Defense Sec. Gates SMACKS Big Mouth White House For Divulging Details of Bin Laden Operation

In a not so thinly-veiled swipe at the President and his closest advisers in the White House, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates lashed out at "people" who have released operational details of the Navy Seal action two weeks ago that lead to the death of terrorist kingpin, Osama bin Laden.

Gates talked about how details of the raid leaked out even though everyone had promised to keep details a secret.

"Frankly a week ago Sunday, in the (White House) situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden," he said.

"That all fell apart on Monday, the next day."

The role of the more than 20 SEALs who carried out the helicopter assault on bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan was first publicly confirmed by CIA Director Leon Panetta and Vice President Joe Biden in the days after the raid.Gates was speaking at a town hall of Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C..

The issue with the leaks was the safety of the Navy Seals and their families. Gates said threats against U.S. troops have increased since bin Laden’s death.

As a result, there has been a “consistent and effective effort,” he said, to protect the identities of the team – widely reported to be the Navy’s SEAL Team Six.

“I would tell you that when I met with the team last Thursday, they expressed a concern about that, and particularly with respect to their families,” Gates said.

Gates added that the military was looking at measures to pump up the security around them.Were one to check the record, they would find that most of the discussion regarding operational details have not been coming from the State Department, or Defense Department but from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Remember the multiple-versions of the operation provided by Press Secretary Jay Carney that needed to be corrected so many times, that he finally had to issue a step by step guide to the operation in writing.

Gates was indicating that the POTUS' desire to release all the details may have placed the Seals and their families in danger.

The White House not only released the details, but then with the help of his friends in the media, rubbed al Qaeda's nose in the dirt.

This President who emphasized that we did not need to "spike the football" regarding the death of bin Laden, has been going against his own policy, doing one heck of an end zone dance.

New Poll Numbers Show Obama's Post-Bin Laden Bump is Over

Sorry Mr. President, the party is over. Less than two weeks after Osama Bin Laden was killed by a squad of hero Navy Seals, the bump in Obama's ratings has disappeared, in fact the latest Rasmussen poll shows that some of his numbers are worse than before.

For example the chart below reflects the President's approval index from the day the Bin Laden news was released though today.  Approval index represents the people who strongly approve of the President's performance minus the people who strongly disapprove. So it is an indication of the people most passionate about President's performance, these are the people who are most likely to work toward/against Re-election of the present POTUS.

Keep in mind, the Bin Laden news was released well after the May 2nd sample was taken and released. Rasmussen numbers reflect three days sampling ending with the day prior to the numbers being released so, for example for the May 4th numbers only one third of the sample was questioned after the Bin Laden death was reported.  It was not until May 6th that the entire sample had the possibility of being aware of the death of Bin Laden.

On May 2nd, the day Bin Laden was killed the President's approval index was at a -12. From there it generally rose through May 7th, and started falling through today's report which shows him back at a -12.


Overall approval and disapproval numbers show the same pattern.

Prior to Bin Laden's trip to hell, Rasmussen reported that President's overall approval/disapproval numbers were both at 49%, today his disapproval stands at 52% and approval stands at 48%

What should be even more troubling to the President should be the fact that his numbers among independents are not promising (the Oth column in the chart below)

Among independents, the president's approval index is at a minus 22, and almost 70% of independents believe that the country is on the wrong track.

Over-all President Obama received (and frankly deserved) an approval bounce based on the Navy Seals heroic action eliminating Osama Bin Laden as a threat to this country.  As the saying all good things must pass, but nobody expected things to pass so quickly.

But this is a nation which is on the precipice of a financial abyss. As soon as the joy that Bin Laden is no longer a threat passed, the weekly new unemployment claims figure shot up and the monthly unemployment percentage rose back to 9%.  These number shocked America out of its post Bin Laden euphoria and back into the reality that Barack Obama has mis-handled the economy.  Look for his numbers to continue to fall as long as the economy continues to falter.

The UN And Bin Laden, More Proof The World Body Should Be Ignored

There is no greater example of the fact that the United Nations has become an irrelevant organization in today's world than its reaction to the death of terrorist fiend Osama Bin Laden.  Anne Bayefsky reported that the United Nations is not too happy with the Bin Laden take-down.

The U.N.’s top human rights official [Navi Pillay] took time this past week to concern herself about the treatment Bin Laden received as he was killed. She demanded to know “the precise facts surrounding his killing” for the purpose of determining its legality. According to Pillay, “counter-terrorism activity…in compliance with international law” means “you’re not allowed…to commit extra-judicial killings.” And this requirement would only be satisfied if the Americans had stuck by what she claimed was their “stated…intention…to arrest bin Laden if they could.”

In the warped mind of the leadership of the United Nations, killing the worst terrorist in the world is "extra judicial."

On Friday, two professors and part-time U.N. “experts,” Christof Heyns and Martin Scheinin, issued a joint statement on Bin Laden’s killing. The two academics claimed that “the norm should be that terrorists be dealt with as criminals, through legal processes of arrest, trial and judicially-decided punishment.” They also insisted that the U.N. was entitled to receive “more facts” “to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards.” Those standards would be violated, they claimed, unless “the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture Bin Laden.”

That's a mistake, terrorism is not a crime, it's an act of war. Calling it a crime suggests that the terrorists can be arrested and in the context of jurisprudence could spend a few years in prison, talk about how they hate their moms to prison therapists, and get out all rehabilitated and ready to sing Kumbayah.
There is nothing further from the truth.  Bin Laden believes that it is he and his radical form of Islam is in the right, and the Western World is what needs to be rehabilitated. 

Under the laws of war, combatants are a “legitimate” target for attack. A protocol to the Geneva Conventions defines a legitimate military target as one “which…makes an effective contribution to military action and whose…destruction…offers a definite military advantage.” This description fits Usama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s killing was, therefore, a justifiable homicide and incurs no liability. There was no necessity that the Navy SEALs must have intended to arrest him or make an effort to capture him alive.

Allow me to put this a different way.  Bin Laden declared war on the United States, he killed thousands of innocent American civilians and our heroes overseas. At the time he was killed there was evidence Bin Laden was planning a new attack on the US this time he was going to attack the commuter rails. Killing that terrorist was a matter of self-defense.  Personally, I don't care if Bin Laden had a gun in his hand when he was shot dead, if he remained free he would have killed more Americans. If he remained alive his terrorist network would have probably killed others in an attempt to get their leader back.

The United Nations has no desire to fight terrorism, even though they have been trying for years the world body has not even been able to define terror.  The reason? Because they want to be able to exclude terrorism against Israel in their definition.

The UN's refusal to confront terror makes it irrelevant in today's world, as it is the key issue facing the United States and the World. Despite all of the deaths caused by the terrorist menace the UN is still convinced that if they keep their heads in the sand long enough the problem will just go away. Terrorism should not be treated as a mere crime as Christof Heyns and Martin Scheinin suggested, it is a fight for our lives. That is a fact obvious to anybody who lived through 9/11 or has a family member fighting for this country overseas. It is obvious to people in Spain or Great Britain, who lived through/or had family killed during terror attacks in their countries, it is obvious to Israeli's whose country celebrates its 63th birthday tonight, and has been on the front lines in against terrorism for much of that time.

Whether Bin Laden was killed with a gun in his hand or not, by killing the terror chieftain the navy seals did the right thing. If the UN objects, maybe we should save ourselves some money by holding back US funding of the the world body.