Bin Laden’s arrest, 9/11 attack take center stage in 2016 race

US Vice President Joe Biden has offered an account of Osama bin Laden’s death that contradicts that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and his own past statement as issues related to the September 11 attack take center stage in the run-up to the 2016 presidential race in the United States.

Biden, who yet remains undecided whether to run for president, said Tuesday during a panel discussion at The George Washington University that he did not oppose the Navy SEAL’s raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that allegedly killed the al-Qaeda leader in 2011.

The vice president said there were only two definitive views on the mission from then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former CIA director Leon Panetta, tacitly questioning support for the mission by Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton, whom he will have to defeat if he decides to run.

“Panetta said go, Bob Gates said don’t go,” Biden noted. "I told him my opinion that I thought he should go, but to follow his own instincts.”

His account also contradicted with recollections of US President Barack Obama and those of Panetta.

“I never, on a difficult issue, never say what I think finally until I go up in the Oval [Office] with him alone,” Biden said.

His version is also against his 2012 statement, in which he told House Democrats that he had opposed the idea of a raid before collecting enough information in regard to bin Laden’s whereabouts.

“Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go,” Biden told lawmakers at the time, according to The New York Times.  

Obama also referred to Biden’s opposition during a 2012 presidential debate with his Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

“Those decisions generally are not poll-tested. And even some in my own party, including my current vice president, had the same critique as you did,” Obama said, suggesting Biden opposed the raid.

In his book titled Worthy Fights, Panetta also wrote of Clinton’s support and Biden’s opposition.

“Biden argued that we still did not have enough confidence that bin Laden was in the compound, and he came out firmly in favor of waiting for more information,” said the former defense secretary.

On the other hand, Obama chief of staff Bill Daley, who was present during Biden’s speech, backed his narrative, saying, “I think the way he articulated it was absolutely the truth… I was in the room and I saw him walk out with the president. ... His explanation of that is absolutely on point."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest dodged multiple questions by reporters about the vice president’s controversial comments.

“I am going to leave the dissection and the oral history of those days to those who were actually there,” Earnest said. “I don’t have any new insight to share with you about the president’s recollection of those events.”

The White House spokesman noted, however, that he was “not particularly” surprised by Biden’s remarks.

Clinton said during last week's Democratic debate that she was “one of [Obama’s] few advisers” in the case.

“He valued my judgment, and I spent a lot of time with him in the Situation Room, going over some very difficult issues,” she said.

In his speech, Biden tried to portray himself as the one really close to President Obama, stating that, "We've had two great secretaries of state, but when I go, they know that I am speaking for the president.”

Biden’s remarks come at a time that Republican front runner Donald Trump is also pressuring his fellow Republican Jeb Bush for his brother’s role in failing to prevent the September 11 attacks in 2001.

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