Obama officials had drafted memo blaming military if OBL mission failed (Video)
posted at 2:31 pm on May 7, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
Liberals seem intent on burying the pesky remarks of former President Bill Clinton, who said in an Obama campaign video that if the operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden had failed “the downside would have been horrible for him.” It looks like they needn’t bother. Clinton is mistaken. If the operation had gone south, the administration was ready to pin the blame on the military (h/t reader letget).
That is a claim being put forth by Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who wrote last Monday in The Wall Street Journal:
A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president’s celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: ‘The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out.’
Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven’s, not the president’s.
The AG appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on FOX News, where he spoke further of a “highly lawyered memo [designed to protect the president politically.” FOX News has a transcript of the interview, a video of which is here.
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What makes me think the bhopress will not bring this up? Afterall, this is really ALL bho can say he ‘has’ done for the country and if it failed, bho WOULD NOT GET THE BLAME?
It seems bho has this obl kill in all ads and in every speech he gives now and will give till election?
L
letget on May 7, 2012 at 2:45 PM
Busted
cmsinaz on May 7, 2012 at 3:01 PM
My secret source leaked me that memo last week.
Though I was sworn to secrecy, here is the full, unexpurgated text:
“Bush did it.”
cane_loader on May 7, 2012 at 3:01 PM
Contrast this with a letter that Eisenhower drafted in the event the D-Day invasion did not end well….
CurtZHP on May 7, 2012 at 3:01 PM
Typical Oblameothers. If it’s not a stunning success or he can’t lie enough to spin it into a stunning success, he wants no part of it whatever it is.
However, if I follow military protocol correctly, then commanders in the field and on up the chain of command are each held responsible and should take responsibility for their decisions and actions. So a true Commander-in-Chief would assume responsibility for whatever happens on his or her watch. Oh wait, I forgot, Oscrama is the Circumventer-in-Chief so I guess that means DNA–does not apply.
stukinIL4now on May 7, 2012 at 3:12 PM
Worst POTUS evah!!
Gladtobehere on May 7, 2012 at 3:25 PM
a bit late to the game, but still ridiculous. it’s a deliberate misreading of the memo, which includes the line “any additional risks are to be brought back to the president for his consideration.”
munch on this:
If the bin Laden raid had gone wrong, how would the White House have avoided blame? It would have waved around a memo which mentioned that “additional risks are to be brought back to the President”? Seriously? In the Hannity interview, Mukasey compares this memo to Dwight Eisenhower’s pre-D-Day “message to be given in the event the invasion failed.” That’s the sort of comparison that reveals how weak an argument this is. But this must be why the Obama campaign celebrates Christmas every day that the media discusses OBL — it drives Bush loyalists absolutely insane when they realize Obama gets the credit.portnoy’s complaints: bringing you the stalest nonsense from yesterday’s internet!
sesquipedalian on May 7, 2012 at 3:49 PM
oops.
sesquipedalian on May 7, 2012 at 3:50 PM
Now they are probably busy determining how to blame the military for everything that has gone wrong in Afghanistan since the fall of 2009, and for everything that will go wrong as we cut and run.
As with the cynical effort to paint withdrawal and retreat from Afghanistan as “peace with honor”, a la Vietnam, scape goats must be found to blame when things do not go as well as hoped and the consequences are neither honorable or peaceful.
They may even get away with it since public opinion backs cut and run, just as it did in Vietnam.
The Vietnam parallels are obvious, and grow more obvious every day. Except for one thing. The jihadists have greater goals and ambitions than the North Vietnamese did.
farsighted on May 7, 2012 at 3:50 PM
CurtZHP on May 7, 2012 at 3:52 PM
lol yep, if he got it wrong, he’s Eisenhower. As it stands, however, he ranks as the greatest president ever,
, of course.
sesquipebitterclinger
WeekendAtBernankes on May 7, 2012 at 4:14 PM
What was it President Rambo did again? Did he plan the whole mission himself or something?
I especially like this part…
WTH is that supposed to mean?
As if once the mission is under way the admiral will have the time to bring all of the unexpected things that happen that increase risk that can occur within minutes, or even seconds, to Obama. Or does that fall under “operational” risk, as opposed to some other risk, whatever they it might be?
Did the helicopter crash create an “additional risk”? Hard to believe it did not.
When the helicopter crashed did the admiral consult Obama on what to do and whether or not to proceed? If not he disobeyed the order, didn’t he? So who would have been blamed if the mission went bad after that and it became public knowledge?
FWIW, I doubt we would have ever heard about it if it failed, but it looks like that memo covers Obama’s a$$ if the admiral did not defer to Obama at that point and someone leaked the failure to the public.
farsighted on May 7, 2012 at 4:14 PM
it means that the president is responsible for making decisions if the circumstances change. it means the opposite of what you are trying to suggest.
sesquipedalian on May 7, 2012 at 4:18 PM
Either way, based on past performance, you can bet this narcissist would be looking for someone to throw under the bus if it went south.
CurtZHP on May 7, 2012 at 4:47 PM
google small mammal, black with white stripes (spotted in some areas) and gives off an offensive odor when threatened.
as I typed that, I myself am confused about whether I am talking about a skunk or the POTUS…I was thinking about the former but not so sure now.
teejk on May 7, 2012 at 4:57 PM
Racist.
Howard Portnoy on May 7, 2012 at 5:00 PM
You are playing word games. A very high-tech stealth helicopter crash at a critical point in the mission obviously created both an “additional risk” and a “circumstance change”. It clearly increased risk and changed circumstances.
When it occurred risk had to be re-evaluated and a decision made. The admiral would have been following orders if he deferred the decision to Obama. He could have done that. Instead he assumed responsibility and made the decision himself. The memo clearly states…
My “WTH” comment was sarcasm, as the meaning is clear to anyone familiar with CYA memos.
The point is Obama the Fearless went out of his way to make sure a CYA memo was drafted before the mission began. He did not have to do that.
farsighted on May 7, 2012 at 5:32 PM
you’re hallucinating things. the chopper went down inside the compound, and obama was clearly in the loop while that was happening. there’s no way for you to know the communications between the president and mcraven. clearly, obama could have stopped the operation (though at that point it would have been foolish) but he didn’t.
ben shapiro started this whole nonsense when he deliberately misrepresented the memo, and people have been laughing at conservatives ever since. it’s like pointing to a text that ays “the sky is blue” and claim it as evidence that the sky is green.
tell me, smartass, if the mission had been a failure, how would this memo help obama? which part says that he has no responsibility for making decisions? because the additional risks to be brought back to him clearly says the very opposite.
idiots.
sesquipedalian on May 7, 2012 at 5:45 PM
well howard…I set out to describe a skunk…my dog and I have encountered a few of those and there was never a pleasant outcome.
what brought the mammal to mind was your story…OBL offed at a time when Obama’s ratings were in the tank (and I’ll add that some sources will say that we always knew where he was but it was better to keep him alive and “guessing”).
call me racist if you want…I would have made the same analogy for any POTUS that showed this behavior. a plan purely to boost ratings but with a “back-up” plan…pathetic…
the fact that Obama happens to share the same characteristics as a skunk is purely coincidental.
teejk on May 7, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Ah, so its insults now.
Given Obama’s craven desire to take as much credit as possible, I have no doubt that if the admiral had deferred a decision to proceed to Obama we would have heard about it. It would have highlighted Obama’s narrative glorifying himself.
The admiral could have deferred to Obama. The memo would have let him do that. He could have interpreted the memo to mean he must. Instead he assumed responsibility, while Obama watched.
Another insult and a lack of reading comprehension.
The memo was drafted to CYA. CYA memos do not always work. The memo states anyone proceeding without deferring to Obama may not be doing what they are supposed to do. What’s the point of writing such a memo?
Tell me, why did Obama need that memo in the first place, with that vaguely worded sentence about “additional risk”? What exactly was the purpose of that memo? Does the Secretary of Defense and five star admirals and generals really need to be told that in writing? Did that memo really clear things up for them, clear up any confusion? Of course not.
The whole point is a leader does not draft vaguely worded CYA memos right before a mission.
Everyone in the chain of command knows they have a choice when things do not go as planned to either assume responsibility and make a decision themselves if they have the means at their disposal, or they can kick it upstairs if that is possible, if they can communicate in real time with their superiors.
Leaders do not draft vague CYA memos right before missions and hand them out to subordinates.
Drafting a CYA memo just before a mission is not a display of leadership. It does not say “I will take full responsibility for failure”.
Finally, my policy is to end a conversation when someone resorts to insults.
farsighted on May 7, 2012 at 6:25 PM
It was joke, teejk. (Then again, since you’ve had perfectly harmless comments disappear, I can understand why you might have taken this seriously.)
Howard Portnoy on May 7, 2012 at 6:39 PM
Honestly. The Boy Scout motto is “Always prepared.” Now Republicans hate the Boy Scouts?
J.E. Dyer on May 7, 2012 at 7:53 PM
sorry howard…I can usually detect a joke better than most people I know…but the doc has been goofing with my meds lately…if he gets to the point where I lose my sense of humor, I’ll stop taking them and deal with the consequences.
teejk on May 7, 2012 at 8:28 PM