Citing unnamed sources within the joint operations command,Rich Miniter, a former 'Wall Street Journal' and 'Washington Times' reporter,claims that three 'kill' missions were called off by Obama in January, Februaryand March 2011.
Bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs inside his compound inAbbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011.
The president feared that the daring Navy SEALs operation toraid bin Laden's Pakistani hideout in Abbottabad "might go tragically wrong"and he would be blamed for it, the Mail Online reported claiming it had viewedexcerpts of the book 'Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and theAdvisors Who Decide for Him'.
The book, which is slated for released today, claims that theWhite House's carefully-crafted narrative of Obama as a decisive leader whosanctioned the killing of the al-Qaeda supremo was a "myth" andchallenges a key element of Obama's re-election bid - that his decision to killOsama symbolises his resolute leadership.
At the start of his presidency, Miniter writes, Obama was"studiously undecided" about whether to kill the mastermind of 9/11."He refused to weigh in or commit himself on even small matters related toa possible strike on bin Laden."
"Obama was often disengaged as the bin Laden operationtook shape, he left critical decisions to the then-CIA Director Leon Panetta,then-Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Secretary of State HillaryClinton," the book says.
