Obama's focus on Osama bin Laden paid off

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

This post originally appeared on Slate.

At approximately 11:30 p.m. Sunday, President Obama announced to the nation that on his orders U.S forces had killed Osama Bin Laden. His reputation for lawyerly inaction may never recover.

Obama's critics have said that he is a weak leader in general and in particular does not understand what must be done to combat terrorism. "They are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required," said former Vice President Dick Cheney in March 2009, in a typical remark. Yet what emerges from the details of Bin Laden's killing (offered, like the heroic accounts of the Bush years, entirely by officials who work for the sitting president) is that from early in his administration Obama was focused on killing Osama Bin Laden and that he was involved in the process throughout.

Full CBSNews.com coverage: The death of Osama bin Laden

In June 2009, Obama directed his CIA director to "provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice" Osama Bin Laden. By August 2010 intelligence officials had identified the suspicious compound where Osama lived. Thirty-five miles outside Islamabad, the walls were up to 18 feet high and topped with barbed wire. The largest structure, a three-story building, had very few windows. Though the house was valued at $1 million, it had no Internet or phone service. Its residents, unlike their neighbors, burned their trash.

Detainees being held at Guantanamo provided some of the strongest information about those who were trusted by Bin Laden. They identified a courier and his brother who lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan, an affluent suburb where a lot of retired Pakistani military officers live.

The final phase of the painstaking process started in mid-February. Intelligence officials started to get good information on the compound. A series of meetings were held in the White House to develop aggressive intelligence gathering operations. A family lived at the compound that matched the description of the Bin Laden family. By mid-March the president was chairing the national security meetings on the operation. (In all he would chair five such meetings, including the ones on the day the operation took place.)

Hillary Clinton: Killing shows "you cannot defeat us"
Bush: Bin Laden's death a "victory for America"
Dems, GOP celebrate bin Laden's death

Early Friday morning before departing to view tornado damage in Alabama, the president gave the order to initiate the operation to kill Bin Laden. On Sunday, he met throughout the day in the Situation Room, making final preparations and receiving updates.

The assault team arrived by helicopter. Administration officials were vague about what happened next. Bin Laden "did resist the assault force" and he was killed in a firefight, which leaves plenty of room for details to come out in the screenplay. Bin Laden's oldest son and the two couriers were also killed. One woman, whom a senior administration official said was used as a shield by one of the men, was killed. Two other women were injured.

At about 4 p.m., the president received first word that his orders had very likely led to the successful assassination of the architect of the greatest attack ever on America.

No other country, including Pakistan, knew of the attack, but the president in his remarks was clear that the operation couldn't have taken place without the help of the Pakistani government. "Our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to Bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding." (watch Obama's remarks at left)

The president went to sleep to the sound of cheering outside the White House. At Ground Zero in New York and towns across the country, people gathered to sing the national anthem and chant "USA! USA!" It was a flicker of the post-9/11 unity that the president had referenced in his remarks earlier in the evening.

In his remarks announcing the operation, the president sought to rekindle that feeling, but he went further. He made the latest in a series of paeans to the American spirit. Under assault from conservatives who say he does not believe in the idea of American exceptionalism, Obama took the opportunity to reiterate his belief in the unique qualities of his countrymen:

Today's achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people. ... Tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it's the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place. Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thus did the president both answer his conservative critics and rise above them. Yes, he was saying, I do believe in American exceptionalism--and so should any terrorist who would wish America ill. All in all, it was a good night to be president.

More from Slate:

How dangerous is Al-Qaida without bin Laden?
Osama Bin Laden's legacy: It will depend in part on what Obama does next
Human intelligence and careful preparation finished him off

[myth1958]

John Dickerson puts it succinctly: "[Obama's] reputation for lawyerly inaction may never recover." He is referring to the oft-repeated claim by Obama opponents that he was too soft to handle the reins of power - that he didn't have what it takes to order just such a military operation as this one. And even though the Bush/Cheney crew had 7 years to get Bin Laden (and famously didn't), that crowd smirked that the Democrats wouldn't get the terrorist, either. Oops.

[abbe91]

When a president lets the intelligence people work and listens to them, rather than get them fabricating information to fulfill a political agenda, when a vice-president doesn't out CIA agents, you get results.
I'm glad to know that President Obama was monitoring the whole thing and was not reading "My Pet Goat".

[gotcha22]

Obama haters can just dismiss this. Remember GW said in 2006 that he didn't care where Osama was. He gave up. So it shouldn't hurt Obama haters much that this president avenged something Bush thought wasn't significant - right? Now when it turns out we Americans actually did want Bin Laden dead and Obama kept his promise, you act like he was lucky. You don't read anything or if you do, you block it out mentally. The surgical strike and gamble was Obama's call. The Navy Seals and Special Forces are heros. But Obama calculated it and now GW klingons want to praise him - GW - for giving up after demolishing the wrong enemy. Go soak your head, haters.

[crazyname]

Obama's focus, wht a joke, his only focus is on raising money and where his next vacation will be. The services and the CIA have beenthe ones doing all the work, Obama just said GO! typical media and Obama speak. All for votes. these heros that risked their lives were almost not paid if you remember. Not the Mrs and Obama are praising them as heroes, too bad they didn't warrant a paycheck when the buedget was in limbo!

this guy is a glorty hog, and the media does all it can. Normally politians have to pay for this type of coverage. It is good Osama is gone, but put the credit where the credit is due. The CIA! Who has stripped them of a lot of their abilities, our president and his left wingers. Osama would still be free if it were not for the interrogations performed.

[noloyalisti]

Quit trying to justify this as anything but another coverup by our terrorist military and government owned and run by the giant corporations. In most terrorist nations like America, we have to kill the other terrorists before they kill us.

It has been the creed of savage, primitive, violent tribal cultures since the beginning.

[user000049586849302948603]

by endurorob_5 May 2, 2011 1:23 PM EDT
How about Obama apologize to the intelligence community for stopping the harsh interrogation techniques and closing the overseas prisons that porvided the key information that resulted in the killing of this scum.

____________________________________________________________

You mean the same kind of war crimes that we executed Japanese in WWII for? ...those "harsh Interrogation" techniques?

[user000049586849302948603]

by HiTech53 May 2, 2011 12:58 PM EDT
Why should they apologize to Obama? Obama was lucky enough to be president at the time when our intelligence with the cooperation of the Paskistani goverment had Osama in the location to kill him...

______________________________________________________-

I'm pretty sure you'd be singing a different tune if the mission had gone badly.

We get it: you're just miffed that President Obama was successful where Bush was a miserable failure. Now go cry like a little girl.

[longstick]

If the president does not give all the credit to the Seal 6 team then he remains a coward and is disrespectfull to the office he holds. He is no longer the people's president I voted for. He's a nut job bent on deminshing the USA!

[Former_Marine_Sgt]

And will even one of the Republicans (Cheney, Rove, et al) apologize for thier false attacks on Obama for not treating the war on terror as if he was a cookie cutter image of how Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld did it?

Seems like Obama's getting a better record at it than they ever did.

Yet these mouthpieces of hatred against 'that enemy from the democratic party' will never admit it, so I guess my wish is nothing more than a pipedream...

[reluctantzealot]

so does this mean that obama will now get rid of Holder and finally allow the prosecution of the terrorists still at GITMO?

since he has found their confessions and information useful, surely he will now allow justice to prevail

[endurorob_5]

How about Obama apologize to the intelligence community for stopping the harsh interrogation techniques and closing the overseas prisons that porvided the key information that resulted in the killing of this scum.

[reluctantzealot]

When do we get to see the video? Hope someone is filing a Freedom of Information request for this to be released immediately.

[endurorob_5]

Obama's transperent administration won't allow that.

[jimbom121]

They have already stated the would release the videos and documents.