>> the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden the leader of al qaeda a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. >> this we on "inside washington," they got him but it was risky business. >> we just were saying our prayers that everything was going to go according to plan. >> the world's most wanted terrorist was not hiding in a cave a after all. >> who do they think was living behind those walls? >> first republican debate. >> we cannot restore america's promise, as we have a president whkeeps his promises to

america. >> is ite ime toto get out of afghanistan? >> we are told we should continue to borrowillions of dollars for nation n builng and afghanistan. that's nuts. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> the story broke late sunday night, at around 10:24 p.m., blackberrys and iphones started buzzing all over washington. president obama was about to make a statement. this is washington, is almost impossible to keep a secret, so stoneybrook that the president was about to announce that o oma -- soon it broke that the president was about to announce that osama bin laden was killed. finally, a somber president obama appeared on television. >> today, at my direction, the united states launched a

targeted operation against that compound in abbottatabad pakistan. a small team of americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and abily. no america were harmed, they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a firight they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. >> began rightfter 9/11 with ththis promiset ground zero. >> i can hear you the rt of the world ars you, and th people -- [applause] the people who knocked ththese buildings down will hear al buses and. >> -- all of us soon. >> on thursday, the president visited ground zero. in his column this week, our colleague charles krauthammer is said that the operation "was made possible by the best infrastructure of the bush

administration post-9/11." maureen dowd began her column by saying "no wonder they call him cool hand luke." evan, how did they pull this off? >> we have gotten good at targeted killings. navy seals know what they're doing. charles has a point. whether it is necessary to have this multi-trillion dollar war on terror is a different question. >> cool hand luke, pushed infrastructure, - -- bush infrastructure colby? >> cool hand luke, yes, bush infrastructure, a sort of yes. when obama took office, and he told leon panetta to put priority on getting osama bin laden. that lagged in the last few years. it was not just the

infrastructure, but the actual intelligence work being done day after day the last 2.5 years. >> how did they do it without a word leaking advance nina? >> very few people knew. that is one thihing. to your question about who to credit, a lot of people deserve credit. the bush administration deserves credit the clinton administration deserves credit. this is an infrastructure that grow over time. the president made some spectacular and got s -- and gugusty choices including to bring an extra helicopter and that turned out to be important. >> mark? >> no more professor-in-chief instead of commander in chief no more nuanced and cerebral. norman schwarzkopf said that it

does not take courage to order men into battle, it takes courage to go into battle. but it was a bold decision on the part of the president to do so. a commander in chief decion. the presidential decision up the week was to not make available the photographs despite the demands of so many people. that is where he showed real leadership. >> even al qaeda admitted he is dead. what is the operation had failed colby? >> think of jimmy carter and the rest of attempted they made -- rescue attempt and they made. it is hard to imagine the consequences being anything other than disastrous for him. that is another reason he deserves a real credit because they took a real risk there. they were not 100% certain that bin laden was there according

to leon panetta. 80% sure, but they did not have -- 60-80% sure, but they did not happen in which is respon -- they did not have an eyewitness spotting. >> charles krauthammer, who is up this week -- off this week. "terrorists subject to interrogations' sometimes harsh and enhanced." immediately you heard commentators and elected officials saying it was the waterboarding of khalid sheik mohammed that led to osama bin laden's compound. is this open to challenge? >> very much open to challenge. eventually, this week, a lot of intelligence people confirmed that khalid sheik mohammed did not confirm there was any sort of courier dated not know this guy, and al-libi did not give

them anything, the other waterboarded person. so now they said that because they did not confirm it, they knew was right. >> i keep reading these articles and it is the sort of a theoretical, religious debate. if you believe in torture it worked. if you do not believe in torture, it didn't work. the truth, as usual, is somewhere in between -- >> but if this was a ticking time bomb which is why we had to torture people, it took eight years to have enough to have an operation. >> i just come back to the argument made by every military person i know of any stature was significant, who argue arden and passionately against waterboarding an extraordinary whenever you want to call it -- torture, simply because not only the information it yields not being reliable, but also the consequences for american troops

in the field. your question about why no leak -- the best my reporting has come up with is that 16 members of congress were informed of this, and what leon panetta did which was brilliant was that he did to them one at a time, so there was nobody in the room who said, "it was colby who knew something --" [laughter] >> 16 at members of congress kept their mouths shut. >> how long? >> at least the last year.

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undetected living next door at pakistan's west point? >> that is john kerry. excellent question, colby. >> it is important to think about pakistan and what it represents. it is not a solid government. it is factor government. there were people who had reason to know that he was there, but there were a lot of people would not have been down. they did not note that cia people were there in a state house. -- safehouse. you take the intelligence service, the isi, which everyone says is closely aligned with the taliban. i am sure that the central intelligence agency has sources within the isi as well al qaeda and taliban. it is not a cohesive government. >> the pakistani army warns that the united states against

another violation of pakistan's sovereignty, and the top general says he will reduc the number of american personnel to a minimum. >> that is for domestic consumption. what can you say "come anytime"? they have to say that. >> they need our money. if they did not have nuclear weapons, and we did not have billions of dollars, this would not happen at all. there will be this incdibly awkward dance on into the future. >> we will stay married for the sake of the kids. [laughter] >> the question -- i have no idea the answer -- were they complicit? the very fact that osama bin laden had so little security in the compound itself or at least a deal outside the compound -- suggested that he had security or at least a deal at the

compound. >> on october 3 2008, chriiane amanpour, now with abc news, was appearing on "real time with bill maher"and she said she talked to a knowledgeable source w who said that osama bin laden was in a comfortable villa, and not a cave. >> i want to point out to you one thing. a year ago, eric holder appeared before some coressional committee, and some senators said -- and he said, "we are going to capture him." somebody said, "are you going to give him his miranda rights?" eric hder centcom "if we get him, we will be giving miranda rights -- eric holder said, "if we get them, we will be giving miranda rights to a court." >> how did the leading republicans react to this, mark?

>> you have to give credit to the president who was there who made the call, who put lives at risk and his own political fortunes at risk. by my reckoning, mitt romney did, so did tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota. palin did not, and gingrich did not, and surprisingly to me huckabee did not. mitch daniels did -- >> dick cheney didid. >> it is kind of fascinating, because the base of the party do not want to give credit to the other party at any time. no one would say that george bush cares about his daughters or white if you were about fire- breathing democrats -- or wife if you care about fire-e-breathing democrats. so it is a certain maturity with romney and daniels -- >> at the lack of character on the part of palin -- >> and new?

that does it. [laughter]

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] with amazing innovation, driven by relentless competition, wireless puts the world at your command. ♪ ♪ >> this is the longest war in our history. there is no end in sight. to make it worse, we are not paying for the war. is on the national credit card. the war in afghanistan adds over $100 billion a year, $8 billion each month, to our debt. >> that is congressman and jim mcgovern of massachusetts who along with walter jones of north carolina have co-sponsored the afghanistan exit and accountability act which would set a firm timeline for withdrawing troops did a couple months ago a poll showed that

73% one as out this year -- want as out this year. >> i think they will stick with the time when the president said. you have to remember why we went in in the first place because of osama bin laden and taliban in de -- in that country. >> charles krauthammer this week -- "we could never have pulled off the bin laden raid without a massive base and afghanistan. the drop off point was jalalabad." does he have a point? >> charles always has a point. the point is missing here. you can make a case that osama bin laden scored a major it victory with what happened in this country as a result of 9/11. not simply the coarsening of our

life here, the lack of trust the over-the security and our nation. the money out of our pocket for two wars that are only the results of 9/11 or in reaction to 9/11, not logically and not historically validbut in that sense, i don't think that jimmy mcgovern and walter johns -- i think that jimmy mcgovern and walter jones the congress members pushing this, it deserves support. >> you could have done all this without the nation-building. you could have a military presce, but you don't have to be doing and as counterinsurgency and spending all this money -- endless counterinsurgency and spending all this money -- >> but you take this point about that basis and so forth? >> biden said we can do the military staff and targeted killing with a smaller base. we don't need to be trying to build afghanistan -- >> i think we will have a fairly

active summer. i don't know if we can make progress because the summer is one of the real war happens. after that, obama is on a pretty short leash about actually getting troops out. popular support will erode. it is fire at the moment, but it will not last long. >> petraeus, mr. counterinsurgency, is now at the cia. >> does this mean -- i had a sense last week -- that the joe biden scenario is the one that is going to be -- >> with the personalities, i think it is possible, because at the cia they hunt down and killed terrorists. >> no doubabout it, it is going to happen. >> to me it shows the genius, the perverse genius, of richard nixon.

afghanistan was never even debated in the campaign of 2010, because nobody has paid for it, except a 1% of americans whose loved ones are in battle. nobody else. we are not paying with our dollars, not paying for it in blood, in children. it is a terrible moral indictment of this country. >> you know who andrew bacevich is? ph.d. of boston university, had his son died in iraq. "people find nothing in this and the prospect of armed conflict without any doubt." does he have a point? -- without end." does he have a p point? >> he does. it is a little scary the country will not tolerate an endless war. >> but we do. we up the military that as the fighting for us. >> that is what is so unfair

about it. and unless there is shared sacrifice, is it an unfair situation to map so few do so much. >> by the genius of richard nixon, do you mean abolishing the draft? >> yes. no threat of service no threat of bodily harm, and all of a sudden is toga partis high school was bad... i was obviously gay, and some kids didn't like that. and i did get harassed. what i'd love you to take away from itit... is that howewever d it is now. it gets better. and it can get great. and it's important for adults to reach out to kids and share our stories so that they can picture futureres for themselves that are worth sticking around for. okay little ones, here's the first thing you need to know. you are perfect and wonderful exactly as you are. you're not alone.

there are a ton of us out here in this world. who will love you without even knowing you. it gets better ! ( crowd cheering ) there's art to be made. there's songs to be sung. so hold on. look at me, 80 years old. it gets betttter with age. listen to me. it gets better. it gets better. it gets better. it does get better.er todo se mejora. so much better. you'll be fine partner. your life can be amazing. but you have to tough this period of it out and you have to live.

>> the replicans held their first debate in south carolina this week commenentary on thfox news channel. former gov. gary johnson herman cain, ceo of godfather's pizza ron paul shared the stage with tim pawlenty and rick santorum. where were romney gingrich, at daniels? >> they were talking it, and probably made a mistake because -- ducking it, and probably made

a mistake, because fox news is important to the nominating process. newt gingrich lost his scholarship at fox, and so it rick santorum. they were knocked off the payroll. >> it was really an underwhelming group of republicans and their. -- group of republicans there maybe enough to spur huckabee to get in if that is the field. >> i will ask eight crass political question but unemployment has gone back to 9%, but not o bad because jobs have been added to the economy, but the crass political question is does the capture of osama bin laden give a push to babarack obama for reelection in 2012? >> i think it will wear off because nothing in our fast- moving culture lasts. he will get a little credit for it but not enough to get him reeld ted if the economy goes

sour on him, dow will be much bigger deal. >> i think evan is right but having said this, there was this narrative that republicans were pushing that he was indecisive and he led by following. that is gone. >> the whole notion of being a weak leader is dispelled. they don't have the argument now, that he is soft on defense or military action. that is gone but that will not get him back into the white house. >> since the great depression, no president has run for re- election successfully with a 7.8% unemployment which is what is predicted by the cbo and bloomberg and others. if we look at 9 at, it will be a very competitive race. i don't care who emerges from the republican side.

i think this did it destroyed the republican and narratives of criticism of the president, and certainly established his bonafides as someone willing to make a tough and important decision. but in the final analysis, it is going to be the economy in 2012. >> one other point, there is an entire generation of people who are in their early 20s now who grew up with osama bin laden was there hitler and for that is a bigger deal than it is for us old fogies. >> tampering with medicare -- does this make republicans more likely to compromise on budget issues? >> i hope. >> there is areat roll out election day, that that is the only poll that counts tr. house republicans recklessly voted for the ryan plan less than a month ago and are running

away from it an absolute fear. >> they went home. >> eric cantor says no -- >> "this is just the beginning of the process," said one of the republicans in big trouble now. >> thanks, see you next week. almomost two billion tons of freight move around this country every year... and control centers like this keep track of it all. it takes advanced telemetry and satellite tracking acoustic detectors and friction modifiers. high tech innovations that help rail move our economy. freight rail companies invest billions of their own dollars - not taxpayers' money - to make rail se, reliable, efficient and affordable. it takes tons of technology to haul tons of freight.