“In June, 2009, he [President Barack Obama] drafted a memo instructing [CIA Director Leon] Panetta to create a ‘detailed operation plan’ for finding the Al Qaeda leader [Osama bin Laden] and to ‘ensure that we have expended every effort.’ Most notably, the President intensified the C.I.A.’s classified drone program; there were more missile strikes inside Pakistan during Obama’s first year in office than in [former President] George W. Bush’s eight.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Nicholas Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden,” The New Yorker, Aug. 8, 2011