Retired Army General: Obama “Procrastinated” in Approving Osama bin Laden Raid
“WE ACTUALLY HAD THE TARGET THE SUMMER BEFORE EXECUTION”

by Sharon Rondeau

Editor's Note: Re-posted with permission of The Post & Email.

Osama bin Laden had founded Al Qaeda, which carried out the attacks on four airliners on the East Coast on September 11, 2001

(May 7, 2012) — On May 5, 2012, Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.), told “Huckabee” host Mike Huckabee that the Obama White House had known of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts for almost a year before agreeing to authorize a raid on the hideout.

General Keane is a four-star general who retired from the U.S. Army in 2003, having served as vice chief of staff. Keane now runs his own company and engages in public speaking. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and has testified to Congress 18 times on various concerns during his 37-year military career.

During the interview, Keane stated that he was “surprised” for strategic reasons that there had been a delay in killing bin Laden and worried that the target would “flee.” When asked why the raid was not carried out sooner, Keane replied, “My sources tell me the White House was trying to verify that the target was really there…They actually wanted a photo. Without that, there was a lot of delay and procrastination about it because they wanted verification.” Keane stated that “very few” in the military had known that bin Laden had been located but that he had been taken into the confidence of “someone who had knowledge” of the operation.

Obama recently made a trip to Afghanistan, marking the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s demise, for which Obama has taken credit. Obama has claimed that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would not have made the same decision based on a statement Romney made in 2007. An Obama campaign promotional video featuring former president Bill Clinton shows Clinton saying that Obama “took the harder and more honorable path.”

But did Obama take that path? Did he make any decision at all?

Obama’s former opponent, Sen. John McCain, criticized the Obama campaign for politicizing the raid, as did Arianna Huffington, a well-known Democrat. Romney’s campaign manager called the video “a “divisive, partisan, political attack.”

It has been reported by a Beverly Hills filmmaker that during the 2008 primary season, Bill Clinton told several individuals participating in a conference call that Obama was not constitutionally eligible to serve as president, sparking a debate which has continued to the present and resulted in numerous lawsuits and primary-season ballot challenges to Obama’s legitimacy in many states in 2012. In early 2010, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who later became governor of Georgia questioned Obama as to where proof of his birthplace and other details about his life could be found but never received a response.

Ironically, Clinton had reportedly turned down “several opportunities” to kill bin Laden during the years of his presidency. Clinton had objected on the grounds that the CIA and the FBI were not able to confirm that bin Laden had been involved in specific terror activities. In an interview following his presidency about how to deal with Islamic terrorists, Clinton had told Fox News’s Chris Wallace that it was “important to talk to people who see the world differently than we do.”

President George W. Bush’s most recent attorney general, Michael Mukasey, has recently revealed that a memo had been drafted by the Obama regime to “protect” Obama in the event that the raid on bin Laden’s hideout failed to kill or capture him or resulted in some other unknown outcome. An April 30 column written by Mukasey published in The Wall Street Journal stated, “A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president’s celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: ‘The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out.’”

In front of a live studio audience consisting of “national security experts, Navy SEALS and congressmen,” Sean Hannity of Fox News interviewed Mukasey, describing the memo Mukasey had revealed as a “fallback plan.” Mukasey called the memo “highly-lawyered.”

Why would the Commander-in-Chief hesitate to agree to kill bin Laden, who had declared war on America and masterminded the murder of nearly 3,000 civilians on September 11, 2001? Evidence also exists that bin Laden had planned follow-up attacks in the weeks following the September 11 atrocity.

Why would a commander-in-chief require an “escape clause?” From what was Obama attempting to escape?

Both current and former Navy SEALS have criticized Obama’s campaign video, with one enlisted SEAL stating that the operation would have gone forward whether or not Obama approved it.

One pundit has asked if Obama’s politicization of the bin Laden operation would “swift-boat” Obama’s chances of re-election in November.

Does Obama have ties to Islam of which America is as of yet unaware?

The White House’s account of how bin Laden was located stated that “the President ordered a raid earlier today against an al Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan…Osama bin Laden is now no longer a threat to America…His death is central to the President’s goal of disrupting, dismantling, and ultimately defeating al Qaeda and its violent allies.” In a memo to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta, Obama reportedly spelled bin Laden’s name “bin Ladin.”

Was bin Laden’s compound identified much earlier than when the operation took place, as Gen. Keane contends? How “aggressive” was Obama in authorizing the execution of the terror master?

During the 2008 campaign, Obama had stated that he was of the Muslim faith, contrary to news reports affirming him to be a Christian. Osama bin Laden’s burial in the ocean reportedly followed Islamic custom “under the circumstances of his death.”

Are Obama’s connections to Islam stronger than Americans were led to believe?

If Obama knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts but delayed having him executed, does that renew the treason complaint first sworn out more than three years ago against Obama by a retired Naval officer?

The news regarding Obama’s alleged indecision about killing bin Laden comes as Islamic jihadists held at Guantanamo Bay for a number of years have mocked relatives of those murdered on September 11, 2001 in the courtroom. A female lawyer representing the accused has voluntarily dressed in a hijab and asked for other women to “wear appropriate clothing” out of respect for her client’s “religious beliefs.”

© 2012, Sharon Rondeau. All rights reserved.