Only one of five people killed during bin Laden raid was armed

WASHINGTON — Only one of the five people shot and killed during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound was armed, the head of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday as officials revised the tale of the al-Qaeda leader's takedown for the third day in a row.

A Pakistani vendor sells traditional sweets close to the perimeter of the walled compound of a house where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said White House officials "got a little ahead of themselves" earlier in the week when they mistakenly described a sustained firefight between Navy SEALs and those in bin Laden's compound and said bin Laden tried to fight back and one of his wives, used to shield him, was killed.

Rogers said that when the team reached bin Laden's room, he was not armed but there was a gun there, similar to the rifle he has carried in photographs since the 9/11 attack.

"Maybe they should have waited" until the SEAL team was fully debriefed, Rogers said of the White House officials.

On Thursday, the White House declined to explain why White House counterterrorism czar John Brennan and others had gotten key elements of the story wrong. "I don't have any updates on the narrative," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with President Obama to Ground Zero in New York City.

As the story of the raid continued to unfold, information from the cache of computers seized from the bin Laden compound emerged. The Department of Homeland Security said al-Qaeda has been contemplating an attack on the U.S. rail system. A memo from the agency said there is no imminent threat, but an administration official said the attack was being considered to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The official would not be identified because that detail was not made public.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said the information did not identify possible locations for such attacks. "We have been concerned about al-Qaeda's interest in this for quite some time," he said.

The CIA had spied on bin Laden from a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and conducted extensive surveillance on him for months, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

Meeting with commandos

Following on his trip to meet with relatives of 9/11 victims and first responders, Obama today will head to Fort Campbell in Kentucky to meet with some of the commandos who carried out the raid, according to two administration officials who would not allow their names to be used because the meeting has not been officially announced.

The successful bin Laden raid has given Obama a boost in the polls. In Gallup's daily tracking poll, the president has averaged a 52% approval rating in the three days since the raid, up from 46% in the three days before the raid.

On Tuesday, in correcting Brennan's version of events, Carney said that although bin Laden was not armed when he was shot, "there were many other people who were armed" and the commandos "were met with a great deal of resistance."

A senior Defense official described the raid to the Associated Press as a floor-by-floor hunt for bin Laden — during which the commandos took out the terrorist leader's courier and his brother as well as bin Laden's son — not a sustained firefight as the White House has suggested.

"We would have avoided confusion if the details had not been discussed," Rogers said.

Ari Fleischer, a George W. Bush administration White House press secretary, said the White House engaged in "sloppy messaging." He said all briefings to the news media about the operation at the suburban Islamabad compound should have come from the military.

"In their elation and desire to tell a riveting story, they dropped their guard, the discipline went down," he said. He added that he gives them a "mulligan" because they haven't shown a pattern of deceit, and the bottom line — the death of bin Laden — is what matters.

'This was a combat zone'

Rogers, who was briefed Wednesday on the operation by Navy Vice Adm. William McRaven, agreed. He said McRaven told him that "one person (inside the compound) was able to reach their weapon" when the U.S. team surprised the occupants and gunfire was exchanged.

"Whether it was five (armed combatants) or one, it doesn't matter. None of the people were compliant," he said, adding that a mix of machine guns, pistols and rifles were found in house. "This was a combat zone."

Rogers said bin Laden made no apparent move to surrender. "You don't know if he's got a suicide vest," he said, referring to the SEAL team.

He said there was concern that the building could have been rigged with explosives. "These are difficult circumstances. (Bin Laden) had an opportunity to surrender. This was a combat operation, and he's an enemy combatant. It's Osama bin Laden, for goodness' sake."

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

USATODAY.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.