Claim: Item documents contradictory statements Barack Obama made about the killing of Osama bin Laden.
FALSE
Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2012]
Here are the facts, you be the judge. These words were spoken by the same man in 2008 and then again in 2011.
OBAMA'S OWN WORDS TRAP HIM:
2008: "Navy Seal Team 6 is Cheney's private assassination team."
2011: "I put together Seal Team 6 to take out Bin Laden."
2008: "Bin Laden is innocent until proven guilty, and must be captured alive and given a fair trial."
2011: "I authorized Seal Team 6 to kill Bin Laden."
2008: "Guantanamo is entirely unnecessary, and the detainees should not be interrogated."
2011: "Vital intelligence was obtained from Guantanamo detainees that led to our locating Bin Laden."
I HOPE THIS GETS SENT AROUND TO PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT THE TRUTH!
Remind the people who vote, time to throw out the trash is nearly here. Those who have had freedom and lost it will never see it again!"
Variations: In April 2012 this item was prefaced with a statement attributed to a retired Marine Corps colonel named Ed Schreiber:
Ed Schreiber
Who killed Bin Laden? Here's a Marine's answer: "America is not at war, the US Marines are at war; America is at the mall." Let's be clear on this: OBAMA did NOT kill
Col. US MC (Ret.)
Origins: Shortly after terrorist mastermind Osama
2008: "Navy Seal Team 6 is Cheney's private assassination team." 2011: "I put together Seal Team 6 to take out Bin Laden."
There is no record documenting that Barack Obama ever, publicly or privately, referred to SEAL
2008: "Bin Laden is innocent until proven guilty, and must be captured alive and given a fair trial." 2011: "I authorized Seal Team 6 to kill Bin Laden."
As noted above, President Obama did state that the decision to go ahead with the Navy SEAL raid that took out Osama
if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out. We will kill
2008: "Guantanamo is entirely unnecessary, and the detainees should not be interrogated." 2011: "Vital intelligence was obtained from Guantanamo detainees that led to our locating Bin Laden."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised he would close the detention facility at Guantanamo, so one could therefore infer he thought the facility to be "unnecessary." However, he never said "detainees should not be interrogated," only that he would end the use of torture as a means of interrogation:
Military and intelligence experts agree that torture is not an effective means of interrogation, and our using it threatens American troops serving abroad. From both a moral standpoint and a practical standpoint, torture is wrong. Barack Obama will end the use torture without exception. He also will eliminate the practice of extreme rendition, where we outsource our torture to other countries.
As president, Barack Obama will close the detention facility at Guantanamo. He will reject the Military Commissions Act, which allowed the U.S. to circumvent Geneva Conventions in the handling of detainees. He will develop a fair and thorough process based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice to distinguish between those prisoners who should be prosecuted for their crimes, those who can’t be prosecuted but who can be held in a manner consistent with the laws of war, and those who should be released or transferred to their home countries.
Although it is possible "intelligence was obtained from Guantanamo detainees that led to our locating
Last updated: 14 May 2012