OBL Death: Should We Have Gone Public?

Heard a intelligence analyst on Hugh Hewitt yesterday who thought the US should have not revealed the raid on OBL's compound.
He had intelligence there that we still could have used for weeks, safe houses, code names, bank accounts, etc, that could have been mined. Instead the US went for the propaganda victory of taking out an old couch surfer who was essentially under house arrest by Pakistani intelligence people.

One of my theories about OBL was that the US had actually captured him and had chosen not to reveal it.

Of course, it could have been all a moot point, it would be hard to keep quiet the death of OBL. I saw a tweet from the actor Dwayne Johnson, an hour before Obama made his announcement, hinting that Americans had something to cheer about today.

They couldn't of kept it quiet.

When the Blackhawk crashed it made a lot of noise, and much more noise when they blew it up. People were already approaching the compound asking what's going on. People were Twittering about it too.

The History Channel is running a good reenactment about it. They were lucky to get everyone out of there before Pakistan scrambled some F16s.

I forgot about the Pakistani tweeting the attack, so it likely is a moot point, so you might as well use it for propaganda purposes.
Besides, if the occupants of the safehouses believe their cover might have been blown, it can be easier to take them out in public, scurrying around like cockroaches when you turn on the lights.

They also left bin Laden's wives at the compound. Kind of hard to cover it up after that as well.

In the History Channel reenactment they showed a bunch of civilians outside the compounds being held off by the Seal's interupter who was trying to tell them nothing of interest here, while things were exploding and shots fired.

pineinthegrass wrote: They also left bin Laden's wives at the compound. Kind of hard to cover it up after that as well.

In the History Channel reenactment they showed a bunch of civilians outside the compounds being held off by the Seal's interupter
who was trying to tell them nothing of interest here, while things were exploding and shots fired.

lol
I will have to check this out.

"Nothing to see here." :Whistle

pineinthegrass wrote: They couldn't of kept it quiet.

No but they could have started a misinformation campaign so that the bad guys at the bottom of the intel ladder would have been in the dark longer.

The misinformation campaign probably would have been pretty successful, I am sure the Pakistanis would have helped it along because they wouldn't want to admit Obama was living right under their nose. And even AQ would want to believe that OBL was still alive on the run.