CIA officials paid Polish intelligence $15 million for use of secret prison, says Washington Post
Pakistan
Was the bin Laden Raid Really ‘Not a Tough Decision’?
On Wednesday, Donald Rumsfeld joined the bin Laden-anniversary party by declaring that it was “not a tough decision” for Barack Obama to order the Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad, and that to decide otherwise would be “dumbfounding.” Set aside for a moment the fact that a guy as tough as Rumsfeld’s successor as Defense Secretary, Robert …
Kerry’s Emerging AfPak Role: Precursor to Secretary of State Gig?
In recent years, John Kerry seems to have settled into a new role in the Senate. The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee finally got a major chairmanship at the helm of the Foreign Relations Committee. And he’s been in the …
Will bin Laden Bluster Help Obama Weather Iran Debate in 2012?
There have been innumerable references in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden to Barack Obama’s 2007 assertion that he would go into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaeda leader with or without Islamabad’s permission.
What most have forgotten is that the saber-rattling threat was crafted specifically to counter a dovish gaffe.
U.S. Considered Delaying bin Laden Announcement, Pakistan Pushed to ‘Go Public Right Away’
A CIA task force is scrambling to exploit intelligence from the computers, thumb drives and other electronic media taken at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday, racing against the clock as what remains …
Obama Pushed for ‘Fight Your Way Out’ Option in bin Laden Raid
A senior U.S. military official Monday credited President Obama for having a prominent role in pushing and shaping the plan to get Osama bin Laden. “In the final weeks and really months of this, his personal interest and …
If bin Laden Was Unarmed, Why Was He Shot?
Updated 3:02 p.m.
A major question lingers unanswered at the center of this story: Why was bin Laden killed? Michael Scherer has reported that the Navy Seals who landed at Osama bin Laden’s safehouse were not given orders specifically to kill, but were on a “kill or capture” mission. That implies they were prepared to accept bin …
CIA Chief: Pakistan Would Have Jeopardized bin Laden Operation
In his first interview since commanding the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, CIA chief Leon Panetta tells TIME that U.S. officials feared that Pakistan could have undermined the operation by leaking word to its targets. Long …
Bin Laden May Have Lived at Abbottabad Compound for Six Years
U.S. intelligence officials estimate that Osama bin Laden had been living in the $1 million Abbottabad compound where he was killed for up to six years, according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein. “That’s what we estimate at this stage,” Feinstein told TIME. Bin Laden “could have been there for five or six years.”
Killing Bin Laden: A Pivotal Political Moment for Obama
When American troops dragged Saddam Hussein from his spider hole in Dec. 2003, the political implications seemed huge: Pundits quickly asked whether George W. Bush had just clinched reelection, whether the anti-war candidate Howard Dean was now “toast”, and whether public support for the Iraq war might surge. But in the end, Saddam’s …
Osama Bin Laden Killed, Obama Hails Moment of ‘Justice’
Updated at 2:30 a.m.
Nearly 10 years after he launched the deadliest domestic attack in U.S. history, al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has been killed by American forces. Late Sunday evening, President Barack Obama addressed …
Home Again
…after 10 days in the Middle East and watching the Sunday morning talk shows. A few thoughts:
–It certainly was fun watching Governors Schwarzenegger and Rendell carve into pieces the puerile speeches delivered at the CPAC convention. The bites from Mitt Romney–who said not one net new private sector job had been created by the …
The Double Agent
It seems to me that while acres of forest have been sacrificed to detailing the Undiebomber follies, the other terrorist attack during Christmas week–the suicide bomber who took out much of a CIA station at Forward Operating Base Chapman on the Af/Pak border–was a far more significant event. Turns out he was a double agent, operating …