Barack Obama

White House: We Won't Release Any More Operational Details About OBL Killing

Susan Crabtree | May 4, 2011, 4:55PM

After two days of administration officials offering up conflicting details and accounts of the intense U.S. assault-team raid on Osama bin Laden's compound and his subsequent killing, the White House has completely shut down press attempts to get a full accounting of what transpired.

White House spokesman Jay Carney Wednesday referred all questions about operational aspects of the mission to the Defense Department, even refusing to say who, if anyone, was shooting back at the Navy Seals during the "firefight" that Carney and other administration officials earlier in the week has said took place during the 40-minute raid Sunday night.

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'Obama's Wars'

White House Further Revises Narrative On OBL Killing

Susan Crabtree | May 3, 2011, 4:18PM

The White House has further corrected details of the intense, Sunday-night raid on Osama bin Laden's compound and subsequent killing in an attempt to clear up several misstatements from administration officials about what transpired inside the compound walls during the 40-minute covert mission.

President Obama's press secretary Jay Carney Tuesday afternoon read a Pentagon-prepared statement to reporters describing the events that took place inside the compound Sunday night.

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Osama Bin Laden

Pakistan Under Harsh Scrutiny In Wake Of Raid On Bin Laden Compound

Benjy Sarlin | May 3, 2011, 10:12AM

A successful attack on Osama Bin Laden may mark a satisfying end to one chapter of America's War on Terror, but the circumstances of the operation raise disturbing new questions about the nation's already troubled relationship with Pakistan. On Monday, high-ranking lawmakers and officials openly aired their suspicions that forces within the crucial ally's government deliberately withheld information on the terrorist leader's location.

"They've got a lot of explaining to do," Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Monday.

TPM SLIDESHOW: Osama Bin Laden: 9/11 Mastermind, Longtime U.S. Enemy Killed In Pakistan

Intelligence officials have long suspected that Pakistan's weak and fractured government may be host to rogue elements either disinterested in catching -- or actively sympathetic to -- anti-Western terrorists. But the presence of Bin Laden's heavily fortified compound in a garrison town near Islamabad magnified concerns that Al Qaeda had help from the inside in concealing its leader's location.

"It's very difficult for me to understand how this huge compound could be built in a city just an hour north of the capital of Pakistan in a city that contained military installations, including the Pakistani military academy, and that it did not arouse tremendous suspicion," Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, said at a press conference on Monday.

"It was not like a normal house in New Jersey, I can tell you that," Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who has called for a new review of military and economic aid to Pakistan in light of the Bin Laden raid, told TPM.

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Osama Bin Laden

'Minutes Passed Like Days' As WH Watched Osama Bin Laden Operation Unfold

Susan Crabtree and Ryan J. Reilly | May 2, 2011, 2:25PM

[Late Update: The White House has backed off some of the details of John Brennan's account. More here.]

The President and his national security team spent Sunday afternoon and evening huddling in the West Wing of the White House filled with anxiety while they followed in real time the covert operations of an elite team of Navy Seals penetrating Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and killing him with shots to the head.

"It was probably the most anxiety-filled periods of times," John Brennan, a chief counterterrorism adviser to President Obama, told reporters Monday in a White House briefing. "The minutes passed like days, and the President was very concerned about the security of our personnel."

TPM SLIDESHOW: Behind The Scenes As Operation Against Bin Laden Unfolded

"It was clearly very tense with a lot of people holding their breath," Brennan recalled, obviously still soaking in the full weight of the raid and the impact of bin Laden's death on the global war on terror. "There was a great degree of silence as we would get the updates. We were finally informed, and there was a tremendous sigh of relief -- that what we believed about the compound and who we believed was in the compound" were in fact true.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | May 7, 2010, 4:20PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Attorney General Eric Holder, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Senior White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Adm. Thad Allen.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Senior White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL).

• Fox News Sunday: Senior White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Attorney General Eric Holder.

Joe Lieberman

Lieberman Now Against Saying White House Critics Help Al-Qaeda (After He Was For It, During Bush Years) (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | February 12, 2010, 9:06AM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) appeared on MSNBC Thursday afternoon, and made a bold pronouncement on the political debates surrounding the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the attempted bombing of Flight 253: That critics of the White House should not be accused of aiding al-Qaeda.

The catch here is that during the Bush years, Lieberman himself made some similar comments about critics of the Iraq War -- saying that when they attacked the Bush administration they were harming America, or helping al-Qaeda, or attacking America's allies.

Yesterday on MSNBC, Lieberman said just the opposite of his earlier position. "I just think we're into a bad cycle here. I have a lot of respect for John Brennan. I think some of the things he's said have been provocative and in my opinion inappropriate," said Lieberman. "You can have a difference of opinion about how the Christmas-Day Bomber should have been treated without turning it into a political debate or suggesting that anybody who doesn't agree with the way the administration handled the Christmas-Day Bomber is somehow giving aid and comfort to al-Qaeda. Nobody here wants to do that or is doing that. I think we'd all say that what we're trying to do is in fact protect the homeland security of the American people against al-Qaeda."

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Flight 253

Obama Offers Olive Branch To Muslims In Aftermath Of Terror Review

Christina Bellantoni | January 8, 2010, 9:25AM

A minaret, on the left

President Obama and his top terrorism advisers warned young Muslims against interest in Al Qaeda yesterday in little-noticed comments detailing the aftermath of Flight 253.

Tucked into Obama's readout of the review into how a man was allowed to board the Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day with explosives in his underwear was a message to the Islamic world that the president has been offering since he took office.

"We know that the vast majority of Muslims reject Al Qaeda," Obama said.

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Flight 253

White House Grants Waiver For Brennan To Work On Flight 253 Review

Christina Bellantoni | December 31, 2009, 10:34AM

Dep. National Security Advisor John Brennan

Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan was granted an ethics waiver so he can be part of the review into the incidents leading up to the Flight 253 attempted terror attack.

The White House announced and posted the waiver in a blog post last night, just before Brennan delivers the preliminary review to the president.

Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, wrote in the blog that Brennan deserves a waiver to get around the Obama administration's rules related to former employers because he "brings a unique mixture of know-how and understanding to this assignment."

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