Leaked Doc May Have Forced US To Speed Up Bin Laden Raid 632
cf18 writes "Wikileaks released a set of leaked Guantanamo prisoner files to the public last week. Among them is a document dated from 2008, which mentioned both Osama's trusted courier's name and Abbottabad, the city in which Osama had been hiding. There are speculations that, fearing al-Qaida realized their courier may have been tracked and move Osama, the US administration accelerated their plan and attacked the target site over the weekend. This link highlights the relevant section of the document."
Re:Still think Wikileaks knows what they're doing? (Score:5, Informative)
The interrogation file was dated "10 September 2008." Is someone seriously claiming that the military was willing to wait more than two years to conduct the attack but then had to rush things by a couple of weeks because of this leak?
Apparently so. We have an article using the passive voice to indicate that someone somewhere is speculating that the military did in fact cut a two-and-a-half year delay down to just 2.5 years minus a week or two because they were worried about the consequences of this leak.
Sept 2008 document (Score:4, Informative)
Re:sorry ... what?! (Score:5, Informative)
But the US Govt might have wanted to have firmer intel on that before sending DEVGRU a 100 miles into Pakistan, wikileaks may have forced them to act on not solid intel.
I seriously doubt Wikileaks "forced" them to do anything. The document says that this guy, LY-10017, had communication with Bin Laden's courier, and that in 2003 LY-10017 lived in Abbottabad. He moved somewhere else in 2004 or 2005, before Bin Laden's compound was built. The only connections are that it lists the name of the courier, and indicates that this particular detainee once lived in the same city that Bin Laden turned out to be hiding in (but not at the same time). It's more of a coincidence, the document doesn't even draw a link between Bin Laden's courier and the town, other than a guy who once lived in the town also once communicated (indirectly) with the courier.
Re:Still think Wikileaks knows what they're doing? (Score:5, Informative)
wikileaks grows up and realizes they are endangering lives
The only life they seem to have endangered to date is Ossama Bin Laden's.
Re:niggers man (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Still think Wikileaks knows what they're doing? (Score:4, Informative)
Moving on...
Re:Still think Wikileaks knows what they're doing? (Score:4, Informative)
According to news stories I've read, Osama was unarmed. Yet he was shot in the head, point blank. It's pretty clear that it was a planned assassination from the get go.
Getting back to the example of Eichmann - Israelis went so far as to craft an elaborate undercover operation all for the sake of capturing him alive and getting him into Israel. Assassinating him would be much easier to them (as evidenced by other cases where they did just that).
In fact, there's also an interesting point to consider. Hamas commanders who mastermind terrorist acts which kill, at most, a few dozen, eventually just get a bullet to the head, quiet like. But a guy who masterminded the murder of millions - him they got on trial, which many consider to be more fair than e.g. Nuremberg trials, and then hanged him right and proper - the only civilian ever executed in the history of Israel. Why? Because the trial was part of setting it an example for everyone to remember - here's what the man did and how, in rigorous detail; and here's what he gets for doing all that. A bullet to the head in the heat of the battle does not have quite the same effect.
Personally, I think it would have probably been even better to capture Osama and keep him alive. A dead man is a martyr, a shahid - doubly so as now he actually gloriously died in battle against the "infidels".
Re:Still think Wikileaks knows what they're doing? (Score:2, Informative)
The Constitution makes the President the Commander in Chief. Among the powers of such a person is the power to determine what is and is not a military secret.
The Constitution also gives the Congress the power to make the laws, and the Congress gives the President the authority to classify information. Hence the explanation in the introduction to Executive Order 13526 - Classified National Security Information, December 29, 2009:
"This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism. Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government. Also, our Nation's progress depends on the free flow of information both within the Government and to the American people. Nevertheless, throughout our history, the national defense has required that certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations. Protecting information critical to our Nation's security and demonstrating our commitment to open Government through accurate and accountable application of classification standards and routine, secure, and effective declassification are equally important priorities.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:"
So. Unless you have been elected to be Congress, and by that I mean that within your sole person you comprise a majority capable of deciding what is and is not law, then your attempt to rewrite the law to prevent the President from having and delegating this power is nothing but ignorant bullshit.
Which is really all I needed to say. "What a load of ignorant bullshit," I'd have said, and been done with it. But then you wouldn't have learned anything, and neither would anyone else. And we can't have that.