US troops were yards from Osama bin Laden house in 2008 – WikiLeaks files

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK

US troops were yards from Osama bin Laden house in 2008 – WikiLeaks files

US embassy cables show soldiers were due to perform a routine posting 'training the trainers' of Pakistan's federal military unit

US forces were stationed just a few hundred yards from Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in October 2008, according to reports within the WikiLeaks embassy cables.

The revelation that US forces were so close to the world's most wanted man in 2008 comes after material from the Guantánamo files suggested the US may have received the intelligence that led them to Bin Laden as early as 2008.

The US soldiers were due to perform a routine posting "training the trainers" of Pakistan's 70,000-strong federal military unit, the Frontier Corps.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/03/us-bin-laden-hideout

[louis-t]

1. Again, WHO was in charge in 2008?

And HOW much did he care about getting Bin Laden?

[RedCloud]

9. W which is short for WTF

[DCKit]

2. And OBL ran out onto the balcony and shouted "Get off my lawn!" nt

[No Elephants]

5. That was McCain.

[TheDebbieDee]

10. Lol !

[eleny]

3. I don't see how the fact of that 2008 routine training is connected to OBL's location

The article says that the fact that they were close suggests that the US received the information of OBL's location as early as 2008 . Seems like a stretch unless the cables say more about it.

[Adsos Letter]

4. "...the US may have received the intelligence that led them to Bin Laden as early as 2008."

So why didn't the Bush administration go after him then?

[No Elephants]

6. So what? Do troops have X-Ray vision? Is it their role to do a house to house search of any

neighborhood in which yhey happen to be, no matter the reason they happen to be there?

We had a huge intelligence failure, not a troop failure.

[wilt the stilt]

7. Bush- Intelligence failure- nuff said n/t

[Igel]

8. Because it's a link of conclusions, fed by more intelligence.

Look at it this way: If it was that crystal clear, and Obama was so focused on the matter, why didn't the raid happen on 2/1/09?

Or 2/1/10?

Or 2/1/11?

("A few yards," by the way, is something like 400 or 500.)

Oddly, it's been pointed out that the presence of Pak Army installations so close acted as protective cover, whether or not the Army was actively involved in sheltering him. Sending drones or a mission in there was risky: The Army base has its own secrets and the present of active-duty but unauthorized Seals on a mission might well provoke a response.