Documents Detail “bin Laden had an Obsession with Attacking America Again.”
Former Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill Explains Precision Behind bin Laden Raid and Securing Intel.
After four years of wondering what Osama bin Laden was up to during his final days on earth…America is finally getting some answers.
That’s because U.S. intelligence officers have just declassified more than 100 documents confiscated during the raid at bin Laden’s compound in May 2011. They include bin Laden’s personal letters and exchanges with al Qaeda leaders. Though these documents are a molehill in relation to the mountain of evidence collected, their message is clear:
Osama bin Laden was very much focused on attacking America again.
While some would have preferred to believe that toward the end of his life, bin Laden was nothing more than a lonely man “sitting atop a crumbling network.” That was far from the case.
In light of the documents being released, FOX News’ Sean Hannity spoke with two guests very much interested in the intel:
#1 Former Navy SEAL Robert J. O’Neil—the man who not only shot and killed bin Laden, but also helped retrieve those documents.
#2 Weekly Standard Senior Writer, Steven Hayes—who has doggedly investigated what information—if any—the U.S. has gleaned from such documents…and why it’s taken so long.
Highlights from their exchange:
Hannity: “I’ve been told, there’s a lot more information than released here. One has to ask, when will we be able to see it, if ever?”
O’Neill: “This was proof that Osama bin Laden was still running al Qaeda…that he had big plans to include the caliphate. Our job was to go in and stop him, and we stopped him.”
Hannity: “Steven, you have been working on this hard for some three plus years. What can you tell us about these documents and what remains that we don’t know about?”
Hayes: “The documents that came out…they clearly show Osama bin Laden was in charge. He had command and control. These (120 documents released) are just a tiny fraction of the document haul. There are, we are told, 1 to 1.5 million documents taken out of the compound. We need to see a lot more. We need to know about al Qaeda’s relationship with Iran/the Iranian regime, with Pakistan, the Saudis… ”
Hannity: “Do we know that relationship (with Iran) existed? If there is that deep tie we didn’t know about, that would be huge.”
Hayes: “Huge. There’s no question there was a relationship. Particularly in the context of nuclear negotiations, the American public should see as much as possible.”
Hannity: “Rob, I’ve often wondered and never asked, why didn’t we take everybody in that compound out of that compound so they could be debriefed?”
O’Neill: “At the time, that was a matter of trying to get ourselves out with the amount of fuel we had and the limited resources we had. We grabbed everything that we could.”