Rumsfeld's Chief of Staff leaked the announcement

[malaise]

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/how-the-osama-announcement-leaked-out/?ref=nyregion
<snip>
The terse announcement came just after 9:45 p.m. Sunday from Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing the same message that had just been transmitted to the White House press corps.

According to Brian Williams, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor, some journalists received a three-word e-mail that simply read, “Get to work.”

The nation’s television anchors and newspaper editors did not know, at first, that President Obama would be announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, an extraordinary development in the nearly 10-year-long war against terrorism waged by the United States and its allies. But reporters in Washington suspected almost immediately that the announcement could be about bin Laden.

That speculation was not aired out on television immediately, but it did erupt on Twitter and other social networking sites. Wishful thinking about bin Laden’s death ricocheted across the Web — and then, at 10:25 p.m., while Mr. Obama was writing his speech, one particular tweet seemed to confirm it. Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wrote at that time, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.”
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What a scumbag

[joshcryer]

1. I *knew* it wasn't one of Obama's trusted people.

Fucking asshole. Granted, Obama was 'late' getting the news out there (probably phrasing and rephrasing what he was going to say) but this is bullshit.

[jpak]

2. Rumsfeld failed at Tora Bora in Dec. 2001 and scoops a real president when he succeeded

what an asshole

yup

[Enthusiast]

3. Rumsfeld's scumbag level is

right on par with Limbaugh and Becks, maybe even higher.

[Scuba]

4. Why would Rummy and/or staff be in on the secret? Whoever told them should be fired.

[malaise]

6. Apparently Obama's peeps informed

folks in the House, the Senate and other 'most know operatives'.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Probably Joe LIEberman.

He's the GOPers boy.

[malaise]

8. Boehnor, Cantor

Collins - all had info.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. I wouldn't trust any of those three in a shit house with a muzzle on.

[EFerrari]

10. Bush

[ingac70]

5. They should have known better than to ever tell those fuckers anything. n/t

[newblewtoo]

11. And just who is this amorphous "They and Those"

of whom you speak? My take is that the roots of Rumsfeld still run deep in the DOD. You don't kill a tree by trimimg a few branches. You kill have to the roots.

Remember, Rumsfeld is a career buracrat who came to Washington in 1962. He knows how the game is played, hell, he helped craft the board. And always remember, just as Cesar had his Brutus, so too are there those within our own party who would slip the knife to the hilt given an opportunity.