Worth a Thousand Words

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Worth a Thousand Words

May 2, 2011 by still4hill

This picture, from the White House photo stream, shows The Situation Room yesterday, 05-01-11 as the National Security Team watched the raid on the Bin Laden compound unfold.

Posted in Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, state department, U.S. Department of State, White House | Tagged Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joe Biden Michael Mullen, Osama Bin Laden, Robert Gates, Situation Room, White House | 24 Comments

24 Responses

on May 2, 2011 at 8:07 pm | Reply Jessica

she looks like a petrified mother worried about her child

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- on May 2, 2011 at 8:39 pm | Reply still4hill
  
  I think that was the moment the helicopter failed.
  
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on May 2, 2011 at 8:45 pm | Reply villager

She was praying for our boys and girls to be safe, win or lose. Their safety is her main priority.

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on May 2, 2011 at 8:57 pm | Reply still4hill

I would not put this as a main post, but I have been following the ‘leaks” from The Insider since about late October, and everything he has predicted has happened. I am convinced he is legit. If this is true (and he has always been right) , Obama tried to abort this mission. FYI.

http://socyberty.com/issues/did-senior-militaryintelligence-officials-overrule-president-obama-regarding-mission-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/

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- on May 2, 2011 at 10:20 pm | Reply Jen the Michigander
  
  The seating arrangement in this photo lends credence to The Insider’s report.
  
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  - on May 2, 2011 at 10:31 pm | Reply still4hill
    
    I am crazy curious about what HRC has on her keyboard. (I am not the only one who rests papers on her keyboard!) Looks like pics.
    
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    - on May 2, 2011 at 11:22 pm | Reply Jen the Michigander
      
      Photos of some kind. It’s definitely not text. The brown one might be a map of Osama’s compound, perhaps? It has an earthy look about it. Can’t even guess the second one.
      
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      - on May 2, 2011 at 11:43 pm | Reply still4hill
        
        If this were a TV show, we could bring the photo to the photo-techie guy and he would zero in on them and improve the resolution. I think you’re right a map or a satellite shot.
        
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- on May 3, 2011 at 10:51 am | Reply PYW
  
  Not that I’m a huge Obama supporter or anything (and I certainly believe Hillary would’ve been in the camp to move forward with this), but can a president actually be overruled?
  
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  - on May 3, 2011 at 12:40 pm | Reply still4hill
    
    The way I am reading this, Obama was not making any decisions. People around him were. It was his senior WH staff that ordered the mission aborted. They were overruled by HC, LP, and BD (I suspect along with military and intel people from the way I read it). All Obama did was let himself be led around by the nose on this. First by WH staff, then by the Big Three. He benefits, of course, because no one would want to believe this story. I happen to trust this guy from having followed him for so long and seeing the veracity of what he reports.
    
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  - on May 3, 2011 at 7:06 pm | Reply discourseincsharpminor
    
    I’m not convinced either. Unless this turns into Deepthroar the Sequel, I going to err on the side of the official, constitutionally mandated chain of command and not some weird pseudo-coup.
    
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  - on May 3, 2011 at 9:20 pm | Reply still4hill
    
    Jack Rice, former CIA officer, just confirmed on Spitzer that this operation was Panetta’s to call. Seals Six operates under OGA (Other Government Agency) in this case the CIA.
    
    Anyway, it’s the second coup because Clinton-Rice-Power overruled him on the NFZ.
    
    More to come.
    
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    - on May 4, 2011 at 12:16 am | Reply discourseincsharpminor
      
      Well, for whatever it’s worth the folks at Fox are back to bashing her again and they tend not to bother with anyone who they don’t view as a threat to the GOP. She’s on somebody’s radar.
      
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  - on May 8, 2011 at 6:31 pm | Reply still4hill
    
    Update: More corroboration today, this time from Larry Johnson (former CIA). His contacts have a story somewhat different from the WH version.
    
    http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2011/05/08/obama-coereced-into-going-after-bin-laden/#more-59173
    
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on May 3, 2011 at 12:15 am | Reply discourseincsharpminor

Everyone looks so intense but she looks (and I know someone won’t like this) somehow softer. Not weaker, just softer. Like the difference between a high five and a hug as a sign of congratulations. Same meaning. Different feel.

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- on May 3, 2011 at 12:19 am | Reply still4hill
  
  I agree. It’s the mom in her, and that stalled helicopter was somewhat more crucial than Chelsea “parallel parking.”
  
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- on May 3, 2011 at 10:49 am | Reply PYW
  
  I agree, too.
  
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- on May 3, 2011 at 11:14 am | Reply rachel
  
  That picture is going in the history books, I don’t know what she was looking at at that point. I mean we don’t know excatly what they saw, some suggest maybe there was a webcam and they were able to see everything and maybe she was looking when Osama used his wife as a human shield. I don’t know its one of the theories out there.
  
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  - on May 3, 2011 at 11:52 am | Reply PYW
    
    i read that human shield theory, too.
    
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on May 4, 2011 at 12:11 am | Reply Bea

This pic has gone around the world and will be the photo that defines what went on in the WH while the operation was taken place. I have read many comments on other sites that the focus of the pic was Hillary. A photography site explained that she was the focus of the photographer and went on to explain it in detail (something about lens apertures and the others were “soft”, meaning that they weren’t the main focus of the pic). It’s all about the look in her eyes. She looks aghast. I wonder what they were looking at that precise moment.

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- on May 4, 2011 at 12:27 am | Reply discourseincsharpminor
  
  She draws more focus, but I’m not sure it’s intentional. She’s the only person whose hands we see. Hands are expressive and get our attention. If Obama’s hands were visible – say, steepled below his chin – he too would draw more attention. Just a thought.
  
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  - on May 4, 2011 at 6:18 pm | Reply Bea
    
    This is one of the articles I was referring to:
    
    http://www.wwd.com/media-news?module=tn#/article/media-news/peak-time-3601104
    
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    - on May 4, 2011 at 9:19 pm | Reply still4hill
      
      Thanks, Bea.
      
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- on May 4, 2011 at 12:45 am | Reply still4hill
  
  We now know that they were not looking at live video. There was a LOT of media feed, though. I still think it was the moment the copter stalled. Doesn’t matter really. That she is the focus is enough for me.
  
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