Campaigning Amid Convolution

Jus’ days after the death of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama paid a visit to the place where al-Qaeda inflicted its greatest damage. The president placed a wreath at the outdoor memorial where the World Trade Center once stood, then met privately with about 60 relatives of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

On the way to ground zero, the he visited with firefighters and police officers who responded to the terror attacks. He stopped at a firehouse that lost 15 firefighters on 9/11, calling it “a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day.”

Without mentioning bin Laden by name, Obama told the firefighters that he hoped the military’s success brought them “some comfort.” He thanked them for their daily work and told them their president has “got your back.”

Obama also stopped by the First Precinct police station in lower Manhattan. It was Obama’s first visit since coming to office.

And new details indicate bin Laden may have been ready to flee at a moment’s notice when he was killed.  Top intelligence officials have been briefing lawmakers on the assault that killed the world’s most wanted man.

According to Politico, sources who attended the briefing say bin Laden had 500 Euros and two phone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed.  Five-hundred Euros is equal to about 750 dollars.

CIA Director Leon Panetta reportedly told lawmakers that bin Laden may have believed his network was good enough to give him advance warning if the U.S. made a move against him.

Then there is this: did Panetta order the raid? This comes as officials are beginning to ask questions about a Mail Online report that claims the president initially hesitated to act and still further reports that he was advised by Aide Valerie Jarrett not to “go after bin Laden.”

But it’s an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kimberly Dozier and Robert Burns of the Associated Press, who ask the question on everyone’s mind: “Has anyone noticed that CIA Director Leon Panetta has said a lot more about the Navy commandos’ killing of Osama bin Laden than has the Pentagon chief, who, after all, is second in the military chain of command behind President Barack Obama?”

Meanwhile the debate continues after the Obama administration initially said bin Laden was armed or even firing a weapon when he was killed, but later said he was unarmed. Still, officials are defending the legality of the shooting.

Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the operation was “lawful” and “justified as an act of national self-defense” against a “lawful military target.”

Holder spoke in response to some critics of the raid on bin Laden’s hideout.  The attorney general revealed that bin Laden had no intention of giving himself up to the U.S. military and said he was a lawful target as an enemy commander in the field.

Then there’s the White House’s Spokesman, Jay Carney, who continued to say the SEAL team that raided the compound where bin Laden was living had the authority to kill him unless he offered to surrender. In that case, he says, the team was required to accept the surrender.

Officials have said bin Laden resisted, though they have not offered any further details.

Carney also defended the president regarding the release of photos of bin Laden’s body, saying they could pose a national security risk to the United States. He says Obama has seen the photographs taken after the al-Qaeda leader was shot and killed.

As for President Obama, he says he believes the DNA and facial analysis proves the man U.S. forces shot was bin Laden, and the photos are not needed as further proof.  Obama made his comments in a CBS News interview.

Also a top Republican, who has seen the death photo of bin Laden, is agreeing with the decision not to release it. Congressman Mike Rogers says releasing the picture publicly could endanger U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the picture could inflame anti-U.S. sentiments around the world and hamper intelligence cooperation with the United States. He says conspiracy theorists won’t be persuaded no matter what the U.S. does.

However, Nevada’s Republican Congressman Dean Heller tells Reno’s Newstalk 780 KOH,  he doesn’t understand why the Obama administration opposes releasing photos of  bin Laden’s dead body. Heller says he’s confident the violence depicted on nightly television programs is more graphic than anything in the bin Laden photos.

Heller is due to be sworn in as a U.S. Senator next Monday, replacing embattled Senator John Ensign, who resigned last month.

In a side-bar regarding the photographs — online thieves and spammers are using the killing of bin Laden to send out malicious software and spam to unwitting Internet users. In what’s become common practice among the Internet’s less savory citizens, these scammers are sending out emails and spreading Facebook posts that purport to be videos or photos of the dead bin Laden.

They are not.

But by clicking the links, users can download computer viruses that steal personal information or otherwise infect their computers. Computer security firm Symantec says one spam email contains a link to bogus photos and videos purporting to be from CNN Mexico.

Instead, it directs people to a scam site designed to look like the real thing but created to steal passwords. Facebook users also fell victim to fake bin Laden links.

Meanwhile Rogers, tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” it’ll be a big task to go through the material, which includes encrypted information and writings in Arabic.

Some that information includes al-Qaeda considering an attack on U.S. trains during the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase. The officials say they have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.

Information on the train plot appears to be the first widely circulated intelligence pulled from the raid this week on bin Laden’s secret compound. Rogers said documents indicated a desire to hit the U.S. with large-scale attacks in major cities and on key dates such as anniversaries and holidays, but there was no sign those plans were anything more than ambitions.

Following up on the reports of planned train attacks, officials with the FBI and Homeland Security told local law enforcement to be on the lookout for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks and other indications that a train could be vulnerable.

Rogers also warned, “we’ve got to be careful. They still need us and we still need them.”

He was speaking about demands in Congress for answers from Pakistan — about how bin Laden could have been living in a well-protected home in a city not far from the country’s capital. Rogers says he worries about a “love-hate relationship” with Islamabad.

At the same time, he cautions against terminating U.S. assistance.

As for the Navy SEAL team, military officials say the highly secretive unit that killed bin Laden will likely be honored in the only way such a covert group can be: in private with nobody but themselves and their commanders in the know. The Navy still has not even confirmed its SEALs carried out the much-lauded, 40-minute raid on bin Laden’s compound.

But privately, Rear Adm. Edward Winters, at Naval Special Warfare Command in California, sent an email congratulating his forces. Navy officials say the names of those on the force will not be revealed for their personal safety.

Then there are the ever-changing narratives as to what happened — now administration officials says the raided on bin Laden’s lair met far less resistance than first described. In the latest account, a senior defense official says the commandos encountered gunshots from only one man, whom they quickly killed, before sweeping the house and shooting others, who were unarmed.

In Thursday’s revised telling, the Navy SEALs mounted a precision, floor-by-floor operation to find the al-Qaeda leader and his protectors — but without the prolonged and intense firefight that officials had described for several days.

And as for the strange helicopters used in the raid, a military aviation experts looking at pictures of one of the helicopters got a surprise — a chopper he hadn’t seen before. The editor-in-chief of Defense Technology International says photos of the remains of the helicopter destroyed in the raid shows an unusual number of blades and a dishpan-like cover.

Bill Sweetman says that’s when he knew he was looking at “some kind of stealth helicopter.” Sweetman says the chopper was clearly designed to not give bin Laden any advance notice that U.S. forces were coming.

It also was likely to evade Pakistani radar. One of the two helicopters made a hard landing at the compound and was destroyed by the military team.

Along with a successful raid comes a new House budget approval of $10.5 billion for Special Operations Command and the Navy SEALs. By voice vote Wednesday, the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities approved its portion of the overall defense bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It includes money for the command.

The amount represents an increase of about 7 percent over this year. The full committee will consider the legislation next week. The chairman of the subcommittee, Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, praised the Special Operation Forces, saying what they do is unmatched and that the nation owes them a debt of gratitude.

Lastly — and like we really need to know this — a doctor who sold the piece of land where  bin Laden’s final hideout was built is identifying the buyer as Mohammad Arshad, a name that matched one of two Pakistani men often seen coming out of the al-Qaeda chief’s compound.

The doctor says he sold a plot of land to Arshad in 2005. He said the buyer was a “modest, humble type of man” who claimed to be purchasing it for his uncle.

Property records obtained by The Associated Press show Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005. Though it is unconfirmed at this time, it’s believed Arshad was one of those killed during the raid.