Mr. Panetta, who was then head of the CIA, had warned his CIA colleagues and others that if the Special Forces raid on Osama bin Laden's compound were conducted on Saturday night, it would conflict with the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, “a high-profile evening that brings together Washington journalists and political figures,” he notes. “It would be hard to explain the absence of the president and other key officials from the event.”
This warning “rankled some of the military leaders, who groused about having to accommodate the ‘Washington social schedule’ in a matter of national security.”
It was the head of Joint Special Operations Forces, Adm. William McRaven, who helped avoid a clash: He concluded that the weather was “slightly more advantageous” on Sunday than Saturday.
