Bin Laden's Death: One Year Later

CORE MESSAGE

Bringing bin Laden to justice was an important victory for all Americans and the world.

Connect: Bringing Osama bin Laden to justice was a victory for America in our fight against terrorism.

Define: President Obama made bin Laden a top priority, made the tough call, and got it right. The President's leadership and the hard work of our intelligence and military community brought bin Laden to justice.

Affirm: Military officials, national security experts, and people around the world praised Obama's leadership and our troops' bravery in taking down bin Laden and striking a blow at the heart of Al Qaeda. 

Explain: The President's decision to refocus intelligence and defense capacity on current threats and combating terrorism not only got bin Laden -- it has weakened terrorists around the globe.

Values: We must remain vigilant against terrorism. With this achievement we once again affirm the strength of the United States -- our Constitution and our values are greater than any terrorist threat.

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ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ATTACK: "Going after bin Laden in Pakistan was an easy call that any president would've made."
RESPONSE:

• There was nothing obvious or easy about President Obama's decision to go after bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan. It's troubling when politicians say making these kinds of difficult calls is easy when it's one of the greatest challenges that a president must face.
• In fact, when President Obama said he'd go after bin Laden in Pakistan, he took political heat for it -- but he was proven right.
• That's why national security experts and top military leaders like former Defense Sec. Gates are praising Obama's call to order the operation that killed bin Laden as "gutsy" and "courageous."
• Let's remember this criticism is from Mitt Romney, who has said it wouldn't be worth the effort to catch bin Laden -- a stance that Sen. McCain condemned as naïve. But now that Romney's playing Monday morning quarterback, he's belittling the decision as an easy one.

ATTACK: "President Obama is spiking the football by talking about bin Laden's death."
RESPONSE:

• Having brought bin Laden to justice was a victory for all Americans. The President's talking about it on the one year anniversary because that's a president's job in moments of national reflection.
• It isn't partisan to say that this President's leadership was key to taking down bin Laden and decimating Al Qaeda. It's called running on your record.
• The President's political opponents are the ones trying to score political points by downplaying the hard work, leadership, and determination that got the job done.

ATTACK: "Torture works -- that's how we got the information we needed to get bin Laden."
RESPONSE:

• Our best FBI and military interrogators don't believe torture works. Worse, they say it works for terrorists -- as a recruiting tool to turn people against America.
• We got bin Laden through persistent intelligence gathering, extensive surveillance, and well-coordinated military action -- under President Obama's leadership.
• As a top FBI interrogator said, it's shameful to diminish the hard work of our intelligence and military professionals by giving credit instead to torture that was done years ago.
• In fact, as an official Senate Intelligence Committee report confirms, there's nothing to back up claims that torture was effective in stopping any terrorist attack.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• President Obama vowed to get Osama bin Laden on numerous occasions both before and after he was elected. When the time came, he did what he said he'd do and made the right call.
• In contrast, President Bush said capturing Bin Laden was not a focus for him and closed the CIA unit focused on hunting him. For years, U.S. intelligence had no longer made getting bin Laden a top priority.
• As soon as he got into office, President Obama made bin Laden a top priority and reoriented the fight against terrorism to focus specifically the key threat we face -- defeating Al Qaeda and its affiliates -- and oversaw a shakeup in U.S. intelligence policy that led to the discovery of bin Laden's hideout.
• Even former Vice President Dick Cheney admitted at the time of bin Laden's capture that the Obama administration "clearly deserves credit for the success of the operation" and NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani said, "I admire the courage of the president."
• Mitt Romney has said that it wouldn't be worth the effort to catch bin Laden because he's just one person -- a stance that even Sen. John McCain slammed as reflecting a "naïvete" about fighting terrorism.
• On top of killing bin Laden, we've eliminated two-thirds of Al Qaeda's top leaders in the past two years alone. Furthermore, the President's decision to refocus intelligence and defense capacity on current threats and combating terrorism has weakened terrorists around the globe.
• According to recent polling, voters said President Obama was stronger than Romney on national security and foreign policy issues by a double-digit margin.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.