ABC News VIDEO: Dick Cheney Says 'Obama Deserves Credit' for Osama Bin Laden's Death

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Dick Cheney Says 'Obama Deserves Credit' for Osama Bin Laden's Death

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dick-cheney-osama-bin-ladens-death-obama-deserves/story?id=13509547



Former Vice President Dick Cheney praised President Obama for the success of the mission against Osama bin Laden, but in an exclusive interview with ABC News warned that it would be "a tragedy" to spend so much time "patting ourselves on the back" that we miss the next attack.

"The administration clearly deserves credit for the success of the operation," Cheney told ABC News, adding that getting bin Laden has long been "the ultimate goal, the ultimate objective" of the U.S. counterterrorism program.

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Cheney even had good things to say about President Clinton's early pre-Sept. 11 effort to get bin Laden, calling the operation part of "a continuum" spanning three administrations.

"I mean, it's not just one day you get up, bang, and you got Osama bin Laden," Cheney said. "It's the kind of thing where an awful lot of people over a long period of time -- thousands have worked this case and these issues and followed on the leads and captured bad guys and interrogated them and so-forth."