Obama aides were divided on bin Laden raid

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama  held a crucial meeting last week in which his advisers debated  three options for dealing with top-secret information about a  luxury compound in Pakistan where they thought Osama bin Laden  might be hiding.
At a two-hour meeting in the ultra-secure White House  Situation Room, the team discussed the pros and cons of a raid  on the compound by a small group of elite U.S. forces,  according to a senior administration official who spoke on  condition of anonymity.
The two other alternatives were to conduct a strike or to  wait for information that might lend greater clarity on whether  the al Qaeda leader was indeed holed up at the fortress-like  compound outside of Islamabad, the official said.
Obama’s advisers were split at the Thursday meeting and the  president took a night to think about the decision, the  official said.
On Friday morning, just before leaving to visit tornado-hit  Alabama, Obama revealed to a small group of aides that he had  decided in favor of an immediate raid, the official said.
“It’s a go,” Obama told his advisers, as he ordered the  operation that led to killing of the mastermind of the Sept.  11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Information about the Abbotabad compound had surfaced last  August but it was not until March that U.S. officials felt  convinced enough of bin Laden’s potential presence there that  they began to develop a list of options.
U.S. intelligence analysts had been monitoring the complex,  observing that there was a million-dollar home there owned by  someone with no apparent source of income. There also appeared  to be a family living there, including a man who never left the  compound, according to the official.
NO ONE KNEW FOR SURE
The family seemed to fit a profile of bin Laden’s family.  Still, right up until the end, no one in the Obama  administration, including the U.S. president, knew for sure.
The discussions over what to do took place over a period of  weeks in meetings that were so closely held, no photographers  were present and the sessions were not given titles, the  official said.
Because the person who was believed to be bin Laden seemed  always to remain at the compound, that removed some of the  pressure to act immediately on the suspicions.
Still, Obama and his aides feared delaying action too long  would increase the risk that word of the surveillance might  leak out and their target might flee, the official said.
The timing of Obama’s Friday order of the raid was driven  in part by that concern. Also playing a role in the timing was  the fact that the U.S. Navy SEAL team had carried out a number  of rehearsals of the operation and was deemed ready to move  ahead by its commander.
On Sunday afternoon, Obama convened a meeting at the White  House where the mood was “tense” and “anxiety-ridden” as the  group monitored the unfolding operation on a screen, the  official said.
Those present included U.S. Secretary of State of Hillary  Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, White House National  Security Adviser Tom Donilon and White House counterterrorism  adviser John Brennan.
“We got him, guys,” Obama said in reaction to the news of  bin Laden’s death.