There's been a lot of hand wringing this week about how the White House handled the details in the wake of the U.S. military raid in Pakistan that killed Osama Bin Laden. Let's take a look at some of the fine print.
Let's start with the issue of did Osama Bin Laden shoot at the American commandos who attacked his hideout - at first, that's the way it sounded.
"As the President said this evening, bin Laden was killed in a firefight as our operators came onto the compound," said a Senior Administration Official in a briefing for reporters conducted after midnight on Sunday night.
The word "firefight" was used only twice in that conference call briefing - again about Bin Laden:
"He did resist the assault force. And he was killed in a firefight," an official said.
To most of us, a "firefight" indicates that you are shooting at me and I'm shooting at you.
On Monday, Chip Reid of CBS News asked Chief Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan again about the Bin Laden details:
"You said that Osama bin Laden was actually involved in the firefight, and we had -- it has been reported that he reached for a weapon. Did he get his hand on a gun and did he fire himself?
"He was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don’t know," Brennan replied, directly saying that Bin Laden had fired shots.
By the next day, the White House changed course, saying that Bin Laden had not been armed when U.S. forces killed him.
That brings up another story, of how one of Bin Laden's wives was used as a human shield in a bid to ward off the U.S. attack.
"There were several women and children at the compound. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant," said a Senior Official on Sunday night.
As with the story about Bin Laden shooting at U.S. troops, the story of the shield grew on Monday during the briefing by Brennan.
"There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was in fact in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield bin Laden from the incoming fire," Brennan said.
"I just want to clear something up because I think a few of us are confused," said Jake Tapper of ABC News. "The woman that was killed was bin Laden’s wife?"
"That's my understanding," said Brennan, giving an answer that was not true.
"And he was using her as a shield?" asked Tapper.
"She served as a shield," said Brennan. "Again, this is my understanding -- and we’re still getting the reports of exactly what happened at particular moments," he added.
But Brennan again had his details wrong on the final moments for Bin Laden, as the next day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to clear up what happened when Navy .
Carney said 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."
One other change came in the description of Bin Laden's hideout, which was originally described to reporters as a compound in an "affluent" suburb of Islamabad.
On Monday, Brennan made it out to be more like a mansion, describing it as a "million dollar-plus compound" during his briefings.
Obviously, the pictures from there don't really reflect what we might think of as a 'million dollar- plus compound.'
Yesterday even more information started to come out in background briefings by a senior defense official, who said the "firefight" now consisted of only one person shooting back at Navy SEALs.
That person was quickly killed, and the commandos then went floor by floor in search of Bin Laden, killing others who were not armed, including the Al Qaeda leader.
At one point, Bin Laden evidently stuck his head out of his room and saw Americans coming at him. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) says the first shot missed Bin Laden, but that he was quickly tracked down and killed.
Officials say while Bin Laden was not armed, he evidently had weapons in his room, including an AK-47 assault rifle.
All these changes may well be what is sometimes referred to as the "fog of war."
Or it could be something different.
