Did a Pakistani official sell info to CIA to settle in the West?

The info about how the CIA received their information in August 2010 now has another source.  Once again it is pointed out that the CIA had this house under surveillance for months.  We find it interesting that the reporter goes into detail about the person who sold the information.  Not surprised at all as this would go along with some of what has been rumored that someone in the Pakistani government tipped them off.

Now fully convinced that Obama did dither for months not days and with the raid being stopped on Saturday night 'due to weather' which wasn't a factor, we believe that the CIA Director ordered the raid to commence while Obama was on the golf course since Obama was brought back from playing golf as witnessed by his golf gear.  CIA Director Panetta and others were making sure that Obama couldn't stop this raid.  We would be willing to bet that the CIA was part of the raid -- just makes sense.

We also believe the part if the raid failed, Jarrett demanded that Panetta take the blame but as we know the raid was a success so the dithering Obama claimed full credit for the operation when he was an unwilling participant.  Did the people in the White House actually believe with all their change of stories that the real truth was not going to start to come out.  It just took a freelance member of the foreign press to put together the details because most of the DC media is too busy propping up Obama to be bothered.

Obama and his people couldn't even keep their mouths shut 24 hours before going against what they promised Gates to keep the details of the raid SECRET.  They seem to care less they have outed the SEAL Team and how they operate as they want Obama to receive the full credit.  It is not working and this is one more story showing Obama dithering to add to the rest.

Did a Pakistani official sell info to CIA to settle in the West?

Wajid Ali Syed

Saturday, May 14, 2011 

WASHINGTON: Did a Pakistani intelligence official sell the information about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden to the US last year to get millions of dollars and relocate to a western country with a new non-Pakistani passport? All those seeking to know the full facts of the Osama episode are looking for an answer to this question. 

President Barack Obama would not have agreed to go forward with the mission to kill Osama bin Laden had it not been for intense pressure from CIA Director Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, administration sources have revealed.
The advocates of the mission had “reached a boiling point”, because President Obama, hesitated for months and kept delaying the final approval. This delay was because of a close aide who suggested that this could damage him politically.
According to these sources, Administration officials were frustrated with the president’s indecisiveness and his orders not to carry out the mission in February. President Obama was “dragged kicking and screaming” to give the green light for the operation in the last week of April. By then, the US military and other high-level officials were so determined to launch the operation that they did not want to give the president the opportunity to delay or to call it off. 

President Obama reluctantly approved to go forward with the operation only if the CIA head agreed to take all the blame in case the mission failed. The planning for the operation underscores the deep divisions in the Obama administration, with President Obama and a close aide, Valerie Jarrett, procrastinating on making a decision and high-ranking officials and members of the cabinet pressing him to go ahead on the other. The chief architect of the plan to “take bin Laden out” was CIA Director Leon Panetta. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, US Commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were part of the group that supported Panetta. 

When asked to comment, the White House referred the question to the National Security Council. The NSC said the Department of Defence was fielding such inquiries. The Defence Department’s press office contact Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins responded with this comment: “The Department of Defense is not giving out any further operational details of the mission.” 

However, according to an informed official, the story that a courier helped track bin Laden is just a cover. The CIA actually learned of bin Laden’s whereabouts in August of 2010, when an informant associated with Pakistani intelligence walked into a US Embassy and claimed that bin Laden was living in a house in Abbottabad. The official, however, would not disclose whether the Embassy was located in Pakistan or Afghanistan. 

After confirming that the information was somewhat accurate, the CIA set up a safe house in Abbottabad in September last year to monitor bin Laden’s compound. 

As the intelligence collection proceeded, the CIA demanded that Pakistan come clean with what they knew about bin Laden, claims the official. In December of 2010, the CIA station chief’s identity was made public in the Pakistani press. The intelligence official says that the station chief’s cover was blown to retaliate against the CIA for pressing Pakistani intelligence for information about bin Laden. At the time, the speculation was that the move was in response to a civil suit accusing ISI officials of being involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Once it was clear that the information from the walk-in source was accurate, Panetta set up a reporting chain from the CIA’s Pakistan station direct to him, a highly unusual move that involved bypassing the normal official channels. 

Again the US president was not informed of this progress. Meanwhile, the intelligence operatives learned that key people from an Islamic country friendly to Pakistan were sending Pakistan money to keep Osama out of sight and under virtual house arrest, claims the official. 

By January of 2011 there was a high degree of certainty that bin Laden was in the house. In early February, Panetta suggested that the US should move on bin Laden. But Gates and Petraeus were determined to avoid the “boots on the ground” strategy at all costs. CIA chief Panetta was in favour of an invasion. But President Obama balked on the advice of Valerie Jarrett, a close aide. 

The source maintains that Jarrett’s objection to the proposal was based on the worry that the mission could fail, further eroding Obama’s approval ratings and the strong likelihood that it would be interpreted as yet another act of aggression against the Muslims. The source explained that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a crucial role to pressure President Obama to take action. In the last week of April, she met with White House Chief of Staff William Daley to request a meeting with the president to secure approval for the mission. Within hours, Daley called to say that Valerie Jarrett refused to allow the president to give that approval. 

However, Clinton made sure that the vice president was made aware of the situation. The president was later approached by Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta and pressurised to order the mission. 

Panetta was directing the operation with both his CIA operatives and the military. The plan was not to capture but to kill bin Laden on sight. Contrary to the news reports, it was Panetta and not President Obama who took the lead on coordinating the details of the mission. 

According to the source, the White House staff has compromised the identity of the unit that carried out the mission. The source said the claim that the raid yielded a “treasure trove” of information about al-Qaeda is also exaggerated. Obama meanwhile is “milking” the mission as a tactic to better his chances of re-election in 2012. The concern in intelligence circles is that in his zeal to boost his approval ratings, the president is harming relations with Pakistan. 

The writer is currently a freelance journalist based in Washington who has worked for foreign and Pakistani newspapers and TV channels. 

Source:  The News.com

We thought with the short time on the ground that the "treasure trove" of information about Al Qaeda was overblown by this White House.  They have spun so much they probably don't know how to separate fiction from fact by now as they use everything for Obama's reelection campaign.  Truth has taken a real hit with all the spin from the White House staff.  For sometime a lot of us have not thought that Bin Laden was  more of the figurehead for Al Qaeda with the day to day leadership in someone else's hands and probably why there is no vacuum in leadership of Al Qaeda with Bin Laden dead.  As a non-betting person, would be willing to bet that Bin Laden was not in full control of Al Qaeda when President Bush made the statement after years in office that it didn't make much difference if we got him or not.  Unlike Obama, President Bush listened to his CIA Director.

Obama White House has Trouble with Facts on Bin Laden Mission

Does anyone believe what the Obama White House has to say any more? They seem to be all about photo ops and nothing more.

Bin Laden raid: Obama plagued by more exposure
May 5th, 2011 7:13 am ET
By Jim Kouri

In his interview with PBS, Mr Panetta said, "Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information."

Panetta also told PBS that the U.S. Navy Seals made the final decision to kill bin Laden rather than the president.

A dramatic photograph showing Obama and his team watching special forces soldiers attack Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout on a TV monitor may be just another political photo op to prop up a failing president, according to White House critics. The TV screen was blank during the entire operation, according to Panetta.

With Leon Panetta almost certain to become the next Secretary of Defense in the Obama cabinet, yesterday some wondered if he'll continue to be the real Maverick in the current Administration and speak his mind, or will he adhere to the administration's agenda.

While President Barack Obama's national security team are fully equipped each day with their White House "talking points," Panetta appears to value clarity and accuracy in his statements.

For example, Panetta admitted yesterday that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound as further doubts emerged about the U.S. version of events.

Excerpt: Read More at the Washington Examiner

We first find out that the photo of Obama speaking to the American people on Sunday night was staged -- photojournalist were kept out of the room until he made his speech and then let back in to reenact the scene. One small problem arose when the photo journalists sent out the photo of Obama speaking but didn't bother to alert the papers it wasn't a live shot. We might not know if Reuters and a few others hadn't spilled the story.  That was the first staged photo op story released but it gets worse.

Now we learn that photo the White House released where Obama and others of his Administration were watching the live take down of Obama is a fake also. There was no video available after the SEALS entered Bin Laden's residence for 20-25 minutes so there was no way Obama and the others saw Bin Laden shot.  Hillary now says her hands on her mouth was because of a cough.  Yeah right!

The idea that CIA Director Panetta ordered the mission is making more sense by the hour as the White House has had more different versions out then you can keep track of since the mission. One of the most outlandish lies was the one that Bin Laden's wife was shielding him when it turned out not only to be false but the people in that room didn't see the video to identify the wife. That didn't stop the counterintelligence head Brennan from saying that Bin Laden hid behind his wife which turned out not to be true. The fact that Brennan works in counterintelligence makes you wonder at the obvious mistruths (lies) he told as he tried to bolster up Obama. He failed miserably.

The worst WH press secretary we can remember, Jay Carney, calls it a 'Fog of War' which makes no sense. This was one mission and if Obama hadn't been so quick to want to take credit for something he didn't do and have his staff try to convince everyone he still walked on water, the mistakes would not have happened. This was the worst example of spin from the White House we may have witnessed in years. Several times I was writing an article and had to change it because the WH storyline changed. Felt like a movie script instead of reality.

The Obama Administration sent out invites to 50 'specially chosen' 9/11 families with emails addressed to 'Dear 9/11 Family Member' -- no wonder he didn't give a speech. What was he going to say since he was part of the Blame America crowd back when he was an IL State Senator? A reminder of some of his remarks:

"We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity or suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, it may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics.

"Most often, though, it grows out a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

"We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe – children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and within our own shores."

Remember the first time I read the above remarks during the 2000 campaign and these particular words jumped out at me:

"Most often, though, it grows out a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

All I could think of was that Bin Laden came from a family of privilege in Saudi Arabia not even close to poverty. Likewise other terrorists also came from families of wealth but here was Obama trying to make this about poverty and the poor downtrodden as he lectured this Country eight days after 9/11. He has never refuted those words to our knowledge and would bet he believes the same today after ordering a 50-minute Muslim burial ceremony within 24 hours for Bin Laden at sea on the USS Carl Vinson. Did Obama have a gun salute as well as some sites have alleged? Found that whole burial episode completely distasteful.

Now we have Obama and his mouthpieces spinning like crazy on this mission and finally he said no more comments from the White House and today didn't give a speech at Ground Zero. Why not? This is the same man who released those pictures from the Iraqi prison to incite the people in the Middle East that says he doesn't want to release the photos of Bin Laden. Obama put the photos of Bin Laden off limits after Panetta said they would be released. Guess this time he doesn't have a Republican to blame unless it is Secretary of Defense Gates who just wants OUT of this Administration. Obama is also the person who said it was okay to film caskets of American soldiers.

This Administration makes you dizzy with all the spinning!

Obama took SIXTEEN HOURS to make up his mind about Bin Laden mission

Why did it take 16 hours for Obama to give the go ahead to kill Bin Laden by attacking his compound where they knew he was staying? We have also learned that the military wanted to use a stealth bomber four months ago to take out the compound but Obama vetoed that move. WHY?

We are having a real problem with the fact that four helicopters cross into Pakistani air space going at least 100 miles into the country undetected. Do we now have stealth helicopters? They have on a 40-minute firefight, only one neighbor tweets and the nearby military installation does nothing or the local cops? Then they have to evacuate people living where the helicopter went down before they blew it up and no one in Pakistan noticed?  Then the helicopters fly back across Pakistan to Kabul before flying the body to the Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea for burial? At least that is the story the White House wants us to believe about Pakistan today.  It could change in a couple of hours which has been happening since this was first announced. 

We are not talking a civilian town but a town of 100,000 filled with military and their families and they noticed nothing? Washington Post reports:

At the time of the raid, bin Laden was at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a military and tourist town of about 100,000 people. The compound was located in a neighborhood populated by military families one mile from the elite Pakistan Military Academy.

If Pakistan air defenses are this bad, the US has not gotten its money's worth from all the aid.  Four helicopters flying in from ? and no detection.  Here is a map from the Washington Post of the flight of Bin Laden's body:

We are told it was a 40-minute firefight but they were only on the ground for 38 minutes. Does that mean after two minutes they landed the SEAL Team? Some of the story has changed quite a bit including the comments from mouthpiece of the Obama administration at the press conference today.

Are members of the White House Press Corps going to ask the tough questions or are the British papers who have been doing the investigations going to continue to supply Americans with the facts our own media ignore?

Obama took SIXTEEN HOURS to make up his mind about Bin Laden missionBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:20 PM on 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.

But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared 'It's a go'.

With those three words, the greatest military operation in recent history began. Had it not been for heavy cloud cover on Saturday, troops would have been deployed then.

But they waited another day, and reached Pakistan just before midnight on Sunday evening. Obama refused to tell Pakistan about the mission in case it was leaked by jihadist sympathisers within the administration and Bin Laden took flight.

Excerpt: Read more at Daily Mail 

As the time has gone by and more and more Obama people speak out, the stories are changing at a rapid pace.  I was writing on this blog when one of the stories I was going to use changed.  This afternoon one news outlet is saying two helicopters and another outlets says four were used with one that went down with mechanical difficulty which still find hard to believe that these special helicopters were not in tip top shape to make this trip.

What will be the latest news on this in the next 24 hours?  Stay tuned as the Administration tries to get its stories straight.  Obama and his inept Administration have managed to take the spectacular news of Bin Laden being dead and have made people like us start to question their stories because they never are just straightforward as they make no sense to anyone who has been around the military.

White House Obliterated at Briefing; 'Doesn't There Come a Point Where You Have to Make a Decision?'

Not only is the President over his head with what is happening in Libya and other places around the world but so is his new press secretary Jay Carney who seems to also be extremely arrogant.

The White House press corps is showing even more signs of disgust with the new press secretary and this Administration for giving no answers. This time it is Chip Reid of CBS who got fed up with no answers to questions and Carney's spin. Personally thought that Carney didn't have the experience to be press secretary but he is worse than I thought as he tries to spin. He sure forgets the days when he was a reporter.  Chip Reid of CBS and Jake Tapper of ABC have been two of the more outspoken members of the White House Press Corps for months but others are starting to join them with the tough questions but Carney gives no real answers only spin to most reporters.

This exchange is mind boggling and at the end of the day Carney never got it. Probably the type of press secretary that Obama wanted. Are there any adults in this Administration who will tell it like it is?

Why should the media even ask a question if they are going to get spin like this. Obvious to most Americans that Obama is not a leader and prefers to follow the United Nations so he doesn't have to make a decision. Media covered up the fact that Obama had no experience of anything but community organizing and spending other people's grant money. They continued to prop him up during the election and now the whole world is seeing the mistake the voters made in 2008. This is a dangerous world and we have a President who cannot make a decision and a press secretary that talks and says nothing.

March 15, 2011

White House Obliterated at Briefing; 'Doesn't There Come a Point Where You Have to Make a Decision?'

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney barely survived the briefing today. CBS' Chip Reid was clearly fed up watching the administration do nothing about Libyan atrocities while claiming they were responding with "unprecedented" speed. Today the clock ran out on the White House and their dithering was exposed.

Q On no-fly zone, what exactly is the U.S. -- the administration's position before the Security Council?

MR. CARNEY: Our position, Chip, remains that we are evaluating a number of options, military options, including --

Q But a decision has to be made now.

MR. CARNEY: -- including a no-fly zone. We feel that it is important that any action like that that might be taken should be done in concert with our international partners. Through the United Nations would be our preferable vehicle for that, and therefore we would look to the U.N. as a forum for evaluating that option. I think I mentioned yesterday that today is the deadline for the no-fly zone option to -- preparations or plans to be submitted in Brussels at NATO. And I believe the NAC will review those tomorrow. So this process is moving forward.

But our position is that action like that should be considered and taken if decided upon in coordination with our international partners, because it's very important in the way that we respond to a situation like we see in Libya, that it be international and not unilateral; that it include the support and participation, for example, of the Arab League and other organizations and countries in the region.

And that is our sort of focus as we proceed with these conversations.

Q Is the President satisfied to follow, not lead, on deciding whether to do it?

MR. CARNEY: I take issue with the characterization. We think it is precisely because the President believes that the best outcome in a situation like we see in Libya, as we have seen in different forms in other countries in the region, that the best outcome will come when the action taken by countries -- third-party countries outside of the country where the unrest is happening -- be done in consensus with international partners, precisely so that it is not viewed by those who oppose positive democratic reform as the dictate of the West or the United States.

Q But wouldn't it be fair to say -- accurate to say the United States is still sitting on the fence on this? Isn't it time to make a decision, yes or no?

MR. CARNEY: Well, Chip, you tell me if as an American citizen would you want your President not to consider all the implications and ramifications of taking military action.

Q Doesn't there come a point to make a -- where you have to make a decision?

MR. CARNEY: And I would go back to what I said to Jill, that we have acted with great haste, and we have coordinated international -- led and coordinated an international response, the likes of which the world has never seen in such a short period of time. And we have -- we continue to consult with our international partners. We meet -- we have met with, as the Secretary of State did, with the Libyan opposition discussing new ways we can put pressure on Qaddafi.

And when it comes to considering military options, this President will always be mindful of what the mission, should it be engaged, what it entails, the risks that it poses to our men and women in uniform, and its likelihood of having the kind of impact that we set out for it to have. And that is his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief.

And I would suggest to you that that is what leadership is all about.

Source: FoxNews.com