White House changes story: Bin Laden unarmed

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gestures during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, May 3, 2011. / AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

WASHINGTON - A U.S. commando's curt message to superiors signaled the end had come for the world's most wanted terrorist: "Geronimo EKIA," meaning enemy killed in action.

Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who liked to pose with a menacing AK-47 assault rifle in his hand or by his side, was discovered without a gun by the Navy SEALs who barged into his room and shot him dead.

The White House on Tuesday gave a more complete picture of the assault — and corrected some key details from earlier official accounts — as the team that pulled off the storied raid in Pakistan briefed officials and rested back at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

Special Report: The killing of Osama bin Laden

The administration possesses graphic images of bin Laden's corpse, at least one of which is likely to be released, according to CIA Director Leon Panetta. Officials hope that doing so would quiet any doubts that bin Laden is indeed dead. The worry is that anti-U.S. sentiment would be inflamed as a result.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has also had the photos described to him and said it "does sound very gruesome."

Bin Laden was shot twice at close range, once in the chest and once in the head, right above his left eye and that bullet opened hi skull, exposing his brain and it also blew out his eye. So these are not going to be pictures for the squeamish," Martin said.

How did bin Laden resist Navy SEALs without a weapon?

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., among the lawmakers who had the images described to them, played down the concern of inflaming anti-U.S. anger. "They're not going to scare people off," he said. "Nothing more than you'd expect with a person with a bullet in his head."

Codenamed Geronimo after the Apache fighter of the late 1800s who was ultimately captured by the U.S., bin Laden was buried at sea from an American ship scant hours after his death.

White House officials initially suggested bin Laden had been holding a gun and perhaps firing at U.S. forces. The corrected account raised questions about whether the Americans ever planned to take him alive, or simply were out to kill him.

Bin Laden mission was roll of the dice for Obama

Panetta told "PBS NewsHour" that bin Laden "made some threatening moves" that "represented a clear threat to our guys" but was not more specific about what the unarmed terrorist did as the commandos engaged others at the compound in a firefight and burst into their prey's room.

"I don't think he had a lot of time to say anything," Panetta said. "It was a firefight going up that compound. ... This was all split-second action on the part of the SEALs."

Panetta underscored that Mr. Obama had given permission to kill the terrorist leader: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden," he said. "And obviously, under the rules of engagement, if he had in fact thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But they had full authority to kill him."

Treasure trove of al Qaeda intel combed for gold

After they shot him in the head and chest, the SEAL team in just minutes quickly swept bin Laden's compound for useful intelligence, making off with a cache of computer equipment and documents. The CIA was hurriedly setting up a task force to review the material from the highest level of al Qaeda's leadership.

The documents provide a rare opportunity for U.S. intelligence. When a midlevel terrorist is captured, his bosses know exactly what information might be compromised and can change plans. When the boss is taken, everything might be compromised but nobody knows for sure.

The revised account of bin Laden's final moments was one of many official details that have changed since he was killed in the nighttime raid early Monday morning in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. The White House misidentified which of bin Laden's sons was killed — it was Khalid, not Hamza. Officials incorrectly said bin Laden's wife died in gunfire while serving as his human shield. That actually was the wife of a bin Laden aide, and she was just caught in crossfire, the White House said Tuesday.

Bin Laden news gives Obama 11% approval bump

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney attributed those discrepancies to the fog of war, saying the information was coming in bit by bit and was still being reviewed. Nevertheless, the contradictory statements may raise suspicions about the White House's version of events, given that no independent account from another source is likely to emerge. The only non-U.S. witnesses to survive the raid are in Pakistani custody.

Five people were killed in the raid, officials said: bin Laden; his son; his most trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti; and al-Kuwaiti's wife and brother. The latest White House account leaves open the question of whether there was any gunfire from bin Laden's defenders in his room before the commandos shot him.

President Barack Obama prepared to visit New York City's ground zero on Thursday to mark the end to one of history's most intense manhunts and to remember anew the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the hands of bin Laden's al Qaeda organization.

Bin Laden's neighbors noticed unusual things

In Washington, questions flew about whether Pakistan was complicit in protecting the mastermind of those attacks. Several Republicans and Democrats in Congress have raised the possibility of cutting off U.S. aid to Pakistan. The Pakistani government has denied suggestions that its security forces knew anything about bin Laden's hideout or failed to spot suspicious signs in a city with a heavy military presence.

In a closed-door briefing for lawmakers Tuesday, Panetta said, "Pakistan was involved or incompetent," a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Pakistan criticized the American raid in its sovereign territory as "unauthorized unilateral action."

While tensions grew, efforts also were apparent to contain the damage in an important if checkered relationship. The Obama administration pushed back against the talk of punishing Pakistan. So did Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who said, "Having a robust partnership with Pakistan is critical to breaking the back of al Qaeda and the rest of them."

Pictures: Osama's hideaway
Pictures: Osama bin Laden
Pictures: Osama bin Laden killed - America reacts

And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that despite difficult relations with Pakistan, "They have allowed us to pursue our drone program. We've taken out over 16 of the top 20 al Qaeda leaders because of that. That's cooperation."

For the long-term legacy of the most successful counterterrorism operation in U.S. history, the fact that bin Laden was unarmed is unlikely to matter much to the Americans he declared war against. President George W. Bush famously said he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive," and the CIA's top counterterrorism official once promised to bring bin Laden's head back on a stake.

Yet just 24 hours before the White House acknowledged that bin Laden had been unarmed, Mr. Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said, "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that."

Will it matter around the world? Some may try to make much of it in Pakistan and elsewhere.

"This country has gone through a lot of trauma in terms of violence, and whether or not he was armed is not going to make a difference to people who were happy to see the back of him," said Mosharraf Zaidi, a political analyst and columnist in Pakistan. Yet, he said, "The majority have a mistrust of America, and this will reinforce their mistrust of America."

Mr. Obama and his national security team followed the operation as it unfolded, watching television monitors, the air thick with tension at the White House. But Panetta said on PBS that the president and others gathered at the White House did not actually witness bin Laden being killed.

Nerves were raw when one of the two Black Hawk helicopters that descended into the bin Laden compound Monday fell heavily to the ground. Officials believe that was due to higher-than-expected air temperature that interfered with the chopper's ability to hover — an aeronautical condition known as "hot and high."

The SEALs all got out of the downed helicopter and proceeded into the compound. As they swept through the property, they handcuffed those they encountered with plastic zip ties and pressed on in pursuit of their target. Many SEAL team members carry helmet-mounted cameras, but the video beamed back to Washington did not show the fateful showdown with bin Laden, officials said.

That word came from the SEALs on the ground: "Geronimo EKIA." The CIA's makeshift command center erupted in applause as the SEALs helicoptered to safety.

[doodad68]

I love it. Remember BO and his gaggle of flacks were watching this in "real time" so how is it that the story keeps changing? BO wouldn't know the truth if it came up and boxed his jumbo ears. Also, they (Big Media who gives him all of the credit) said he made the "brave, courageous" decision to go in SEAL-first, but while he was allegedly watching it go down in "real time" he was in a golf shirt and windbreaker. That tells me he was hauled off the golf course, from whence he obviously rules, and told, "Look commie, we're getting bin Laden today, whether you like it or not. No, don't call Eric Holder because it's already happened. Here's the video. Look pinko, you can take all the credit, but know we did this behind your back because you always fall on the side of Muslims who wish us all dead. By the way, we got information of his whereabouts by waterboarding one of your brothers. You can tell Holder and all the libs who say that 'torture doesn't work,' that waterboarding sure the eff does!"

Yeah...that's about right.

[CaymanDiver]

I hope that the President got the ok from the Arab League, NATO and the UN before this went down. Otherwise it would be a serious breach of foreign policy under this administration.

[yourwatchdog]

THE SUPERPOWER USA got the unarmed Bin Laden while he was sleeping at night.
So let's celebrate our bravery and show the world how different we are from terrorists

[southpaw99]

I agree that shooting an unarmed person was inappropriate considering there were other options.
What really gets me is the idiots out here who have a fetish with blaming everything on LIBERALS.
Its like they're minds are just stuck in the mud.
I feel sorry for them.

[WiseAsOwl]

Am I detecting some of you Liberal wimps thinking maybe you need to give the "stink eye" to somebody for shooting Osama.... when Osama was unarmed.?? Just wait a minute... You Liberals ARE THE ONES that have created a situation so that every soldier knows to NOT take prisoners, if there's any way to avoid it... Thanks to you, we all know now that taking prisoners is going to be a bad deal, no matter what.. You Libs would have strung this whole thing out for five years, if we'd captured Osama and brought him back alive... and you STILL might not have had him executed... Heck, you might have even let him go, with our apologies... I don't have much use for Obama, but let's not try to nail him or anybody for being too tough on Osama!!.... I certainly wouldn't change anything about what our Seals did.. or how they did it...

[dennisall77]

What the F do you mean "unarmed"? Ever hear of assassins with bombs under their clothng? or making a move to trigger a bomb in the room? Do you not think that bin Dead would not want to take out some Americans WITH him? Just kill him and see later if he had a bomb. How deafening would the criticisms be from the right if he HAD detonated a bomb and killed some Seals? THEN they would be saying, shoulda just shot him. Primary objective was: NO HARM TO AMERICANS!

[klb6]

Let this be a lesson for the other illegitimate terrorists leaders in the world today that whether they are armed or helplessly unarmed President Barrack Hussein Obama Jr is going to take you down.

It's time for Our President to go out and hit the campaign trail and use this in any way he can to get reelected. Who care's, if when the truth comes out, that Bin Laden, the men, women, or children were all unarmed, that's not our problem.

[doodad68]

Yeah, if Bush had did this, you know, changing the story a thousand times in one week, not releasing the pictures of the alleged take down, and giving him a proper burial, then you and other Obama drones would be shrieking like banshees. I seem to remember you drones going ape-feces over the bin Laden family getting to leave the country after 9/11, for whatever reason you were told to ape-feces about it. You'd all be calling Bush a "terrorist" for killing an unarmed, peace-loving Muslim just like you screeched when you heard about the "torture" those peace-loving, innocent Muslims were going through in the various detention facilities. Face it, this will not get him re-elected, drone. He is still a looter and a horrible presi-mu-dent. "It's the economy, stupid," to coin a phrase from another lying sack of excrement.

[jnostromo]

Who cares f he was unarmed...he had the blood of thousands of innocnet people on his hands...he ordered the murder of these people, his death was quick when it should have been long and torured filled..he should have been impaled on a pike at the site of the twin towers surrounded by the photos of every person who died at his hands...he was vermin/filthy garbage...

[ccccarlos]

You can be bet that once the jubilation over the killing of Osama Bin Laden wanes, conspiracy buffs everywhere will be raising questions: Why, they'll be asking, if our government misled, or lied, to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, should we accept at face value their claim that a DNA sample taken from the body proves that the man killed was, indeed, Osama Bin Laden. And why, was the body disposed of so quickly? If Bin Laden was such an evil character, reputedly one of the worst mass murders s in history, he didn't deserve a dignified burial at sea within 24 hours, as prescribed by Islamic custom, as if he were some kind of hero. Was Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's corpse treated with such respect when our troops martyred him in Iraq?

And why does our government refuse to make public photos of Bin Laden's corpse. Granted, a man shot twice in the head does not make a pretty picture, but wasn't the body washed and clad in clean clothes in preparation for the burial? Surely pictures of the body in a decent state could have been taken and made public to help dispel doubts that we got the right man. Then there is the mystery of why Bin Laden was able to hole up in a conspicuous mansion-bunker for five years, 30 miles from the Afghan capital, and next door to the country's military academy, without being detected, not only by Pakistani authorities, but by our own high-tech, satellite-equipped CIA.

If despite all certifiable documentation millions of Birthers still doubt that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, you can be sure that than an official government report and a DNA sample that your average person couldn't begin to decipher would keep skeptics from spreading rumors that there was something fishy about the Bin Laden killing. With so much mistrust and divisiveness roiling in our nation in these hard economic times, the last thing we need is another conspiracy theory.

[cbsnacilbuper]

Good point. Most liberals here talk about Bush lies on WMD, but if he did then others in his admin as well as the govt. lied as well. Who can you trust?

[lagunagal]

ccc, this is merely another administration "trust us" scenario. The problem is we don't and the other problem is Obama is playing this game again. Making a majority of Americans who need closure on this will once again be labeled crazy for wanting to see the proof that was promised, not to mention the Middle East. Nope, Obama is playing games with the American people once again. He took an exemplary military prosecution or so we are led to believe and gummed it up. Yesterday's presser's were so gummed up this administration was bumping into to one another with contradictory information. We had one picture of a room full of wide eyed people watching a wall according to one of yesterday's presser's saying this was merely audio of the event. As bad as Bushy was, after the Delta Forces were through Uday and Qusay Hussein, at least he had the brass to post the evidence for us and the Middle East. No more posts, blogs or news gathering for me. I have to get back to my life which I'm preparing to begin again in 2013. This is nothing short of additional Birth Certificate like aggravation and I'm done with it. Obviously this is Obama's MO and I for one have no more time to be toyed with by this administration.

[skyviewperspective]

as we live....so shall we die.

as he lived...so he died ---- violently. good riddance. on to getting zurwowee (yes....spelling is wrong...refuse to give him any respect.)

so the dude is dead.....STOP the attention....more importantly.....what's the deal with gas prices? (yes....more important than a dead terrorist)

[debjandy]

I think it's interesting that if we had just bombed the entire complex and surrounding area to ensure we "got him" no one would be questioning if he was armed or not AND there would have been a lot more casualties. Or better yet, capture him (after taking out senseless excess casualties which no one talks about), hand him over to another country, yet pay our soldiers to stand guard at his jail, drive him to the gallows, then deny we play a part in his execution. Instead we took responsibility for our actions, we went in strategically and methodically to wipe out THEE target and a few other players obviously involved, and people are up in arms about us not engaging in proper war procedures...we didn't play fair. Good grief. I don't feel joyous about life being taken, but if you are going to do it, you should be willing to look the person in the face and not hide behind a $1,000,000 warplane, or coward behind another country taking the blame for the person's execution and think our hands are clean. If it is possible to have integrity in war, going in and taking as few lives as possible to get the bad guy would seem like how you are supposed to do it. No matter who did it, Obama, Bush, Queen Elizabeth herself, or the PM of Australia, don't care...