Point By Point, Bill Clinton Supports Obama (Video)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Former President Bill Clinton grabbed the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night to recall the "roaring" economy of the 1990s and hold forth the promise of a new era of prosperity under President Obama.

Clinton, earning an onstage embrace from Obama at the conclusion of a 49-minute speech, urged an ecstatic, cheering crowd of Democrats to fight for the president's health care and economic stimulus plans, policies that almost certainly would be reversed with the election of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

"When we vote in this election, we'll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in," Clinton, the party's popular elder statesman, said in one of the most animated speeches of his long public career. "If you want a winner-take-all 'you're-on-your-own' society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility -- a we're-all-in-it-together' society -- you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden."

Clinton's speech, an often ad-libbed point-by-point rebuttal of the GOP convention in Tampa, capped a night of withering critiques of Republican tax and budget policies by a Democrats, including Minnesota labor leader David Foster, who told the audience, "We don't need a president who fires steelworkers, or says, 'Let Detroit go bankrupt.'"

Century Fox Post Report:   CLINTON IS OBAMA'S MOST VALUABLE WEAPON

Clinton served as a reminder of the party unity that he helped forge after Obama defeated his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2008 Democratic primaries, a coalescing that paved the way to Obama's election and the appointment of the former first lady as secretary of state.

Clinton's speech, the most anticipated of the convention other than Obama's remarks Thursday, presented risks as well as validation for the president, who is presiding over a tepid economic recovery that Republicans hope will drive him from the White House.

Clinton's approval ratings are at his personal best, affording him a stature that some observers said could upstage Obama.

Despite the questions, Obama advisers believe the president could benefit from Clinton's forceful critique of Republican economic policies under former President George W. Bush, who left office amid a deep financial crisis.

"In Tampa ... the Republican argument against the president's re-election was pretty simple, pretty snappy," Clinton said. "'We left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.'"

'Upward trajectory'

As Clinton has stayed active in politics, he also has forged deep connections in Minnesota, where he addressed the Humphrey-Mondale Dinner last month to raise money and fire up state DFL Party activists, many of them now at the convention in Charlotte.

"I can't think of a better person to lay out not only what has happened in the past but how important it is for our country and our state to re-elect President Obama so that he can continue this upward trajectory of getting our country back on track," DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said.

Century Fox Post Report: WILL PRESIDENT OBAMA KEEP HIS PROMISES, THIS TIME?

To Democratic delegates from Minnesota and around the nation, Clinton also was a reminder of the good old days of Democratic victories.

"Bill Clinton proved himself to be a winner," said Bill Davis, a Democratic National Committeeman and co-chair of the DFL African-American Caucus. "He understands the economy, and he understands what it means to move the ball forward."

Recognizing Clinton's popularity, the Romney campaign responded with a statement contrasting his legacy with that of Obama.

"When it comes to the state of the economy, President Obama just can't match President Clinton," Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. "Just this week, gas prices set a new record, the national debt topped $16 trillion, manufacturing slowed and the number of Americans on food stamps hit a record high."

Romney backers also note that Clinton has described Romney's business record as "sterling" and that he has differed with Obama on immediately repealing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy amid this year's economic malaise.

Anticipating a stirring Clinton endorsement of Obama, Romney surrogates such as former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman have been building up the narrative that the former president represents the past, not the future.

"Bill Clinton is up there talking about what he did in the 1990s," Coleman told Minnesota Republicans at their national convention in Tampa last week. "Well, somebody should remind [Obama] and Joe Biden that it's the 21st century."

'Looking at the future'

Despite GOP criticism, Democrats were eager to showcase one of their best cheerleaders during prime-time television.

"It's no accident that Democrats celebrate their past presidents, while Republicans virtually banish theirs," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

Ben Finkenbinder, the Midwest press secretary for the Obama campaign, said Clinton's appearance reminded voters of "what the president's done to help the nation recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

As Clinton praised Obama's efforts to reverse the economic slide he inherited from Bush, he also called out Romney's claims that the president has been trying to weaken the work requirements of Clinton's historic welfare reform law as a "doozy."

"The claim that President Obama weakened welfare reform's work requirement is just not true," he said. "But they keep running ads claiming it."

To many Democrats in Time Warner Cable Arena, Clinton still presented a model for growing an economy with tax policies and domestic programs that aid low-income and middle-class families, as well as small businesses.

"He's not just some blast from the past," Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, who appeared on the podium with other women Democrats in the U.S. Senate. "He's someone who has remained relevant."

Among those making a personal connection to the Clinton years was David Wellstone, the son of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone. "I remember when Bill Clinton came out and campaigned with my dad, people said, 'Well, Bill Clinton is much more to the middle.'" But their common bond, Wellstone said, was that "they had this focus on the working families."

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, in Charlotte for the convention, recalled Clinton's speech in the Twin Cities last month. "There is nobody better at looking at the future and describing the future than President Clinton," he said.

Clinton's speech emphasizing Democratic unity came after an awkward moment of division arising from party leaders' decision to reinstate a controversial plank to the convention platform recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Republicans have sought to portray Obama as a more left-leaning version of Clinton. But some Democrats say Clinton could also help embolden the president to more forcefully challenge Republicans in Congress, who have been largely unified in opposition to his agenda.

Said U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesotan who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus: "I think what Obama can learn from Clinton is to get in the room and mix it up in Congress.

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    Bill Clinton

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The Naked Truth: 3 Celebrities Strip For Allure

Maria Menounos, Debra Messing and Leslie Bibb  stripped down for our shoot, draped in just a few strands of diamonds. Here's how they got their bodies—and minds—ready for the big reveal.

MARIA MENOUNOS

As a teen beauty-pageant contestant, Menounos received low swimsuit scores. "I was hippy and I didn't diet for contests. And it didn't bother me," she says. The 33-year-old Extra host has a healthy attitude about her body, but that doesn't mean she's comfortable getting naked. In fact, she's so hesitant to be bare it all that she's afraid of getting pregnant because of how much she'd have to expose."I have some serious issues here," she admitted. "But I want to get over that." She looked to this photo shoot to cure to her shyness, and it may have worked: "This was definitely challenging," she said, "but I feel so much better having done it."

DEBRA MESSING

At 43, Messing's decision to pose nude came from a natural process of self-acceptance. "Once you have a child, once you pass 40, you have a different relationship with your body," she said. "I love my body in a way I never have before." And the parts she loves the most? "My shoulders, clavicle, and chest," she explains. "I started out in dance—there's something beautiful about a dancer's upper body.

LESLIE BIBB

Following an indulgent two-week vacation, Bibb, 37, went on a four-day juice cleanse to get ready for her shoot. "It was an angry four days," says Bibb. "Sam [Rockwell, her boyfriend] was like, 'Thank God I'm not with you right now. You are not nice on the juice cleanse.'" Luckily, prepping her skin was an easier chore, as she stopped off at a Korean spa for a body scrub pre-shoot. "Everybody's naked there, and I don't mind," she said. "But I'm like a cat with a feather anytime I see a boob job. I can't look away.

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Syrian Clashes Leave Residents Without Water

, Free Syrian Army fighters run after attacking a Syrian Army tank during fighting in the Izaa district in Aleppo, Syria.

Water supplies to residents in the Syrian commercial hub Aleppo were cut on Saturday after a major water pipe was damaged during intense fighting between government forces and rebels.

Opposition activists say the pipeline was hit as Syrian forces shelled rebel targets. Syrian officials accused rebels of sabotage in the incident, which left several communities without water.

Also Saturday, rockets fired from Syria landed in an Iraqi border town, killing a five-year-old girl. It was unclear who fired the rockets.

Century Fox Post Report:   SAD STORIES FROM SYRIA
Meanwhile, foreign and diplomatic efforts are underway to try to resolve Syria's 18-month-old anti-government crisis, a conflict that has left 20,000 people dead and forced thousands to flee from their homes.

On Saturday, European Union foreign ministers meeting in Cyprus agreed to pursue efforts to increase sanctions against Syria.

Century Fox Post Report:   SYRIA PRESIDENT 'BASHAR ASSAD' APPEARS CONFIDENT OF VICTORY.
Also, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Syrian opposition groups to collaborate. She said it was important for Syrians to feel they were "part of the future."

The group also pledged cooperation with Lakhdar Brahimi, the new U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria. He is due to discuss Syria's crisis with Arab League officials in Cairo on Sunday.

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Wave Of Blasts Kill 34 In Iraq, French Consulate Hit

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 34 people were killed in a series of attacks and blasts across Iraq on Sunday, including a car bomb outside a French consular building, as the government grapples with a persistent insurgency.

Sunni insurgents and al Qaeda have launched a series of major attacks this year in an attempt to stoke the kind of political and sectarian tensions that drove the country to near civil war in 2006-2007.

The most serious of the 16 attacks happened overnight in Dujail, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, when gunmen and a suicide bomber driving a car attacked a military base, killing 11 soldiers and injuring seven, police sources said.

A car bomb killed eight people who were queuing to apply to be recruited as police guards for the Iraqi North Oil Company in the flashpoint city of Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, police said.

The car bomb that exploded outside the French consular building in the usually stable city of Nassiriya, 300 km south of Baghdad, killed a police guard and wounded four other guards, authorities said.

Another car bomb also detonated in the city, killing two and wounding three.

More people were killed in several other blasts across the country in the towns of Kirkuk, Samarra, Basra and Tuz Khurmato.

FEARS OF RETURN TO VIOLENCE

The blast in Nassiriya damaged the building where the French embassy operates a consular office, but the honorary consul himself, an Iraqi citizen, was not at the office at the time of the attack, one French diplomat said.

French diplomats have been hit before by violence in Iraq.

In June last year, a French embassy convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad that wounded seven local Iraqi guards and badly damaged an embassy vehicle. A month earlier, another French embassy convoy had been hit by an explosive device.

At that time France had been on high alert for attacks overseas due to tensions over the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and the country's ban on allowing full-length Islamic veils, which was widely criticised by Muslims abroad as harming their religious freedom.

The Iraqi government, riven by infighting among Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish political factions, is still struggling to battle Islamist militants and an al Qaeda affiliate nine months after the last U.S. troops left.

Century Fox Post reported on 24th July 2012, In Beirut—Iraq suffered its worst day of violence in nearly two years as bombings and attacks in nearly two dozen towns left almost 100 people dead, in what Iraq's government characterized as a clear spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Syria.

Iraq's local al Qaeda wing, Islamic State of Iraq, has claimed responsibility for other major attacks on security forces and Shi'ite neighbourhoods. But former members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baathist party and other Sunni Islamist groups are also fighting the government.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

Tension in Iraq's delicate power-sharing government, and a resurgence of the al Qaeda group, have raised fears of a return to widespread violence, especially as Iraq struggles to contain spillover from the growing conflict in neighbouring Syria.

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Tornadoes Hit New York City

NEW YORK – Severe weather lashed the Northeast and mid-Atlantic on Saturday, as two tornadoes touched down on the outer edges of New York City and two possible tornadoes were reported in the Washington, D.C., area.

In New York, the first tornado struck Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. The second, stronger tornado hit the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, around 10 minutes after the first.

Videos taken by bystanders in New York showed a funnel cloud sucking up water, then sand, and then small pieces of buildings.

The National Weather Service said winds were up to 110 miles per hour, and several homes and trees were damaged.

The twisters were part of a system of strong storms that pummeled the East Coast, flooding the streets of some New England towns and leaving tens of thousands in the dark in the Washington, D.C., area.

Meteorologist Andy Woodcock of the National Weather Service said tornado-like funnel clouds were reported near the nation's capital, in Chantilly, in Fairfax County, Va., and in Prince George's County, Md. The weather service hasn't confirmed they were tornadoes, though the storms have left thousands without electricity.

More:   TROPICAL STORM ISAAC ENGULFS FLORIDA AND MOVES INTO GULF

"These storms are capable of producing hail up to the size of quarters and destructive winds in excess of 70 mph," the Weather Service said. As of early Saturday evening, nearly 110,000 customers were without electricity in northern Virginia, according to Dominion Electric. Pepco was reporting outages to roughly 60,000 customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties. BGE was reporting nearly 20,000 outages, most in Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties. More than 1,100 customers lost power in New York City.

As in the New York area, residents had advance notice. In New York, the Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for Queens and Brooklyn at around 10:40 a.m. The storm took people by surprise anyway when it struck about 20 minutes later.

"I was showing videos of tornadoes to my 4-year-old on my phone, and two minutes later, it hit," said neighborhood resident Peter Maloney. "Just like they always say, it sounded like a train."

In the storm's wake, the community of seaside bungalows was littered with broken flower pots, knocked-down fences and smashed windows.

At the Breezy Point Surf Club, a tornado ripped the roofs off rows of cabanas, scattered deck chairs and left a heavy metal barbecue and propane tank sitting in the middle of a softball field, at least 100 yards from any nearby home.

"It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters," said the club's general manager,Thomas Sullivan.

Half an hour later the weather was beautiful, but he had to close the club to clean up the damage.

Across New York state, in Buffalo, strong winds from a broad front of thunderstorms blew roofing off of some buildings and sent bricks falling into the street.

The storm system killed four people, including a child, in Oklahoma on Friday.

Radar data, video and witness reports confirmed that the cyclone that hit New York City was a tornado, National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Hofmann said. He said an inspection team would assess the damage before estimating the strength of the storm. Hofmann said some witnesses were reporting that the wind had been strong enough to lift cars off the pavement.

Lizann Maher, a worker at Kennedy's Restaurant at the edge of Jamaica Bay, said she saw a "swirling cone kind of thing with something flying in it" come down and then head back out into the water toward Brooklyn.

"It was scary. We have all glass so we kept saying, 'Get away from the glass!' just in case it did come back around," she said.

The storm delayed play at the U.S. Open tennis tournament a few miles away.

Tornadoes were once exceedingly rare in New York, but they have occurred with regularity in recent years. A small tornado uprooted trees on Long Island last month. In 2010, a September storm spawned two tornadoes that knocked down thousands of trees and blew off a few rooftops in Brooklyn and Queens. A small tornado struck the same year in the Bronx. In 2007, a more powerful tornado damaged homes in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

In the D.C. area, there were reports of malfunctioning traffic lights and downed trees and power lines as thunder, heavy rains and winds approaching 60 mph struck the region.

In Prince George's County, emergency officials were attending to about a dozen people who, as the storm arrived, made a panicked rush for the exits at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the county fire and emergency management agency. Three people were being taken to the hospital for what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries at a county fair.

In northern Virginia, one person suffered minor injuries during a partial stage collapse at the Rosslyn Jazz Festival, a fire department spokesman said.

In D.C., there were reports of about 10 downed trees, including one that came down on a Southeast apartment building undergoing construction, said Christopher Geldart, the district's emergency management director. Six people had to be evacuated from the building. There were no reports of major flooding, he said.

Fairfax County officials reported three home cave-ins because of downed trees, a water rescue in the Potomac River and dozens of down electrical wires, said Dan Schmidt, a fire department spokesman.

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What Your Walk Says About You

Your resume is glowing and once you're in the interview room you can certainly talk the talk...but can you walk the walk? No matter how amazing your accolades or stellar your past salaries seem, if you're shuffling into the room in this competitive job market, you may be slowing down your chances of landing a high-profiled job. Give thought to your current glide and check out the advice below to see what your walk says about you.

Type of Trot: Speedy Gonzales

What Your Walk Says: If you're a fast walker, you may also be a fast worker which is prized in some setting but also may be problematic if you're so fast that you forget to pay attention to certain details or if you overlook something important.

Work for Your Walk: A career in data entry is super for your speed.

Quick Fix: Take time to smell the roses – or at least speak to your co-worker or interviewer-when walking. Avoid any pace that could elicit comments like "Where's the fire, buddy!"

Type of Trot: Strutting Your Stuff

What Your Walk Says: If you're someone who struts, you're certainly projecting confidence and capability, but you could also be sending out signals to others that you've got a big ego, which could be a turnoff.

Work for Your Walk: Climbing the ladder to be an executive will allow you to strut your stuff without fear of consequences.

Quick Fix: Feel free to strut your stuff in the workplace but make sure that your strut is followed up with a humble smile and pleasant conversation to ward off any concerns of egocentrism.

Type of Trot: Clack-Clack-Clacker

What Your Walk Says: You certainly aren't afraid to be noticed if you're such a heavy walker that your heels announce that you're coming way before you actually arrive, but if you work in an environment where quiet and calm is key to productivity, you could be sticking out like a sore thumb.

Work for Your Walk: Getting noticed is half of the battle as a pharmaceutical sales representative so give that career a shot if you're a clacker.

Quick Fix: Shoe repair stores can replace your soles and heels with rubber ones for a small fee that could lead to a large promotion once the disruption ceases.

Type of Trot: Always Behind the Group

What Your Walk Says: Lagging behind in a group sends the signal that you can't keep up or are not interested in the others, which is a problem in workplaces where team players are most valued.

Work for Your Walk: A career path like being a driver, where you can work solo instead of depending upon the group, is best.

Quick Fix: Opt for more comfortable shoes so that you can easily stay ahead of the pack instead of trailing behind.

Type of Trot: Silent Sneaker

What Your Walk Says: If no one knows you're coming until you've arrived, you and your hard work may go unnoticed.

Work for Your Walk: A career as a programming analyst or a similar field where you don't have to rely on in-person meetings to make a statement is best.

Quick Fix: Make sure that the appreciation for your abilities isn't as muted as your walk by setting appointments with your bosses for reviews and by specifically pointing out your qualifications in interviews.

Type of Trot: Slumped Over Shoulders

What Your Walk Says: Walking into a room with your shoulders hunched over evokes a lack of confidence in oneself and one's abilities. Potential employers or current bosses might question their confidence in you if your walk suggests that you aren't confident in yourself.

Work for Your Walk: Hunching over the computer in an information technology job or in other technology-related jobs naturally fits your style of walk.

Quick Fix: Look in the mirror and try positioning your shoulders so that your shoulder blades are trying to touch. Your chest will open up and create a more confident walk.

Type of Trot: Eyes Straight Ahead

What Your Walk Says: If you're known for walking with your eyes straight ahead, you're probably known as a confident and focused worker with your eyes on the future.

Work for Your Walk: Any career like sales, where your eye contact can help seal a deal.

Quick Fix: You've got your eyes open so just make sure that the quality of your work matches your confidence.

Type of Trot: Slow Walker

What Your Walk Says: Some may be annoyed by a slow walker, assuming that they are ineffective, but certain types of jobs may appreciate it as a sign that you are thoughtful and detail oriented.

Work for Your Walk: A career where being careful counts, like in healthcare.

Quick Fix: If you're a slow walker, don't feel the need to speed up for the sake of appearances. Instead, provide your boss or potential employer with a list of projects that you've completed in the recent past to prove your effectiveness.

Type of Trot: The Zig-Zagger

What Your Walk Says: If you find it hard to walk in a straight line, fellow and future workmates may see you as someone who is all over the map and not especially efficient.

Work for Your Walk: Careers like those in the retail industry where multi-tasking is a part of the job description will welcome your walk.

Quick Fix: If you love to weave as you walk, try making your movements make sense by zigging to speak to someone or zagging to pick up copies, instead of just aimlessly bobbing around.

Type of Trot: Eyes Down

What Your Walk Says: People who walk with their eyes focused on the floor are not only deemed unconfident but also appear to only be focused on the here and now and not interested in what's in front of them or upcoming events.

Work for Your Walk: A job in manufacturing, where your attention needs to be on what's right under your nose, is a great fit.

Quick Fix: Practice having better eye contact with others or at least focusing on something other than your shoes – your paycheck will probably thank you!

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True Depth Of Coalgate Scam

Coalgate barely plumbs the depths of the coal problem. ET tells you how the current mess extends well beyond Coalgate and the vested interests involved.

First, the good news. Even as every morning brings with it fresh revelations on how India's coal reserves have been mismanaged by the Manmohan Singh government, India is also seeing a set of institutional responses towards addressing some of the ills that have been highlighted.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its first FIRs this week. According to media reports, at least 10 more are expected soon. The Inter-Ministerial Group, comprising bureaucrats from ministries like steel, power and finance, and chaired by additional secretary (coal) Zohra Chatterji, is in the process of deciding what to do with errant captive blocks. Even at the time of going to press, the group is quizzing the companies whose 58 blocks are running badly behind schedule.

And then, there is the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) chaired by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi which will look into the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the coal mess. And it is the PAC which will vet whether the CAG's observations on captive coal block allocations are valid or not.

However, these institutional responses invite a large question: are these institutional responses we are seeing are enough to clean the sector up? And the short answer to that question is: no, they aren't. The remedial measures we are seeing focus largely on how captive coal blocks were allocated. But the mess in coal runs way deeper.

Any attempt to fix this mess though, will run into a heavy set of vested interests. There is of course, most visibly, the political class, which has over the years built up a deep relationship with a set of private sector and other players in the sector. Politics in India has become more competitive, complicated and costly. Like any business it needs funds and investment. Increasingly that 'funding' is coming from the resource sectors - energy, coal, mining and of course, telecom spectrum.

Century Fox Report:   COAL SCAM IN INDIA WORSENS
Any attempt at reform in the coal sector will have to deal with this problem. But there are other interests too which reform will have to deal with- from state companies, to coal ministry bureaucrats to a relatively unknown, but increasingly powerful set of private sector players who have everything to gain from the status quo.

Ultimately, it is unlikely to be one big reform which will solve the problem. Rather, whether the problem is coal, or iron ore, or other natural resources, reform will have to be on multiple fronts.

In this story, ET describes the main players and the institutions in the coal mess and how they play the game.

EXPLORE:  World News        India          Coalgate Scams         Indian President       2G Scam          Chidambaram            Bal Thackeray

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US Had Planned To Air Strike Osama's Abbottabad Hideout

New York: The US was initially planning a massive air strike using B-2 Spirit bombers to level the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden but chose an assault by its elite commandos who killed the world's most wanted terrorist a year ago.

In his tell-all account, Matt Bissonnette, a Navy SEAL who participated in Operation Neptune Spear to kill the top al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan, says that President Barack Obama and his advisors discussed different options till the last moment.

"The president still had not signed off on the ground- assault option. All we had been authorised to do up to now was to start planning and conduct rehearsals. The White House was still considering an Air Force option, a massive air strike using B-2 Spirit bombers to level the house," writes Matt Bissonnette in "No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL" using the pseudonym "Mark Owen".

He says Defence Secretary Robert Gates supported the air strike because it kept American ground forces out of Pakistan, which made the mission less like an invasion of the country's sovereignty.

The air strike option required 32 2000-pound smart bombs.

"The barrage would last for a full minute and a half and the crater would penetrate at least 30 feet into the earth in case the compound had a bunker system. The possibility for collateral damage was high, and the possibility of finding identifiable remains after that kind of destruction was low." 

The just-released book, published by Penguin, gives fascinating details of the mission undertaken by 22 SEALS, an EOD tech and a CIA interpreter, who flew in two Black Hawk helicopters into Abbottabad, where Pakistan's military academy is located, on the night of May 2, 2011 from a US base in Jalalabad. They killed Osama and four others hiding in a house. 

Recalling how Osama was killed, the book says the point man's shots had entered the right side of the al-Qaeda leader's head and blood and brains spilled out of the side of his skull.

More:  SEALS WERE TOLD TO CATCH OSAMA ALIVE, IF POSSIBLE
He writes that Osama perhaps knew "we were coming" when he heard the helicopter.

"Bin Laden had more time to prepare than the others, and yet he still didn't do anything. Did he believe his own message? Was he willing to fight the war he asked for? I don't think so. Otherwise, he would have at least gotten his gun and stood up for what he believed." 

Osama also wasn't even prepared for a defence.

"He had no intention of fighting. He asked his followers for decades to wear suicide vests or fly planes into buildings, but didn't even pick up his weapon," the book says.

The assault by SEALS and explosion of one of their helicopters at the target compound close to Pakistan's military academy finally attracted the attention of the country's Air Force.

"Unknown to us, they grounded all their aircraft and started a head count. With everyone accounted for, they scrambled two F-16 fighters armed with 30 mm cannons and air-to-air missiles. Pakistan's military has always maintained a state of high alert against India. Most of the country's air defences are aimed east toward that threat. The jets roared into the sky and raced toward the Abbottabad area." 

The book, co-authored by journalist Kevin Maurer, has irked the Pentagon which has threatened to take legal action against Matt on charges of leaking classified information.

Matt says his goal was to "tell the true story of the raid and show the sacrifices made by the SEALs at the command.

I only used my life as a way to describe what it is like to be part of such a special unit".

He also claims that till date, how the mission to kill Osama has been reported is wrong.

"Even reports claiming to have the inside story have been incorrect. I felt like someone had to tell the true story. To me, the story is bigger than the raid itself and much more about the men at the command who willingly go into harm's way, sacrificing all they have to do the job. Theirs is a story that deserves to be told, and told as accurately as possible."

The level of detail on the mock-up operation was impressive, according to Matt, given the fact that US' previous air raids had some flaws.

"The construction crews at the base had planted trees, dug a ditch around the compound, and even put in mounded dirt to simulate the potato fields that surrounded the compound in Pakistan...

"Every single contingency was practiced to the point where we were tired of it. We had never trained this much for a particular objective before in our lives, but it was important. The mission was straightforward, but the extra preparation helped us mesh, since we'd been drawn from different teams."

  EXPLORE:  World News         Mushharraf           Haqqani    

   ex-Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette           No Easy day        Pentagon  

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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

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