The Defense Secretary: Leon Panetta

On April 30th, 2011, Mr. Obama and Panetta made a point of being seen at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Panetta's belly laugh was heard at every presidential punch line, but both men knew they'd just pulled the trigger. Seal Team Six would launch in 16 hours.

Panetta: The risks are, were, enormous, you know, going in that far, the prospect of detection, the prospect that, you know, one of these helicopters might go down, the fact that once they arrived there, we might, you know, have a shooting war with Pakistanis take place.

Pelley: With all of those risks you were facing, you recommended going ahead with this, to the president. Why?

Panetta: You know, in the 40 years I've been in government this, for me, was probably the most remarkable operation that I was a part of because everybody played their role in a very effective and responsible way. This was the best case we had on bin Laden since Tora Bora. And because of that, because for 10 years we had run into dead ends trying to track bin Laden down, I thought for that reason alone, we had a responsibility to act.

This is Panetta running the mission from CIA headquarters. He acted without telling our Pakistani allies. Because Panetta couldn't figure how bin Laden lived more than five years, undetected, about a mile from Pakistan's military academy - it's West Point.

Pelley: Elements of the Pakistani government knew he was there?

Panetta: I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. Don't forget, this compound had 18 foot walls around it. Twelve foot walls in some areas, 18 foot walls elsewhere, a seven foot wall on the third balcony of the house. It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, "What the hell's goin' on there?"

Pelley: Is that why you recommended we not tell the Pakistanis that we were coming?

Panetta: We had seen some military helicopters actually going over this compound.

Pelley: Pakistani military helicopters?

Panetta: And for that reason, it concerned us that, if we, in fact, brought 'em into it, that they might give him, give bin Laden a heads up.

Pelley: I appreciate the diplomatic problems you have, Mr. Secretary, but everything you're telling me in this interview indicates that the Pakistani government knew he was there and that that's what you believe.

Panetta: I don't have any hard evidence, so I can't say it for a fact. There's nothing that proves the case. But as I said, my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge.

There's one more thing that Secretary Panetta noticed after the raid -- no escape route from the house. It's as if the occupant was expecting plenty of warning. Before it was torn down in February, the house was already short one brick. It's hanging on the wall of Panetta's office -- a memento CIA officers brought him -- labeled with bin Laden's code name: Geronimo, Abbottabad Pakistan.

Before the raid, President Obama nominated Panetta for secretary of defense. He took office over 11 months ago, arriving these days at the Pentagon at dawn and working well into the night.

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[quotelawrence]

it is obvious Panetta and the current administration cares less about the U.S.A. then did past administrations, we now have evidence showing what happens when we allow our business, and industry to move to Communist Countries where slave labor is unregulated, and toxic dumping occurs, no E.P.A. the business world and investors jump to exploit the profits, to really show patriotism we need to amend the Constitution to be explicit, profiting from dealing with enemies of the U.S.A. needs to be judged treasonous, and punishable by imprisonment, we are watching out Country collapse while few investors become mega-rich others are becoming homeless and worse where is the patriotism.

[mMercury75]

I'm 37 years old and have grown up watching 60 Minutes. I can think of many times that I've been educated and interested in stories I've seen on there, but never in my life have I been as disgusted *by* the show as I have been with the Leon Panetta story. What an amazing piece of pure propaganda disguised as news. How cute he looked smiling and walking around his farm with his doggy! It just warms my heart to hear him joke about how many shadow wars the US is fighting while he plays with his hi-tech killing toys.

Congrats 60 Minutes, in just 15 minutes you managed to unravel more than 30 years of respect. So much for one of the last places for journalistic integrity.

[ccrider27]

This piece by CBS is fawning to the point of embarrassment. Here's a more objective view:

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/11/leon_panetta_macho_renaissance_man/singleton/

[Lerianis4]

He should have stopped wasting his time on the Iran thing. As an American citizen, I have to say that Iran has the right to nuclear weapons if they wish them.

Unfortunately, by invading Afghanistan and Iraq, we made it very clear to various countries that if they didn't or don't have nuclear weapons, we see them as 'targets' if they **** us off in some manner.

[TerryS1948]

I watched this episode this evening. There were some misleading points made by the liberal pro-Obama 60 Minutes crew: they tried to portray the search for Bin Laden at dead end until Obama became President and named Panetta to the CIA. The leads to find Bin Laden were well on the way to being established prior to Obama becoming President. They just had not yet connected all the dots to locate him, but it was going to happen no matter who became President in 2009. The very inept Obama has been desperate to seem more competent than he is by claiming successes that he should have given to the military and intelligence community. I believe Panetta is a decent man, but he should have given the credit to his people. Separately, this episode gave the impression that we will possibly use max military force to keep Iran from getting nukes. That will not happen and DC insiders know it.

[alex_glaz]

Pelley, now that you have a full time news anchor job, give up the seat at 60 Minutes and let someone intelligent take over.

[stevex47]

You are right Tim, but it is a public forum in politics, so people go overboard. I'm the most guilty.

Anyway, Panetta is one cool customer, and a brilliant move by Obama.

[Timjaq]

I think it is very disrespectful to refer to President Obama as Mr. Obama. I noticed that it is a common occurence with Scott Pelley. No matter what your affiliation you should at least respect the office.