US President Barack Obama
described the lonely decision he made to mount a Navy SEAL raid to kill
Osama bin Laden and called the daring escapade the “most important
single day” of his tenure.
In an interview to be
broadcast later Wednesday, Obama talked about the nerve jangling moments
he endured as he watched the operation, the cloak of secrecy that
enveloped it and the moment he saw a photo of the dead Al-Qaeda leader.
“I did choose the risk,”
Obama told NBC News anchor Brian Williams, in the latest episode of a
nearly week-long commemoration of the anniversary of the bin Laden
killing.
Obama spoke to Williams in
the secure Situation Room in the White House basement, where top
officials gathered to watch the raid unfold on a screen, and which was
the site of an iconic photograph seen around the world.
Republicans have accused
Obama of inappropriately celebrating the anniversary as he seeks to
bolster his standing ahead of his reelection fight.
He spoke about how the
operation was planned and conducted in utmost secrecy, and how he did
not share knowledge of it with many of his staff, or even First Lady
Michelle Obama.
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“Even a breath of this in the
press could have chased bin Laden away,” Obama said. “We didn’t know at
that point whether there might be underground tunnels coming out of
that compound that would allow him to escape,” he said.
Other top officials told how
Obama solicited final recommendations about the operation, before going
away to make a final decision himself on whether to move on bin Laden’s
suspect hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
“It was never contentious
because I think everybody understood both the pros and cons of the
action,” Obama said in the interview to be broadcast a day after he made
a secretive trip to Afghanistan on the bin Laden anniversary.
“People who were advocating
action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong,
there would be severe geopolitical consequences.
“Most importantly, we might be putting our brave Navy SEALs in danger.”
The president said he
collected the conflicting recommendations of his war cabinet before
going back to the White House residence to have dinner with his family
and retire to his study.
“Well, there is no doubt that
you don’t sleep as much that evening as you do on a normal night,” he
said. “I stayed up late and I woke up early.”
The next day, he told his subordinates that he had decided to go ahead with the raid.
“You have some serenity in
knowing that you’ve made the best possible decision that you can and,
you know, in that situation you just, you do some praying,” Obama said.
Members of the war cabinet
discussed the moment in interviews when they saw one of the helicopters
carrying the Navy SEALS drop over the wall of the compound in a crash
landing.
“That helicopter didn’t make
it to the right spot and everyone went, like, ‘Whoa,’” said Vice
President Joe Biden, in an interview to be broadcast on the NBC “Rock
Center.”
Obama said that the only thing he was thinking about was “I really want to get those guys back home safe.”
“I want to make sure that the
decision I’ve made has not resulted in them putting their lives at risk
in vain, and if I got that part of it right, if I could look myself in
the mirror and say as commander in chief I made a good call.”
After the SEAL team flew back
to a base in Afghanistan, they transmitted photos of the dead Al-Qaeda
leader, clearly showing he had been shot in the head during the raid.
“I think it’s wrong to say
that I did a high five, because you have a picture of a dead body and,
you know, there’s I think regardless of who it is, you always have to be
sober about death.
“But understanding the
satisfaction for the American people, what it would mean for 9/11
families … I think there was a deep-seated satisfaction for the country
at that moment.”
