May 4, 2011 5:56 AM

Panetta: We didn't see Osama bin Laden die

By
Tucker Reals
Topics
In The News ,
Foreign Policy ,
Obama Administration
President Obama in the Situation Room

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.

(Credit: White House)

CIA Director Leon Panetta says neither President Obama nor himself actually watched as Osama bin Laden was shot to death by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan.

It has been widely reported and understood, thanks in large part to the White House photo above, that Mr. Obama and his closest advisers watched the whole mission unfold via a live video feed from the helmet-mounted camera of a Navy SEAL.

The White House was careful never to say explicitly that Mr. Obama watched the entire incident transpire, instead saying he had received unspecified real-time video and audio information as the mission unfolded.

Special Report: The killing of Osama bin Laden

But in the latest nuanced twist in the official story coming from the top level of the American government, Panetta told PBS' News Hour on Tuesday that there had been "a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn't know just exactly what was going on."

Panetta's remarks don't make it clear what Mr. Obama and other senior officials were looking at so intently in the photo released by the White House, taken during the mission. They may have had a live video feed from the SEAL team which was cut as the elite commandos entered the concrete compound.

Pictures: Osama's hideaway

"Finally Adm. [William] McRaven came back and said he had picked up the word "Geronimo," which was the code word that represented they got bin Laden," Panetta told PBS.

McRaven is the Navy commander in charge of U.S. Special Operations. He was reportedly watching the mission in Abbottabad, Pakistan via a live video feed in Afghanistan. It's not clear whether that same feed was being relayed directly to the concerned looking crowd in the White House Situation Room, or if they were getting separate, secondary information.

NewsHour host Jim Lehrer asked the CIA director whether bin Laden might have said anything to the American troops before he was killed. His response: "To be frank, I don't think he had a lot of time to say anything."

"We always assume from the beginning that the likelihood was that he was gonna be killed," Panetta told "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric earlier on Tuesday. "But if perchance he were to be captured, I think the approach was to take him quickly to Bagram [Airfield, in Afghanistan], transfer him to a ship offshore, and then have the principals at the White House decide what next steps would be taken."

Panetta's remarks are just the latest clarifications of the details surrounding the raid. In a much more glaring reversal, the White House admitted Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed.

If the live video feed from Pakistan was lost, or never quite as live as it was initially said to have been, that may actually help to explain the amorphous nature of the White House's official account over the past three days.


  • Tucker Reals

    Tucker Reals is a senior news editor and overnight site editor for CBSNews.com, based at CBS News' London bureau.

Add a Comment See all 20 Comments
by DemicratsLie May 5, 2011 3:24 PM EDT
Lies lies and more lies. You Obama supporters seriously need your heads checked. There is a 12-13 year old girl who was there during the entire encounter let's get the story from her. She isn't going to lie about what happened. Kids generally don't lie and she has already told a different story then what the liars in the whitehouse have said. These fools in office are making fools out of all you out there standing by that snake and I think it's quite amusing. They lied to get Obama in office, they lie while he is in office and they lie their way through the next election. Wake up!!!!!!! If it looks like an orange and it tastes like an orange, by god it must be an orange!!! I don't believe a word said by those scumbags in the democratic party and neither should you. This is just the tip of the ice berg. I hope everyone involved in this mission is prosecuted by the UN for violating international law by going in to another country like a bunch of cowboys killing everything they came across. There were no signs of a firefight in that building just dead bodies all shot in the back. Bin laden was a bad man and deserved to pay for his crimes against all the innocent people he had murdered but this mission has many things done incorrectly and it's the American people who will suffer not those fools in the government. It's the everyday people whose lives are now in danger not Obama and his scumbag association.
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by cbsnacilbuper May 4, 2011 7:48 PM EDT
Too funny. After my comment see BS burried this story.
Reply to this comment
by cbsnacilbuper May 4, 2011 3:59 PM EDT
Anybody else think it's kinda weird that the none of the laptops are running in the picture?
Reply to this comment
by bobnjersey May 4, 2011 1:43 PM EDT
[The White House was careful never to say explicitly that Mr. Obama watched the entire incident transpire, instead saying he had received unspecified real-time video and audio information as the mission unfolded. ]
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but no doubt there is video of the whole mission somewhere ... whether the white house situation room got the feed or not.
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by isanyonefair May 4, 2011 11:17 AM EDT
So much fuss about nothing ... Google "Blind men and an elephant" and understand.

So many people making up stuff and getting all roiled over an incomplete picture.
Reply to this comment
by Empire---George____ May 4, 2011 11:08 AM EDT
They don't want muslims to know that Obama watched every minute of the real-time footage, so they pretend he didn't see anything.....even though we heard reports and see photos of them watching the operation unfold, and reports that "minutes seemed like hours" speaking about how they got nervous when the helicopter crashed, and now they claim Obama didn't see anything ?

What is wrong with them, that they are sooooo afraid of offending muslims, so instead they offend every American's intelligence with Bull crap follow up stories.
Reply to this comment
by reluctantzealot May 4, 2011 12:08 PM EDT
He had to have deniablility....
by stn_sage May 4, 2011 10:00 AM EDT
If I were BO, I'd tell everyone in the administration to 'shut up'!
To NOT make any more statements regarding the event!
To do so, is only going to get them in more trouble!
Reply to this comment
by meboard May 4, 2011 11:17 AM EDT
That or they all could use common sense and say NO COMMENT!
by reluctantzealot May 4, 2011 12:09 PM EDT
But disinformation is Obama's friend. Keep everyone fighting about conflicting stories and they won't focus on the dirty deals obama is playing out at the WH
by stn_sage May 4, 2011 9:58 AM EDT
When I look at this picture, I can visualize the photographer standing over in the corner, and saying, 'everyone look concerned'!
NOW, they say, certain members, particularly the president, didn't EVEN SEE IT?!
In God's name, WHY NOT?! It's an historic moment!
I dunno...the whole situation sounds 'fishy' to me!
It reminds me too much of the Jessica Lynch story!
Reply to this comment
by gangesdak May 4, 2011 9:38 AM EDT
I think we can leave the security of the country safely in the hands of Hillary Clinton. She can break the back of any terrorists. Get ready for 2016.
Reply to this comment
by canislupus16 May 4, 2011 10:56 AM EDT
Yeah, I'm trying - really - to make comparisons between a Sarah Palin and a Michelle Bachmann with a Hillary Clinton. The former two ditzes aren't qualified to carry Clinton's briefcase, much less run national security. Envision it: Palin or Bachmann chairing a meeting of the utmost sensitivity and importance in the Situation Room. Palin can't even name a newspaper she reads, and Bachmann has yet to offer any alternative to what she doesn't like about Obama's policies.

And the Republican "Boy's Club" doesn't fare any better. Can't see where any of the Republican wannabes has Hillary's mind or cajones.
by reluctantzealot May 4, 2011 12:10 PM EDT
She showed Hussein didn't she!!
by fleabag75 May 4, 2011 9:27 AM EDT
So I'm to take it since people are worried about whether he was armed or not, a 500 yard sniper shot would be totally out of the question. Or a 3 mile drone shot would be out. Did some want an O-K Corral type face off to happen? Some people are beyond being jerks.
Reply to this comment
by reluctantzealot May 4, 2011 12:11 PM EDT
The question is not if he was armed or not, but why the lies from the administration.
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