跑胡子:Obama meets SEALs, praises bin Laden assault ...

Obama meets SEALs, praises bin Laden assault team
21.jpg (61.56 KB)
2011-5-8 10:19
Military personnel salute during the Pledge of Allegiance prior to President Barack Obama's address to military personnel who have recently returned from Afghanistan, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky on Friday.
President Obama privately thanked the Navy SEALs who cornered and killed Osama bin Laden, congratulating them for a "job well done."
The president met the elite Team 6 squad on the same day that bin Laden's terror network, al Qaeda, admitted that its leader was dead. Al Qaeda vowed that it would try to make America pay for his death.
Among the team members the president met was the SEAL who fired the shot that killed bin Laden, though he was not told which one it was, according to administration sources.
Obama, who met with 9/11 families and New York City firefighters at Ground Zero Thursday, met privately with the SEALs and members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the helicopter pilots known as "Night Stalkers," who flew the mission in Pakistan. One battalion of Night Stalkers is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Ky., home to the Army's most-deployed contingency forces.
12.jpg (54.56 KB)
2011-5-8 10:25
SEAL Team Six is the US navy's top special forces unit
Obama recognized the full assault force with the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor that can be given to a unit. Obama said they represented "the finest small fighting force in the history of the world."
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received a briefing on the operation that included maps, photos and a scale model of the compound.
One briefer confirmed that a dog was part of the assault team. When Biden asked its breed, the briefer joked that if officials wanted to meet the dog, "I recommend you bring treats."
Coming to Ft. Campbell, Obama said, "is a chance for me to say on behalf of all America and people around the world, 'Job well done.'"
4.jpg (101.4 KB)
2011-5-8 10:25
The statement by al Qaeda was released on the Internet. It said bin Laden's blood "will not be wasted" and Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness." The group pledged to continue attacking America and its allies.
"We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will not go in vain," the 11 paragraph statement reads. "We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries."
The president spoke to a hangar full of cheering soldiers after meeting privately with the full assault team — Army helicopter pilots and Navy SEAL commandos — who executed the dangerous raid on bin Laden's compound and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan early Monday.
“Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals — intelligence, military over many years — the terrorist leader that struck our nation 9/11 will never threaten America again,” Obama said, speaking at an Army post whose troops have sustained heavy losses in a war in Afghanistan that has grown on his watch.
Capping an extraordinary week for the military, the country and himself, he called the bin Laden raid one of the most successful intelligence and military operations in America's history.
Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama in a briefing and in thanking the members of the mission behind closed doors. He emerged to the broader audience of troops and put it bluntly: “We just spent time with the assaulters who got bin Laden.”
Obama warned in his address to the troops that the fight against terrorists still rages, but said: “we are ultimately going to defeat al-Qaida.”
Soldiers at Fort Campbell were careful not to celebrate bin Laden's death, voicing instead a sense of professional pride for the work of the commandos.
Obama's appearance here culminated a week-long response to the demise of the long-hunted al-Qaida leader, from the White House to ground zero in New York to Fort Campbell, home of the famous 101st Airborne Division.
',1)">
The division has been integral to Obama's war plan in Afghanistan, and many of its combat teams have returned recently from tours of duty.
The week gave a political and emotional lift to the president; in turn, he called for the unity that has eluded him in divisive Washington for most of his term.
“This week has been a reminder of what we're about as a people,” the president said. “The essence of America, the values that have defined us for more than 200 years, they don't just endure — they're stronger than ever.”
With his comments here, Obama offered a counterpoint to a growing cry within his party and even among some Republicans that the time has come to withdraw from Afghanistan. Obama will start drawing troops home as promised this summer but has signaled no change in mission.
The group hinted at the release of a bin Laden audio tape that they claim was made the week before he died.
12.jpg (50.38 KB)
2011-5-8 10:54
The Taliban also issued a statement today confirming bin Laden's death. The group called bin Laden a martyr and said that America shows "a lack of insight" if it believes bin Laden's death will deter the Taliban.
"The ground realities have it that the use of force brings in opposite consequences here," the statement reads.
President Obama to Personally Thank SEAL Team Six
The admission of al Qaeda and the Taliban comes on the day that Obama will meet with the Navy SEALs and helicopter pilots responsible for cornering and killing bin Laden.
As the team moved floor to floor of the compound, checking closets and under beds, they would shout "clear" to deem a room safe.
McRaven relayed that information to Panetta who was keeping Obama and his national security team abreast of the mission as it unfolded in the White House Situation Room.
Of all the equipment that the SEALS took into and out of Bin Laden's sprawling compound in Abbottabad, the one thing they didn't have was a tape measure to help in identifying the terrorist. One SEAL was forced to lie down next to the corpse of Bin Laden to approximate his height.
ABC News/BBC/Reuters