WASHINGTON – When the then US President Barack Obama called his Pakistanicounterpart Asif Ali Zardari to inform him about the killing of Osama binLaden by the US forces in a raid in Abbottabad, the latter, according to abook, told him that this was a “good news”.

“Whatever the fallout, he (Zardari) told Obama, it’s very good news. It’sbeen a long time. God be with you and the people of America,” Ben Rhodes,who was Obama’s close aide at the White House writes in his latest book,referring to the response of Zardari when the US president called him toinform him about the American raid in on May 2, 2011.

Zardari was thrust into a leading role in Pakistani politics after his wifeand prominent politician Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by extremists on27 December, 2007. “Zardari was sure to face a backlash at home overAmerica’s violation of Pakistani sovereignty,” writes Rhodes in his book’The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House’, which hit the bookstores this week.

“But he wasn’t upset,” says Rhodes, giving his impression of theconversation between the two presidents, which happened before Obama wentto address the nation informing his fellow Americans about the killing ofOsama bin Laden.

According to Rhodes, who was Obama’s close aid during his eight years ofpresidency, said that even from his election campaign days, he had insistedthat he would cross the border if the US had actionable intelligenceagainst Osama bin Laden.

When his national security team were debating about crossing into thePakistani territory to kill bin Laden, it was vice president Joe Biden whowas reluctant to do so.

“It was obvious to me that Obama was going to do this. He had a way oflooking straight ahead when he was listening at the same time that his mindwas elsewhere. I could tell that he had turned the intelligence over andover in his mind (“this is a fifty-fifty call”), that he understood therisks with Pakistan,” writes Rhodes.

When he asked me what I thought, I simply said, ‘You always said you weregoing to do this’. Because I’d lived through the debate on the campaign, Iknew he had meant what he said about going into Pakistan,” the former WhiteHouse official said.

Obama asked him to prepare for four scenarios: (1) bin Laden is at thecompound and it’s a success; (2) bin Laden is at the compound and it’smessy people killed, Pakistani security services, instability; (3) binLaden’s not there but we get in and out cleanly; (4) bin Laden’s not thereand it’s a mess.

“At the end of the meeting, Obama didn’t tip his hand, he just said he’dmake his decision overnight. As people filed out of the room, Biden pulledDenis and me into a smaller, adjacent room and closed the door. He lookedgenuinely pained. ‘You fellas really think he should do this?’ ‘I do,’Denis said,” Rhodes writes.

“I agreed, and repeated my point about Obama’s always having said he wouldgo into Pakistan to get bin Laden. ‘Well’, Biden said, ‘I’m just trying togive him a little space’. I believed that Biden sometimes took stridentpositions in meetings to widen the spectrum of views and options availableto Obama. He also worked hard to understand Obama’s mind,” he writes.

“You’ve always got his back,” the then Chief of Staff Denis McDonough saidto him, according to the book.

“You better believe it,” Biden replied. “But we’re also going to need tosay some prayers,” he added.