posted
May 9, 2011 by News Gatherer
Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler said Sunday that the funds should be redirected to organizations that assist first responders, families and survivors affected by the 2001 terror attacks.</p><p>In the “60 Minutes,” interview, Obama said that as nervous as he was about the raid, he didn’t lose sleep over the possibility that bin Laden might be killed. The note included a link requesting donations to Obama’s re-election effort.</p><p>Donilon — by highlighting the trove of data seized in the raid — seemed to be warning the Pakistanis that the U.S. 11 attacks, “Pakistan has been a strong counterterrorism partner with us” despite periodic disagreements. </p><p> The president was guarded in discussing any of the details of the raid. The widows could be critical to that line of inquiry because they may have information about the comings and goings of people who were aiding him.</p><p>As one U.S. officials doubt it will be credible.</p><p> Two influential lawmakers rebutted the calls for a cutoff in American aid to Pakistan, an inconstant ally in the long struggle against terrorists.</p><p> Sen. It’s unclear whether anyone is eligible for the bounty.</p><p> U.S. wants to control the investigation. Discussing his own role, he said the decision to order the raid was very difficult, in part because there was no certainty that bin Laden was at the compound, and also because of the risk to the SEALs.</p><p> “But ultimately I had so much confidence in the capacity of our guys to carry out the mission that I felt that the risks were outweighed by the potential benefit of finally getting our man,” he said.</p><p> Public opinion polls have shown a boost in Obama’s support in the days since the raid, and his re-election campaign was eager to draw attention to the interview.</p><p> Jim Messina, the president’s campaign manager, emailed supporters encouraging them to watch the program. </p><p>•Meanwhile, the intelligence haul the Americans seized at the raid is being mined in what Donilon describes as a wealth of intelligence about al-Qaida.</p><p> “This is the largest cache of intelligence derived from the scene of any single terrorist,” Donilon told NBC’s “Meet the Press. aid to Pakistan. Bush administration. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: “Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful.”</p><p> The senior Republican on the committee, Sen. 11 attacks.</p><p> The Rewards for Justice Program established a bounty of $25 million in 2001 to help bring bin Laden to justice. WASHINGTON | President Barack Obama ordered the commando raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after deciding the risks were outweighed by the possibility “of us finally getting our man” following a decade of frustration, he said in a Sunday broadcast interview.</p><p> The helicopter raid “was the longest 40 minutes of my life,” Obama told CBS’ “60 Minutes,” with the possible exception of when his daughter Malia became sick with meningitis as an infant.</p><p> Monitoring the commando raid operation in the White House Situation Room a week ago, Obama said, he and top aides “had a sense of when gunfire and explosions took place” halfway around the world, and knew when one of the helicopters carrying Navy SEALs made an unplanned hard landing at bin Laden’s compound.</p><p>“But we could not get information clearly about what was happening inside the compound,” he said.</p><p>Also Sunday:</p><p>•The administration pressed Pakistan to grant the United States access to bin Laden’s three widows as part of an investigation into the al-Qaida leader’s life. But Obama said that since the Sept. may soon have documentary evidence that could illuminate who, inside or outside their government, might have helped harbor bin Laden.</p><p> The U.S. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000.</p><p> “We don’t know who or what that support network was. And we need to shut up and move on about, you know, the realities of what happened in that building.”. </p><p> Cheney told “Fox News Sunday” that he is “concerned about the fact that I think a lot of the techniques that we had used to keep the country safe for more than seven years are no longer available.” </p><p> But Donilon told “Fox News Sunday” that techniques such as waterboarding are “not consistent with our values . “It’s about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.”</p><p>•Former vice president Dick Cheney and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld — although praising Obama for launching the raid — sought to use bin Laden’s killing to validate the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques used by the George W. In 2004, Congress passed legislation providing the secretary of state up to $50 million to award for information leading to the capture of bin Laden. seeks to speak with the women and review materials from the compound about 35 miles from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, where bin Laden apparently lived for at least five years. and not necessary in terms of getting the kind of intelligence that we need.” </p><p>•Two congressmen from New York City said that up to $50 million in bin Laden bounty money should go to first responders, survivors and families of victims of the Sept. We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government.” He said the United States wanted to investigate further to learn the facts “and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.”</p><p> Some members of Congress have called for a cessation of U.S. </p><p> Anyone who questions whether the terrorist leader didn’t deserve his fate “needs to have their head examined,” he said.</p><p> Obama said bin Laden had “some sort of support network” inside Pakistan to be able to live for years at a high-security compound in Abbottabad, a city that houses numerous military facilities. Richard Lugar of Indiana, said: “Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror, our war, the world’s war against it, simply because there are a lot of terrorists in Pakistan.” </p><p> Kerry defended the president’s decision to order the raid, and the shooting of bin Laden: “I think those SEALs did exactly what they should have done. Reps. official said after Donilon spoke Sunday: “Our guess is that the wives knew just who was keeping bin Laden alive for all these years.”</p><p> Pakistan has said it will conduct its own investigation, but U.S. But he stopped short of accusing Pakistani officials of harboring the man behind the Sept. </p><p> Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said the U.S.
