May 3, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - There isn't much to add to the commentary regarding the shameless manner in which Mr. Obama has taken single-handed credit for the killing of Osama bin-Laden.

Below from the president's self-serving, delusional Sunday announcement:

"...And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda...I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team...I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice....Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan..." [source, WH transcript, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead]

The truth is that at best Obama can take credit for essentially being able to paint by the numbers, using the myriad of tools and techniques provided him by the G.W. Bush administration, almost all of which were vehemently opposed by Senator and then candidate Obama, who promised to close Gitmo, which he attempted to do via Executive Order on January 22, 2009, two days after his inauguration.

"...Sec. 3. Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantánamo. The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States..." [source, WH transcript, Executive Order http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities]

Among the many things Mr. Obama failed to say during his bin-Laden announcement is that without the detention facility at Guantanamo, Binny would still be breathing Pakistan's foul air.

As New York GOP Rep. Peter King noted, correctly crediting the party responsible for the chain of events which resulted in al-Qaeda leader's death, "this whole situation began under President Bush, was continued and now carried to a conclusion..." [source, MSNBC video, http://peteking.house.gov]

In an NPR interview, certainly not a friendly environment for the right, former key Bush national security advisor Steven Hadley also stated the obvious, that without Mr. Bush having established the entire structure responsible for hobbling al-Qaeda and killing its leader, Obama would never have had the opportunity to crow like some scrawny pretender to the throne:

"NPR, INSKEEP: "Now, it seems that this investigation of the leads that they had really heated up in the last several months, but we're also told that some of these leads stretched back several years, presumably back into the Bush administration, the time when you were national security advisor, when some of these couriers where being followed and so forth.

Mr. HADLEY: That is true, and the press reports come out today. We've seen talk about how in the 2006, 2007 timeframe, detainees in Guantanamo began to identify people who were part of the support structure for Osama bin Laden, and who were potentially couriers. And it was really developing in following those human intelligence sources that seems to have led to the identification of the compound and the successful operation...." [source, NPR transcript, http://www.npr.org/2011/05/02/135919707/bushs-policy-adviser-bin-ladens-demise-tribute-to-obama]

The bottom line here is that Osama bin-Laden has thankfully gone room temperature and the vast credit for that accrues to president George Walker Bush, Vice President Cheney, Sec. Def. Rumsfeld and the rest of his national security team.

If now, in a supreme act of sef-aggrandizing revisionism, Mr. Obama wants to slap on the armor and parade around as some latter day crusader, so be it. He can't appear any more foolish than he did Sunday night.

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