Barack Obama reveals details of final call before Osama bin Laden was killed: Watch

Former US President Barack Obama recently revealed details of the last conversation he had before al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. In an interview posted to the Obama Foundation’s YouTube channel, the ex-POTUS discussed his final phone call with Admiral Bill McRaven, the retired commander of the US Special Operations Command which carried out the operation on May 1, 2011. While speaking to ex-Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Obama confirmed that he had called McRaven to wish the mission’s team well and to ask the admiral to share his thanks with the other troops. 

Obama explained that there were two reasons why he made the call and said, “One, is that no matter how highly trained those warriors were, there was still enormous risk to a mission like that. But the second reason (...) is that as commander in chief a lot of times, these issues of war are treated as abstractions. 

“We forget that these are folks who have families and loved ones and that they are carrying a burden on behalf of hundreds and millions of America,” he continued. 

Obama’s phone call ‘meant a lot’ 

The former President further went on to say that as a commander in chief, when one has to make a decision about a particular mission like that, it was one of those opportunities for him where he had the chance to say - not after the fact, not in retrospect, not when folks are coming home, but before they go - that the country doesn’t take this for granted. On May 1, 2011, Obama had confirmed that the US forces had shot dead bin Laden, following a raid of a compound in Pakistan. Back then, he had said that the US will never tolerate its security forces being threatened, nor stand idly by when its people have been killed. 

“On nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda’s terror: justice has been done,” Obama said while addressing the nation in 2011. 

Meanwhile, according to Indy100, Admiral Bill McRaven even responded to Obama’s comments made during the recent interview. On April 30, McRaven said that Obama’s phone call back then “meant a lot” to him and those on the mission. The retired commander further went on to praise the former President and said that he understood that the Seals and the night stalkers, the helicopter pilots, were getting ready to on a mission that potentially could cost them their lives. 

(Image: AP)