White House Now Says Bin Laden Was Unarmed, But Totally Asking For It

Jen Chung

Published May 3, 2011

Modified May 4, 2011

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Jen Chung

Published May 3, 2011

Modified May 4, 2011

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Children look at the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where Osama bin Laden was found and killed (AP)

The White House is now offering a revised narrative on how Osama bin Laden was killed—and it turns out bin Laden wasn't armed. As the world basks in details about the operation to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ("Geronomo KIA," facial recognition software matching a photo of the slain man with Bin Laden, the couriers), the White House says the Most Wanted Terrorist was not armed but did resist when Navy SEALs stormed into his Abbottabad Pakistan compound. White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "Resistance does not require a firearm."

Also, others in the compound were armed and firing at the SEALs. Bin Laden was shot in the chest and head, and Carney said, "We were prepared to capture him. We were met with a great deal of resistance. It was a highly volatile firefight. He resisted. The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism, and he was killed in an operation because of the resistance that they met.”

However, former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clark tells ABC News, "I think it was the assumption all along that this was an assassination operation. It's unpleasant to say that and there may be some lawyers that object and say that you have to contend that he was resisting arrest. But I don't think that at the operational level there was ever any desire to take him alive." Well, a military source tells Fox News that Bin Laden was reaching for a gun.

The White House also said that one of bin Laden's wives was not killed in the cross fire when Bin Laden used her as a human shield—she was only wounded. One of Bin Laden's sons was killed, as were two brothers who acted as couriers.

The military took hard drives from the compound—"10 hard drives, 5 computers and more than 100 storage devices which includes discs, DVDs and thumb drives"—and CNN has details on the death photos:

Photos of OBLs body at a hangar after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive open head wound across both eyes. It’s very bloody and gory.

Photos from the burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson. Photos of OBL before the shroud was put on and then wrapped in the shroud.

There are photos of the raid itself that include photos of the two dead brothers, one of OBLs dead son (adult adolescent, maybe approx 18 yrs old) and some of the inside scene of the compound.

An official told CNN "that the picture that includes the most recognizable image of OBLs face - from the hangar in Afghanistan - is so gruesome and mangled its not appropriate for say the front page of the newspaper. On the other hand, this is the one that is most identifiable as him." The White House is reportedly debating whether to release the corpse photo, but Carney says it "could be inflammatory." Only could be?

As for the country where Bin Laden was apparently holed up in for a long time, Pakistan is both taking credit for helping the U.S. with finding and killing BIn Laden as well as criticizing the force used. Still, Bin Laden is only the latest terrorist to be found in the country.

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