© The Associated PressWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney spent Tuesday correcting misstatements by administration officials on Osama bin Laden's final moments before he was gunned down Sunday.
"We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you ... about the operation," Carney said during a briefing, in a concession that administration officials have erred in their details of the raid on bin Laden's compound outside of Islamabad, Pakistan. "Obviously some of the information came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on."
Reading from a script carefully crafted by the Defense Department, Carney clarified that bin Laden was not armed with a gun when he was killed, contrary to some reports that he fired back at U.S. military operatives. In addition, White House counterinsurgency adviser John Brennan was wrong when he suggested Monday that one of bin Laden's wives was killed serving as a human shield for bin Laden during gunfire.
"In the room with bin Laden, a woman -- bin Laden's wife -- rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed," Carney said. Separately, another woman on the first floor was killed in crossfire, which may have led to Brennan's misstatement.
Comment: For more on Obama's latest release be sure to see the new SOTT Report: US Government Psy-Ops - The 'Killing' of Osama Bin Laden