and on panetta cuttinghe budget is his job. is not outlining strategies for how to win and afghanistan or libya. >> the cia has had for some time been paramilitary. i wonder if that will be built up. >> that is exactly what i was talking about. i am assuming it will. that means less and less oversighght. one of the great things about the amerin military is that it has really held people to certain kinds of standards in warfare. the cia does not necessarily have tse same standards. it is a classic intelligence agency. i don't know what happens when you meld the two. >> you have a good situation where you have panetta who had to deaeal with that problem of the relationship between the cia and the national security people and petraeus, who understands tt dynamic as well. >> two quick points. bob g gates was the one cabinet secretary that barack obama could not fire or replace. he had tenure in that office because of where he was -- because of who he was and where he came from. he put pressure on barack obama i afghanistan. another

panetta went into the cia, and the cia was very antsy about having him. he did not come in with heavy attack from people there. he won over the agency -- he did not come in with at be ta -- happy talk from people there. he won over the agency. that agency eats people live. you are looking to replace robert gates, probably the best it secretary of modern times, and you want somebody who managed to do ok at the cia. that is a good recommendation. >> someone savvy politically going to 2012. >> i met leon panetta in 1970 when he was at the department of health, education, and welfare in the office of civil rights under richard nixon -- >> and quit. >> on principle. he does this sound very well. he is the ultimate goal-to guy. jim baker was at the other one with the reagan administration and b -- jim bakker was another one with the reagan administration. rare commodities the people who are essential to government. >> and he has worn a uniform in this country with military service, which is rare. >> but i think what is important of the two up clemons is the pol

>> well, director panetta appears to be saying the folks were water boarded. i'm still trying to see if he's connected the timing of the water boarding to the acquisition of the intelligence for information. >> exactly. it's possible that one of these people was water boarded. it is also possible that they gave us information either before or after having nothing to do with the water boarding or any of that kind of activity. >> absolutely. if we look at the facts we know of the case right now where khalid sheik mohammed was a mentor. this was a property jay of him. had the information come out during the water boarding, we would have captured the courier sooner. >> what do you make of peter king saying the road to osama bin laden begins with water boarding. where would he get the confidence that would allow him to say that? >> i have no idea. i was privy to the information from khalid sheik mohammed at the time. i'm not aware of any information or intelligence that was a product from water boarding. >> fbi agents that knew the most about these people before 9/

director leon panetta. thank you so much for talking with us. >> thanks, katie. >> couric: and we posted the full interview with leon panetta on our web site at cbsnews.com meanwhile, the town in pakistan where bin laden was hiding out is a quiet one and, up until a few days ago, nobody there gave a second thought to the odd-looking compound with the giant walls. not the neighbors and supposedly, as we just heard, not even pakistani authorities. but today it was crawling with curiosity seekers and elizabeth palmer took it all in. >> reporter: in the full light of day, no longer a hideout but an empty cement house. this is the compound where osama bin laden lived and died is now infamous and everybody wants a look. inside, evidence of a violent battle, along with a passport believed to belong to one of bin laden's wives. now that the police are allowing access to the area around the house, half the neighborhood spilled out to marvel at the fact that they've been living next door to the world's most wanted ma

panetta heard nothing from mccraven and the president heard nothing from panetta. what was supposed to be a 30 to 35-minute operation was pushing 40. the s.e.a.l.s were shooting their way up the stairs to bin laden's bedroom. finally mccraven reported "gentlemronimo "geronimo, ekia." geronimo, code for bin laden, ekia, enemy killed in action. now the s.e.a.l.s had to get out before the pakistanis scrambled jets to shoot down the unknown intruders. only one black hawk could fly so mccraven sent in a chinook to help pick up the s.e.a.l.s hauling bin laden's body and a treasure trove of captured computers, cds and paper files. the helos headed straight for an aircraft carrier where bin laden was to be buried at sea. only there did the tension in the situation room begin to break. when a s.e.a.l. burst into that third floor bedroom, bin laden's wife rushed at him, so he shot her in the leg. that left him standing right in front of bin laden. bin laden was unarmed, but the s.e.a.l. thought he was a threat, and shot him twice. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. >>> co

cia director panetta hinted that a picture of the body will be released. officials are debating because the most identifiable image of bin laden is the most gruesome. despite panetta's claim say the white house will make the decision about the release of the picture. we are piecing to the key details of the raid that lead to bin laden's death at this pakistani come upon. even the white house seemed confused about how the white house unfolded. particular whethers an was anned. whether he used one of his wives an a human shield. and whether she emerged dead or alive. we know a team of 24 seals repelled into the compound operate president's orders, bin laden some of his family members and two other families were living in this mansion. reports say bin laden weather and his family occupied the second and third floors. the seals entered on the ground floor they shot and killed to of bin laden's couriers before moving to the second floor. there they founds ha and one of his wives. his wife reportedly tried to attack a seal and was shot in the leg. next the seals

cia director leon panetta saying that the bin laden photo will be released. are you getting any confirmation on that? >> reporter: he says he thinks it will be released and the final decision will come down to the white house. there doesn't appear to be consensus in the obama administration about the photo. there are different opinions about this on capitol hill. it isn't even falling along party lines. you have some people who say, we have these photos, we should release them, this is visual proof osama bin laden is dead. there are others who say there are people out there who the dna evidence isn't enough for and these photos aren't going to be enough for them. releasing them could be inflammatory, and put troops overseas in danger. we're hoping to learn a little more. white house press secretary jay carney at the briefing at 2:00. >> in terms of what the administration is actually doing to try and figure out what pakistan knew and didn't know about bin laden's location, what have you been able to find out? >> reporter: we don't know the answer to that spec

quote, either they're involved or incompetent, cia director leon panetta reportedly told lawmakers today in a classified breeching. pakistan called the u.s. strike an unauthorized unilateral action. it's easy to forget, meanwhile that the navy s.e.a.l.s who carried out the mission did not know whether their intended target, osama bin laden, was really inside that compound, when they climbed the stairs and came face to face with him. here's jake tapper with new details. >> reporter: so many new details about the attack on the compound. the mission, called operation neptune spear, definitively, a kill mission. in abbottabad, one s.e.a.l. team climbed to the third floor of the bin laden house and came face to face with public enemy number one. but today, we learned that osama bin laden was not armed. >> if he threw up his hands and didn't appear to represent any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. but they had full authority to kill him. >> reporter: cia director leon panetta said that bin laden was not shooting back, as the 25-man team attacked the compound. >> there were some t

the cia chief leon panetta, learning what went down. he was questioned on two things that i took note of. one is that the u.s. congress appropriates billions of dollars to pakistan and he said essentially that pakistan now should not get that money without serious, serious questions. they were talking about the pakistan intelligence agency called isi. there are all kinds of questions about how isi could not have known that osama bin laden was hiding in abbottabad. the information that they got about the courier that he was waterboarded and as a desan knee under cia custody and that is how they got some of that information and, again, they have not released those photos of a deceased osama bin laden as of yet but the congress said that they should be releasing them. i want to take you to the scene of the raid. today we're getting more of a glimpse into the terrorist leaders compound where he was hiding for years but he could only hide for so long. national correspondent nic robertson is there for me live. we saw crowds at the compound ea

and leon panetta is absolutely right. and, you know, he's been a very gutsy leader for the cia. and a very good leader for the cia. and i think that's helped pull this thing together as well. >> does pakistan have some real hard questions to answer? >> this is the question. how can the pakistanis not know that for six years, osama bin laden was living in this compound, eight times bigger than anything else in the area, within a mile of a major military academy. how can this happen? why would no one register curiosity about who was there unless somehow, some way, they were warned off. and said, this is, you know, out of limits, nobody touch it, whatever happens there happens there. and we need to find that out. >> and those are the questions you're going to be asking. >> i'm going to be asking that. we hope to have a joint classified hearing with armed services tomorrow morning and we'll ask some of those questions, you can be sure. >> senate intelligence chair, dianne feinstein, thank you for coming over. we appreciate it. see more, of course, of brian williams' exclusive interv

leon panetta told brian williams information did come from enhanced interrogation. here it is. >> i think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against the detainees. i'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches, i think is always going to be an open question. >> so finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation technique, which is a handy euphemism including water boarding? >> that's correct. >> now, there's integrity for you. the president's administration is not going to lie to the american people about techniques that were used. but, is it the moral high ground and are conservatives right about water boarding? matthew alexander, that's your first question tonight. thanks for joining us. are they correct about water boarding? >> no, they are not correct. what a lot of people are forgetting is what professional interrogators have been saying all along, when you use techniques like water boarding, you get the bare minimum abo

. >> reporter: that obviously did not turn out to be true, but clearly, panetta's cia stayed with it, ending this story with stunning success, diane. >> all right, martha. and we'll go now to pakistan. our nick schifrin, as you know, brought the world the first photos inside the bin laden compound. and, he has managed to track down a friend of the men who were bin laden's links to the world outside those walls. and he reports tonight from abbottabad. >> reporter: it is the world's most infamous hideout. and today, we got a rare insight into the private lives behind the walls, thanks to this man, a friend of the two brothers who ran bin laden's compound, his infamous couriers and closest advisers. he spoke on the condition we blur his face. "they interacted with very few people," he says. "those inside stayed to themselves, rarely venturing out. not attending weddings or funerals. bin laden never left." adults, whether friends or strangers, weren't allowed to enter the walls. "they never even responded," he says, "if someone knocked on their door." only neighborhood children were welco

leon panetta made it clear to brian williams that there was a shoot to kill mission here. if he had come out, they said with his hands up, and said i surrender, i surrender, waving a white flag, maybe they would have taken him into custody. but that was really not going to happen. do you have a problem with that or should we all just say, you know, he's dead and the world's most wanted terrorist is no longer a threat to humanity? >> well, andrea, like all of america, and even many people in the world, i was really relieved when the president announced sunday night that bin laden was dead. and i recall when as a little girl during world war ii i heard that hitler was dead. and good riddance to him and the evil he unleashed. now i think we have to wait until everybody involved with that riveting, daring, bold action to get bin laden is thoroughly debriefed. we act like everything is instant. this was not a movie for tv. this was a real life drama with our men in harm's way going after the most wanted person in the world. and we need to debrief and then i think really set the

when obama took office, and he told leon panetta to put priority on getting osama bin laden. that lagged in the last few years. it was not just the infrastructure, but the actual intelligence work being done day after day the last 2.5 years. >> how did they do it without a word leaking advance nina? >> very few people knew. that is one thihing. to your question about who to credit, a lot of people deserve credit. the bush administration deserves credit the clinton administration deserves credit. this is an infrastructure that grow over time. the president made some spectacular and got s -- and gugusty choices including to bring an extra helicopter and that turned out to be important. >> mark? >> no more professor-in-chief instead of commander in chief no more nuanced and cerebral. norman schwarzkopf said that it does not take courage to order men into battle, it takes courage to go into battle. but it was a bold decision on the part of the president to do so. a commander in chief decion. the presidential decision up the week was to not make available the photographs despite t

what was happening leon panetta was narrating what was happening from a video link at the c.i.a. headquarters. they won't talk about what was happening. that picture makes it look a lot more dramatic. but in any case it tells you something about that moment. the president is off to the side. and he's almost sort of with drawn compared with some of the other figures. the face on john brennan and dennis mcdunna. hillary looked tense. but she said she was suffering from a lerjis. -- allergies. >> there was a rush, the white house would say transparency to a certain degree efment how do you explain that? are they trying to hide information? or is it that people like us are trying to push them? >> about the only thing that did sort of go wrong with the way that they unfolded -- spilled out the story themselves and you're right, in the very first big briefing that the media got from john brennan was there was some inaccuracies. part of the problem they're trying to infold this story about how bin laden was a coward and hiding behind a woman but also shooting. it turns out those things

when obama took office, he told leon panetta at that a priority was to get osama bin laden. that flagged over the years. not just the infrastructure put in place, but the actual intelligence being done day after day for the past 215 years. >> how did they do it without word leaking in advance, nina? >> it very few people knew, and that is one thing. to your question about who to credit, a lot of people deserve credit. the bush administration deserves credit, the clinton administration deserves credit. this was an infrastructure that grow over time. the president made some spectacular and gutsy choices, including to bring an extra helicopter. that proved to be important. >> mark? >> no more repressor-in-chief instead of commander in chief, -- no more professor in chief instead of commander in chief, no more nuanced and cerebral. norman schwarzkopf said it does not take courage to order men into battle, it takes courage to go into battle. but it was a bold decision on the part of the president to do so, a commander in chief decision. i think the real presidential decision of t

panetta's statement comes as the white house says that bin laden was not armed during the raid. >> this is a delicate balancing act between wanting to provide the proof by showing osama bin laden's corpse in photographs but not wanting to stir up anti- american sentiment. images of pools of blood in side the compound were just the beginning. tonight, the director of the cia says the photograph of the body will be released. >> this is grisly stuff. bin laden was shot in the head, face and chest. >> while the photograph could alleviate doubt that he is dead, changing details surrounding what led up to his death are causing confusion. the white house spokesman says that bin laden never produced a weapon. >> he was not armed. >> he also said his wife was not held as the al qaeda leader's shield as previously reported. she did make a threatening move and was shot and the leg. an injury she survived. leon panetta says that regardless of confusion, the fatal shots were justified. >> they have full authority to kill them. >> political analysts say questions surrounding what happened are likely

leon panetta says a photo should be released. new details about the raid that operation anyplace tune star. they were 60-80% sure that bin laden was in there and navy seals were given a direct order, quote, to get the hell out. he was shot and killed after they say his wife lunged at him. he had 7 about $750 and two cellphones a sign he was prepared to flee the compound at a moment's notice. >> did you actually see osama bin laden get shot? >> no, not at all. we had some observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound. >> we are hearing cellphones, ten hard drives and a hundred phone drives were recorded recovered from the compound and could be initial readouts as early as today. president obama will visit ground zero in new york city tomorrow. he invited george w. bush but he declined saying he did not want to take any of the spotlight. >>> heightened security alert is in effect, bases around the world inclu

lee on panetta is coming in. the president did panetta no favors by asking him to cut some of the budget so panetta is going in and it will be interesting to see what happens because the military -- that is not a good thing with the military. there is an agreement that things have to be cut but he has to come up with a vision of how to shrink the size of the military but keep -- >> he is doing better that general cartwright looks like he won't be the next general. he was obama's favorite and the brass really didn't like the guy. the other thing is there is tension between him and patraeus about what exactly, how to close out afghanistan. i would say the relationship is pretty good, better than it was with bush because the military hated the fact that he was not doing the job in iraq. chris: there is always military hawkish and liberals are anti. i'm not sure that is the case. >> i think they want to make sure they succeed in averages and withdraw the way they want and that is the next thing. >> the difference bet

when obama took office, he told the on panetta that the priority was to get osama bin laden. that had lagged over the years. the actual intelligence work being done a day after day for the last two and half years. >> how did they do it without word leaking advance, nina? >> it very few people knew. that is one that think this is as top-secret as it can get -- that is one thing. this was as top-secret as it can get. a lot of people deserve credit. the bush administration deserves credit, the clinton administration deserves credit. this infrastructure grow over time, but the president made a spectacular and gutsy choices, including to bring an extra helicopter so it would not turn now like carter. that turned out to be important. >> mark? >> no more professor-in-chief instead of commander in chief, no more nuanced and cerebral. norman schwarzkopf said it is not the courage to -- it does not take courage to send troops into battle. the decision of the week was to not make available the photographs, despite the demands and importuning out a so many people. that is where he showed

why wasn't panetta on the same page as president obama? that's next. >>> out of washington, big, big news. president obama's decision not to show pictures showing a dead osama bin laden. they released a photo after an operation in iraq and two deceased hussein sons. given all of that, i want to continue the conversation with jessica yellin. given some of the photos that we've seen from different administrations, why is the obama white house more concerned about releasing this particular one? >> i make three points. one is two different administrations had very different orientations to the side of things in terms of their posture and their war on terror and image abroad. also, the zakari photoed looked like he was sleepinging. the osama photo is quite gory, an open head wound above the eyes. and then bin laden is the leader of the movement. it could have have had an inciting event and why is it necessary. >> but there's also a bit of change if you look to the evolution of the story, initially releasing a great deal of information to now fe

. >> reporter: right, after a series of briefings on capitol hill by leon panetta and others, a variety of opinions as lawmakers come out of the committees, diane feinstein saying it would be too gruesome blood, vis ser ra, this is what we're talking about here, whether it would be the benefits would be worth the costs in releasing such a picture just to prove to the arab street and others around the world this mission had been accomplished. the president now coming down on the side of those who say we should not release those photos. he had an interview with "60 minutes" the news program where he revealed his decision, i'm going to quote from the website, risks of release outweigh benefits, the president said. conspiracy theorists around the world will claim the photos are doctored anyway. and there is a real risk that releasing photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the middle east. he goes on to say, imagine how the american people would reang if al qaeda killed one of our troops or military leaders and put photos of the body on the internet and the president continues,

apparently three choices, according to cia chief leon panetta. the first choice was to work with pakistan, but we had substantial evidence that sometimes working with them did not help our operations. second option was to bomb the compound from a distance, either using a b-2 bomber or cruise missiles. this had had the downside of leaving uncertainty as to whether we got bin laden. the possible that we killeded wrong people and the huge likelihood of collateral damage. at the very least, some women and children also in that compound. for the president, i suppose there was a degree of courage in ordering the riskier approach. i want to give him credit for making the smart decision. this is why you need a president who does nuance. president bush said back when he was in office that putting "100,000 of our special forces stomping through pakistan in order to find bin laden is just simply not the strategy that will work." yes, but we don't live in a black and white world where you either put 100,000 troops into a country or do nothing at all we live

asked why bin laden wasn't more heavily guarded, panetta reportedly said, bin laden believed he would get a heads up before an attack. >> the fact was that we completed this operation within 40 minutes and we had everybody on their way out of that country. >> nbc's mike viqueira is at the white house now. so, mike what are you hearing about a decision on releasing that picture? >> reporter: still under consideration. you saw that interview that the cia director leon panetta had with brian williams on "nightly news" last night in response to the question of the photograph. he says there is no question it will be ultimately be presented to the public. we have to reveal it to the rest of the world. the question is really when and what is to be gained by releasing it, said to be very gruesome, as you know. bin laden was shot in the region of the left eye, blood and brain tissue said to be visible there. you don't want to present that image to the public and unnecessarily inflame the muslim and arab world and what is to be gained really? are people going to believe it if they publish a pho

. >> leon panetta said they're either incompetent or involved. i'm not so sure i buy that the neighbors simply didn't ask or weren't in on this. but weren't there are certain things about this mansion that just cried out for attention, the 18-foot walls, barr bashed doesn't this just cry out to find out who's behind it? an old rule of thumb, the taller the wall you build, the more curious people will be to find out what's behind it. doesn't that just kind of resonate with you? >> reporter: it's incredible to me. i was standing at the walls of the compound. the fields, the cabbages are planted about this far away from the walls. they're right next to the compound. the farmers working there were right next to this compound. how come they didn't know? how come they didn't ask more questions? it's hard for us to imagine. that's not the way we lead our lives. but this is the way people here are telling me they lead theirs. the large military base that's perhaps a mile way is almost sort of out of sight, out of mind. they couldn't see it, therefore, th

this is not the decision that should be made by leon panetta. and that's what folks here tell me. and that's why that decision hasn't been made. and in fact many senior aides here are arguing against ultimately ever releasing a photo. it's one of many questions facing the white house today. proof of death. one reason president obama chose the risky navy s.e.a.l.s operation rather than bombing the compound was to make sure there would be evidence the u.s. got osama bin laden. and now they have it. dna, photos, even videos. all of bin laden dead at the compound and on the aircraft carrier that was used for his burial at sea. but so far senior aides to the president do not see much need to release the photographic evidence. >> i'll be candid, that there are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of osama bin laden and in the aftermath of this firefight, and we're making an evaluation about the need to do that. >> reporter: it was a sentiment echoed by some on capitol hill today. >> i just don't see a need to do it. the dna has been dispositive. >>

. >> reporter: cia director leon panetta says he believes the images will eventually be made public but the white house hasn't yet reached a final decision. >> it's fair to say that it's a grisly photograph. it could be inflammatory. >> reporter: the full story of the mission is still coming to light. tuesday officials revealed bin laden was not armed as previously stated and navy seals killed him only after he resisted. the seals confiscated a treasure-trove of computers, files and hard drives at the bin laden compound. the cia is now analyzing the material for any clues on potential terror plots. this is a look inside the million-dollar complex bin laden once called home. the u.s. officials are vowing to get to the bottom of whether pakistan knew he was hiding out here. >> there are questions here that i think do need to be answered, hopefully by the pakistanis themselves. >> reporter: pakistan insists it had no idea of bin laden's whereabouts. yet the compound sits a half mile away from a sprawling military academy in a town with more than 100,000 retired and active army officers. so

leon panetta, usually my favorite, saxby chambliss, no comment. carl levin, usually a favorite of mine. lindsey graham, yes, too, even though i disagreed with him. sarah palin, talking balloon head here, peter king, getting back on the strange side you can wants to release it going along with the president not releasing it. here are the guy, call these the grownups don't want to release it joan, we are in the grownup list, ready? >> finally. >> john mccain, mike roger, harry reid, robert gates, hillary clinton, steny hoyer and here is a real grownup, dianne feinstein it, john kerry and scott brown, who probably will get re-elected because he keeps doing normal things like this. supporting the president, boehner and rubio. gene, for the defense? >> well, i don't know what to say. you're having associated me with sarah palin. >> you did it. >> but let me make another serious point that i don't think ms. palin made, which is that those photos, like it or not, are an historic document. this is an historic moment. this is a man who not for better or wo