Monday, May 2, 2011
The Fox News report, embedded in the previous post below, gives interesting new details of the raid that killed Bin Laden.
A Navy Seal team, operating from helicopters, landed in the compound that housed Bin Laden and engaged Bin Laden and his guards in a fire fight. Bin Laden (and everyone else in the house) were killed. Bin Laden's body was dumped in the ocean. No other bodies were taken from the scene.
The CIA had been watching the Pakistani mansion for the past four years, after the name of Bin Laden's courier had been extracted from Gitmo detainees using "enhanced interrogation techniques" (water boarding). It was the tracking of this courier that brought CIA attention to the Pakistani mansion.
So-called progressives are now giving Obama credit for the kill, but it was George Bush's policies that obtained the information that led to that kill. Progressives, it is to be remembered, virulently opposed "enhanced interrogation techniques" and cried crocodile tears for the Gitmo prisoners (remember Dick Durbin likening Gitmo to a Nazi or Soviet interrogation camp).
Update: VFR has collected details from various sources. They indicate that Bin Laden was given a chance to surrender but refused, that he was firing his own rifle at the Navy Seals when he was shot dead.
What this means is that Bin Laden knew he was being attacked by American forces. He knew we finally had his sorry ass. [Update: It was later disclosed that Bin Laden did not fire at the American commandos, even though his AK47 was in reach.]