POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

White House Revises: Osama NOT Wearing Peignoir Set at Time of Execution

Yesterday, Bob posted on the Democratic talking points regarding the ObL killing, saying that the narrative must be shaped to state that it was Obama's brilliant pursuit of Public Enemy #1 that resulted in his death, and not Obama's adoption of Bush policies (the intelligence and means he inherited from his predecessor). After having stated that Osama had resisted capture with arms and used a wife (KIA) as a human shield, the White House walked that story back yesterday. As one of Sissy Willis' commenters states, this looks like Obama's version of the Jessica Lynch story at this point, and although the Usual Suspects are now bashing Bush for not meeting up with Obama at Ground Zero, it's hard to understand why he would want to lend his presence to further the agenda of those who'd like to rake all the glory to Obama and pile all the obloquy on him.

Walking back is just one of the things that this White House seems to have to do a lot of, and it's not going to get any less frequent as Obama gets further into campaign mode. I argued after the last election that the number and variety of lies that Obama told in order to get elected would make it unlikely that he'd be elected a second time, when he had a record less gnomic than "Present." This summer, gasoline prices and inflation are going to put him in deep crisis. Then there's the mulligan on the budget. This kind of confusion doesn't help matters, though, and of course it's all kinds of fun to see the Wikileaks material turn around and bite Obama's preferred narrative in the ass after all the speculation on the left that it would prove their fantasies about the Imperial Bush Dynasty.

Jay Tea has his theories about how this happened, and since I don't (beyond general incompetence), I'll just point you there.

Pakistani authorities have pushed back, saying that they notified US intelligence in 2009 that they regarded the Abbottabad compound as suspect. As Jay Tea emphasizes, though, the immediate issue for US leftists is going to be whether or not the SEALs were instructed to take Obama dead, rather than dead or alive; given the administration's position on supplying rights to enemy combatants and concern about the handling of prisoners, a couple of head shots seems a lot less potentially messy and embarrassing. The original Brennan narrative made that a moot consideration, but now it's part of what needs clarifying:

Revised details of the raid also emerged Tuesday, with Carney clarifying that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot, contrary to earlier reports. He also confirmed that two male couriers were killed on the first floor of the main building in the compound, while a woman on that floor was also killed in the crossfire. On the next level, bin Laden was located. One of his wives ran toward the first SEAL and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. His children were present when he died.

Panetta also confirmed the US Navy SEALs had been sent expecting to kill the al Qaeda leader, rather than take him alive.

"The authorities we have on bin Laden are to kill him. And that was made

clear," he said. "But it was also, as part of their rules of engagement, if he suddenly put up his hands and offered to be captured, then -- they would have the opportunity, obviously, to capture him. But that opportunity never developed."

As the SEALs swept through the three-story building, they scooped up what one US intelligence official told Politico was a "mother lode of intelligence." The raid reportedly carried off five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, such as DVDs and removable flash drives.

FOX News reported that the material already had started to arrive at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., where analysts were expected to look for, among other things, any insight into new terrorist plots, leads to others in the al Qaeda network and any kind of money trail that could help identify major donors.

In the Muslim world, the administration misstep offers wiggle room in any contest of authorities from the US and Pakistan and increases the pressure to release photos of the corpse. Meanwhile, the question of just how much credit Obama deserves for pulling the trigger seems very much up in the air.

Please include your examples of other things Osama was not at the time of his execution in comments.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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