US was prepared to take bin Laden alive: Official

[Turborama]

Source: AFP Via Hindustan Times

Washington, May 02, 2011 | Last Updated: 21:58 IST

- The United States would have taken Osama bin Laden alive if he had given himself up, an American official said on Monday after US special forces shot dead the al Qaeda leader in Pakistan. "He resisted during the firefight. As a result, the operators on the ground killed him. They were prepared in the event of his surrender to take him alive," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An elite team of US Navy Seals helicoptered into bin Laden's compound at Abbottabad, near Islamabad, overnight on Sunday, killing the al Qaeda leader and a small number of confidants.



Read more: http://www.hindustantimes.com/US-was-prepared-to-take-bin-Laden-alive-Official/Article1-692486.aspx

[MineralMan]

1. Suicide by SEAL. I doubt they expected they'd be able to

take him alive, but were prepared to.

[Politicalboi]

2. But that would mean a trial

We can't have that kind of nonsense going on around here. Just ask the prisoners at Gitmo.

[Gregorian]

5. Well. I feel a little better reading your reply.

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Last night I posted, and got stomped on for even thinking that murdering him wasn't the only way. I'll never believe they couldn't have taken him alive. A trial would have been true justice. I'm probably wasting my time even thinking that an ex-CIA agent who knows too much would ever reveal some interesting tidbits in a trial.

At any rate, I'm glad there's a few of us lurking here.

[Plucketeer]

6. I'm in with you two!

Frankly, I have doubts that they WERE hoping to get him alive. I think his dispatching gets the desired effects without all the folderal that would have resulted from a live capture.

[Bragi]

13. Me too! /nt

[razorman]

8. After the Saddam Hussein circus, I never thought they would bother to take Bin Laden alive.

Although the convenient "burial at sea" makes me a little suspicious.

[vanbean]

10. That just means they threw him out of the helicopter.

[Plucketeer]

18. What I'd like to know

is if we had an accepted and established method of washing, dressing and burying every Al-Quida fighter we've dispatched! Did we afford every Al-Quidan this reverence, or do we only do this for the muckity-mucks of their ranks - the ones with the most blood on their hands???

Reminds me of the chivalrous lunacy that the allies performed when the Red Baron was finally eliminated. Buried by the allies with FULL military honors! This was a person who'd shot down EIGHTY allied planes! How many lesser contenders rotted where they landed, or were pushed into a simple earthen grave?

Before you start to rattle off the why and wherefor of Osama's "burial", rest assured that I really DO KNOW why he was buried where he couldn't be dug up. But they could have (as another poster suggested) just pushed him out of the helicopter.

[harmonicon]

12. +1 (nt)

[trotsky]

3. And with someone as elusive as OBL has been...

if he doesn't surrender, you simply can't take the chance that he might escape again. I would have preferred a trial, but I understand why it had to happen this way.

[Gregorian]

4. I wonder.

I got flak for even mentioning that we should have tried to bring him in alive. On DU of all places. I cannot imagine how with all of the money we put into our military, that someone couldn't have configured a means of bringing him in alive.

[RC]

7. But, but, but... He was a terrorist, that means

he was super human! You can't put those kind of people on trial. We might learn their secrets. :sarcasm:

[Turborama]

9. Brennan just confirmed this in the press conference that's on now. Link to live stream --->

Here: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

He said it was considered "highly unlikely", but they were prepared to bring him in alive if they could have. (paraphrased)

[Turborama]

11. Obama aide (John Brennan): We would have taken bin Laden alive

01:54 PM |By David Jackson, USA TODAY

White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan confirmed some details of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden:

-- U.S. forces would have taken bin Laden alive if "we had the opportunity," Brennan said; instead, bin Laden and allies engaged in the gunfire that led to his death.

Brennan said he doesn't know if bin Laden fired a gun.

-- Obama and aides watched the operation in real time on video screens within the White House Situation Room. "Minutes passed like days," Brennan said. "It was clearly very intense."

More: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/05/obama-aide-we-would-have-taken-bin-laden-alive/1?csp=34

[Bragi]

14. This PR line is essential to avoid war crime problems

They have to pretend they wanted to take him alive because if they went in just to kill him it would be a war crime.

[totodeinhere]

23. So when did it being a war crime stop anybody from doing what they wanted?

I am just waiting for the next shoe to drop. Panetta acknowledged today that waterboarding was used to get some of the intelligence needed to get OBL. He was kind of fuzzy about a time frame for this. All I can say is we had better not find out that those techniques were used lately (since Obama took office.)

[No Elephants]

15. LOL!

About 8 a.m. today:

"U.S. Team's Mission Was to Kill, Not Capture Bin Laden - U.S. Security Official"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4835439&mesg_id=4835439

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Turborama]

17. Hindustan Times posted an AFP article & John Brennan confirmed that statement at the news conference

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4835869&mesg_id=4836041

And BTW, Hindustan Times is Indian, a country which had a lot to gain from any info that could have been retrieved from him.

[Fool Count]

19. Taking him alive? Can you imagine the legal nightmare

for US government his trial would turn into? What if his defense was "I was working for the CIA all along"? What if he had evidence to
back up that claim? No chance in the world they would have taken him alive, even if he came out with his hands behind his head.

[totodeinhere]

20. What a sniveling coward OBL turned out to be.

He acted like he thought he was such as big man when he murdered 3,000 innocents at the World Trade Center. But when it came right down to it he hid behind a woman.

[w4rma]

21. Pretty much. If he had balls he would have given himself up and spilt all sorts of beans.

He didn't. He's a wimp who took the easy way out and lived a pretty posh life at the expense of lots of others, despite being on the run all of the time.

[totodeinhere]

22. I stand corrected. I made the mistake of actually believing what the government told me.

Now we hear that he did not hide behind a woman and he wasn't even armed. I am still happy that they got him but I am getting sick and tired of all of the misinformation coming from the government.

[Nihil]

24. Well done on being honest and admitting you made a mistake.

Far too few posters are prepared to do that - especially on an emotive
subject like this.

:thumbsup:

[Thor_MN]

25. Hell, foe all we know, they did take him alive and he's drinking Mojitos with Ken Lay

Unending speculation, while fun, is ultimately useless.

We know what they tell us, but the story doesn't necessarily match reality. Likely what we are being told is ca ompromise between something making us feel good and something that is acceptable to the Muslim world. How much resemblance to reality is probably comparable to "reality TV" shows.