Page 2 - Ci Operation News Today

Hiding in plain sight. this is a possibility, and pack tan is a large country. we are looking right now at how he was able to hold out there for so long, and whether or not there was any type of support system within pakistan that allowed him to stay there. we though that the people at the compound there were working on his behalf, and that is how we ultimately found our way to the compound, but we are right nowless than 24 hours after this operation, so we are talking with the pakistanis on a r...

It goes back before 9/11. so i think that what we are doing now is to try to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to demonstrate to the pakistani people, and to the people in the area that al qaeda is something in the past. and we are hoping to bury the rest offal a cade along with bin laden. >> in the situation room yesterday, can you monitor the goings on as tense, and understandably very tense scene, and were you watching the operation? were you just listening to it? how were you ge...

Basis for the operation? >> i would refer you to what the president said that since taking office and prior to it, given t the, the attack that osama bin laden launched against the united states, the lives that he took, not just on 9/11, but on other occasions that he was a high-value target and legitimate target and this president believed since long before he became president that given actionable intelligence to capture or kill osama bin laden, he would move very quickly and surely to take th...

What is the first step and the second step and the everything going along and if there is any deviation from that, it causes anxiety, but the individuals carrying out the assault planned for all of the contingencies, so when the helicopter was seen to not moving they went into plan b and they did it flawlessly and conducted the operation as they were preparing to do. but seeing that helicopter in a place, and in and condition that it was not supposed to be, and for me at least, and otherhe ro co...

Aid to pakistan and aid there, and -- >> well, there are a number of questions and understandably so, because we are again in the first day after the operation, and he was found in abottabad outside of islamabad and people have questions about whether there was support by the pakistani government, and people are raising this question, and now we will have to deal with them. >> and is there a -- >> we have to get past that. >> and one more question about the burial, was there and imam there? >> a...

Adrenalin that theyre feeling at that hospitamoment? >> as he said, s.e.a.l.s train for years. and prior to this operation, these men would have undergone practice numerous, numerous times in order to develop specific take practice for this target. they were trained for years and they were able to rely on the training that the american people have made apa tremendous invest nmt all of these s.e.a.l.s and we saw yesterday that that investment paid off. >> certainly have been able to keep their co...

Intelligence officials were quick to point out that they were on the ground during the operation by the americans. that was subsequently denied by the americans and then denied by the same pakistani sources. so there was an immediate rush to have seemed to have been involved really in this quite remarkable american operation. which pakistanis are saying in fact actually began undetected. helicopters flu in, got over the compound before pakistani air defenses were aware they had arrived. obviousl...

Of the operation from the commencement to the time of the extraction of the remains and the egress off of the target. it was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday. the minutes passed like days. the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel. that is what was on his mind throughout and we wanted to make sure that we were able to get through this and accomplish the mission, but it was clearly tense...

Not apparently informed about this military operation, was there an actual concern that they might actually take military action against the navy s.e.a.l.s? >> we didnt contact the pakistanis until after all of our people and aircraft were out of pakistani air space. at that time they were reacting to an incident they knew was taking place in abottabad and clearly we were concerned that if they decided to scramble jets or whatever else, they had no idea who was on the jets whether it was u.s. or...

Clear that this was osama bin laden and that he had been killed? do you remember the presidents words or reaction from it? >> well, i want to say it became clear and one of the things that we had to do throughout the course of the operation is that when the individuals who carried out assault knew they had who appeared to be osama bin laden, and other things the facial recognition, and the height and the dna analysis and the incremental build-up and the confidence was building up, but at what po...