The decision to give the OK to launch the operation which neutralized Bin Laden was worthy of praise, credit and pride for all Americans.
However, lost in the hoopla about this feat is the fact that primary credit for the terrorist’s demise goes to SEAL Team 6. They got in there, putting their lives at risk and did the job they were asked to do. None of them have come forward, spoken about their exploits, or written a book. Heroes don’t brag.
The emphasis has been on the “courageous decision” to take OBL out. What the media has all but ignored is the intelligence operatives whose hard work, over many years, helped us track down Bin Laden: The assets we had in Pakistan and elsewhere who helped the United States find the most wanted man in all the world; The SEAL team; the logistics professionals; the pilots; the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed which provided the invaluable information, links and tracking to this brutal killer. All those who planned and executed this mission have sort of gone back into the shadows. Heroes don’t brag.
It should also not be forgotten that some of those who praise the decision to go in to that Abbottabad compound also opposed rendition, enhanced interrogation, black ops and GITMO. Without the information gathered using these assets, it would be a fair statement that we might not have had the intelligence product needed to neutralize UBL. While some may deny enhanced interrogation led to the successful mission, none other than the Secretary of Defense, in a TV interview, when asked if waterboarding was included in enhanced interrogation techniques, said “That’s correct.”
As professionals in a field in which we transform bits and pieces of info, however collected, into usable IP, we are uniquely able to debate whether or not we would have gotten Bin Laden without (what some consider) controversial techniques leading to the intelligence.
The truth is this effort culminating in the death of Bin Laden was the work of two Administrations and thousands of people, including then DCI Hayden, who green-lighted taking the little bit of information regarding UBL’s courier, going with it, spending time, money and political capital to track it to its end, which was Bin Laden hiding in plain sight in Pakistan.
I trust we all give credit to the CIA and other intelligence agencies, our allies, the military and, particularly, the Navy SEALS – all who were at the tip of the spear in this operation.
I have been honored to serve with heroes. Heroes Don’t Brag.