Panetta on bin Laden raid: It had all proven right

(CBS News) The mission to kill Osama bin Laden was run from CIA headquarters. The man in charge that night was Leon Panetta. It was Panetta who described events as they unfolded to the president at the White House last year. In an interview for "60 Minutes," "Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley interviewed Leon Panetta for an insider's view of the plan to get the man that they code-named "Geronimo." An transcript follows:

Pelley: Was there ever a notion of capturing Osama bin Laden in this mission?

Panetta: Yes. There could be a situation that would allow them to capture him. Then they were to make use of that.

Pelley: Where were you gonna take him?

Panetta: We clearly were gonna move him out and put him into a detained area for a while, while we obviously interrogated him, and then made the decision as to what would happen.

60 Minutes: The Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta

Pelley: The president and several others are in the situation room down at the White House. Are they listening to you? Are you narrating what's happening?

Panetta: I'm basically briefing them on kind of what's going on. They're also following it. But I was basically relaying what I was hearing from those who were conducting the operation.

Pelley: What were the exact words that you heard from the SEAL team?

Panetta: The person who was heading up the operation basically said, "You know, I think we have a Geronimo." And I kind of looked around at everybody at operation center and said, "I think--[it] looks like we may have -- Bin Laden really was there. And then he came back [and said], "We think we have Geronimo K.I.A."

Pelley: Killed in action.

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Panetta: That's correct.

Pelley: What was the scene in the operation center at the CIA at that moment?

Panetta: It wasn't like we were high-fiving. It was more like, frankly, we kind of looked at each other and said all of the work that had been done, all of the questions that had been raised, all of the risks that had been talked about -- that in the end it had all proven right.

Two months after the raid, Panetta moved from the CIA to the Pentagon as defense secretary.

[Jesus_to_ground_control]

Guiding Light

The U.S. must make it clear that it does not condone hired guns, torture, indiscriminate bombings around the world by completely stopping their use. This great land of freedom and justice must show the way to those countries who are struggling with violence by giving the right example.

[michaelz06]

yeah, good luck with that.

[fedup12]

i cant believe.... Bin Laden attacked us on 911 killed 3500 Americans Starts a decade of war in one morning and Obama gets crap from the right for killing him.

I still remember the Bush speech when he was wanting to attack Iraq and saying.... Bin Laden who. HEs not important.

[occupy_cbs]

The difference in the delusional right and President Obama:

bush junior: "I just don't care about Osama bin Ladin." -- 2002

Obama: "If we have him in our crosshairs, I will give the order to kill him." -- 2008

[michaelz06]

hey fed, the right is not giving him crap for killing Osama, just crowing about it over and over, like he was there leading the mission on the ground, or making a decision that anyone in his office would have made. He ok'd it, it got done by good people, and most Americans are happy about it. I guess when that is about the only thing you have to crow about, you run it into the ground.

[ludvig1-2009]

Boy there are some hateful Repuglicans on this site.

[tmonta67]

I don't know if they're Republicans, or simply hateful. I have family memebers who say they'll vote Republican but who also freely admit Obama did one hell of a job on the terrorists and in winding down these God-forsaken wars.

[joe1022joe]

Obama is the first affirmative action President. With luck he'll be the last. Obama was elected on the strength of...nothing except his skin color. An empty vessel. An empty suit.

[tmonta67]

Wow man...you are SO much more than color-blind.

[stormerF69]

Panetta was not even Secretay of defese when Bin Laden was removed. How can anyone defend his $3,000 an hour flights from DC to Northern California 24 times since he took office less than a year ago?

[LVwidow]

At least Panetta is and was in an actual position with the government when these flights are taken. You want to talk about waste - try the $45,000 a day taxpayers spent on Newt and Santorum for secret service protection when they were not the official candidate for the GOP and no way in he@@ were they going to be! Yeah, how can anyone defend that (and they don't work for the government) but always talked about "smaller" government, "balanced budget", "too much spending" - Year, right.

[RickyTick123]

Don't trust Panetta or any consistently lying mouthpiece for the Government.
Pictures or it didn't happen.

[tmonta67]

I'll bet you're a birther too. All we normo-intelligent folk can do is shake our heads.

[jhoward770]

Pelley: Where were you gonna take him?


Panetta: We clearly were gonna move him out and put him into a detained area for a while, while we obviously interrogated him, and then made the decision as to what would happen.

Yeah, right...what a lie by Panetta. We kill thousands of others with Predators and not Bin Ladin when we have a chance?

[stormerF69]

What a sleazy ass Panetta is spending hundreds of thousands on trips charged to the tax payers. Why is this not being reported as front page,not something that happened a year ago.