Osama bin Laden - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Osama bin Laden Index / People Transcripts Antony Blinken ...different part of the world, but the Osama bin Laden raid takes place. And we know you wer... ...emphasis on “could”—be the location of Osama bin Laden . And the president basically said... ...we had a decent circumstantial case of bin Laden 's presence in this compound. Ther... ...the circumstantial case that it was bin Laden , which is pretty remarkable when yo... ...have been a direct aid and driver for bin Laden , and tracing him back to thi... ...try to capture or, if necessary, kill bin Laden , if that's who proved to be in th... ...a positive identification of bin Laden by taking perhaps the risk of trying t... ...of seventy-thirty assessment that bin Laden was there. So it was never any highe... ...to identify whether this was in fact bin Laden . And the team on the ground too... ...pretty gruesome. It sure looked like bin Laden , but on the other hand, was rathe... ...had him lie down next to the body of bin Laden . And sure enough, that was about th... ...what will Pakistan's response be? Will bin Laden be killed or captured? I mean, thes... Show more... Leon Panetta ...the bad guys. We will come back to the Osama bin Laden raid, which is a question o... ...left. I wanted to ask you about the Osama bin Laden raid before we ended today. You writ... ...we govern by crisis. I think the bin Laden raid is really the story of leadershi... ...dedicated their lives to the search for bin Laden , but it's also the story o... ...made clear that we had to go after bin Laden , that—I mean, the first thing I di... ...say, Who's responsible for finding bin Laden ? A number of hands went up. There wer... ...really knew what was happening with bin Laden . The first thing I had to do was t... ...the responsibility of the search for bin Laden into the hands of one or two ke... ...gave me some sense of confidence—that bin Laden was there. The president, to hi... ...at night, rappel down, go after bin Laden if he's there, and be able t... ...the best evidence on the location of bin Laden since Tora Bora [US-Al-Qaeda battle], ... ...one hundred percent intelligence that bin Laden was there. We were not going to aler... ...yesterday, we were in the middle of the bin Laden operation, and approaching, actually... ...very much looking at the operation on bin Laden , because at that point, I think we'... ...gone through an effort to red-tag the bin Laden operation, really look at it from al... ...views as to whether or not they thought bin Laden was there. Some people thought it wa... ...the questions, the fact that these were bin Laden couriers, the fact that there was thi... ...that there's a good chance that bin Laden is there. And I think, mor... ...Of course, I got confirmed after the bin Laden operation, so, you know— It'... ...that was? Was it the recency of the bin Laden raid? Was it the relationships you had... ...I even contemplated it during the bin Laden operation. This is really a good tim... ...Having done that job at CIA and the bin Laden operation, I also was nervous about... ...obviously it was reflected in the bin Laden mission, but I had another missio... ...had been involved, by the way, in the bin Laden operation. I think there were ninetee... ...a very definitive role in going after bin Laden and that operation, and doing somethin... Show more... Shailagh Murray ...the brink. That was the whole slogan “ Osama bin Laden is dead, but GM [General Motors] i... Nancy-Ann DeParle ...to be the aircraft carrier where Osama bin Laden 's remains had been committed to th... Jon Favreau ...about going to Pakistan to take out [Osama] bin Laden if necessary. So Ben worked on tha... ...obviously saying that you'd take out bin Laden if he was in Pakistan is a much mor... ...Pakistan,” when it was obvious that if bin Laden is there that you'd take the shot. An... ...pretty tough middle names too, like Tim bin Laden Pawlenty [laughs].” I think that's wha... ...like, “I just think we should take that bin Laden thing out.” It was Tim Osama Pawlenty... ...is, “Draft remarks for the killing of Osama bin Laden ” from Ben Rhodes, and then we deal... ...over, and we were all talking about the bin Laden raid. As you see that speech in you... Show more... Tom Frieden ...stimulus package, larger than getting [Osama] bin Laden , larger than Superstorm Sandy.” And ... Cody Keenan ...years. One was the night we killed bin Laden , and another was the night we secure... Jim Messina ...about the decision to go after Osama bin Laden . Had that gone south, it probably wa... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Asia Rebalance Asia Rebalance go to the Russia Russia go to the Climate, Environment, and Energy Climate, Environment, and Energy go to the Transparency and Media Transparency and Media go to the Criminal Justice Criminal Justice