Page 3 - Kill Operation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

With knowledge by the libyan government. talk us through that. >> that latter detail is interesting. obviously in the case of the osama bin laden raid, which was conducted in the pakistani city and was a capture or kill operation, it was done without the pakistani government and caused problems for the u.s./pakistan relationship. after all, these are sovereigning countries. you know, you are supposed to get permission to do these kind of operations. obviously, the bin laden case was exceptional. here you have the u.s. government getting permission from the libyan government, which is a fragile...

square last year. an extraordinary development and we mobilized cnn correspondents around the world to cover this breaking news story for us from the pentagon to istanbuistanbul. it's hard to indicate just how important al awlaki was to the organization, but here's a frightening reality. he may be more dangerous dead. that's exactly what our nic robertson has been covering to this point. let's go straight to you. what exactly do you know with regard to how he was targeted and is it possible to give credit to an agency at this point? >> well, i think what we just heard from fran towns...

To make it an official white house release, when you put out photographs like that, it's an image how you're projecting your force. one of the things about this raid took us from this whole period of cowboy swagger, we're going to get them, but then bumbling or not managing to do it, to a place where a very cool, very effective operation was done, that was gruesome, that was hard, that was cold, that was relentless, but managed without swagger and managed without gloating. and it doesn't seem to me that anybody can give a real positive advantage to putting these photographs out there at this p...

Members actually took part in this operation? because i've seen different numbers. >> reporter: yeah, we've seen everything from -- a normal platoon would be about 40, anderson. we've seen the number at about two dozen. that could be a breakdown into how many people were actually dropped on the ground and how many were up in the air. another key point we found out was they were originally all supposed to fast drop down those ropes into the compound but when one of the helicopters had to land with mechanical problems, that made the other helicopter have to land too, and they had to scramble the...

>> at least one photo said to be very graphic and gruesome. joining me here at ground zero, phillip gourevitch. phillip, you don't believe the photos should be released. why? >> i don't think they should be released immediately. to make it an official white house release, when you put out photographs like that, it's an image how you're projecting your force. this raid took us from this whole period of cowboy swagger, we're going to get them, but then bumbling or not managing to do it, to a place where a very effective operation was done, that was gruesome, hard, but managed without swagger and...