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White House Now Says Bin Laden Was Unarmed, But Totally Asking For It

2011_05_binladenrai.jpg
Children look at the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where Osama bin Laden was found and killed (AP)
The White House is now offering a revised narrative on how Osama bin Laden was killed—and it turns out bin Laden wasn't armed. As the world basks in details about the operation to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ("Geronomo KIA," facial recognition software matching a photo of the slain man with Bin Laden, the couriers), the White House says the Most Wanted Terrorist was not armed but did resist when Navy SEALs stormed into his Abbottabad Pakistan compound. White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "Resistance does not require a firearm."

Also, others in the compound were armed and firing at the SEALs. Bin Laden was shot in the chest and head, and Carney said, "We were prepared to capture him. We were met with a great deal of resistance. It was a highly volatile firefight. He resisted. The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism, and he was killed in an operation because of the resistance that they met.”

However, former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clark tells ABC News, "I think it was the assumption all along that this was an assassination operation. It's unpleasant to say that and there may be some lawyers that object and say that you have to contend that he was resisting arrest. But I don't think that at the operational level there was ever any desire to take him alive." Well, a military source tells Fox News that Bin Laden was reaching for a gun.

The White House also said that one of bin Laden's wives was not killed in the cross fire when Bin Laden used her as a human shield—she was only wounded. One of Bin Laden's sons was killed, as were two brothers who acted as couriers.

The military took hard drives from the compound—"10 hard drives, 5 computers and more than 100 storage devices which includes discs, DVDs and thumb drives"—and CNN has details on the death photos:

1. Photos of OBLs body at a hangar after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive open head wound across both eyes. It’s very bloody and gory.

2. Photos from the burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson. Photos of OBL before the shroud was put on and then wrapped in the shroud.

3. There are photos of the raid itself that include photos of the two dead brothers, one of OBLs dead son (adult adolescent, maybe approx 18 yrs old) and some of the inside scene of the compound.

An official told CNN "that the picture that includes the most recognizable image of OBLs face - from the hangar in Afghanistan - is so gruesome and mangled its not appropriate for say the front page of the newspaper. On the other hand, this is the one that is most identifiable as him." The White House is reportedly debating whether to release the corpse photo, but Carney says it "could be inflammatory." Only could be?

As for the country where Bin Laden was apparently holed up in for a long time, Pakistan is both taking credit for helping the U.S. with finding and killing BIn Laden as well as criticizing the force used. Still, Bin Laden is only the latest terrorist to be found in the country.

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Comments [rss]

  • starrygordon

    From what I have read, bin Laden could not have been successfully tried in the U.S. because there was no solid evidence linking him to 9/11 or many of the other actions with which he has been associated. That being the case, as a major boogie-man he had to be rubbed out without too much ceremony -- the Red Queen's judicial procedures.

  • xXxMExXx

    Of course it was a kill mission. Obama wasn’t going bring OBL to Guantanamo Bay after promising to close it.

  • rdrios

    Disinformation Society! Gotta love America's double standards..

  • SC15

    He never got to lay back, always got to worry 'bout the pay back. Some punk that he roughed up way back, comin' back after all these years... rat-tat-tat, that's the way it is.

  • splicernyc

    I won't shed a tear for him. He ordered the deaths of plenty of unarmed people.

  • OBAMAGONE2012

    CAN'T WAIT FOR THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC ACLU TO START SCREAMING ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF OBL..HOW IT WAS COMPLETELY UNJUSTIFIED..

  • l3iodeez

    I have to ask. Are you voting for Trump or Palin in the GOP primary? Or maybe you're gonna write in Glenn Beck?

  • OBAMAGONE2012

    EITHER OF THEM WOULD BE MUCH BETTER THAN THE CURRENT RACIST IN CHARGE...SOME OF OBAMAS GREAT QUOTES...."TYPICAL WHITE PERSON"..."CIGAR CHOMPIN CRACKER"

  • l3iodeez

    I suppose we could play the "take a quote out of context" game, but Id rather not. Im having too much fun...

    You didn't answer the question. Who will you vote for in the primary? Are you even registered?

  • OBAMAGONE2012

    CANT ANSWER THAT YET...FIELD IS WIDE OPEN...IN 1992 AFTER BUSH SENIOR WAS DEEMED UNBEATABLE .OVER 90% APPROVAL..CLINTON WAS BARELY MENTIONED..CUOMO WAS THE FRONTRUNNER ...I ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION...IM NOT A LIBERAL ..SOO U CAN JUST JUSTIFY OBAMA USING A RACIAL SLUR AND NEVER APOLOGIZING FOR IT?

  • l3iodeez

    Ok, to put it a different way, if you could choose the GOP candidate from anyone who has toyed with the idea of running, who would it be?

    I am wondering who you think the strongest candidate in the GOP field is.

    But actually if you're not gonna turn caps lock off Im not gonna continue trying to troll you.

  • OBAMAGONE2012

    SOO U CAN JUST JUSTIFY OBAMA USING A RACIAL SLUR AND NEVER APOLOGIZING FOR IT?

  • l3iodeez

    OMGZ U WIN! LAWLZ YOO HAVE MAKED ME 2 STOOPID TO TALK ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!

    BUSH LIED 911 WAS INSIDE JOB WAKE UP SHEEPLE

    WHERES YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE?

  • you know Obama's half-white right? I don't think calling his grandmother a 'typical white person' is racist.

  • l3iodeez

    Does your keyboard lack lowercase letters?

  • Len_Drexler

    There are already Europeans complaining about it.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42...

  • Guest

    Who cares, they're Europeans?

  • sgod

    FWIW, it's EKIA.

  • Peanut_Butter

    He was probably trying to say "Don't tase me, bro" in Arabic.

  • "Resistance does not require a firearm."

    Nobody let the NYPD know that this is now considered a valid reason to shoot unarmed people.

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