Washington : US President Barack Obama’s decision to order a raid against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was a courageous and ‘very gutsy call’, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said.
“I worked for a lot of these guys. And this is one of the most courageous calls, decisions – that I think I’ve ever seen a president make,” Politico quoted Gates, as saying.
Gates, who once served as CIA director, said he was very concerned about the quality of the intelligence that had located Osama in a compound in Abbottabad, ahead of the May 1 raid.
“My worry was the level of uncertainty about whether Bin Laden was even in the compound. There wasn’t any direct evidence that he was there. It was all circumstantial. But it was the best, information that we had since probably 2001,” Gates said.
Gates, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush at the end of 2006 and kept on by Obama, also described his four and a half years at the Pentagon as the hardest job he has ever had.
“We have been at war in two places every single day I’ve been secretary of defense. And I’ve been secretary of defense longer than World War II lasted, longer than the Civil War lasted, so it’s been tough,” Gates said. ANI
