Daily Mail [UK]
3rd May 2011
- President ‘slept on it’ as tense military chiefs awaited decision
- Action started the next morning when Obama declared ‘it’s a go’
- Mission delayed by one day after heavy cloud cover on Saturday night
- Navy seals dodged Pakistani security to reach Bin Laden’s lair
- Outpouring of emotion on streets down to ‘the same sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11’ Obama told members of Congress
Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would ‘sleep on it’ before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden’s compound.
Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals – who were not even told who they were preparing to capture – had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound.
The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.
But the president stunned officials when he told a national security meeting that he wanted more time to think – and disappeared out of the room.
‘I’m not going to tell you what my decision is now – I’m going to go back and think about it some more,’ said Obama, according to the New York Times. He then added ‘I’m going to make a decision soon.’
The head of the CIA and other senior intelligence officers who were keen to proceed were left tense as they waited for the president’s decision…
The article continues at The Daily Mail.
Update: The Right Scoop has an interview with Leon Panetta. Power Line has remarks by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
