Homeland Security advisor says Obama's was one of the 'gutsiest calls of any president in recent history'

John Brennan, deputy national security advisor for homeland security and counter-terrorism, told the White House press corps Monday that President Obama's decision to greenlight the mission that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden was one of the "gutsiest calls of any president in recent history."

"It was probably the most anxiety-filled periods of times," Brennan said at a White House briefing about the daring 40-minute military raid accomplished in the cloak of darkness. "The minutes passed like days, and the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel."

Brennan said the anxiety remained until word came that all of the Navy SEALs were safe and that it was indeed Bin Laden in the Pakistani compound.

Photos: Osama bin Laden dead

"When we finally were informed that those individuals who were able to go on that compound had found an individual that they believed was Bin Laden, there was a tremendous sigh of relief that what we believed and who we believed was in that compound actually was in that compound and was found. And the president was relieved once we had our people and those remains off target," the senior advisor said.

Although they had gotten their man, Brennan said Bin Laden was not the macho, heroic figure his supporters had advertised him to be.

"Here is Osama, living in a million-dollar compound, hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield," said Brennan, who spent most of his career in the CIA. "It speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years."

One of the women used as a human shield was one of Bin Laden's four wives.

"She served as a shield -- this is my understanding. When she fought back, when there was an opportunity to get to Bin Laden, she was positioned in a way that she was used as a shield," Brennan said. "My understanding was she was one of Bin Laden's wives."

Besides Bin Laden and one of his wives, one of his sons also died with two other men during the firefight. Brennan said the administration was still unsure exactly how they would prove that Bin Laden died before he was buried at sea.

There are photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is recognizable as Bin Laden, a U.S. government official said

"We are going to continue to look at the information that we have and make sure that we are able to share what we can, because we want to make sure that not only the American people but the world understand exactly what happened," the official said.

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-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

John Brennan, center, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at a White House news briefing on Monday. Credit: Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press

Comments

[HA]

Ok...now let's see how this great gutsiest president take leadership and improve america's economy, cut spending and pay down the debt.

[Jerry]

The key factor in locating and eliminating Osama Bin Laden boils town to good intelligence. The present administration has very good intelligence and the previous administration was unintelligent!!

[gobnait]

The key factor in locating and eliminating Osama Bin Laden boils town to good intelligence. The present administration has very good intelligence and the previous administration was unintelligent!!

Posted by: Jerry | May 02, 2011 at 06:12 PM

Do you only respect the office of the president when it's convenient?

[blackone]

The job was done. Frankly I'm weary of white folks' racial lenses. But this man spent most of his career with the CIA and his opinion has the weight of a person who has and is in "The Arena".

[Rock]

uh, this would have never happened unless Bush had put the who intelligence apparatus together in the first place. Clinton had dismantled it - they spent four times the budget rebuilding the CIA alone. Obama ran and presided over an administration dedicated to getting rid of Gitmo, rendtion and enhanced interrogation techniques. And those were the things that brought us here. In fact the house and identification of the courier was made years ago during the Bush administration.

Congratulations to the President for making the call and getting it done when they thought the time was right. But it is extremely shortsided to not also recognize the foundation of what brought us here. And also recognize that those who criticised those moves are now reveling in it's results.

[tymtrvlr]

What more proof do you need as to the inept, incompetence of John Brennan? To know morons like him are in charge of national security is a scary thing. He needs to pull his head out of obama's arse and get a whiff of H2O to clear his head.
When you compare these fools to those protecting the country under Ronaldus Reaganus, there is no comparison, I have'nt had a decent night sleep since PRESIDENT REAGAN left office, G.W. Bush was OK, but the marxist destruction machine was doing everything they could to drive public opinion against him, he did'nt stand a chance against their lies and extortions. When are Americans going to realize who their real enemies are? Who the enemies of freedom and liberty are? They are running the American government today, putting in place more welfare programs like obamacare, which has punitive measures if you fail to pay, obama is looking at taxing Americans through mileage driven, plus you will be paying taxes at the gas pump. and let's not fail to mention how much it is going to cost to charge up your obamamobile and the energy taxes that will incurr. And what about the hazardous waste bill? Everytime you replace your obamamobile batteries, they will have to be handled as a hazardous waste, going back to the electric bill, where is all that electricity going to come from? Coal burning plants? So much for smog emmissions. Nuclear power plants? So much for nuclear waste, and water consumption. The marxist fools are all lining up along the side of windmills, they require as much power to operate as they produce, and who makes all the windfall profits from these failures and eyesores? General Electric, obama's butt boy immelt!Has anyone noticed how all the liberal marxists invested in these failed technologies? They placed their money on loosing teams, look out American taxpayer, they will be looking for ways to make it back,"ahem" possibly through "OIL", george belial soros is dumping big bucks into Brazil's oil exploration stocks, obama is giving the leftist marxist leader of Brazil 2 Billion dollars of your tax monies, while claiming he wants America to be one of Brazils best customers for OIL, something stinks! The unrest in the middle east is being stirred up by investment operatives to drive the price of oil high enough for those worthless hacks to get their money back, don't ever think that the middleeast event is a drive for democracy, they could care less, Iraq was a prime example of that , when the voters had their blue fingers, the American leftist marxists made fun of it. We got stories from the lame screaming media how not all countries should be free, why is that? Just speculating, but the desire of the American marxists has been to control the populace through oppressive taxation and high costs, undermining your freedoms. Again, marxists, leftists, communists, socialists, leeches and parasites are all in the same, along with not getting caught up trying to argue politics, ideology with a drunk, druggie, moron, leftist, they to are all of the same.

[VENUS]

The intelligence gathered by the Bush/Cheney Administration, including "waterboarding" "3" detainees was invaluable, Look up Leon Panetta, he just stated this too. Obama and the Left, Progressives, hate it......but they talk "trash", but have continued President Bush's policies. BECAUSE THEY WORK !! Holder and Obama are still going forth with prosecution of our U S Special Ops Interrogators, who just handed BO, OSAMA. (What a slap-in-the-face to our military). Now, our men have to read the "terrorists" their "Miranda Rights, "on the battlefield and a whole bunch of other left-wing lunacy. BO and Holder want to give them the same rights of U S citizens too. That is NUTS !! I guess they're looking for more votes, when Holder gets them acquitted and puts them on the dole,= "Federal Plantation", with the rest of the Obama slaves.