[Mr. Panetta’s remarks were among the first in a series of recollections about the Bin Laden raid by senior Obama administration officials in a tight election year. The officials are highlighting the operation as an example of President Obama’s national security experience in contrast to that of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Mr. Obama’s expected Republican opponent.]
WASHINGTON — Killing Osama bin Laden was
not a “silver bullet” that destroyed Al Qaeda, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said
on Friday, but he asserted that his death weakened the terrorist group and made
the United States more safe.
In comments ahead of the first anniversary of the raid last May by
United States Navy SEALs on Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Mr. Panetta said
that the Bin Laden operation, along with other killings of Qaeda leaders, “has
prevented them from having the command and control capability to be able to put
together an attack similar to 9/11.”
Mr. Panetta’s remarks were among the first in a
series of recollections about the Bin Laden raid by senior Obama administration
officials in a tight election year. The officials are highlighting the
operation as an example of President Obama’s national security experience in
contrast to that of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Mr.
Obama’s expected Republican opponent.
Mr. Panetta, the director of the Central
Intelligence Agency at the time of the raid, was deeply involved in the
planning of the C.I.A.-led operation. He made his comments to reporters on a
C-17 military transport plane on the way home to Washington from a five-day
trip to Colombia, Brazil and Chile.
Speaking to reporters in his Airstream trailer
that is strapped to the inside of the C-17 — it is called the “Silver Bullet” —
Mr. Panetta recalled what he described as four “nail-biting moments” as the Bin
Laden raid unfolded. He and other top C.I.A. officials were watching portions
of the raid by live video feed from Pakistan at the agency’s headquarters in
Langley, Va., and listening to Adm. William McRaven, then the head of the Joint
Special Operations Command and the raid’s commander, describe other parts of
the raid as he monitored it from an American military base in Jalalabad,
Afghanistan. President Obama and other senior national security officials were
simultaneously monitoring the raid from the White House.
The first nail-biting moment came when the
helicopters carrying the SEALs left Afghan airspace for Pakistan. “When they
crossed the border and were going into Pakistan, there were a lot of tense
moments about whether or not they would be detected,” Mr. Panetta said. “We
were frankly tracking other signals and communications just to see whether
there was a tip-off. That didn’t happen.” Mr. Panetta was apparently referring
to Pakistani radar and other systems.
The second tense moment came, he said, when one
of two helicopters crashed inside the compound walls. “I asked Admiral McRaven,
I said, O.K., what’s next?” Mr. Panetta recalled. “He said, don’t worry, we’re
ready for this.” The SEALs had prepared for such an event with backup
helicopters that were nearby.
The third tense moment came when the SEAL team
moved inside the Bin Laden compound, cutting off the video feed and keeping the
president and his national security officials in Washington largely in the dark
for nearly 20 minutes. During that time, the SEAL team encountered Bin Laden in
his bedroom and shot him dead.
“I think we knew that there were gunshots that
had been fired, but after that we just didn’t know,” Mr. Panetta said. “And it
was after that that McRaven reported that finally they had picked up the code
word Geronimo,” the name given to Bin Laden in the operation. “The way he said
it was like, ‘We think.’ It wasn’t ideal, so we were still waiting. Then it was
within a few minutes of that, it was reported that it was ‘K.I.A., Geronimo
K.I.A.,’ ” for killed in action.
The fourth tense moment came when the SEALs blew
up the helicopter that had crashed, so as not to leave its technology behind
for the Pakistanis, and, carrying Bin Laden’s body, piled into the single
helicopter that was still functional and one of the backup helicopters that had
by then landed. “By that time, they had blown the helicopter that was down and
you know we had woken up all of Pakistan,” Mr. Panetta said.
POLICE CLASH WITH MALAYSIA PROTESTERSSEEKING ELECTORAL REFORMS
[Saturday’s protest was Bersih’s third call for changes to the country’s election system. At the group’s previous protest, in July, more than 1,600 people were arrested, and tear gas and water cannons were also used to disperse protesters.]
By
Liz Gooch
Nearly
400 people were arrested during the demonstration in central Kuala Lumpur
organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, a group of 84 organizations
that is demanding an overhaul of the country’s election system before a
national vote that is widely expected to be held in June.
The
group, known as Bersih — or clean, in Malay — argues that the
electoral system unfairly favors the governing coalition, which has led
Malaysia since independence in 1957.
The
police estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people had gathered for the protest.
Bersih organizers put the number at 250,000.
Swarms
of protesters, many wearing the canary yellow T-shirts that have come to
symbolize the Bersih movement, began gathering on Saturday morning at various
roads leading to Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, creating a
festive atmosphere.
A
group of protesters chanted, “Long live the people” and sang the Malaysian
national anthem under a sweltering tropical sun, their voices competing with
the sound of a police helicopter flying overhead while police officers looked
on from behind a row of barbed wire and barricades.
The
demonstrators were kept out of Independence Square, the site of many parades
and celebrations, by a court order issued Friday. A rally in the streets around
the square appeared to have been peaceful until Bersih organizers, who had
pledged that they would not break through the barricades, instructed protesters
to disperse.
A
small group then appeared to breach the barriers, prompting the police to fire
tear gas and water laced with stinging chemicals at parts of the crowd, The
Associated Press reported. A police spokesman, Ramli Yoosuf, said the tear gas
was fired after protesters breached the barriers.
“They
cut the barricade, and they were barging in,” he said.
A
news Web site, The Malaysian Insider, reported that protesters overturned a
police car. The report said the car had crashed after it was attacked by
protesters, and hit two people.
Andrew
Khoo, a lawyer and a member of the Bersih steering committee, said the
organizers were “extremely disappointed” that people ignored their requests to
disperse and instead broke through the barriers. But, he said, the police had
overreacted. Their response was “wholly disproportionate to any risk they may
have felt they were under,” he said.
“The
police went in and broke up people who were sitting on the road, who were very
peaceful,” Mr. Khoo said. “The water cannon truck came charging at them so they
had to run for their lives. This was followed by tear gas. It was a pincers
movement, and people were getting trapped in between.”
Another
Bersih supporter, Anand Lourdes, said people started screaming when the police
fired the tear gas.
Saturday’s
protest was Bersih’s third call for changes to the country’s election system.
At the group’s previous protest, in July, more than 1,600 people were arrested,
and tear gas and water cannons were also used to disperse protesters.
Phil
Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said Saturday
that the Malaysian government had again shown its contempt for basic rights and
freedoms.
“Despite
all the talk of ‘reform’ over the past year, we’re seeing a repeat of
repressive actions by a government that does not hesitate to use force when it
feels its prerogatives are challenged,” Mr. Robertson said.
The
minister of home affairs, Hishammuddin Hussein, in a statement released
Saturday, commended the police for “their professionalism and the restraint
they have shown under difficult circumstances.”
Mr.
Hishammuddin said it was regrettable that Bersih had declined to use an
alternative site for its rally because Independence Square was not approved for
public protests under the new Peaceful Assembly Act.
Bersih
has said that the offer to use a stadium in the city came too late, and that
the other sites offered were far from the center of the capital.
Prime
Minister Najib Razak has introduced many reforms in recent months, after
promising last year to improve civil liberties in Malaysia.
However,
critics say that the legislative changes do not go far enough to ensure that
democratic rights are protected.
Activists
decided to rally again on Saturday because Bersih’s leadership contends that
recommendations for changes to the election system made by a parliamentary
committee, established after last year’s protest, are unlikely to ensure that
the next election will be conducted fairly.
The
Election Commission said that it would carry out some of the parliamentary
committee’s recommendations, like extending the campaign period to a minimum of
10 days and using indelible ink to stain voters’ fingers to ensure that people
do not vote more than once.
Mr.
Hishammuddin said the Election Commission had “gone to extraordinary lengths to
ensure that the next elections are free and fair and meet the highest
international standards.”
But
Bersih is demanding that senior officials of the Election Commission resign,
that the voting rolls be purged of fraudulent names and that the election be
monitored by international observers.
One
protester who gave her name as Wan Zabidah, 60, said she had traveled two hours
by bus to attend the rally and express her concerns about the integrity of the
voting rolls and the independence of the Election Commission.
“We
are already old, but it’s for the children and the grandchildren,” she said.
