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Documentary: Last-minute doubts on bin Laden raid

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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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