Today, Time magazine got hold of a memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta after he received orders from Barack Obama’s team to greenlight the bin Laden mission. Here’s the text, which summarized the situation:
Received
phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a
decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to
proceed with the assault.
The timing, operational decision making
and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on
the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to
be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction
is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those
instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.
This, of course, was the famed “gutsy call.” Here’s what Tom Hanks narrated in Obama’s campaign film, “The Road We’ve Traveled”:
HANKS: Intelligence reports locating
Osama Bin Laden were promising, but inconclusive, and there was internal
debate as to what the President should do.
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: We sat down in the
Situation Room, the entire national security apparatus was in that room,
and the President turns to every principal in the room, every
secretary, “What do you recommend I do?” And they say, “Well, forty-nine
percent chance he’s there, fifty-one … it’s a close call, Mr.
President.” As he walked out the room, it dawned on me, he’s all alone.
This is his decision. If he was wrong, his Presidency was done. Over.
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