U.S. Forces Told To Kill, Not Capture, Bin Laden

[oberliner]

The U.S. special forces team that raided Osama Bin Laden’s secret Pakistani compound Sunday was under orders to kill the al-Qaida leader, not capture him, a national security official told Reuters Monday.

Reuters: " 'This was a kill operation,' the official said, making it clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan."

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/05/02/bin_laden_kill_mission_us_official_says_the_goal_was_to_kill_bin.html

[Botany]

1. Fine by me

Why bring a nightmare home?

[AngryAmish]

2. ...and thus proving international law does not exist.

[Botany]

4. Fine by me

[Ikonoklast]

21. Mass murderers in warfare against nations put themselves in the position of getting themselves dead.

See who in the international community comes to your aid after you slaughter some of their citizens.

The real world operates in a real way, not in some fantasyland scenario.

[Marblehead]

3. I thought we capture

then torture...

[Spoonman]

5. We tortured,

got the needed intel, then shot the POS in the head.

Simple, effective, and necessary!

[Marblehead]

13. just like on TV

TV is so great

[jwirr]

6. A kill operation is safer for our troops as they do not take extra risks

to capture alive. It made sense - they are going into enemy territory so they were in enough danger.

[Phx_Dem]

7. Good. Done and done.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Directly debunked in public by John Brennan

They were prepared for all contingencies, including capturing OBL if he gave up peacefully. They had multiple decision meetings that took account of all such contingencies, including where to take OBL if he gave up. This article is simply false.

[FrenchieCat]

9. with a news media like we have.......we don't really need a Bin Laden!

[cottonseed]

10. I could quote an unnamed official who says the orders were to serve him a hot fudge sundae

[yellowcanine]

14. Good one. Your source is as good as any of the others being cited.

[johnaries]

11. Not according to a NAMED WH source, John Brennan.

Brennan was repeatedly asked if the Navy Seals team that conducted the operations was under orders to kill, not capture, bin Laden.

"If we had the opportunity to take him alive, we would have done that," Brennan said, noting that he and other security officials expected bin Laden to fight back, which he did.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/white-house-osama-bin-laden-used-woman-as-human-shield.php

Haven't we learned by now that those "unnamed sources" are completely unreliable?

[Bodhi BloodWave]

12. Dontcha know that unnamed sources is more reliable

then actually named sources if they promote the view you hold :)

That atleast seems to be the view of some on DU.

[yellowcanine]

15. So if he had come out unarmed with his hands in the air they would have still shot him?

I don't think so. And I just don't believe that any "official" who actually knows what they are talking about would be giving out this information.

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. I don't rightly give a fuck, but since your story is untrue, and your agenda exposed...

I think you should apologize for posting such crap. I swear, it's like some folks on the left are on AQ's payroll. WTF? :shrug:

[Sheepshank]

17. Which is in direct conflict with other articles...

...people gonna buy what they want to, to spin a story they way the want to spin it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bin_laden_hunt_for_bin_laden
Officially, it was a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender. But it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering, two U.S. officials said.

IMHO, OBL was not going to allow himself to be catured anyway...martyrdom would have dictated he die by cop (SEAL).

[oberliner]

23. He was not armed

And that's according to the White House.

[Peacetrain]

18. No one knows.. and everyone has a theory to put forward their point of view

We just do not know..

[LatteLibertine]

19. IMO

what's important is that a major symbol of successful terrorism against the United States is dead.

[marlakay]

20. How do you explain this to someone?

My 30 yr old daughter said, how can they just go kill someone? I said you can pretty much guarantee if you are so evil like Osama or Hitler they will take you out, forget any trial.

She was shocked...

[Ikonoklast]

22. Tell her sociopathic mass murderers would have killed her without blinking an eye.

OBL could have surrendered, and faced the legal system.

He decided otherwise.

[RichGirl]

24. Imagine if Saddam had been shot instead of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis being killed.

I'm against all war and killing but I never could understand why a country would be attacked just to get the leader. If a country is led by a dictator and there's actually evidence that he is killing his own people, than what's the purpose of killing people, destroying property, spending billions of dollars, etc...just to capture him for a trial...to prove what? To prove what we already know!

When a law doesn't make sense it needs to be changed.