An expose published on Sunday alleges that President Obama deceived Americans with his narrative of the 2011 assassination of Osama bin Laden. Author Seymour M. Hersh accuses Obama of rushing to take credit for the al Qaeda leader's death. This decision, Hersh argues in the London Review of Books, forced the military and intelligence communities to scramble and then corroborate the president’s version of events. “High-level lying nonetheless remains the modus operandi of U.S. policy, along with secret prisons, drone attacks, Special Forces night raids, bypassing the chain of command, and cutting out those who might say no,” Hersh wrote of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism policies. Hersh based his report on a single, anonymous source. This individual, he said, is a “retired senior intelligence official who was knowledgeable about the initial intelligence about bin Laden’s presence in Abottabad.” Report: Obama lied about bin Laden raid © Provided by The Hill Report: Obama lied about bin Laden raid Hersh’s source alleged that the Pakistani government had an active role in approving and implementing the raid on bin Laden’s compound. In addition, the source said that the Obama administration originally agreed to announce bin Laden had been killed in a drone strike rather than shot during an active Special Forces mission. “Obama’s speech was put together in a rush,” Hersh wrote of Obama’s announcement of Operation Neptune Spear to Americans. “This series of self-serving and inaccurate statements would create chaos in the weeks following,” he added. “This was not the fog of war,” Hersh quoted his anonymous source as saying. “The fact that there was an agreement with the Pakistanis and no contingency analysis of what was to be disclosed if something went wrong – that wasn’t even discussed,” the source added. “And once it went wrong, they had to make up a new cover story on the fly,” the source said of Obama’s advisers’ response to his speech on the raid, Hersh wrote. Hersh’s report also accuses the Obama administration of embellishing the details of the raid itself and presenting al Qaeda as a bigger threat than it actually was before bin Laden’s death. The White House did not comment on Hersh’s claims.

 


Jon S. Steindorf went missing on the very day his parents expected him to graduate from Penn State University.

Steindorf, 23, vanished without a trace on Friday and his anguished parents have now learned that he had dropped out of the central Pennsylvania school last fall, the Centre Daily Times reported.
Investigators with the State College Police Department issued a missing persons report on the 5’10’’, 170-pound Steindorf the following day, noting that the brown-haired and blue-eyed man may be toting a red backpack and riding a black bicycle.
Friends of Steindorf told a student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, that there may be no way to contact or identify him since he left his wallet and cellphone behind.
No one has seen him since Steindorf’s roommate at around 11:30 a.m. on Friday morning, according to the Daily Times. Paul Steindorf and Joanne Steindorf arrived to the apartment at around 4 p.m. to accompany him to the university’s commencement ceremony, but he was nowhere to be found, the publication reported.
“We have had calls and checked those out,” Lt. Bradley Smail of the State College police told the Daily Times on Sunday. “As of this point, nothing.”
Steindorf’s mom pleaded for help locating the missing young man in a Facebook post on Sunday, another student publication, Onward State, reported. She noted her son’s undisclosed withdrawal from the school “does not matter to us.”
“We love Jon dearly and want him to return safely to his family and friends,” Steindorf wrote, according to the student publication. “If anyone has seen Jon, or has any idea of his whereabouts, please contact me or the State College police department.”