bush. Now he has adopted all of bush’s war policies and seems to be pretending that he is the great wartime president who thirsts for justice and is driven for victory. I guess when your poll numbers are tanking and your domestic policies are destroying the nation, the only thing left to rely on is your military and whatever patriotism you can still exploit in your countrymen. Last refuge of a scoundrel.
When does the National Archivist get his copy of the order as well as other relevant documents, including transcripts or tape recordings of all the discussions within the White House that led to the raid and execution of Usama bin Laden? When do those documents, which are mandated by the Presidential Records Act, get released to Congress, historians, and the public?
We’ll see it when his transcripts are published, because he’s the most transparent hero in American history.
only his skin is transparent because it’s so thin.
Unless released by President Obama, the National Archivist will get them when President Obama says it’s OK or when a subsequent president says it’s OK. See generally President Obama’s Executive Order of January 21, 2009. The incumbent or a former president can claim executive privilege, including as to any document which might “impair national security (including the conduct of foreign relations), law enforcement, or the deliberative processes of the executive branch;” the incumbent trumps a prior office holder.
Here’s another insight about the spin since the mission.
They said they lost transmission for 20-25 mins, so the SEALS made the kill decision on their own. Really? Do you believe that for a second? Okay then, what was plan B? Your guys hit the compound, and you lost comms. Did you send in a back-up team? After all, they might have walked into an ambush and be dead, dying, or captured. Was there a back-up team to extract them? Or did you sit around for 20-25 mins and HOPE the situation would CHANGE?!?
20-25 mins? You cannot tell us exactly how long? Why not? You haven’t decided how much of the record to excise yet?
Liars.
They are inveterate liars. They just cannot stop themselves. One lie just leads to another and another. When in a hole, quit digging! It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up.
@”What was Plan B?” Nearly all the press reports have mentioned only two helicopters, but I did read one report that claimed there were 4 helicopters involved, the two main ones and two acting as backups. I have seen no other similar report to verify this. Plan B was to run over to the CIA’s safehouse down the street from the compound, turn on the satellite TVs to the NBA and NFL games, open a brewski, and look nonchalant when the local police and military poked their heads in the door to investigate who all these strangers were.
Best take I’ve heard on the video gap is the SEALS killed the feed… so it wouldn’t be used against them in trial when they eventually get thrown under the bus. Just speculation, mind you. But they’d be fools to not “cover their six” while doing their mission. One look at the CIA guys that got them the info tells them all they need to know.
Gee MDC, certainly with Little Lenin observing their every action, there would be no chance of prosecution. After all, he’s the most honorable president in history, isn’t he? And his own self-interest is always his very last priority. Surely the Seals felt like they were in the best possible hands.
http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obama-hesitated-panetta-issued-order-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/
The answers to questions 1-5 would all be redacted.
this administration has known where osama was since at least august – what forced his hand to do this now? (and I believe he ordered a shoot on site)