Bin Laden had support network Said Us President Obama !!!!!

U.S.President Barack Obama says he knew that sending special forces in helicopters to get Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan compound was risky, but he felt it was the best way to make sure they had their man.

In an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," the president said he thought it was very important to be able to be sure.

"In some ways, sending in choppers and actually putting our guys on the ground entailed some greater risks than some other options," Obama said. "I thought it was important, though, for us to be able to say that we'd definitely got the guy."

He said he also wanted to avoid "collateral damage" in a residential neighborhood.

Bin Laden's presence in the neighborhood for about five years has raised questions about who knew about his presence and who was helping him.

"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was," Obama said. "We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate."

The president said that even with months of intelligence work, the odds bin Laden was in the compound were only about 55-45. But Obama said he had such confidence in the special forces that he decided the risks were outweighed by the benefits.

"Had he not been there, then there would have been some significant consequences," Obama said. "Obviously, we're going into the sovereign territory of another country and landing helicopters and conducting a military operation. And so if it turns out that it's a wealthy, you know, prince from Dubai who's in this compound and, you know, we've sent Special Forces in, we've got problems."

A team of Navy SEALs stormed the compound in the military town of Abbottabad near Islamabad a week ago and killed the al-Qaida leader.

Obama says he was very aware of past military missions that ended tragically , notably the failed 1993 mission of elite U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages in 1980.

"You think about 'Black Hawk Down,'" he said, referring to the title of a book and movie about the Mogadishu mission. "You think about what happened with the Iranian rescue. And ... I am very sympathetic to the situation for other presidents where you make a decision.

"You're making your best call, your best shot and something goes wrong, because these are tough, complicated operations."

Obama said the amount of "blood and treasure" the country has spent to avenge the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, weighed heavily in his final decision.

"I said to myself that if we have a good chance of not completely defeating, but badly disabling al-Qaida, then it was worth both the political risks as well as the risks to our men," he said.

Obama said he made the decision the Thursday night before the raid and kept it a secret from most of his senior aides. He then announced his decision to key staff Friday morning before flying off to survey tornado damage in Alabama and visit Florida, where he made a speech.

Then on Saturday night, he played the role of comedian-in-chief at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.

"The presidency requires you to do more than one thing at a time," he said.

A wealth of intelligence about al-Qaida was seized at the compound. Analysts are combing through that data for information about possible planned attacks and other terrorist operatives.

Deadliest Uprising in Syria !!!!!!!!!

Witnesses and a The human rights group  of Syria said,Syrian security forces fired bullets and tear gas Friday on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 49 people — including a young boy — in the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime.The protests, held every Friday, have become weekly bloodbaths as security forces try to crush the demonstrations.More than 250 people have been killed over five weeks."Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain," said one witness in Izraa.

Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said the death toll had reached 49 and at least 20 people were missing.The protest movement has been the gravest challenge against the autocratic regime led by Assad, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago in one of the most rigidly controlled countries in the Middle East.he uprising in Syria takes its inspiration from the popular revolts sweeping the Arab world. But there are significant differences in Syria that make the protest movement there all the more unpredictable.

The country's military structure is a key difference — unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria's military and security apparatus will almost certainly stand by Assad, at least for the time being.

That means there could be darker days ahead as the uprising gains momentum, something that has implications far beyond Syria's borders. Damascus stands in the middle of the most combustible conflicts in region because of its web of allegiances, from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.On Friday, tens of thousands of people were protesting in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the central cities of Hama and Homs, Latakia and Banias on the coast, the northern cities of Raqqa and Idlib, the northeastern Kurdish region, and the southern province of Daraa.

Friday's witness accounts could not be independently confirmed because Syria has expelled journalists and restricted access to trouble spots. Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Assad has been trying to defuse the protests by launching a bloody crackdown along with a series of concessions, most recently lifting emergency laws that gave authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest.

He also has fulfilled a decades-old demand by granting citizenship to thousands among Syria's long-ostracized Kurdish minority, fired local officials, released detainees and formed a new government.

But many protesters said the concessions have come too late — and that Assad does not deserve the credit.