On bin Laden raid anniversary, Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
— -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, touching down in the war-torn country one year to the day after al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden died at the hands of elite American troops in neighboring Pakistan.
Obama plans to make a televised address to the nation at 7:30 p.m. ET from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Journalists traveling with the president reported that he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai would sign an agreement laying out the United States' role after combat forces leave in 2014.
Obama's trip, shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, came as he and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney waged a pitched political battle over how much credit the president should get for the daring Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden's fortified compound in Abbottabad.
The president left Andrews Air Force Base, home to his blue and white liveried Air Force One, at 12:09 a.m. Tuesday morning and landed at Bagram at 10:20 p.m. local time. He then took a helicopter to the presidential palace in Kabul, where he arrived just after 11 p.m. local.
The unannounced trip recalled President George W. Bush's Thanksgiving 2003 trip to Iraq, a cloak-and-dagger operation that saw him sneak off his Texas ranch, fly to Washington and then on to Baghdad with a small group of aides and "pool" reporters. Obama's visit comes on the ninth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech about the Iraq war.
Obama previously visited Afghanistan in March 2010 and December 2010, and traveled to Iraq in April 2009. Bush visited Iraq in November 2003, June 2006, and September 2007, and traveled to Afghanistan in March 2006. In December 2008, Bush visited Iraq and Afghanistan.
The TOLONews website that specializes in news about Afghanistan reported Tuesday, citing Afghan officials, that Obama had arrived in Kabul to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. That report was widely picked up in world news outlets, but it was immediately denied by the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital as well as the White House. That fed speculation that the president was on his way to Kabul but not actually on the ground yet.
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