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NEW YORK (AP) — A new documentary reveals that a last-minute
double-check of intelligence before the raid that killed Osama bin
Laden last spring cast fresh doubt on whether the al Qaida leader
was really in the Pakistani compound where he was found.
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The History network, in its “Targeting Bin Laden” special that airs
next Tuesday, said President Barack Obama convened a special “red
team” of terrorism experts to take a fresh look at the evidence.
That team had greater doubt that bin Laden was in the Abbottobad,
Pakistan home primarily because they didn’t believe he would take
the risk of having as many visitors as he did.
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Despite the new assessment, Obama ordered the mission to proceed.
Four days later on May 2, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs successfully
located and killed the terrorist leader behind the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks.
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Obama was interviewed two weeks ago for the special, which provides
a tick-tock account of what went into the planning and execution of
the raid. Other people interviewed for the special include national
security adviser Tom Donilon, White House counterterrorism adviser
John Brennan and former CIA officials.
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The special “red team” had not been involved in the intelligence
operation that searched for bin Laden or planned the raid. It was
reviewing the evidence for the first time, History says in the
special. Their assessment initially deflated policy makers, and
only half of those planning the raid advised Obama to proceed after
hearing their report.
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“At the end of the day only the president can weigh those risks,”
Donilon told interviewers. “Only the president can ask, `What’s in
the nation’s interest? What are the risks worth running here? What
will we accomplish if this works? How will I deal with it if it
doesn’t work?’ It was a quintessential presidential
decision.”
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“Targeting Bin Laden” was made for the cable network by the same
production company that made “America The Story of Us.” It airs at
8 p.m. EST on Sept. 6.
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