Monday, May 2, 2011

Congratulations, Mr. President, for Continuing Bush Anti-Terror Policy

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, we need to open the program today by congratulating President Obama. President Obama has done something extremely effective, and when he does, this needs to be pointed out. President Obama has continued the Bush policies of keeping a military presence in the Middle East. He did not scrub the mission to get Bin Laden. In fact, it may be that President Obama single-handedly came up with the technique in order to pull this off. You see, the military wanted to go in there and bomb like they always do. They wanted to go in there and drop missiles and launch bombs, a number of totally destructive techniques here. But President Obama, perhaps the only qualified member in the room to deal with this, insisted on the Special Forces. No one else thought of that. Not a single intelligence advisor, not a single national security advisor, not a single military advisor came up with the idea of using SEAL Team 6 or any of the Special Forces.

Our military wanted to go in there and just scorch the earth, leaving no evidence of anything after the mission. But President Obama single-handedly understood what was at stake here. He alone understood the need to get DNA to prove the death. Obama alone understood the aftermath, alone understood that there would be doubting Thomases if the place was just obliterated and no evidence was to be found. According to news reports, not one member of the military, not General Petraeus, nobody in the intel community, nobody had the slightest idea of going in there and using Special Forces. It was President Obama, single-handedly and alone, who came up with the strategy that brought about the effective assassination of Osama Bin Laden. He kept the Bush policies alive keeping a military presence in the Middle East, allowing the military to finish the job that they started nearly ten years ago.

What a great testament it is in these times for an element of the United States to perform as designed. SEAL Team 6, the special operations guys, what a magnificent moment for them, a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed operation. And it's a very uplifting thing to realize that such precision can still be accomplished in this country. Last night I was as proud as I have been of the US military in I don't know how long, and I remain so today. I toyed with the idea of opening the program with military music. I felt so happy and proud about this. This was a 40-minute operation, get in, get it, and get out. There are a lot of questions about it, burial at sea, the DNA supposedly takes a week to get, but we've got it already, the proof positive it was Osama Bin Laden. It's a very, very, very, very important and positive day for the US military.

I've got a lot of press accounts here, a number of things in terms of show prep today. I went back and looked at some of the stories that have been published in the past about where people thought Bin Laden was, whether he was still alive, whether or not he's been dead. It's interesting to go back and look at any number of ways the story of Osama Bin Laden has been covered since 9/11, reports that he was killed in Tora Bora, reports that he's been dead all of these years. It's an interesting thing, when you have the benefit of research, to go back and look at all this. And I've got a stack of things like this. One of the things that I want to point out here, Osama is dead. And the fact is he has long ceased to be a commander. The stories that we're getting are that this mansion -- and, believe me, I've seen the pictures, it's not a mansion. I mean it's an enlarged hut where this guy was living. It was a big hut but it was not a mansion. What we're hearing is that there were no communications in or out, that he required couriers. And guess what? It was again Obama who deserved praise of continuing the Bush policies at Guantanamo Bay. I told you that this administration would never close Guantanamo Bay, and it was the intelligence we gathered among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay that led us to this enlarged hut that's called a mansion outside Islamabad.

Couriers were needed by Osama to receive and send information. In order to keep him alive, in order to keep him safe, they couldn't allow any communication. There was no television. There was no Internet. There were no telephones, no satellite, nothing in or out. It required couriers. Detainees who may have been waterboarded, and again we need to never forget that President Obama deserves praise for continuing the policies established by George W. Bush which led to the acquisition of this intel that led us to the enlarged hut in Pakistan that led to the assassination of Bin Laden last night. The detainees, many of them started talking, and the couriers were identified. The couriers were then tracked and followed by intelligence operatives, and it was learned as far back as last summer where Bin Laden was. Last summer it was suggested that we go in and get Bin Laden, and Obama even then, knowing full well and the only one in the room knowing that the military's way going in there and bombing this thing wasn't the way to work. Thank God for President Obama. If he had not been there, who knows what woulda happened. It was only Obama who understood the need to get DNA, to prove that this was Bin Laden that we had assassinated.


So the information, the intel from captured detainees at Guantanamo led to the discovery of the courier system that kept Bin Laden informed of what's going on. I told you that this regime would never close down Guantanamo Bay. It was simply too valuable a military asset. So, ladies and gentlemen, regardless what you think, and my e-mail is filled with people who are saying they want to see the long form death certificate. The deathers now, that's the new term. (laughing) It might have been Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself who gave up the information about the couriers. It might have been Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And, ladies and gentlemen, while Osama is dead, he had long since stopped being a key commander, because he had no way to issue orders. He was a figurehead. He'd been taken out of the game because of the worldwide manhunt to find him.

The actual planner, and we know this, the actual planner who drew up the blueprints, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is still alive. He's at Club Gitmo. That is something that is 100% under Obama's control. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could have been put before a military commission long, long ago. They wanted a show trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City. They still do, in fact. But this is an occasion about which to declare victory. And it is a victory brought about by the policies of the Bush and Cheney administration, policies that President Obama saw fit to continue to the end, keeping our troops in the Middle East, a heightened military presence, unafraid to use the Special Ops. You go back and look at some of these stories in the past that I was talking about. I've got stories where Obama said, "I'm not gonna make him a martyr," as a candidate for presidency in 2008. Obama said, "I'm not gonna make him a martyr. I would not kill him. I would capture him." Well, reality has a strange way sometimes of maturing people. And Obama realized that capturing Osama Bin Laden -- and now what to do with him. The Saudis did not want his body. Nobody wanted it. So we buried him at sea, which is one of the final options in Islam that's permitted if all else fails. We don't know what sea, but the last thing they wanted was to establish a grave site, a destination for Pilgrims, if you will, for the ages.

So the question of where is Osama Bin Laden, also a brilliant, brilliant strategy, executed by this regime, utilizing the policies laid down by Bush and Cheney. Time to declare victory. It really is. This is a major moment, even though Bin Laden was no longer an effective leader. In fact, our buddies at StratFor, the global intelligence website: "The Tactical Irrelevance of Osama Bin Laden's Death." They point out that there's not much he could do to lead. He couldn't get orders in or out. He'd become a figurehead, and so in terms of the war on terror, it will go on, terrorism will still happen.

There's another story here -- this from six days ago -- in an Australian newspaper that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says that there is a nuclear device planted somewhere in the world that will go off in the event Osama Bin Laden is captured or killed. A major nuclear device. Haven't seen this, it was six days ago. It was in an Australian newspaper. We'll go through the stack and share with you some of the stuff that we have dredged up. Al-Jazeera seems to be a network here that many in Washington approve of and are quoting liberally from with great credibility. Also on CNN back in October of 2010, "NATO Official: Bin Laden, Deputy Hiding in Northwest Pakistan." CNN knew via intel from NATO where Bin Laden was months ago, all the way back in October of 2010. And we're told now that so did Obama, and the military had plans that Obama alone knew would not survive the aftermath, that Obama alone knew would not pass the smell test.

Here it is, Australia 9 News: "The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks warned that Al-Qaeda has hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" if Osama Bin Laden is captured, leaked files revealed Monday. The terror group also planned to make a 9/11 style attack on London's Heathrow airport by crashing a hijacked airliner into one of the terminals, the files showed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Guantanamo Bay interrogators the terror group would detonate the nuclear device if the Al-Qaeda chief was captured or killed, according to the classified files released by the WikiLeaks website." All this is in the WikiLeaks dump. "Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been held at Guantanamo since 2006 and is to be tried in a military court at the US naval base on Cuba over the attacks."


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me give you some history, ladies and gentlemen, that will put some of this in perspective. We're all being inundated here with information. We're all being inundated with news reports that raise questions as well as answer them. We've all seen President Obama last night on television announcing his single-handed involvement in securing the death of Osama Bin Laden. We know that it was Obama who called off the bombing, insisted on the Special Forces. In fact, it was Obama who assembled the team. He said so. "I," "me," "my" were three of the most used words in President Obama's media appearance last night.

Not a single intelligence advisor, not a single national security advisor or military advisor came up with the idea. Not one of them -- not one of them, according to Obama -- had the ability to understand the need to get DNA. This was Obama's message last night. He said, quote, "I assembled the team." He refused to give the team the green light for the last three months, 'cause the team wanted to go in and create mayhem, and Obama alone -- Barack Obama alone -- knew the right way to do this. Slight problem. See, we love the US military here. I cannot tell you how proud everybody in my house was last night over this.

Especially with the status of the country in so many ways, for that realization and comfort derived from knowing that they work -- that they are still the best, that something in this country is still the best and that it is the US military. That it is the best, that a part of America is still the best. I can't tell you how happy and proud personally that made me. Now, these teams that Obama said he assembled, they fall under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command. They have been operating for almost 30 years. The Joint Special Operations Command is comprised of Delta, the 75th Ranger Regiment, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

These are the guys who fly the helicopters in the dead of night 50 feet off the ground. Marine Force Reconnaissance, SEAL Team 6, 1st Special Operations Wing, the 24th Special Tactics Squadron and a few other support elements. The CIA is also heavily involved, especially those from the clandestine service. That team, that organization has been assembled and operating in Iraq and Afghanistan for almost ten years. This is the same group that brought down Saddam. This is the same group that found Saddam Hussein in the hole. Actually, the CIA found him; they've been tacking him for months with the help of some Delta guys on the ground.

This is Osama we're talking about, and this team that went in last night was a mixture of these various units. Guaranteed, they have been assembled and operating in Iraq and Afghanistan for almost ten years, and this is why I say that I want to sincerely congratulate Obama. Despite his words, despite every indication he gave verbally of disassembling this because he wanted America to be respected again. Despite his promises and words to tear apart this team, he continued it. Obama does deserve to be congratulated for continuing the operations of this team and keeping the military presence in the Middle East.

But he did not assemble it. When they went in and got Saddam, what it was the Rangers went in first. They blocked the two roads that led into it area. Then a mixture of SEALs and Delta went in and actually grabbed Saddam. It's the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command who deserve all the credit for this -- and President Obama deserves credit for not disassembling them, for keeping them in the loop, because this that happened last night has been the policy of this country for ten years. It is a great day for America, but the guys who did the heavy lifting are the guys who wear the uniform -- and they're not demanding lifelong pensions and health care today, are they?




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