US Vice President Joe Biden has claimed that the only person who unequivocably urged Barack Obama to grenlight the operation that killed Osama bin Laden was Leon Panetta. According to Biden, most other members of Obama’s ‘inner circle’ believed that more intelligence should be gathered first.
Osama bin Laden was killed in a high-risk operation deep inside Pakistan in May 2011. Although the operation was a success, there was a huge risk that the al-Qaida leader would not be found, in which case the whole event could have turned into an embarrassing diplomatic incident. Which, to be fair, kind of happened anyway…
News of the various opinions offered to Obama is likely to be used by some to present the president as a strong leader who took a risk. His role in ordering the mission that caught bin Laden is likely to be revisited a number of times in the run-up to this year’s presidential election.
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