SYRACUSE --
At Wednesday night's Boy Scout Boypower dinner, retired four star General Barry McCaffrey praised all the troops from all the branches of the military who made the raid of Osama Bin Laden's compound possible but said the Obama administration should not hold back the photos.
"Personally, I think they over intellectualize everything, it was a legitimate target. The President of the United States publically announced as a candidate that we would find him and kill him and we did. I think it's a huge mistake to not be transparent on the operation and show the photos," said McCaffrey in an interview.
McCaffrey said that Bin Laden's death is significant but the U.S. must be concerned with other terror groups.
"al Qaeda itself isn't the principal threat. The threat is, it's morphed into more independent one off organizations, many of them driven by an enormous animosity towards the United States," said McCaffrey.
McCaffrey added that patriotic celebrations across the U.S. after Osama Bin Laden's death are appropriate and disagreed with pundits who call them disrespectful.
"The fact that we brought to eternal justice this mass murderer, it was appropriate for it to be celebrated. by the way, there's a lesson here. if you strike at us, we will find you and bring you to justice," said McCaffrey
General McCaffrey said he believed Pakistan's intelligence service may have known Bin Laden was in Pakistan but believes it is now more important for the U.S. and Pakistan to maintain good diplomatic relations. McCaffrey says Pakistan's cooperation is essential to the the U.S. Military being able to support troops in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration’s decision to not release photos from the raid on Osama bin laden’s compound in Pakistan was provoking strong reactions on Wednesday.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey told CNYCentral tonight that he thinks President Obama and his staff are over thinking the issue and should release the photo to be completely transparent about what took place.
General McCaffrey is the headlining speaker at the local Boy Scout council’s BoyPower dinner on Wednesday night.
McCaffrey also praised the work done by all the branches of the military that lead to Osama bin Laden’s death and said America has shown terrorists that the U.S. will track down those who harm this country, no matter where they hide.
