The adjustments to the facts seem to question the broad outlines of the operation of U.S. Special Forces against the house of Abbottabad (Pakistan), where Bin Laden was hiding and where he was killed Sunday night.
However, the review of the history of the raid and the progressive revelation of new details about the events left some open questions.
On Monday, the White House had said that Bin Laden was armed when he was killed by a team of U.S. Navy (Navy SEAL).
But the next day, the presidential spokesman, Jay Carney, corrected this version and said the terrorist leader was not armed when he was shot in the head.
The existence of these two statements raised questions about the real intention of the U.S. authorities want to catch Bin Laden alive if possible.
On Monday, another event further fueled doubts about what happened. The chief adviser of President Barack Obama in the fight against terrorism, John Brennan, said Bin Laden's wife had died after being used as human shield by her husband during the attack.
But that same day, U.S. officials backtracked on this statement.
Then on Tuesday, Carney read a chronology prepared by the Pentagon in which it was stated that the wife of the leader of al-Qaida had rushed to one of members of the command-in the room where she also met her husband and had received a bullet in the leg. The spokesman said the woman survived.
other hand, the White House announced that another woman, not identified by authorities, was killed during the operation in another part of the house.
regard to fate of one of the sons of Bin Laden also managed various versions. On Monday, Brennan said one of the sons of Al-Qaida leader was killed during the operation in Abbottabad. However, on Tuesday this person and not on the official chronology. It mentions that bin Laden, two messengers and a woman were killed in the operation.
Carney stated that these errors were due to the "fog of war", ie the imprecision that comes from complex events the rapid development of the facts. The operation against bin Laden lasted 38 minutes.
According to a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, the administration no regrets having spread rapidly despite the information then had to correct them.
The official said members were still in command "debriefing" on Monday and Tuesday, and that these sessions had concluded that the version of events should be modified.
media "requesting information for this event is of major importance (...) we made the effort to declassify sensitive operation of the U.S. government to meet these demands," said the official told AFP.
"Do you want information or do they want them faster? These things are always checked, "he said and stressed the" good faith "of government.
This argument was echoed by Sen. John McCain, Republican candidate against Obama in the 2008 presidential elections - who estimated that these upgrades have no impact on trust with the American administration.
"I'm not concerned about this issue, trying to divert attention from what they were able to do, frankly, is essentially lost," said McCain.
Wednesday May 4, 2011
AFP (Agence France-Presse)
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