Gee...who knows more..."The Coach", or the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee?
You're going to tell me that Fienstein trumps Panetta?
Read this.....
On release of a photograph depicting Osama bin Laden’s death:
LEON PANETTA: The government obviously has been talking about how best to do this, but I don't think there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public.
On rules of engagement:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Did the President's order read capture or kill or both or just one of those?
LEON PANETTA: The authorities we have on Bin Laden are to kill him. And that was made clear. But it was also, as part of their rules of engagement, if he suddenly put up his hands and offered to be captured, then-- they would have the opportunity, obviously, to capture him. But that opportunity never developed.
On Pakistani involvement:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: What did the Pakistanis know and when did they know it?
LEON PANETTA: The Pakistanis did not know anything about this mission… that was deliberate on our part that this would be conducted as a unilateral mission. President Obama had made very clear to the Pakistanis that if we had good evidence as to where Osama bin Laden was located we were going to go in and get him. And-- that's exactly what happened.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Well, and I ask that because I'm curious as to why, given all the hardware, the garrison, the personnel, it-- retired military officers in that immediate area, why weren't the United States forces fired upon?
LEON PANETTA: Well, that was obviously a concern that was raised at the time we were considering this operation, which was going into this kind of sensitive area with helicopters and SEALs and landing on this compound-- would the Pakistanis suddenly respond and you know, try to pin down our forces. Frankly, we, you know, we considered all of those contingencies. That's why we had the backup helicopters in place.
On the role of interrogation:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Can you confirm that it was as a result of water boarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after Bin Laden?
LEON PANETTA: Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here… It's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got… I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always going to be an open question.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: So finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques -- which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years -- that includes water boarding?
LEON PANETTA: That's correct.Read more:
http://thepage.time.com/2011/05/03/panetta-public-likely-to-see-obl-picture/#ixzz1LKmNA15i