And he couldn't have done any of it, without changing his views on important positions that he campaigned against, stood in opposition to, and publicly opposed on policies of his predecessor President George W. Bush.
Without "enhanced interrogation techniques and the fight against terror in Iraq" President Obama would not have been able to order the kill command against Osama bin Ladin.
Here's how it all tracks down: Sheikh Abu Ahmed turned out to be the single most important name to secure in the attempt to track and kill Osama bin Ladin. Sheikh Abu Ahmed had been previously known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. (Abu Ahmed is actually of Kuwaiti dissent.) Abu Ahmed al-Kuawaiti became known to U.S. officials through the enhanced interrogations, CIA secret prisons--including Gitmo, and detainees captured in that "illegitimate" war in Iraq.
Beginning in early 2002 (under President Bush) multiple detainees in the secret prisons told interrogators of Abu Ahmed. None other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Al Queda number 3 and "architect" of the 9.11 attack) also confirmed knowing Abu Ahmed.
Then in 2004 Hassan Ghul was captured battling anti-terror forces in Iraq. Ghul told the CIA that Abu Ahmed was crucial to Al Queda. Ghul implicated Abu Ahmed as close to Faraj al-Libi (who had replaced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as Al Queda's active number 3). Ghul was referred to by an Obama administration official as the "linch pin" in connecting the dots to identify Osama's courier Abu Ahmed.
In 2005 al-Libi was promoted to replace Mohammed and he received word through the courier named Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, but when al-Libi was captured and interrogated through enhanced techniques he revealed to authorities all they needed to know--that the courier for bin Ladin was the man that would lead them to him.
Connecting the dots was crucial, and painstakingly took years. Doing so was also made difficult because then Senator Barack Obama opposed and worked publicly against phone taps of terrorists, and eventually helped blow the story of our phone taps onto the pages of the New York Times. Oddly enough, Osama bin Ladin suddenly stopped using phones. His almost exclusive use of very old-school couriers became the only way bin Ladin communicated with his lieutenants.
President Obama campaigned against the use of phone taps of terrorists, he campaigned for the shut down of the very secret prisons that coughed up the name of the courier, and he went so far after being elected to imply that his Attorney General Eric Holder was ready to go arrest the CIA operatives, and military special forces personnel that had conducted enhanced interrogations.
Yet this single most important piece of information that led to the capture and execution of our worst enemy was obtained exclusively through those very mechanisms and means that President Obama demeaned, mocked, and ordered shut down.
There is no doubt that President Obama made the right call to send in the Navy Seals to extricate the corpse of Osama bin Ladin. His decision to do so with a surgically precise strike showed special wisdom in that members of his own national security team opposed him in meetings running up to making the decision. He was right in calling on the Seals because they are unlike any other special forces in all of military history. And he was right in reducing the collateral damage or the risk of any by not using predator drones and bombs.
History will reward him with the label of the one who captured and killed the worst terrorist of the past twenty years.
But he did so standing on the shoulders of a President who took political backlash, foul media coverage, and a toxically poisoned electorate (poisoned largely by the efforts of Obama directly) to do what was right, to press forward in obtaining the critical pieces of data to set up the eventual capture and kill of Bin Ladin.
President Obama owes his rightful success to a man he directly undermined, nearly the entire time he was setting the pieces in place for Obama's biggest national security achievement.
President Obama owes an apology to President Bush.
He also owes a huge debt of thanks to the men and women of the CIA and special forces who interrogated with enhanced techniques, and to the men and women who fought and died in Iraq to bring him the information needed.
And how 'bout you?
Have you hugged a water-boarder today?
Kevin McCullough
Kevin McCullough is the nationally syndicated host of "The Kevin McCullough Show" weekdays (7-9am EST) & "Baldwin/McCullough Radio" Saturdays (9-11pm EST) on 215 stations & Sirius/XM . His new book from Thomas Nelson Publishers, "No He Can't" hits streets March 2011.
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