FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — President Obama on Friday privately thanked the U.S. Special Forces who killed Osama bin Laden. “Job well done,” he said of their daring raid.In a series of closed-door meetings, Mr. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with some of the Special Operations forces who went on the raid in Pakistan and with members of the assault force who supported the mission.The President later addressed more than 2,000 soldiers in a hangar at Fort Campbell. “I came here for a simple reason: to say thank you on behalf of all America. This has been a historic week in the life of our nation,” he said. “Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals, intelligence, military, over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.” The President said he had visited New York the day before to pay homage to the victims of bin Laden’s 2001 terrorist attacks and to the firefighters and police who responded to the catastrophe.“I promised that our nation will never forget those we lost that dark September day,” he said.“And today, here at Fort Campbell, I had the privilege of meeting the extraordinary Special Ops folks who honored that promise,” he said. “It was a chance for me to say, ‘On behalf of all Americans and people around the world, job well done. Job well done.’”During the meeting with the SEAL team, Mr. Obama awarded it and other units involved in the operation a Presidential Unit Citation, the White House said. The President also received a PowerPoint presentation on the raid, with maps, photos, and a scale model of the compound, from members of the assault force. Even the trained dog used in the raid attended.Speaking later to the troops of the 101st Airborne Division, he drew another connection, between the soldiers there and the commandos he called “America’s quiet professionals.”“Like all of us, they could have chosen a life of ease,” the President said. “But like you, they volunteered.”Describing the SEAL commandos as “battle hardened” and tirelessly trained, Mr. Obama said: “When I gave the order, they were ready. And in recent days, the world has learned just how ready they were.”While the SEAL team is not based at Fort Campbell, it is home of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The unit, which pilots aircraft for Special Operations troops, flew the helicopters that carried the commandos to bin Laden’s compound.Mr. Obama linked the killing of bin Laden to the broader war, saying it showed the progress the United States had made in disrupting and dismantling al-Qaeda. The soldiers of the 101st Airborne, he said, were pushing back insurgents and allowing Afghans to reclaim their towns. “The bottom line is this,” he said in a statement that drew the loudest cheers of the day, “our strategy is working, and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden.” Among the soldiers, there was satisfaction at the killing of bin Laden. Several said they were relieved, though most said they did not believe it would bring the Afghan war to an end any sooner.“It helps to know that we finally got him,” said Sgt. Marion Githens, who coordinated Army helicopters at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan before returning to the United States two days ago. But she said she was still ambivalent about the war. “Some days, you feel like it’s not going anywhere,” she said. “Other days, you think, OK, maybe we really can help these people.”Soldiers expressed gratitude Mr. Obama had come. “It’s tough coming home,” said Capt. Jimos Reese, a company commander. “It does mean a lot that the President cares about you.”The Pentagon recommended Mr. Obama come to Fort Campbell, a senior official said, because the 101st Airborne had taken significant casualties, having served in a Taliban stronghold south and west of Kandahar that is some of the most lethal terrain in Afghanistan.Mr. Obama acknowledged that, noting 125 soldiers from the base had died in Afghanistan. Some soldiers in the 101st Airborne, he said, had been deployed to Afghanistan three or four times.Among those who greeted the President at Fort Campbell was Vice Adm. William McRaven, a former commando in the SEALs who oversaw the raid as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. After Mr. Obama’s arrival, the President’s motorcade left immediately for low buildings on the far side of the airfield, where the meeting with the SEAL team and other units lasted more than an hour.The meetings were kept private to protect the identities of those involved and to shield them from becoming targets of terrorist reprisals. In his speech to the troops, Mr. Obama said the American military had “broken the Taliban’s momentum” to promote terrorism in Afghanistan.“We are ultimately going to defeat al-Qaeda,” the President said to loud cheers. But he said he didn’t want to fool anyone. “This continues to be a tough fight.”Soldiers were careful not to celebrate bin Laden’s death, voicing instead a sense of professional pride for the work of the commandos.“We’re not done,” said Major Luis Ortiz.

3:23 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hey, it’s good to be back with you all. I’ll tell you what.  I want to thank General Colt for accompanying me up here.  I get the honor of introducing the General.

I was back here on February 11th, to welcome home members of the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan -- 155 of you got off that plane in the middle of the night, and the only thing that was more exciting than seeing you getting off is watching your families watch you all get off.  So it’s an honor to be back here so soon.

I know many of you have just gotten home in the past few weeks -- so welcome home.  And I know from experience that your families want more than anything to spend time with you.  And so, every time I show up at a welcome home ceremony, I’m always worried about getting in the way.  Because I remember when my son came back home from Iraq after a year, there were all these ceremonies.  And I kept saying, hell, man, stop, I want to see my kid.  (Laughter.)

So, anyway, I get it.  So let me just say how much gratitude the President and I have, and all Americans do, for you all.  You guys have been in the fight from the beginning.  And the risk you’ve taken, the incredible sacrifices you’ve made, the comrades you’ve lost, the losses you’ve personally endured -- you’ve been in some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world.

I’ve been there a number of times, back up those damn mountains.  I’d get a helicopter to go down 9,800 feet, and all I got on is a vest -- a bulletproof vest and a helmet and I’m out of breath climbing up about 40 clicks -- 40 feet.  And you guys are up there, 60 to 80-pound packs running around.  God, you’re amazing.  You just are amazing.  I’m in awe of the job you do, in awe of the job you do.  (Applause.)

As I said back in February, I want to also thank your families.  They made sacrifices as well, those intangible sacrifices -- those missed births and those missed birthdays, those missed graduations, those missed -- an occasional funeral. Perhaps more than anything else, just being missed, just not having you home.

The famous poet -- there was a famous poet I like to quote, John Milton, who said, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” Your families serve as well.  And the rest of America owes your families a debt of gratitude as well.  (Applause.)  And so, to all the families that are listening, I want to say their service is as real as yours and it’s as appreciated.

To the soldiers here, you are the most capable warriors.  Let me say this without any fear of contradiction, you’re the most capable warriors in the history of the world.  There has never, never, never, never been a fighting force as capable as you are.

It’s my job today and my honor to talk a little bit about the man that I get to work with every day.  We’ve just got to spend time with the assaulters who got bin Laden.  (Applause.)

By the way, I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to tell you anyway -- the President is going to be mad I’m taking so long -- (laughter) -- but today was “Grandfather’s Day,” so I went by earlier this morning before I came out here to my granddaughter’s little spring play.  And after it’s all over she said, “Pop, come back to my classroom with me.”  I said, “I can’t, honey.”  She said, “Are you going someplace on Air Force Two?”  I said, “Yeah, I am, babe.”  She said, “Where are you going?”  I said, going to -- true story -- I said, “I’m going to Fort Campbell.”  I said, “We’re going to see the guys out there who got Osama bin Laden.” Absolutely true story.  She said, “Pop!” and then she grabbed a little friend of hers and she said,  “My Pop is going out to see the whales.”  (Laughter.)  Not the SEALs, the whales  (Laughter.) Because if they’re that good they got to be big, man.  They got to be big.  (Laughter.)  Well, you guys are the gorillas, I’ll tell you.

I want to tell you, look, I’ve watched -- I’ve been around a while with eight Presidents, so I’ve watched Presidents make some difficult decisions.  They’ve all had to make difficult decisions.  But sitting in every meeting getting ready and planning for this mission and assault, for the mission to get bin Laden, I saw something extraordinary.  I saw a President who was told the odds -- told the odds weren’t but much more than 50/50 that he’d be there and we could do this, but they were considerably less than 100 percent.

And I, along with the all the rest of his national security team and Secretary of Defense, stayed -- everyone else, we sat around there and he asked our advice and we gave him our advice, and we told him told him a little this and that.  And finally, he just looked at all of us and said, I got faith in the -- I got faith in these guys.

He walked off on his own without anybody giving him any guarantees at all and he decided -- because he believed in not only the SEALs, but believes in all of you.  He has absolute total faith in all of you.  And he made that determination, and it was an amazing thing to watch.  But it was because he had the absolute confidence that you were there.

And so he decided, when he got into office, because of the fight you all were in from the beginning, that the number one priority was to get Osama bin Laden.  And he knew the risks, he knew there were significant risks, and more importantly, special operations risks to the people who were risking their lives getting there.  But he didn’t hesitate, nor did your guys.

Bob Gates said something interesting.  I’ve known Bob for a long time.  He said, it was one of the gutsiest decisions I’ve ever seen made and one of the gutsiest raids.  This is going to go down in history, what happened.  This is going to go down in history.

And here to introduce your Commander-in-Chief, the guy that I’m proud to serve with, is one of the country’s leading warriors himself, Deputy Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division, General Jeffrey Colt.  Ladies and gentlemen, General Colt.  (Applause.)

GENERAL COLT:  Thank you, sir.

I can only try to tell you today just how proud of you that this Division and this local community are.  But more importantly, today, you’re going to get to hear from the Commander-in-Chief just how appreciative he is of all of your service and your sacrifices.

Please join me in this great privilege of welcoming the President of the United States, Barack Obama.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Fort Campbell!  (Applause.)  101st Airborne Division—Air Assault, hello!  (Applause.)

General Colt, thank you for that great introduction -- it was great because it was brief.  (Laughter.)  More importantly, thank you for the extraordinary leadership that you’ve shown here at one of the largest Army bases in America.  (Applause.)

And let me just say, I make a lot of decisions; one of the earliest and best decisions I made was choosing one of the finest Vice Presidents in our history -- Joe Biden, right here.  (Applause.)

Chaplain Miller, thank you for the beautiful invocation.

I want to thank General Colt for welcoming me here today, along with your great Command Sergeant Major, Wayne St. Louis.  (Applause.)  The Quartet and 101st Division Band.  (Applause.)  All these troopers behind me —- you look great.  (Applause.)  You noticed they kind of hesitated.  (Laughter.)  

We got a lot of folks in the house.  We’ve got military police and medical personnel.  We’ve got the Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group.  I think we’ve got a few Air Force here.  Ohh -- (laughter.)  Well, we thought we did.  There they go -- okay.  Come on.  (Applause.)  And, of course, the legendary Screaming Eagles.  (Applause.)  And although they’re not in the audience, I want to acknowledge the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment —- the Night Stalkers -— for their extraordinary service.  (Applause.)

Now, I’ve got to say, some of you are starting to look a little familiar -- because last December, when we were at Bagram, I was out there to thank you for your service, especially during the holidays.  And we had a great rally, a big crowd -- it seemed like everybody was there from the 101st.

And since then, I know we’ve had quite a few homecomings.  The Rakkasans.  (Applause.)  Destiny.  (Applause.)  Strike.  (Applause.)  Bastogne.  (Applause.)  And some of the Division Headquarters —- the Gladiators.  (Applause.)  On behalf of a grateful nation —- welcome home.  (Applause.)   

Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with General Campbell, Command Sergeant Major Schroeder, and all of the Screaming Eagles and troops that are still risking their lives in theater.  And I’m so pleased that Ann Campbell and Marla Schroeder, and some of the inspiring military spouses are here.  Where are they at?  Right over there.  (Applause.)  We are grateful to you.  God bless you.  There they are.  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  This happens to be Military Spouse Appreciation Day.  (Applause.)  And we honor your service as well.

Now, I didn’t come here to make a really long speech.  I know you're hearing that.  (Laughter.)  It’s like, yeah, it’s hot!  (Laughter.)  What I really wanted to do was come down and shake some hands.  I came here for a simple reason —- to say thank you on behalf of America.  This has been an historic week in the life of our nation.  (Applause.)  Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals -— intelligence, military —- over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.  (Applause.)

Yesterday, I traveled to New York City, and, along with some of our 9/11 families, laid a wreath at Ground Zero in memory of their loved ones.  I met with the first responders —- the firefighters, the police officers, the Port Authority officers —- who lost so many of their own when they rushed into those burning towers.  I promised that our nation will never forget those we lost that dark September day.   

And today, here at Fort Campbell, I had the privilege of meeting the extraordinary Special Ops folks who honored that promise.  It was a chance for me to say —- on behalf of all Americans and people around the world —- “Job well done.”  Job well done.  (Applause.)

They’re America’s “quiet professionals” -- because success demands secrecy.  But I will say this.  Like all of you, they could have chosen a life of ease.  But like you, they volunteered.  They chose to serve in a time of war, knowing they could be sent into harm’s way.  They trained for years.  They’re battle-hardened.  They practiced tirelessly for this mission.  And when I gave the order, they were ready.

Now, in recent days, the whole world has learned just how ready they were.  These Americans deserve credit for one of the greatest intelligence military operations in our nation’s history.  But so does every person who wears America’s uniform, the finest military the world has ever known.  (Applause.)  And that includes all of you men and women of 101st.  (Applause.)

You have been on the frontlines of this fight for nearly 10 years.  You were there in those early days, driving the Taliban from power, pushing al Qaeda out of its safe havens.  Over time, as the insurgency grew, you went back for, in some cases, a second time, a third time, a fourth time.

When the decision was made to go into Iraq, you were there, too, making the longest air assault in history, defeating a vicious insurgency, ultimately giving Iraqis the chance to secure their democracy.  And you’ve been at the forefront of our new strategy in Afghanistan.

Sending you -- more of you -- into harm’s way is the toughest decision that I’ve made as Commander-in-Chief.  I don’t make it lightly.  Every time I visit Walter Reed, every time I visit Bethesda, I’m reminded of the wages of war.  But I made that decision because I know that this mission was vital to the security of the nation that we all love.

And I know it hasn’t been easy for you and it hasn’t, certainly, been easy for your families.  Since 9/11, no base has deployed more often, and few bases have sacrificed more than you.  We see it in our heroic wounded warriors, fighting every day to recover, and who deserve the absolute best care in the world.  (Applause.)  We see it in the mental and emotional toll that’s been taken -- in some cases, some good people, good soldiers who’ve taken their own lives.  So we’re going to keep saying to anybody who is hurting out there, don’t give up.  You’re not alone.  Your country needs you.  We’re here for you to keep you strong.

And most of all, we see the price of this war in the 125 soldiers from Fort Campbell who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice during this deployment to Afghanistan.  And every memorial ceremony —- every “Eagle Remembrance” —- is a solemn reminder of the heavy burdens of war, but also the values of loyalty and duty and honor that have defined your lives.

So here’s what each of you must know.  Because of your service, because of your sacrifices, we’re making progress in Afghanistan.  In some of the toughest parts of the country, General Campbell and the 101st are taking insurgents and their leaders off the battlefield and helping Afghans reclaim their communities.

Across Afghanistan, we’ve broken the Taliban’s momentum.  In key regions, we’ve seized the momentum, pushing them out of their strongholds.  We’re building the capacity of Afghans, partnering with communities and police and security forces, which are growing stronger.

And most of all, we’re making progress in our major goal, our central goal in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that is disrupting and dismantling -- and we are going to ultimately defeat al Qaeda.  (Applause.)  We have cut off their head and we will ultimately defeat them.  (Applause.)

Even before this week’s operation, we’ve put al Qaeda’s leadership under more pressure than at any time since 9/11, on both sides of the border.  So the bottom line is this:  Our strategy is working, and there’s no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden.  (Applause.)

But I don’t want to fool you.  This continues to be a very tough fight.  You know that.  But because of this progress, we’re moving into a new phase.  In the coming months, we’ll start transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces. Starting this summer, we’ll begin reducing American forces.  As we transition, we’ll build a long-term partnership with the Afghan people, so that al Qaeda can never again threaten America from that country.

And, as your Commander-in-Chief, I’m confident that we’re going to succeed in this mission.  The reason I’m confident is because in you I see the strength of America’s military -- (applause) -- and because in recent days we’ve all seen the resilience of the American spirit.

Now, this week I received a letter from a girl in New Jersey named Payton Wall.  She wrote to me on Monday after the news that bin Laden had been killed, and she explained how she still remembers that September morning almost 10 years ago.  She was only four years old.  Her father, Glen, was trapped inside the World Trade Center.  And so, in those final, frantic moments, knowing he might not make it, he called home.  And Payton remembers watching her mom sobbing as she spoke to her husband and then passed the phone to Payton.  And in words that were hard to hear but which she’s never forgotten, he said to her, “I love you Payton, and I will always be watching over you.”     

So yesterday, Payton, her mom, and her sister, Avery, joined me at Ground Zero.  And now Payton is 14.  These past 10 years have been tough for her.  In her letter, she said, “Ever since my father died, I lost a part of me that can never be replaced.”  And she describes her childhood as a “little girl struggling to shine through all the darkness in her life.”

But every year, more and more, Payton is shining through.  She’s playing a lot of sports, including lacrosse and track, just like her dad.  She’s doing well in school.  She’s mentoring younger students.  She’s looking ahead to high school in the fall.  And so, yesterday she was with us —- a strong, confident young woman -— honoring her father’s memory, even as she set her sights on the future.

And for her and for all of us, this week has been a reminder of what we’re about as a people.  It’s easy to forget sometimes, especially in times of hardship, times of uncertainty.  We’re coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression; haven’t fully recovered from that.  We’ve made enormous sacrifices in two wars.  But the essence of America -- the values that have defined us for more than 200 years -- they don’t just endure; they are stronger than ever.

We’re still the America that does the hard things, that does the great things.  We’re the nation that always dared to dream.  We’re the nation that’s willing to take risks -- revolutionaries breaking free from an empire; pioneers heading West to settle new frontiers; innovators building railways and laying the highways and putting a man on the surface of the moon.

We are the nation -- and you’re the Division -- that parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day, freeing a continent, liberating concentration camps.  We’re the nation that, all those years ago, sent your Division to a high school in Arkansas so that nine black students could get an education.  That was you.  Because we believed that all men are created equal; that everyone deserves a chance to realize their God-given potential.

We’re the nation that has faced tough times before -- tougher times than these.  But when our Union frayed, when the Depression came, when our harbor was bombed, when our country was attacked on that September day, when disaster strikes like that tornado that just ripped through this region, we do not falter.  We don’t turn back.  We pick ourselves up and we get on with the hard task of keeping our country strong and safe.

See, there’s nothing we can’t do together, 101st, when we remember who we are, at that is the United States of America.  (Applause.)  When we remember that, no problem is too hard and no challenge is too great.

And that is why I am so confident that, with your brave service, America’s greatest days are still to come.  (Applause.)

God bless you.  God bless the 101st.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
3:47 P.M. CDT

Listen to the Audio

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to those special military units that brought down Osama bin Laden.

Ray Suarez has that.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Fort Campbell!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

RAY SUAREZ: The end of an eventful week found the president praising troops at Fort Campbell, Ky., after a very public victory in the long war against al-Qaida.

BARACK OBAMA: Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals -- intelligence, military -- over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

RAY SUAREZ: But elsewhere on the sprawling base, well beyond the cameras' reach, the president earlier met with members of the special operations team that killed bin Laden.

BARACK OBAMA: It was a chance for me to say, on behalf of all Americans and people around the world, job well done.

RAY SUAREZ: Among them, operators from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, often called "SEAL Team Six," and pilots from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, nicknamed "Night Stalkers."

Along with comrades from other so-called special missions units, like the Army's Delta Force, they work for the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC. After the disastrous 1980 attempt to free hostages in Iran, JSOC was formed to use the top special forces units of the U.S. military and today is a vital tool in the American arsenal.

MARC AMBINDER, "National Journal": This wasn't the first time or fifth or 10th or 20th time that JSOC has -- has conducted secret ops in Pakistan without -- without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.

RAY SUAREZ: "National Journal"'s Marc Ambinder writes about intelligence and national security matters, and to the extent possible, JSOC.

MARC AMBINDER: Since 9/11, the units have turned into an army, a secret army within an army. They have incorporated intelligence elements, logistical elements, technological and development elements. And they really became the tip of the spear in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

RAY SUAREZ: Since 9/11, JSOC has handled among the highest-profile and sensitive operations.

In 2003, JSOC operatives killed Saddam Hussein's sons and captured the Iraqi leader himself. In 2006, JSOC tracked down al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike. And, in 2009, snipers from SEAL Team Six killed Somali pirates holding an American mariner off the Horn of Africa.

But JSOC's tactics in Iraq also led to revelations of detainee abuse and torture by American forces under the command of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who later led the war in Afghanistan.

Over the last decade of war in Afghanistan, then in Iraq, JSOC has quadrupled in size, from 1,000 to 4,000 personnel, as it's been asked to perform more and more tasks.

CIA Director Panetta said Tuesday on the NewsHour the high operational tempo gave policy-makers confidence they could do this job.

LEON PANETTA, CIA director: These teams conduct these kinds of operations two and three times a night in Afghanistan.

RAY SUAREZ: JSOC now works intimately with the CIA on both intelligence and operational matters. Though it operates in near-total secrecy, its missions are national security priorities.

And that has created a quandary, says Ambinder.

MARC AMBINDER: Let's be very clear what happened. The U.S. violated the sovereignty of a country to carry out a targeted assassination of someone. Now, 98 percent of us, including myself, think it was exactly the right thing to do -- right thing to do. But it absolutely has the potential to and probably should increase the public debate, or at least the public's knowledge, of this entity called JSOC.

RAY SUAREZ: For more on special operations and the SEALs, we turn to former SEAL Team Six member retired Navy Commander Ryan Zinke. He's now a Montana state senator. And former Army Special Forces officer retired Col. Kalev Sepp, he also served in civilian special operations posts in the Pentagon. He's now an assistant professor at the Navy Postgraduate School.

And, Senator, let me start with you. Just a short time ago, Vice President Biden called the units that pulled off this operation in Afghanistan some of the most capable fighting forces in the history of the world.

Who are they? How do you end up training, being picked for one of these units?

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE (RET.), U.S. Navy SEAL: What you are seeing is, is two tier-one forces, which really represent the best of the Navy and the Army.

On the SEAL side, it takes five years to -- in order to become -- when a young man says, I want to be a Navy SEAL, that process alone is a long and arduous journey. It represents about a 90 percent attrition rate. And then, when you're finally a member of a SEAL team, is that you will have a couple deployments under your belt, show you that are a superior performer, and then you are either asked or request an interview with SEAL Team Six, at which you go to another selection course, of which 50 percent fail.

So, really, when are you talking about the caliber of these individuals, both in dedication and skill level, it really represents the best of the best.

RAY SUAREZ: And by the time you become a member of that team, I guess you are no longer a real youngster either. How -- what is the average age in a unit like Team Six?

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE: Well, we used to call it the old man club. When I was active, it was -- we were about 34, 35 years of age on average.

But, you know, what you have to understand, too, is these guys have been fighting a war for over 10 years. They are hardened combat veterans. They have -- they have conducted operations in hundreds of compounds. And they are experienced. They know what they are doing. This is a routine operation and -- you know, for these guys anyway. They know what they are doing. They're pros.

RAY SUAREZ: Col. Sepp, what can these units do that conventionally trained forces can't or are not assigned to do?

COL. KALEV SEPP (RET.), U.S. Army: Well, Sen. Zinke answered part of that question in describing how they are selected for these missions.

There are simply operations, military operations, that are directed by the president that require a very high degree of assurance of success and to minimize risk -- there will always be risk -- by -- putting together people and teams that -- you know, that are physically powerful, highly intelligent, and then have a body of experience and maturity that attend to that, and then are connected to all the support systems, the aviation units that move them, the intelligence structures that -- that prepare the -- their understanding of their target for them.

These are truly national mission forces.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, let's -- I would like to get some more examples from both of you of the kinds of things that these men are taught to do that conventionally trained people just wouldn't learn in basic training, as generations of American service people have experienced.

Colonel?

COL. KALEV SEPP: The historical piece would be -- explain some of this.

The Son Tay raid into North Vietnam in 1970 -- that is the idea of being able to go deep into the -- you know, the heart of an enemy country right next to their capital and attempt a rescue of prisoners that are held at a prison camp is the -- is the modern model for the capabilities that a -- that these mission -- that these special mission units are supposed to be able to provide for the president.

RAY SUAREZ: Senator, some examples?

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE: When you look at weapons of mass destruction or hostage takeover, Achille Lauro, or any of those high-profile missions where you cannot fail, I think that this is the force. This is the force the president would call on.

They are constantly in training. They are war-hardened. They are a very expensive force to run as well. I mean, the resources that are brought to bear with these forces are -- are phenomenal.

And the other thing to understand is, is that for every one SEAL that was on the ground in the compound, there's 200 or 300 supporting cast members that are also doing the job, from intelligence collection, to bringing the fuel, loading the ammunition. I mean, these guys have a lot of great people behind them that are supporting the effort.

RAY SUAREZ: Senator, are you surprised at all that we're even having this conversation? In this week's "TIME" magazine, there is a quote to a report from a former SEAL, "I can't say a word about Team Six. There is no Team Six."

And, yet, here are you and I talking about it.

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE: Well, I was, quite frankly, shocked at the early confirmation by senior officials that used the term SEAL Team Six.

And in previous operations, it's been special operations. And, occasionally, you will break it down to Army Special Forces or Navy Special Forces. But I think this is the first time that we have had early confirmation of SEAL Team Six.

And, of course, when that happens is -- the public wants to know, who is SEAL Team Six? And, of course, Richard Marcinko in books, and then, pretty soon, with the technology available today, you are able to find, you know, Sen. Ryan Zinke in Whitefish, Mont., as a former member.

RAY SUAREZ: Colonel, do the JSOC units from the various branches of the services work together at all, or, under JSOC, do they remain very much Navy, Army, Marine, distinct units?

COL. KALEV SEPP: Oh, the strength of the Joint Special Operations Command is the -- is the cohesion that these units have in working with each other.

Elements of it tend to be pure only in the sense of where they are recruited from and formed. The -- there is an Army special mission unit. There is this Navy SEAL special mission unit. There is aviation units from the Army and Air Force.

But in the -- in the -- over the past 10 years, the duration and intensity and demands of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other locations around the world, in the counterterrorism missions that these special mission units have, have driven them to work together as a whole, as a complete team.

RAY SUAREZ: I'm glad you brought up the operational tempo, because it is reported that there is very high demand for the skills in -- that are embedded in JSOC.

We have a long tradition of civilian oversight of the military in this country. Is that weakened at all by a unit that seems a little bit beyond the reach of that civilian oversight?

COL. KALEV SEPP: The unit is under very direct control of the national executive authority of the United States.

It is -- they are -- although they maintain a very tight classification of, you know, the capabilities of the unit, who the membership are, what their tools and weapons and support capabilities are, in fact, they're -- they're under very tight review and control. And the evidence of that is the president's direct role in ordering this mission to capture or kill bin Laden inside Pakistan.

RAY SUAREZ: Sen. Zinke, same question.

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE: Well, I don't think so.

I think the technology is moving so rapidly forward. One is, you do need a force like this. And the demands on special operations forces have increased and will continue to increase. But when you look at the complexity of the operations that face these troops, I mean, it's no surprise that you do need years of experience.

And the fact that the president of the United States can look and observe on operations, you know, in foreign countries down to detail about almost a room-to-room clearance, well, you know, I think should give one pause, both that, A., you can command and control it from further away, and, B., that the level of scrutiny, I think, has never been more intense and more relevant and clear in operations that are being conducted.

RAY SUAREZ: Sen. Zinke, Col. Sepp, gentlemen, thank you both.

COL. KALEV SEPP: Thank you.

CMDR. RYAN ZINKE: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Brimming with pride, President Obama on Friday met and honored the U.S. commandos he sent after terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, saluting them on behalf of America and the world and capping an extraordinary week for the country. “Job well done,” the President declared.Mr. Obama addressed roughly 2,000 troops after meeting privately with the full assault team — Army helicopter pilots and Navy SEAL commandos — who executed the dangerous raid on bin Laden’s compound and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan early Monday. Their identities are kept secret.Speaking to a sweltering hangar full of cheering soldiers, Mr. Obama said: “The terrorist leader that struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.”Al-Qaeda will be defeated, he promised from this Army post, whose troops have sustained heavy losses in an Afghanistan war that has grown on his watch.Fresh warnings emerged, though, underscoring Mr. Obama’s caution that the fight against terrorists still rages.The Afghan Taliban said the death of bin Laden would only boost morale of insurgents battling the United States and its NATO allies. Al-Qaeda itself vowed revenged, confirming bin Laden’s death for the first time but saying that Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness.”Soldiers at Fort Campbell were careful not to celebrate bin Laden’s death, voicing instead a sense of professional pride for the work of the commandos.“We’re not done,” said Major Luis Ortiz, who was at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan when Mr. Obama visited the troops there last December. “We cut off the head of the snake, but the snake is still wiggling around.”Mr. Obama called the bin Laden raid one of the most successful intelligence and military operations in America’s history, and said he had to come to extend personal thanks. Vice President Joe Biden joined Mr. Obama in a briefing with the mission members and then emerged to put it bluntly: “We just got to spend time with the assaulters who got bin Laden.”Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with members of the bin Laden mission team a day earlier to express his admiration and appreciation, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.Mr. Obama’s appearance at Fort Campbell culminated a week-long response to the demise of the long-hunted al-Qaeda leader, from the White House to Ground Zero in New York to Fort Campbell, home of the famous 101st Airborne Division. The division has been integral to Mr. Obama’s war plan in Afghanistan, and many of its combat teams have returned recently from tours of duty.The week gave a political and emotional lift to the president; in turn, he called for the unity that has eluded him in divisive Washington for most of his term.“This week has been a reminder of what we’re about as a people,” the President said. “The essence of America, the values that have defined us for more than 200 years, they don’t just endure — they’re stronger than ever.”With his comments here, Mr. Obama offered a counterpoint to a growing cry within his party and even among some Republicans that the time has come to withdraw from Afghanistan. Mr. Obama will start drawing troops home as promised this summer but has signaled no change in mission.The day also illustrated Mr. Obama’s governing life as it has been and as it is likely to be going ahead.A favorable jobs report still showed the challenges he faces sustaining an economic recovery. And his address at an Indianapolis transmission plant — before he flew to Fort Campbell — aimed to promote his energy policy just as high gas prices, as the pPesident put it to workers, “have been eating away at your paychecks.”At Fort Campbell, the President and Vice President first met with the men who raided the compound itself, probably including those who killed bin Laden.Mr. Obama was then briefed on how the operation was carried out, by those who coordinated the attack from command centers in Afghanistan, and in other undisclosed parts of the region.That team was headed by Vice Admiral William McRaven, a Navy SEAL himself and head of the military’s elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command.Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden then met with the entire SEAL team unit that carried out the raid — both the two dozen troops who stormed the compound, and roughly the same number who circled above as backup, in case the SEALs on the ground met overwhelming force.The President also met with the air crews from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, who flew the SEALs to the mission, as well as Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group.It’s not known whether the Green Berets were involved in the bin Laden mission, but the 5th Special Forces Group gave rise to the Horse Soldiers, who first invaded Afghanistan right after 9/11.The President awarded the units involved in the raid a Presidential Unit Citation — the highest such honor that can be given to a unit — in recognition of their extraordinary service and achievement.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Behind closed doors, President Barack Obama was bringing his personal thanks Friday to some of the secretive special operations forces who stormed Osama bin Laden's compound.

The president was meeting with some of the Navy SEALS who carried out the operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and the elite helicopter crews who flew them in. He was then to speak to troops recently back from Afghanistan, where the fighting and search for an endgame continues despite the death of the terrorist who masterminded the killing of nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.

Hundreds of soldiers clad in fatigues milled about in front of an enormous American flag as they waited in a hangar for Obama to arrive. The mood looked celebratory as troops wearing combat boots broke out occasional dance moves. But Obama has said there's no need to "spike the ball" and revel in bin Laden's death, and presidential spokesman Jay Carney said his comments would reflect that attitude.

"I don't expect you'll hear the president spiking the ball and gloating when he speaks to troops returning from Afghanistan," Carney told reporters traveling with the president Friday on Air Force One. "The point he will make is that while the successful mission against Osama bin Laden was an historic and singular event, it doesn't by any means mean that we are finished with the war against al-Qaida. The fight goes on."

That was underscored by a new al-Qaida statement released Friday that threatened retaliation for bin Laden's death and said that Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness." Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

"We are aware of it. We've seen the reports," Carney said. "What it does obviously is acknowledge the obvious, which is that Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday night by U.S. forces. ... We're quite aware of the potential for (terrorist) activity and are
highly vigilant on that matter for that reason."

Fort Campbell is home to the famous 101st Airborne Division, and many of its combat teams have returned recently from tours of duty in Afghanistan. But another draw for Obama is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the highly specialized Army unit that carried Navy SEALs to bin Laden's compound in Pakistan five days ago.

Carney would say only that Obama planned to meet privately with "special operators" involved in the bin Laden raid. But a U.S. official briefed on the trip confirmed that the president would be meeting with some of the SEALs who were on the mission, in addition to the helicopter crew members who flew them there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Obama's visit to Fort Campbell, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, comes a day after he traveled to New York to lay a wreath at ground zero and talk with firefighters, police officers and family members of those killed on Sept. 11.

At the same time the president was turning his focus back to the rest of his agenda and the country's struggling economy. Before arriving in Kentucky, Obama visited a plant in Indianapolis that produces transmission systems for hybrid vehicles.

He used the stop to promote his clean-energy agenda and welcome news that the economy added more than 200,000 jobs last month. "We are regaining our footing," Obama said at Allison Transmission.

April's labor market report marked the third straight month in which more than 200,000 jobs were created, the best three-month hiring spree in five years and a sign of increasing confidence in the private sector.

"We've made this progress at a time when our economy's been facing some serious headwinds," the president told workers, citing high gas prices and the earthquake in Japan.

"There will undoubtedly be some more challenges ahead, but the fact is that we are still making progress," he said. "And that proves how resilient the American economy is, and how resilient the American worker is, and that we can take a hit and we can keep on going forward."

Today at Ft. Campbell President Obama will privately thank some of the participants of Sunday’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, including Navy SEALs and members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the helicopter pilots known as “Night Stalkers” who flew the mission.

• Only seven areas out of 379 back electoral reform
• Turnout highest in Scotland
• Mandelson says poll centred on Clegg
• AV results map

The Liberal Democrats faced a further blow tonight as polling results showed that the UK is on course to emphatically reject AV as a system to elect MPs.

On a day in which hundreds of Lib Dems lost their seats in the local and devolved elections, the party had its hopes of changing the electoral system dashed. Early results showed the no camp had won in all but seven of the 379 areas to have declared so far. The overall majority so far was put at 68.3% to the yes camp's 31.7%.

Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister, conceded that the party's attempt to replace the first-past-the-post system with the alternative vote had failed, with the no camp outperforming the opinion polls by some distance in the UK's first national referendum since 1975.

Alexander, who was involved in drafting the coalition deal in which the Lib Dems stipulated the referendum as part of their deal with the Conservatives, said: "It looks like we are going to lose quite handsomely. It will be a victory for the no campaign. We wanted to have a referendum. We wanted to give the people the chance to vote on transforming our voting system, helping to put more power in people's hands.

"It is disappointing that people have chosen to vote the way they have. I think there is a whole number of reasons for that, but I think the most important thing is to accept with good grace the verdict of the people and say, 'That's that'."

The Electoral Commission said 18.6 million votes had been cast across the UK, a provisional turnout of 41.8%, although this figure does not include Northern Ireland.

With such a strong showing for the no campaign, the postmortem has started, with some campaigners saying the vote has put back electoral reform for a generation.

Lord Mandelson, a former Labour minister and a keen proponent of electoral reform, said AV supporters had paid a "big price" for staging the national poll on the same day as the first elections since the general election. He also criticised the yes campaign for failing to do the "groundwork" and paid tribute to David Cameron for some "very bold leadership".

The prime minister had "mobilised" his support effectively, even at the expense of coalition unity, said Mandelson.

Describing himself as disappointed but "entirely unsurprised" by results coming in, Mandelson said: "Nobody could have foreseen the extent to which the whole vote over the last 24 hours has become a referendum on the Liberal Democrats in general, and Nick Clegg in particular."

He added: "I think that the public felt the thing had come out of the blue as the result of some arrangement between the coalition partners and they didn't see why AV was such a big deal. I don't think they felt AV was the solution to many of the problems they feel are in our political system."

The highest turnout (50.7%) was in Scotland, which held the devolved Scottish elections on the same day. The lowest turnout was in London (35%).

Predictions that the capital would produce a turnout as low as 15% – being the only region without other elections taking place – proved wide of the mark, with more than twice that number casting their vote.

Some of the first results in the AV referendum came from areas held by Lib Dems at Westminster – all of them delivering an emphatic rejection of the constitutional change that the party has championed. The Isles of Scilly was first to declare, with 65.3% support voting no, followed by the Lib Dem-held Orkney Islands, with 60.2% for no. The no campaign won all of the first nine areas to declare, with a thumping 70.27% to the yes campaign's 29.73%.

Jeremy Browne, a Lib Dem minister, acknowledged the yes campaign had failed to make "a sufficiently compelling case".

Browne told the BBC: "It already looks like there is a pattern in place. I do think there is an onus on the people who want to make a change to make the case for the change, and the yes campaign ultimately didn't make a sufficiently compelling case."

The turnout figures were published amid bitter recriminations within the Lib Dem camp over the tactics of their Tory coalition partners leading the no campaign.

Lord Ashdown, a former Lib Dem leader, who appeared effectively to concede defeat in the AV battle, said the Tories were also guilty of "bloody stupidity" for failing to prevent the no campaign – mostly funded by its supporters – targeting Nick Clegg personally.

"I don't put that in the box marked betrayal but I put it in the box marked bloody stupidity. And the truth is there are consequences for that," he said.

Moving his sights toward Cameron, Ashdown said any other prime minister would have dissociated himself from the "lies" produced by the no campaign.

"This is a triumph for the regiment of lies. We live with pretty strenuous political campaigns in Britain, but these were downright lies," he told the Guardian.

"David Cameron is the prime minister. He sets the tone of politics in this country. It is an unhappy fact that when he was asked to dissociate himself from a campaign that was run on the basis of personalisation and personal attacks, and messages that were far more than some subtle bending of the truth, he refused to do that."

Cameron sought to build bridges by insisting earlier that there would be "no celebrating, no congratulations" if the British public rejects AV.

He said he wanted a "clear result" but tried to play down the implications for the coalition, saying: "Whether [the result] is a 'Yes' or a 'No' there will be no celebrating, there will be no congratulations, the issue will be settled and we can get on with the vital work we're doing as a coalition, governing in the national interest."

But the Lib Dems signalled that tensions were far from resolved. Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, said there was "extraordinary anger" about the Tory behaviour in the no campaign "from top to bottom of the Liberal Democrats".

The crushing no vote follows large-scale Lib Dem losses in local and devolved elections, which Clegg branded "a real knock".

The Lib Dem deputy leader, Simon Hughes, told the BBC that the no camp had conducted a "fundamentally fallacious campaign" which would affect the coalition.

Hughes said that the five-year coalition deal would not change, but he added: "It will mean, from now on, we are very clear that we will keep to what the coalition has agreed in the coalition agreement – that other stuff will not be allowed in as policy unless our party has agreed to it, and I guess that the same will apply for the Tory party."

He said the party would now assert its independence in Westminster by extracting concessions on issues such as House of Lords reform and the expansion of private healthcare provision in the NHS. Hughes told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "Lords reform is a done deal – that was part of the coalition agreement.

"NHS reform is absolutely the area that is now in the frontline. It is absolutely clear that what has been proposed in [Health Secretary] Andrew Lansley's Bill is not what was agreed in the coalition agreement and is not what our party members and supporters have agreed to.

"That will be changed and if it is not sufficiently changed it will not happen."

He dismissed suggestions that Clegg's position might be challenged, insisting the Lib Dem leader was "personally and politically as strong as when he joined the government".

But Tory backbencher Mark Field said Cameron's position had been "very much strengthened" by the results and the prime minister would not be in a mood to make "undue concessions" to Liberal Democrats following their "catastrophic" showing.

Field told the PM show: "Clearly there will be an effort to try and shore up Nick Clegg's position, but the idea that there will be a whole lot of policy concessions allowing the liberals to look good in the months to come is way, way short of the mark."

The final AV result will be formally announced by the Electoral Commission later tonight.

Osama bin Laden's death prompted celebrations in the US but elsewhere the response has been more sceptical

Expert commentators Colonel Tim Collins, former Royal Irish Regiment commander and counterinsurgency expert, AC Grayling, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow, and Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral give their views on the killing of Osama bin Laden.

1 Do you have any concerns over how the operation was handled?

AG I have concerns over the fact that it seems Osama bin Laden was shot out of hand rather than arrested and put on trial. The US and its Nato allies are meant to stand for due process in law and proper legal procedures. For no doubt very justifiable, pragmatic reasons, it was just an assassination.

TC No. It's achieved its aims so it was a successful mission.

MS Difficult to know because the story keeps changing.

GF It looks more and more like an assassination. So yes, it concerns me. They didn't want to see the rule of law being followed and Bin Laden put on trial.

2 Was Bin Laden a legitimate target for execution?

AG He was certainly a legitimate target for arrest and trial and I have no doubt that the pragmatists everywhere will say that if he had been put on trial it would have been a focus for terrorism and martyrdom and arrests. From the practical point of view you can understand the motivation but it's very hard to excuse it.

TC You have the most dangerous man in the world and the expectation that he is unlikely to want to be taken alive. You've a duty of care towards the people you send. They should be in no doubt — and if in doubt — they should take him on, so I think they did the right thing.

MS He was definitely a legitimate target for capture.

GF I don't support the death penalty. I'm against it.

3 Was it legitimate to send US forces into Pakistan without telling its government?

AG Given the fact that the Pakistani authorities have been very ambiguous in the war against terror, it's pretty obvious that part of their army and certainly part of their intelligence services have been supporting the Taliban and al-Qaida. It makes it very difficult and if the Americans had told the Pakistanis that they were going to go in, they probably would have alerted Bin Laden and he might have got away. From a practical point of view you can understand what happened, but from the international law point of view, of course they should have consulted the Pakistani authorities.

TC I'm not sure that [no consultation] happened, despite what the Pakistani and US governments say.

MS I'm sure the US have carried out other operations in Pakistan before without telling the government and the Pakistan government will allow them because they receive such large US funding.

GF Let's put that under the umbrella of realpolitik.

4 If he was unarmed, as has been reported, was it wrong for him to have been killed?

AG Yes, absolutely. In the idea, if we are going to live by our principles, we should do the tough thing — the harder thing — which is to arrest and put on trial. You don't just shoot down an unarmed person — that's what terrorists do and you don't want to emulate them.

TC I don't think he was killed for the sake of killing, in the same way that [the IRA's] Danny McCann in Gibraltar was shot. With someone who has taken as many innocent lives as Bin Laden and McCann, why wouldn't they take your life when confronted? Caution must be the watchword and unless he had made absolutely clear he was unarmed and did not wish to resist, then the safe thing to do would be to neutralise a target like that and kill him.

MS For a lot of people revenge would mean death, no matter how. Bin Laden had become de-humanised; yet he had also become more than human – and the US wanted to get rid of that symbol.

GF If he posed some threat to the people who were trying to arrest him, then I could understand that. If he did not, then it was wrong to shoot him.

5 Is it acceptable that other people were killed and wounded in the operation?

AG Only if they were putting up armed resistance and it was a case of self-defence. But it looks like there were women and children involved as well. This is the use of force in response to completely unbridled atrocities by al-Qaida. It just shows you Thucydides's point, which he made over 2,000 years ago, about how our whole moral outlook and behaviour is corrupted if we fight fire with fire and respond in the way that they respond.

TC There was a 40-minute gunfight with somebody. I think they'll find they can never win. On one hand, they're coming forward with the facts as they find them out and there's criticism that they keep changing the story: well that's what happens in life. On the other hand, if they were to rock back and refuse to discuss anything whilst they fully investigate everything and then come along six months later and say, "Here's what happened", with a definite debrief from everyone, then people will say there's a cover-up, so they can't win.

MS It's not legitimate that the deaths of innocents should have been caused.

GF I don't know the full circumstances. [Maybe] if you are going to arrest someone and people fire back and you are in the middle of a war…

6 Should greater efforts have been made to take him alive?

AC Efforts should have been made to take him alive in order for a due process of law to be engaged in.

TC If the world's been looking for the geezer for nine years and 265 days and they find him, parting his hair to the left isn't an option. What you've got to be able to do is hope that you actually encounter him and be prepared when you encounter him — him being the most dangerous man in the world — to protect yourself. And I think that's the best you can hope for. Why didn't they wing him like they do in the Hollywood movies? Because that's fantasy.

MS We should have taken him alive and put him on trial. The desire to kill him is being seen as synonymous with the end of a problem. It's not; it's just another death.

GF It doesn't look like they made any effort to take him alive. They should have.

7 Would it have been preferable to capture him and put him on trial?

AG It would have been preferable to do that — not because it would have been easier and not because it would have saved other lives in future — but because in the ideal, if we were to live up to the principles of our civilisation (or the ones we claim, anyway) it would have been the right thing to do. But practicality makes very, very different demands.

TC I don't think that was a consideration. Had he been captured, I think we would have had a whole series of issues about jurisdiction and where he would have been tried and by whom. It would have been very complicated. Now that he's dead, it's much less complicated. But ultimately, there was intelligence which could have been gleaned from that. The fact of the matter is it's probably neater that he wasn't captured but the right thing probably would have been to capture him.

MS It would have been difficult to give him a fair trial. I'm not saying he wouldn't have been guilty. But two of the pillars on which the west stands are freedom and justice – this action diminishes that status.

GF He was a war criminal and should have been put on trial. People are dying in that part of the world to establish the rule of law and human rights. Going in and shooting him undermines the whole of that purpose. A lot of people are using 'justice' as a euphemism for 'revenge'. It's absolutely wrong.

Today at Ft. Campbell President Obama will privately thank some of the participants of Sunday’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, including Navy SEALs and members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the helicopter pilots known as “Night Stalkers” who flew the mission.

A U.S. Army soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his military working dog jump off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior 2011 on March 1, 2011. Emerald Warrior is an annual two-week joint/combined tactical exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command designed to leverage lessons learned from operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom to provide trained and ready forces to combatant commanders. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

As a dismounted patrol of U.S. soldiers from A Battery, 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team walks through the village of Chil Gazy; Staff Sgt. Jordan Cruz provides security. Afghans in the village voiced their opinions to International Security Assistance Forces troops during their visit in an effort to improve the security situation in the village and throughout the area. Photo via US Army.

Today, Friday 6 May 2011 Funeral of Captain Lisa Head, from 321 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squadron, 11 EOD Regiment RLC, who died on 19 April 2011 in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham from wounds received in Afghanistan. Commissioning of...

As a dismounted patrol of U.S. soldiers from A Battery, 1st Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team walks through the village of Chil Gazy; Staff Sgt. Jordan Cruz provides security. Afghans in the village voiced their opinions to International Security Assistance Forces troops during their visit in an effort to improve the security situation in the village and throughout the area. Photo via US Army.

John Reid has posted a useful list on his Anglo-Celtic Connections blog of regimental histories which have been added to the Internet Archive (www.archive.org), including a few Scottish. Useful to understand what was happening with any regiment your ancestor may have served with.

To see the list visit http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2011/05/historical-account-of-regiment.html

(With thanks to John)

Chris

Lexington Herald Leader

Obama to visit military base Washington Post (blog) Completing days of activity surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama will Friday head to Fort Campbell, Ky, a military base that is home to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. ... President Obama to Address Troops in Fort Campbell FridayFox News (blog) Obama to visit Fort Campbell, Ky., on FridayThe Associated Press all 116 news articles »

Join Hélène Mulholland for rolling coverage as results come in from elections to the Scottish parliament, the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, 279 English councils as well as the AV referendum
Read what happened overnight in Andrew Sparrow's live blog

8.09am: Good morning. It's Hélène Mulholland taking over the liveblog so Andrew Sparrow can get some kip after blogging throughout the night. How's it going so far? In a nutshell, the Liberal Democrats are having a terrible time, result-wise, with their national vote share slumping to 15%.

Alex Salmond's Scottish National party are having a very good election, with the party having gained 25 seats to date, including winning Labour heartlands, prompting one polling expert to say the party could win an outright majority.

While Labour has done badly in the devolved Scottish elections, it is doing well in Wales, including seeing the election of Wales' first black assembly member.

As for the Conservatives, their vote seems to be holding up well, balancing out their losses with gains. The Liberal Democrats are understandably finding the beating from voters hard to take.

Lord Ashdown, one of Nick Clegg's closest allies, issued a ferocious attack on David Cameron today in comments that make clear the love-in is over. He accused Cameron of a breach of faith, describing his refusal to dissociate himself from a "regiment of lies" poured out by the no-to-AV campaign as setting him apart from every British prime minister of the postwar period.

The former Liberal Democrat leader also predicted that Cameron's behaviour would have long-term consequences for the coalition, including the terms on which it eventually ends.

He told the Guardian: "So far the coalition has been lubricated by a large element of goodwill and trust. It is not any longer. The consequence is that when it comes to the bonhomie of the Downing Street rose garden, that has gone. It will never again be glad confident morning."

If you happen to be a horse, then nowhere has better, smarter shoes than the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment Forge here in London’s Hyde Park.

Indian Stamps – Year 1978 – By India Post Birth Centenary of Vallathol Narayana Menon (Poet) (25p) Date Of Issue:- 15.10.1978. National Children’s Day (25p) Date Of Issue:- 14.11.1978. National Small Industries Fair, New Delhi (25p) Date Of Issue:- 17.11.1978. 175th Anniv. of Skinner’s Horse (Cavalry Regiment) (25p) Date Of Issue:- 25.11.1978. Birth Centenary of [...]

Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown turns on prime minister for 'breach of faith' in alternative vote campaign

Liberal Democrats were facing an electoral wipeout in Scotland and the north of England early on Friday morning as Lord Ashdown, one of Nick Clegg's closest allies, accused David Cameron of a breach of faith, condemning the prime minister's refusal to dissociate himself from a "regiment of lies" poured out by the no to AV campaign.

As the recriminations began over the almost certain defeat of the yes campaign over changing the voting system for MPs, Ashdown said Cameron's behaviour set him apart from every British prime minister of the postwar period.

Ashdown told the Guardian: "So far the coalition has been lubricated by a large element of goodwill and trust. It is not any longer. The consequence is that when it comes to the bonhomie of the Downing Street rose garden, that has gone. It will never again be glad confident morning."

The former Liberal Democrat leader was joined by the party's deputy leader, Simon Hughes, who accused the Tory-funded no campaign of running a "fundamentally fallacious campaign that will reduce trust between the Tories and his party".

Faced by a clear rejection of the Liberal Democrat involvement in the coalition by voters, Hughes said "in future if it is not in the coalition agreement, it will not be tolerated".

Clegg's party had to absorb crushing double-digit losses in council elections in Leeds, Liverpool, Hull, Manchester and Clegg's adopted hometown of Sheffield, the cities that had symbolised the Liberal Democrat advance in the past decade. In Sheffield, defending 15 seats, and running a minority administration, the Liberal Democrats were heading for the loss of nine or more councillors to Labour. In Liverpool, the Lib Dems were facing near total wipeout.

One dissident Liberal Democrat MP, Mike Hancock urged Clegg to take a tougher stance with his coalition partners: "We have to make the price of our support a lot higher. We need to twist David Cameron's arm a lot harder."

John Leech, Lib Dem MP for Manchester Withington, said: "We've taken a real kicking in the ballot box tonight."

In Scotland, the nationalists were heading for their best ever result in a Scottish parliament election, looking set to gain 12 seats. That would put them in touching distance of a majority. With the backing of the Scottish Greens, they may have enough votes to push through a referendum on independence.

A disconsolate Labour in Scotland said its vote share had stayed the same in the central Scotland belt, but a Lib Dem collapse had benefited the SNP. Michael Moore, the Lib Dem Scottish secretary, said: "We always knew this would be a tough gig. I am not going to duck the fact that this is a very disappointing evening for us in Scotland."

In Wales, Labour was making gains, suggesting it was close to an overall majority. The party said on the basis of early results it was making gains in Exeter, Swindon and Gravesham.

The ferocity of Ashdown's attack, made after consultations within the party, followed what looks like certain defeat in the referendum on the alternative vote due to be announced on Friday.

Senior figures in the yes campaign were predicting a 60%-to-40% defeat on a desultory turnout.

Ashdown is furious with the no campaign for personalised attacks on Clegg that accused him of broken promises on tuition fees and spending cuts, and arguments that AV was a "Lib Dem fix". Ashdown said: "The bottom line is that Liberal Democrats are exceedingly angry. We believe there has been a breach of faith here. If the Conservative party funds to the level of 99% a campaign whose central theme is to denigrate and destroy our leader, there are consequences for that.

"What that means is that this is a relationship that is much less about congeniality, it becomes a business relationship, a transactional relationship, and maybe it will be all the better for that."

He went on: "David Cameron is the prime minister. He sets the tone of politics in this country. It is an unhappy fact that when he was asked to dissociate himself from a campaign that was run on the basis of personalisation and personal attacks, and messages that were far more than some subtle bending of the truth, he refused to do that.

"I have to say that he did not dissociate himself from a campaign whose nature I believe every previous British prime minister in my time would have disassociated himself from. That is a grave disappointment. This is a triumph for the regiment of lies. We live with pretty strenuous political campaigns in Britain, but these were downright lies."

Ashdown also accused Cameron of panicking after demands from his backbenchers to step up the referendum campaign. "In backtracking, to use no stronger a word than that, on what was a private agreement he had with Nick Clegg about the way this campaign was conducted, I think the prime minister panicked in the face of his rightwingers. I regret that."

Ashdown said it would be right if his party now highlighted its differences within the coalition. He insisted the Lib Dems would not leave the coalition until the end of the five-year parliament, saying: "We have set our hands to this task and now it must be completed so the purpose of the coalition has not altered, but the mood music, the atmosphere of the coalition most assuredly has as a result of what has gone on in the past three weeks.

"I think we should be much more straightforward where we disagree. That is not a criticism of Clegg.

"I have always said when asked I did not think the result of the referendum could affect the coalition, but I did think the way it was fought could."

He seemed to imply that the party's willingness to enter another coalition with Cameron may be affected. "I am very clear that the nature of this coalition and the way that it ends, the mood between the two parties when it ends and therefore what happens afterwards, may well be affected by this."

Ashdown said: "The central proposition of this parliament stands: 'Is George Osborne's economic judgment right?' I believe it is. The whole of British politics now rests on that single proposition. The fortunes of the coalition, the fortunes of the two parties in the coalition and the fortunes of the Labour party rest on that." Ashdown also challenged Cameron to show that he was the reformer he had claimed to be, by pressing ahead with an elected House of Lords.

As of this morning, the Lib Dem's path from pavement politics to national power will be tough indeed to tread

The cliche in reporting diffuse elections is to describe a mosaic, with many technicolour parts that tell a complex tale. As of the earliest hours of this morning, that image seems fitting enough for two of Westminster's three party leaders. David Cameron may have gone to bed worried about suburban losses, but will be heartened by his referendum hopes, as well as by some results in his solid south, such as in Castle Point where Labour once held the Westminster seat. Ed Miliband's spirits will have been cheered by Labour's reconquest of northern citadels it should never have lost, and more particularly by progress in parts of the Midlands. But he will have glanced north to unfolding events in Edinburgh with shuddering fear – for Alex Salmond looked set to snatch a second tartan term in commanding style.

Nick Clegg, by contrast, was still hoping against hope for any sort of mosaic, as opposed to a canvass of unremitting black. It is premature to assume that some glimmers might not emerge from the Liberal Democrats' darkest hour, not least because in more than half of the 279 English councils where voting took place, counting does not get going until this morning. But Labour's capturing of his home turf of Sheffield from his party's minority control is an intensely personal blow, as Lib Dem deputy leader, Simon Hughes, lost no time in pointing out last night. A savaging in other industrial cities, such as Liverpool and Hull, has shredded the third force's once proud boast to be the only party able to hold its own equally well in city and shire alike. The first Scottish seat to declare, Rutherglen, pointed to a collapse north of the border as well. In the (still far from certain) direst scenario, there could also be haemorrhaging to the Tories in the south and west as well, and politicians with yellow rosettes would then have nowhere left to hide.

The effect on political organisation is predictable and grim. As the representative of the Lib Dem councillors told the Guardian, these people serve as the all-important sergeants of local campaigning. Starting out with so many fewer MPs than their rivals, the Liberal Democrats' path from pavement politics to national power has traipsed through townhalls, from Somerset to Stockport. As of this morning, this path will be tough indeed to tread.

The councillors newly elected this morning, have won themselves a miserable job – meting out the very harshest of those coalitional cuts that are coming so dangerously thick and fast. No local politician of any stripe is going to do everything they might like to for their population in this fix, and especially not since Britain's fiscal centralism blocks every theoretical escape. But when retrenchment is in train, it is more important than ever that town halls are run by people prepared to risk middle-class wrath to protect services for same poor people. After being dealt a horrendous hand in last year's election and binding themselves in with the Conservatives, the urgent question for the Lib Dems now is how they can now persuade electors they stand for something distinctive.

The pre-mortem got going even before the first ward had declared, with Paddy Ashdown blasting the Conservatives on Question Time, and telling the Guardian that their "regiment of lies" will settle the terms on which the coalition ends. The elder statesman is only one of those agitating for a final line to be drawn under the "marriage in May" tone which Mr Clegg over-indulged right throughout last year. The pitch will have to become far sharper, and make less reliance on over-hyped income tax cuts which get lost in the mix with national insurance and VAT as tax credits are snatched away. Along with Scottish problems, Mr Miliband may potentially have a dash of southern discomfort. Mr Cameron's own mosaic of local difficulties could be serious, but that awaits the settling of the dust. For Mr Clegg, by contrast, the questions are now obvious – if not the answers.

Obama Extends Victory Lap "Night Stalkers don't quit." -- Motto of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which flew the helicopters for the raid that killed Usama bin Laden .

On Friday, President Obama will privately thank the team that carried out the raid against Osama bin Laden. Obama is set to visit Fort Campbell, Ky., home to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which participated in the raid. He will...

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal's oldest son is preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan with his Connecticut-based Marines regiment.

It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Warrant Officer Class 2 Graham Bean from 73 Engineer Regiment (Volunteers), Royal Engineers, attached to the 3 Royal Anglian Group, in Cyprus, on Tuesday 3 May 2011.

Lib Dem grandee and close Nick Clegg ally calls PM 'grave disappointment' and says no campaign has told 'regiment of lies'

Lord Ashdown, one of Nick Clegg's closest allies, accused David Cameron of a breach of faith, describing his refusal to dissociate himself from a "regiment of lies" poured out by the no-to-AV campaign as setting him apart from every British prime minister of the postwar period.

The former Liberal Democrat leader also predicted that Cameron's behaviour would have long-term consequences for the coalition, including the terms on which it eventually ends.

He told the Guardian: "So far the coalition has been lubricrated by a large element of goodwill and trust. It is not any longer. The consequence is that when it comes to the bonhomie of the Downing Street rose garden, that has gone. It will never again be glad confident morning."

The ferocity of his attack, made after consultations within the party, follows what looks like certain defeat in the referendum on the alternative vote due to be announced on Friday. The party also faces severe losses in the English council elections as results emerge.

Senior figures in the yes campaign were predicting a 60%-to-40% defeat on a desultory turnout, with one admitting: "We were providing a solution to a problem the British public did not recognise."

Another said: "Once David Cameron moved in the way he did, the polls moved. It was unstoppable."

Ashdown is furious with the no campaign for personalised attacks on Clegg that accused him of broken promises on tuition fees and spending cuts, and arguments that AV was a "Lib Dem fix". Ashdown, who led the party for 11 years until 1999, said: "The bottom line is that Liberal Democrats are exceedingly angry. We believe there has been a breach of faith here. If the Conservative party funds to the level of 99% a campaign whose central theme is to denigrate and destroy our leader, there are consequences for that.

"What that means is that this is a relationship that is much less about congeniality, it becomes a business relationship, a transactional relationship, and maybe it will be all the better for that."

He went on: "David Cameron is the prime minister. He sets the tone of politics in this country. It is an unhappy fact that when he was asked to dissociate himself from a campaign that was run on the basis of personalisation and personal attacks, and messages that were far more than some subtle bending of the truth, he refused to do that.

"I have to say that he did not dissociate himself from a campaign whose nature I believe every previous British prime minister in my time would have disassociated himself from. That is a grave disappointment.

"This is a triumph for the regiment of lies. We live with pretty strenuous political campaigns in Britain, but these were downright lies."

Ashdown also accused Cameron of panicking after demands from his backbenchers to step up the referendum campaign. "In backtracking, to use no stronger a word than that, on what was a private agreement he had with Nick Clegg about the way this campaign was conducted, I think the prime minister panicked in the face of his rightwingers. I regret that."

Ashdown said it would be right if his party now highlighted its differences within the coalition. He insisted the Lib Dems would not leave the coalition until the end of the five-year parliament, saying: "We have set our hands to this task and now it must be completed so the purpose of the coalition has not altered, but the mood music, the atmosphere of the coalition most assuredly has as a result of what has gone on in the past three weeks. I think we should be much more straightforward where we disagree. That is not a criticism of Clegg.

"I have always said when asked I did not think the result of the referendum could affect the coalition, but I did think the way it was fought could."

He seemed to imply that the party's willingness to enter another coalition with Cameron may be affected. "I am very clear that the nature of this coalition and the way that it ends, the mood between the two parties when it ends and therefore what happens afterwards, may well be affected by this."

But he urged his party to hold its nerve, and to realise that popularity will take a long time to recover.

"We are in there for the long haul, I recall how long it took us as a party to recover after 1991. It is not this year, next year or the year therafter. It is about being strong enough when the dividend comes."

He urged his battered colleagues to keep their nerve. "I am someone who has presided over a party represented by an asterisk denoting that there is no perceptible support for the party in the country, so I am used to setbacks and difficult days as this looks as though these will be.

"Anyone that went into this coalition believing that there would be a benefit to the party particularly in the short term was living in cloud-cuckoo-land. We knew perfectly there was a price to be paid for this and it was going to be paid in the short term.

"The dividend to be delivered in this will come after three or four years when the government has taken the country through an economic crisis."

He indicated that the Lib Dems' fortunes were now inextricably bound up with the fate of the economy over the next four years.

"The central proposition of this parliament stands: 'Is George Osborne's economic judgment right?' I believe it is. The whole of British politics now rests on that single proposition. The fortunes of the coalition, the fortunes of the two parties in the coalition and the fortunes of the Labour party rest on that."

There is no sign that any senior Lib Dem cabinet member yet wants to revisit the deficit reduction plan.

Ashdown challenged Cameron to show that he was the reformer he had claimed to be, by pressing ahead with an elected House of Lords.

"It is in the Tory manifesto. Is he going to deliver or not? Let's see the prime minister's determination."

He also lashed out at Labour's failure to back reform, saying: "Yet again Labour has proved it cannot be trusted with reform. Labour claims to be a great radical reforming party but whenever it comes to a key issue of reform, we find Labour defending the status quo."

Clegg and Cameron will try to show it is business as usual when they publish a checklist of coalition achievements before next week's anniversary.

There will be a symbolic joint foreword by the two men. There will also be some action on youth unemployment next week.

Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, waiting anxiously for news of the scale of the Labour advance in his first nationwide electoral test, will urge the electorate not to be duped by the promise of a coalition mark 2, predicting sham concessions by the Conservatives.

Intervals (www.myintervals.com), the growing online project management service from Pelago, has recently reached $1.5 billion in work managed by its customers. Intervals customer base has grown to include web designers, developers, creative agencies, and other small businesses in over 100 countries. On the heels of this milestone comes an array of improvements and new features. The recent round of updates launched by the Intervals development team includes a number of features requested by customers. Allesandro Renzi, an Intervals customer, was recently quoted as saying "It is almost like [Intervals] has been sitting with us at internal meetings." Intervals was recently expanded to include the following features and improvements:

• Visually improved PDF exports to appear the same as they do in the software.
• Designate multiple project managers per project.
• Reduced number of clicks to navigate the online application.
• Added import tools for time, tasks, and projects.
• Right-click contextual menus added to weekly timesheet.
• Improved task and milestone scheduling.

As Intervals continues to expand, the Intervals team has been making additional application and infrastructure improvements to stay ahead of the growth. System Administrators at Intervals recently made another round of infrastructure enhancements, increasing the response time of the online application and increasing database speed and capacity to accommodate a growing number of customers and data. "Waiting for a problem to occur before fixing it is unacceptable," stated John Reeve of Pelago. "We run Intervals through a regiment of scenarios at both the application and server infrastructure levels, so that we can resolve potential problems before they ever happen." The success of Intervals has resulted in Pelago moving into a newly renovated office. Upgrades to the new space include upgraded ethernet wiring, energy efficient lighting, and more room for creative meetings. "We're very much into being a lifestyle company with a unique culture, and our workspace is is an important variable," shared Michael Payne of Pelago. "We wanted a space where we can draw on the walls, cook lunch together, and have the freedom to pursue whatever creative ideas may pop up." Pelago is making a strong commitment to making Intervals an essential and comprehensive tool that is also easy-to-use. Several customers have already complimented on the recent Intervals improvements. "You have no idea how efficient Intervals has made our small ad agency!" stated Beverly Brown Dees of Ad.In Advertising. Robbie Wooten of Impact Golf Marketing added, "Intervals is invaluable to our organization." And Benjamin Hughes of YBR Design shared, "Working with the Intervals team has been excellent and they truly care about you and your success." In addition to focusing on developing new features for their online software, Pelago is also taking the time to donate to environmental causes. As members of One Percent for the Planet, Pelago donates 1% of their revenue to environmental causes. For the last four years, including this year, Pelago has donated 1% of their revenue to the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, an organization working to protect vital lands and preserve a healthy balance of uses - from ranching to biking, wildlife habitats to favorite fishing spots - that can be sustained forever, ensuring a strong local economy and healthy environment for generations to come. For more information about Intervals, please visit www.myintervals.com. For more information about the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, please visit www.eslt.org. About Intervals Created by Pelago, Intervals was originally designed to solve Pelago's own struggles with tracking time, billing clients, and gauging project health in real time. Targeted primarily to creative and communications services companies and small businesses, Intervals is a powerful tool for anyone who wishes to ease the daily stress of organizing and managing people, workflow, projects, tasks and time. Learn more about Intervals at www.myintervals.com. About Pelago Pelago is a Santa Barbara, California-based web design and web development firm founded in 2000. As members of 1% For The Planet, Pelago is devoted to responsible stewardship of the earth. Pelago specializes in developing highly intuitive web sites and reliable web-based applications, and injecting them with solid business sense and functionality. Pelago clients include JD Power and Associates, Nexxus, Xplane, Network Hardware Resale, and TenetCare. Learn more about Pelago at www.pelagodesign.com.

More troops from Maine are heading to Afghanistan. About 140 Marines from Company A, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment in Topsham were given a send-off with families and friends Thursday before departing for training at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

We will probably never know a lot of what transpired in that shabby villa in Abbottabad but what we do know is that the release of information has been dreadfully mismanaged by the White House and calls into question whether anyone there is interested in much more than making themselves look good or damaging someone else.

The number of stories emerging from the White House and immediately being contradicted by the White House, and in the process leaving the White House spokescritter, Jay Carney, resembling a stunned mullet, include: which of bin Laden’s sons was killed, bin Laden using a woman as a shield, his wife being killed, bin Laden firing at US forces, the raid being monitored in real time, and the cause of the helicopter crash.

We also can say with some degree of certainty that we’ve been misled on the involvement of Pakistan.

Oddly enough, the one area that everyone seems to have fallen over themselves in agreeing about was Pakistan’s involvement in the operation. While bin Laden’s carcass was still cooling anyone who was anyone in Pakistan was claiming there were no consultations. CIA Director Leon Panetta joined the chorus in rubbing the nose of the Pakistanis in their own unreliability.

But the CIA ruled out participating with its nominal South Asian ally early on because “it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets,” Panetta says.

To set the stage for this one has to take into consideration the nature of Abbottabad. It was founded by a British general and, under British rule, was the administrative center of the Hazara District of Punjab. Since independence it has remained a garrison town. It currently is the headquarters of two infantry regiments, the Baloch Regiment and the Frontier Force Regiment. In addition, the compound where bin Laden was killed is about 300 yards from a police station, about half that distance from a university, and half a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy. It is also very close to Kashmir. So bin Laden’s hideout was in a residential area, in a heavily garrisoned town, close by a disputed frontier.

The main concern, again from Panetta, was the Pakistani reaction, again from TIME:

Some of the aides had been involved in the Carter Administration’s effort to go after the hostages held by the Iranians 30 years ago; others had been involved in the ill-fated “Black Hawk Down” raid against Somali warlords in 1993. “What if you go down and you’re in a firefight and the Pakistanis show up and start firing?” Panetta says some worried. “How do you fight your way out?”

A very real concern that we will touch more upon later. On any raid getting into the objective and accomplishing your mission tends to be the easiest part of the planning process. Getting out with your skin mostly intact is always the hardest nut to crack. And how do you unscrew the situation created by having your armed forces in a fire fight with the armed forces of an ostensible ally, and ally who controls your supply routes into Afghanistan, in the middle of one of their cities?

The scenario, as we’ve been told, unfolds like this: Around 2am a helicopter crashes into a residential neighborhood, in this otherwise quiet garrison town not far from a contested border region. There are immediate explosions as breaching charges cut holes in the walls and doors of the bin Laden’s compound and a 40 minute fire fight ensues. As the gunfight winds down there is an explosion as the disabled helicopter is demolished and another, larger and noisier, helicopter arrives on the scene. Then both helicopters fly away.

No local constable decided to mope over to the crash site. No fire trucks or ambulances scrambled to the scene. The gun fight, even though it was tweeted live, didn’t provoke a response from either the police or either of the infantry regiments garrisoned in the city.

A lot of dogs didn’t bark, so to speak.

What we know about the raid, and I use the work “know” very advisedly, is that it apparently consisted of three helicopters. Two of the helicopters were MH-60 variants, one was apparently an MH-47. At least one story mentions a fourth helicopter of undefined type. The number of shooters involved was about 20, according to latest reports, with more than likely additional personnel involved in the intelligence exploitation of the objective.

The critical piece missing from this picture is a security element for the assault force. If, as Panetta suggests, one of the concerns was that Pakistani security forces would show up and start shooting the raiding force, more likely than not, would have contained a security force to stop anyone from interfering with the operation. The last thing you’d want is a couple of dozen SEALs sandwiched between an unknown number of al Qaeda fighters with bin Laden and a couple of Pakistani infantry battalions. Typically this security element would have been a contingent from the Ranger Regiment.  For instance, in the prisoner snatch that led to the Battle of Mogadishu, a small Delta contingent was used to attempt to capture a Somali warlord while a company of Rangers sealed off the objective area. This contingent would have added another 40 persons to the raid and at least one, or maybe two, MH-47s.

Even if we can explain the  absence of curiosity on the part of Pakistani security forces and emergency services by incompetence we are still confronted with both the absence of a security force, and a rather, in my opinion, leisurely amount of time the raiders spent on the objective when every minute exponentially increased the chance that Pakistani police or army would arrive on the scene.

In my view, this all leads to the conclusion that the local Pakistani officials were complicit in the raid. They may not have know when it was coming but they knew enough not to send out police, fire, or military personnel to the scene until after everything was over.

And then there is the former head of Pakistan’s ISI who insists that not only was there security but the Pakistanis provided it:

Lieutenant General Durrani, however, said that the denial was a “political” maneuver by the intelligence services to avoid claims that they were working too closely with the US.

He said: “It is more likely that they did know [about the raid]. It is not conceivable that it was done without the involvement of Pakistani security forces at some stage. They were involved and they were told they were in position.

“The army chief was in his office, the cordons had been thrown around that particular place. The Pakistani helicopters were also in the air so that indicates that it was involved.

Was the national leadership in on the raid? We can’t know. We can suspect from the speed with which Panetta said the Pakistanis were cut out and the Pakistanis claim they were cut out of the mission that maybe both are being somewhat parsimonious with the truth. The claim that Pakistan scrambled fighters to intercept the raiders, when neither their police nor army showed any inclination to do so despite being within an easy walk of the scene also sounds suspicious. Going a bit farther, Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said in an interview:

Mr Smith disputed a suggestion the Pakistan government knew bin Laden’s whereabouts.

“It doesn’t follow from that that Pakistan or the Pakistan state or the Pakistan government was knowingly harbouring,” he told ABC Television today.

US President Barack Obama praised Pakistan for helping US forces kill and capture bin Laden, and had rung Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to thank him, Mr Smith said.

The minister also disputed an assertion the US didn’t notify the Pakistan government of bin Laden’s death.

“It’s clear to me from President Obama’s comments that he was pleased with Pakistan’s assistance,” Mr Smith said.

This makes sense when one considers that early reports were that the raid was staged out of Tarbela Ghazi air base in Pakistan:

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

Later reports claim that the raid was launched from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Either site it well within range of the MH-60 but Jalalabad is 160 miles, or about an hour, away. Tarbela Ghazi is about 35 miles away. All things being equal you’d prefer the shorter distance for the sake of simplicity and reduced fatigue on the part of your troops.

At a minimum if there was no “official” cooperation there appears to be significant coordination between elements of the Pakistan government and the US government on this raid. To the extent this cooperation was unitary or to which it was facilitated by cash transactions we’ll probably never know. But it would have been the height of irresponsibility to send a small raiding force into an ostensibly hostile environment without providing protection for the raiders. It would have been equally irresponsible to send in a security force and risk a full fledged gun battle between US troops and Pakistani security forces. And I can’t believe that any military commander would have let that happen.

Sgt. Jorge A. Diaz Sgt. Jorge A. Diaz, a squad leader with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, receives a Bronze Star Medal with Combat V from Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck, Jr., commanding general, III Marine Expeditionary Force, during Glueck’s visit to Marine Corps Base Hawaii with Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Fierle, III [...]

Letter from Colonel Willis A. Gorman to Governor Ramsey responding to Ramsey’s company detachment orders. “I have this day received your order directing me to send two companies of my command to Fort Ridgely, two companies to Fort Abercrombie, two Companies to Fort Ripley, Three to relieve the troops of the regular Army.    I have the [...]

Brothers reunion in Helmand Bomber Command Memorial foundation stone laid Soldier from 73 Engineer Regiment dies in Cyprus Navy Search and Rescue man is finalist in Our Heroes awards UK and French troops train together

By: Anne Woodall
“OKLAHOMA, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains”—my home state and also home to the fabulously talented historical author, Laurel McKee (pen name for Regency romance writer Amanda McCabe), who I’ve just recently discovered. My new discovery has provided me with some excellent hours of reading pleasure and made me extra-glad I took the plunge into the historical romance genre. I’m so excited that a sister Okie is at the top of my list of favorite historical authors these days.

Laurel McKee’s powerful and exceptionally well-written “Daughters of Erin” trilogy is set at the end of the 18th century during the Irish Rebellion. Ireland and its history have always fascinated me. If a book offers me an Irish love story as well, I’m generally convinced to definitely read the book.

Laurel brings Ireland and its troubled past, along with these well-defined characters, to life on the pages of her books. The Irish spirit is vividly captured, the political upheaval is well-defined and fascinating, and the romance is beautifully and sensually portrayed. Ms. McKee has an extraordinary ability to write a well-balanced historical romance. I can assure you that the romance is not overshadowed.

Her writing exudes her love of Ireland and the quality of her research stands front and center. The first two books are excellent.

Book 1 – “Countess of Scandal”

Book 2 – “Duchess of Sin”

Book 3 – “Lady of Seduction” (Release Date: June, 2011)


COUNTESS OF SCANDAL
Book 1

The “Daughters of Erin” series is a well-balanced blend of history and romance. “Countess of Scandal” introduces us to the three Blacknall sisters and their family.

This is the story of childhood friendship between Eliza, the oldest Blacknall sister, and Will, who lives nearby and a hero worthy of the title. Their friendship develops into so much more. But, as we know, there have to be trials and tribulations to overcome before the Happily Every After can occur. Eliza and Will are separated by opposing beliefs. Although Protestant, Eliza considers herself a true Irish woman and feels betrayed by Will when he goes off to serve the English Regiment.

Time passes, and seven years later, Will returns to Ireland to find Eliza is now a wealthy young widow living in Dublin. She is also, much to Will’s dismay, very involved in the secret societies of the United Irishmen. Above all else, Will is determined to keep Eliza safe at all costs and not lose the love and trust they’ve rebuilt. This book is overflowing with passion: the passion of friendship, the passion between a young soldier and a rebellious young countess, passion for one’s country and its people and causes, passion for the safety of family and, of course, the passion shared by these two young lovers. Eliza and Will’s emotions for one another and their physical chemistry heat up the pages.

While telling Eliza and Will’s breathtaking and memorable love story, McKee vividly describes the turbulent struggles that place enemies, family, friends, and lovers against one another in the political battle of the United Irish for their independence from England.

Believe me, Ms. McKee delivers an exquisitely wrapped package in “Countess of Scandal.” Even the girls’ sweet mother has her own romance.

“Duchess of Sin”
Book 2

“Duchess of Sin” continues the saga with Anna Blacknall, the middle sister, who is beautiful and mischievous, with a very strong-will. I loved her feisty and daring attitude. I especially enjoyed the “emerald-eyed Irishman” who she keeps encountering in places she should never be and tempting him beyond anything he’s ever felt. Anna and Conlan’s chemistry sets the pages on fire, their loyalties are tested, and danger surrounda them moment to moment. I must admit that “Duchess of Sin” was a slight favorite for me.

“Lady of Seduction”
Book 3

And the saga will soon continue with Caroline, the youngest Blacknall sister in the leading role. She’s the “bookworm” and “wallflower” who enjoys finding a safe and quiet spot in a library. Caroline is happiest when she goes unnoticed. There’s an arranged marriage being planned for her to an older widower with children who is safe and boring. Of course, we all know that things are not going to go smoothly and there has to be some changes made in this girl’s life. And I can assure you that Caroline is in for the time of her life—because I’ve read the first two books!! I could tell you but that wouldn’t be fair. You deserve the special hours of pleasure that reading these books will certainly bring about. The build-up from the first two books has me eagerly anticipating Caroline’s story in what to date is absolutely one of my very favorite historical series and has found its way to my keeper shelves.

Wrap Up:
Laurel McKee’s books make me sigh, put a smile on my face, bring tears to my eyes, and always leave me thoroughly satisfied while a bit sad, too, knowing I’ve arrived at the last page.

Without reservation, I recommend this series to one and all. And I salute Ms. McKee on her outstanding “Daughters of Erin” series .


An old Irish poem says:

Boxty on the griddle
Boxty in the pan,
If you can’t make boxty,
You’ll never get a man.

And a bit of Irish flavor for the taste buds:

Boxty (Irish Potato Griddle Cakes)

½ pound raw potato
½ pound cooked mashed potatoes
1 cup flour
Milk (as needed, see directions below)
1 egg
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Grate raw potato and mix with cooked mashed potatoes. Add salt, pepper, onion and flour. Beat egg and add to mixture with just enough milk to make a thick batter that will drop from a spoon.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto hot griddle or frying pan. Cook over moderate heat for 3-4 minutes on each side.


Glazed Corned Beef

4-1/2 pounds corn beef, rinsed
1 cup water
1 cup apricot preserves
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoons soy sauce

1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 – Coat pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place corned beef in dish and add water. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 2 hours; drain liquid.

3 – In small bowl combine apricot preserves, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Spread mixture evenly over corned beef.

4 – Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 additional minutes, or until meat is tender, basting occasionally with pan drippings.

5 – Slice corned beef across grain and serve.

An Army major was killed in an accidental grenade blast in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, police said today. Major P K Jindal of 26 Rajput Regiment was engaged in supervis...

BY CAPT. OZZIE SANTIAGO SMITH III – NORTH SHORE, Hawaii – There are individuals who run marathon events for personal challenge and competition. This thought process does not apply to Staff Sgt. Marc Dibernardo, E. Company, 2nd Assault Helicopter Battalion (AHB), 25th Aviation Regiment, “Diamond Head,” 25th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), who races to raise [...]

GARMSIR DISTRICT, Helmand Province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan — Sgt. Kimberly Nalepka, a Coral Springs, Fla., native, speaks to a teacher about the day’s lesson plan at a local school April 30. Nalepka is the team leader of the Female Engagement Team in Garmsir, where 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment operates. Nalepka and her team regularly visit medical clinics and schools on the area. The FET’s purpose is to interact with the female population in the local community and help identify the needs of the women in the area. The FET supports Regimental Combat Team 1, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which is heading the ground combat element in Helmand province. Photo by Cpl. Colby Brown She has long brown hair, but it’s coiled into a tight bun. Her glare burns through tactical sunglasses but somehow doesn’t betray the femininity in her mahogany colored eyes. Her M-4 rifle is slung loosely over ...

Born on 25 November 1897 in Montreal, Quebec - son of Joseph and Mary Myers, Ottawa, Ontario - at the time of his enlistment in 1915: present address same as mother; trade as student; single; currently a member of the 43rd Regiment, Duke of Cornwall's Own Rifles (one year); no previous military service; Roman Catholic; height of 5 feet 8.5 inches; chest of 34 inches fully expanded; fair complexion; blue eyes; light brown hair.

Joined the 77th Battalion, CEF, in Ottawa, Ontario, on 17 November 1915 (number 145450) - departed for overseas on 19 June 1916 - taken on the strength of the 38th Battalion, CEF, in England on 6 July 1916 - landed in France with the 38th Battalion on 13 August 1916 - killed in action on 18 November 1916 - name inscribed on the Vimy Memorial, France.

(sources: Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), online attestation papers; Canadian War Museum, 19740281-001, Manu 58F 2 3, 207th Canadian Infantry Battalion and 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Nominal Roll; The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa Regimental Museum, A400-0007, Master Personnel List for the 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force; Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "Debt of Honour" register, www.cwgc.org; Anonymous, An Historical Sketch of the Seventy-Seventh Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force (Ottawa: War Publications Limited, 1926), p.127)

Born on3 1 August 1895 in Guelph, Ontario - son of Mrs. Minnie Myers, Ottawa, Ontario - at the time of his enlistment in 1915: trade as steam engineer; single; currently a member of the 43rd Regiment, Duke of Cornwall's Own Rifles (four years); no previous military service; Roman Catholic; height of 5 feet 8 inches; chest of 35 inches fully expanded; ruddy complexion; hazel eyes; black hair.

Joined the 38th Battalion, CEF, in Ottawa, Ontario, on 11 May 1915 (number 410144) - served with the 38th Battalion during its period of garrison duty in Bermuda - landed in France with the 38th Battalion on 13 August 1916 - wounded on 18 or 19 November 1916 - invalided to England on 21 November 1916 - rejoined the 38th Battalion on 2 November 1917 - wounded on 10 August 1918 - invalided to England on 18 August 1918.

(sources: Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca), online attestation papers; Canadian War Museum, 19740281-001, Manu 58F 2 3, 207th Canadian Infantry Battalion and 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Nominal Roll; The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa Regimental Museum, A400-0007, Master Personnel List for the 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force)

Territorial Army member pronounced dead in hospital in Nicosia after being taken ill while mountain biking

A British soldier has died after falling ill while mountain biking in Cyprus.

Assistance was called for the Territorial Army soldier, of 73 Engineer Regiment (V) but he later died in hospital in Nicosia, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The family of the soldier, who was attached to 3 Royal Anglian Group, have been informed, an MoD spokesman said.

He was serving as part of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

The MoD declined to give further details about the soldier's death.

Captain Matt Lindow, spokesman for the UK UNFICYP contingent, said: "The soldier was taking part in a mountain biking activity during which he was taken ill.

"Following evacuation to hospital in Nicosia he was later pronounced dead.

"His commitment and selfless dedication to the Territorial Army will not be forgotten, he will be dearly remembered by all whom have had the privilege to serve with him.

"We offer heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. We will remember him."

The peacekeeping mission in Cyprus is one of the longest running United Nations missions. It was established in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island.

British troops patrol the buffer zone or "green line" separating the north and south of the island.

Wednesday’s May 4 Twilight Tattoo ceremony at Fort McNair has been canceled due to weather. It was scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Twilight Tattoo is an hour-long military ceremony featuring soldiers from the 3rd U.S. infantry Regiment and the U.S. Army band “Pershing’s Own.”

The next event is scheduled for May 11.

For exact dates and more info, click here.

Soldiers from The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), who have recently returned from Afghanistan, are marching through the streets of Scotland this week to celebrate their homecoming. In keeping with tradition dating back...

Soldiers from The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), who have recently returned from Afghanistan, are marching through the streets of Scotland this week to celebrate their homecoming.

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce the death of a soldier from 73 Engineer Regiment (Volunteers), attached to the 3 Royal Anglian Group, in Cyprus, yesterday, Tuesday 3 May 2011.

Sgt. Jorge A. Diaz Sgt. Jorge A. Diaz, a squad leader with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, receives a Bronze Star Medal with Combat V from Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck, Jr., commanding general, III Marine Expeditionary Force, during Glueck’s visit to Marine Corps Base Hawaii with Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Fierle, III [...]

Members of The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), were welcomed home from Afghanistan by the people of Ayr and Glasgow yesterday. Click here to read more. [Picture: Mark Owens, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

Bleacher Report's Mike Hodges:

Lyoto Machida silenced his detractors and reentered himself into the title picture following his knockout of Randy Couture at UFC 129. 

Machida, who was on a two-fight losing streak, attempted a flying crane kick that landed precisely on his opponent's chin, dropping him in the process. It's a win he desperately needed and a win he credited to his training regiment. 

"I increased my training, demanding more from my sparrings, and I felt comfortable in every single situation," Machida explained to TATAME.com following his victory. 

Machida continued saying he focused more on his karate and implemented different training techniques and a nutrition plan in order to prepare for the light heavyweight bout. And while he did change a few things during his training camp, "The Dragon" said he stuck to his roots that helped him become UFC light heavyweight champion not too long ago. 

"I felt myself more aggressive… I kept my style, but with an upgrade," Machida said.

Click here to read the entire article.

Soldiers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 11th Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, assault an objective during a live fire exercise at Ghuzlani Warrior Training Center, Feb. 24, 2011. Soldiers assigned to Troop A, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, conducted collective training at GWTC to enhance Iraqi soldiers’ light infantry skills during Tadreeb al Shamil, Arabic for All Inclusive Training. U.S. forces in northern Iraq led individual and collective infantry training for Iraqi soldiers and units from squad to battalion-level tasks during the 25-day Iraqi military training program at GWTC. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Angel Washington, 4th AAB PAO, 1st Cav. Div., USD-N)