Official: Obama Admin Drafted Memo to Blame Military If Bin Laden Mission Failed

Take the credit and make re-election commercials if the mission is sucessful.
Deflect the blame and make the military the bad guy if it fails.
Lovely 'transparency' .... Can I get a 'yes we can!!'

Official - Obama administration drafted memo to blame the military if Bin Laden mission failed

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey told Sean Hannity on Friday that the Obama Administration drafted a memo to protect the president from blame if the mission to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden would have failed. That way Obama could blame the general instead of taking the blame himself. Mukasey wrote about it this week in The Wall Street Journal.

“That was a highly lawyered memo (designed to protect the president politically)… I think there’s going to be more that’s going to be tumbling out about that escapade but so far that memo is enough.“

Not only did Obama wait almost a full year ... but he was ready to punk out if it went south.

ATS Thread - Top General: Obama Knew For A Year Where UBL Was But Failed To Act

Why bother?

We all know the entire thing was a lie. I debunked within 15 minutes of when they released "the Tape"

Its not bin laden and if anyone takes the time to match ear prints they will see it is a BS scam from the start.

Remember this was 48hrs after the Fake WH birth cert was released and had already been proven a forgery.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Nice Find!! Obama is quite adept at covering all of his bases and working any and all angles for his personal gain. He perfected his skills during his post Columbia Chicago years and while at Harvard. The blame game is his game. Clearly!!

he was ready to punk out if it went south.

Yeah read about this yesterday par for the course been blaming others for his failures for the last 3 and half years he just went one step further and made it legal.

The man has no honor,no character,no integrity

We have a saying in the salute school I went to.

"They get the fame, we get the blame."

I think Obama might have gotten it backwards.

No president would ever have taken the flack if TSHTF on operation Neptune spear, he would be bound to have had a contingency to cover his own but should things not work out. It might be cowardly but anyone in his position would do everything he could possibly do to distance himself should things have failed.

In saying that however OP, as I have said to you in your previous thread it is incorrect to claim that Obama knew Bin Laden’s location for a year and “Refused to act”.

I say he did know for a long time sinking poll numbers no record to speak up this nation teetering on financial ruin here comes the great big O pulling a "miracle" out of his butt just in time to give the masses something else to talk about instead of the abissmal failure of his presidency.

Timing is everything.

I have no idea how other Presidents would have reacted or planned for this. I seem to recall something about Bush having something like this. Daddy Bush...back when Kuwait was liberated. I just can't recall the details. However, Clinton wasn't Johnny on the Spot for taking blame and Reagan threw half his administration out the door to face Congress and tell them he didn't know anything of importance on endless Iran/Contra hearings,

So.. Again, I find myself rather so/so on seeing how Obama can be blamed for the sentiment.

However, I do find the fact this was thought out, run through the lawyers and properly formatted into a legalese document to cover his tail in complete technical terms to be very tacky and out of line.

The idea that a President will let others take the bullet for them on failure isn't new...but this degree of planning on what is presented as something of a window of opportunity and limited, is absurd. Did they literally spend more time on how to beat the blame before it even happened then how it needed to happen? Well... We did lose a cutting edge, top line stealth Helicopter. Hmmm..

Perhaps some priorities were out of whack in more than one place.

Well since they didn't fail, I guess there's no issue is there?

Say it with me class: Obama is a politician, not a wizard, Obama is a pol-it-ic-ian.

amd what was reagans famous quote that gave him plausible deniability during the hearing for selling arms to Iran ?

"I cannot recall"

the great communicator lied to the entire country

spare me the hysterical melodrama

Perhaps this was "leaked" intentionally. Relatively easy to sweep under the rug, but also "proof" that Bin Laden was actually killed that day. Because WHY on earth would they create a memo like that if it were a false flag?

Too bad the story is bunk

Between President Bush's "unwarranted wire-taps are OK" FORMER Attorney General and THE PENTAGON...I'll trust the pentagon.

Pentagon disputes claim that memo gave Obama cover in case of bin Laden raid failure

Capt. John Kirby and three top Panetta aides told Fox News that's not true. That was after former Attorney General Michael Mukasey claimed earlier that a memo had given cover to Obama.

The memo in question is apparently the April 2011 hand-written memo from Panetta ..

Kirby said no memo would have "given cover to the president." He further said that [the] April 2011 memo, "was written for no other purpose than to record for posterity sake the decision the president has made. It was not delivered to anyone. It was put in a file for the historical record."

www.foxnews.com...

Here is the full JOURNAL ENTRY...which by the way was written 3 days before the raid and thus the request by the President for an updated risk profile before the final go ahead....there could have been sand storms, the OP could have been blown etc.etc. etc. EVERY GO AHEAD is contingent on an updated risk profile.... 3 days is a long time.

Handwritten note by panetta

Apr. 29, 2011, 10:35 a.m.

Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am

www.theblaze.com...


Timeline for raid..

McRaven and the SEALs left for Afghanistan to practice at a one acre full-scale replica of the compound built on a restricted area of Bagram known as Camp Alpha.[47][48] The team departed the U.S. from Naval Air Station Oceana on April 26 in a C-17 aircraft, refueled on the ground at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, landed at Bagram Air Base, then moved to Jalalabad on April 27.[42]

On April 28 Admiral Mullen explained the final plan to the Security Council. To bolster the "fight your way out" scenario, Chinook helicopters with additional troops would be positioned nearby. Obama said he wanted to speak directly to Admiral McRaven before he gave the order to proceed. The president asked if McRaven had learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to lose confidence in the mission. McRaven told him the team was ready and that the next few nights would have little moonlight over Abbottabad, good conditions for a raid.[42]

On April 29 at 8:20 a.m., Obama conferred with his advisers and gave the final go-ahead. The raid would take place the following day. That evening the president was informed that the operation would be delayed one day due to cloudy weather. On April 30 Obama called McRaven one more time to wish the SEALs well and to thank them for their service.[42]

On May 1 at 1:22 p.m., Panetta, acting on the president's orders, directed McRaven to move forward with the operation. Shortly after 3 p.m., the president joined national security officials in the Situation Room to monitor the raid. They watched night-vision images taken from a drone while Panetta, appearing in a corner of the screen from CIA headquarters, narrated what was happening.[46] Video links with Panetta at CIA headquarters and McRaven in Afghanistan were set up in the Situation Room. In an adjoining office was the live drone feed presented on a laptop computer operated by Brigadier General Marshall Webb, assistant commander of JSOC. Two other command centers monitored the raid from the Pentagon and the American embassy in Islamabad.[42]

en.wikipedia.org...

I know it will want to make you pull your hair out, BUT I will also add not only did the President give the go ahead without concern for his political ass, which was certainly on the line, but Panetta at the time thought thier was only a 40% chance that OBL was there...not only did Pres. Obama go for it, but he also was the one that told them to include the Chinook for evac. in case anything went badly, and if that Chinook had not been there, they couldn't have evacuated the crew of the downed helicopter.

Jon Stewart Goes Off On GOP Hypocrisy For Criticizing Obama’s Bin Laden Ad

Jon Stewart: "“Look, Republicans, yeah, the Obama ad, kinda sh*^^&, a little of a cheap shot, but the only reason you are pissed is that you didn’t get to run it.”

See the video here..
www.mediaite.com...

Waaa...Waaa...GOP acts like babies.

What a load of tripe from Fox "News".

The memo in question:

Memo for the Record - April 29, 2011 10:35 AM.

Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the president made a decision with regard to AC1. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the president. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get Bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 a.m.

Leon Panetta, CIA

The president gave field-level decision making to the head of the Navy Seals, while authorizing the assault.

More bunk and BS from Fox. The network literally has no shame.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


I think you are reading that memo with an overly rational mind. Try squinting while pulling a clump of your hair until it hurts and chant "obama is satan" over and over ...maybe shut one eye...and then read it and you might be able to see the memo for what it really is.

And this is a surprise to who?

Obama is a 100% partisan politician and nothing more.

I bet if you look hard enough you will find his whole adult life like this.

He is a Narcissist.... It is what they do. At least Carter took the blame for the Iran mess up in 1979.

Now, maybe Carter is actually higher on the list of hated presidents.

Just wait till be kick Obama's sorry butt to the curb and find out what else he and his minions have been doing.

Any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get Bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 a.m.

These three sentences disprove the OP's claim that the president was shifting blame to anyone but himself.

"Any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration."

In "lawyering-up" legalese, that say's the buck stops with the president.

"The direction is to go in and get Bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 a.m."

In other words, McRaven got his marching orders - Get Osama Bin Laden - and if McRaven had to make a field call or adjustment to the mission parameters as needed, the Obama Admin. gave him the latitude to do so.

Trying to claim otherwise is the usual M.O. from Fox "News" - lies and spin. Fox isn't a real news network, as of right now they exist only to get Romney elected.

Good thing it was a success and the biggest villain of last 50 years is dead, huh.

Keep spiking the football, Obama. The Fox viewers are really crying now. I wonder how'd they react if Obama landed on the deck of a carrier in flight gear????

With exception for anyone who bothered to do the research could have easily found this article from Time

swampland.time.com... just easier to sit there and bash Fox News.

For the record.