Washington: From halfway around the world, US President
Barack Obama and his national security team monitored the strike on
Osama bin Laden’s compound in real time, watching and listening to the
firefight that killed the terrorist leader.
Gathered in the White House Situation Room, members of the group held
their breath and barely spoke as they waited to see whether a carefully
crafted yet extremely risky plan would succeed, said White House
counterterrorism adviser John Brennan. Obama had been playing golf but
returned to the White House for the suspenseful watch Sunday.
Brennan said he would not reveal details “about what types of visuals we
had or what type of feeds that were there but it was – it gave us the
ability to actually track it on an ongoing basis."
Typically, members of the Navy SEAL team that conducted the operation
wear helmet cameras that transmit sound and video to their operation
centres and through which data can be fed live to the White House and
Pentagon.
As the SEALs lowered themselves from helicopters into bin Laden’s
compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the president and his advisers could
only wait.
“It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time, I
think, in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday,
"Brennan told reporters. “The minutes passed like days, and the
president was very concerned about the security of our personnel."
There hadn’t been unanimity among members of Obama’s team about going
forward with the plan. The president had plenty of evidence to suggest
bin Laden would be found in the compound – as indeed he was – but there
was no ironclad certainty he was there.
Then there was the danger. Anything could happen. And indeed, something
did. One of the helicopters carrying the SEALs stalled upon arrival in
the compound and had to be abandoned. It was a heart-stopping moment.
“Seeing that helicopter in a place and in the condition that it wasn’t
supposed to be, I think that was one of – at least for me and I know for
the other people in the room – was the concern we had that now we’re
having to go to the contingency plan,’’ said Brennan.
The contingency plan of switching to a different chopper worked. In the
end, so did the whole operation, and bin Laden was shot dead. But not
before the president’s nerves got a serious workout.
“When we finally were informed that those individuals who were able to
go in that compound and found an individual that they believed was bin
Laden, there was a tremendous sigh of relief,’’ said Brennan. “And the
president was relieved once we had our people and those remains off
target."
‘We got him’
Washington: “We got him,” US
President Barack Obama said as soon as it became clear that the special
forces were able to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s Abbottabad.
Personally monitoring the US special forces operation against the Al
Qaeda’s top leader, Obama said “We got him” after it was confirmed that
bin Laden was dead, according to John Brennan, Deputy National Security
Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security.
Obama had made one of the objectives of his presidency to get hold of Osama bin Laden dead or alive.
“As many of you know, that the president, even beforehe was President,
when he was a candidate, had a very clear idea about the approach he
would take as president towards Osama bin Laden,” White House Press
Secretary Jay Carney told mediapersons here.