Romney adviser blasts Obama for using bin Laden killing as 'diversion'

A top foreign-policy adviser for Mitt Romney blasted President Obama for using the killing of Osama bin Laden as a “diversion” to pad his foreign policy credentials.

Rich Williamson, a close confidant of the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, told The Hill that the targeted killing of the world’s most wanted terrorist does not mean Obama is capable of leading the United States abroad.

“The world’s better off with Osama bin Laden dead,” Williamson said in a brief interview. “But one death does not a foreign policy make.”

“He wants to use the killing of Osama bin Laden and the fact that he embraced the drone strategy that he attacked in 2008 to show that he is firm, tough, and forward leaning on foreign policy. Basically it’s a diversion.”

Williamson was speaking on a panel hosted by the Foreign Policy Institute in downtown Tampa, Fla., where the topic was U.S.-Russia relations.

The fact-checking website, Politifact, found “no evidence” that Obama has ever criticized the use of unmanned drones as a military weapons. Since he has become president, Obama has dramatically increased drone attacks, with a particular focus on terrorists such as Anwar al-Awlaki.

But Obama opted to use a Navy SEAL team to kill bin Laden because he wanted to get on-the-ground proof that the former head of al Qaeda was dead.

In the 15 months since his killing, Obama and Vice President Biden have used bin Laden’s killing in campaign and fundraising speeches as evidence that their administration is not soft on terrorists.

Meanwhile Romney and his advisers have tried to paint Obama as being an appeaser and too eager to engage in discussions with foreign leaders who do not have good relations with the United States.

Obama has also recently been under fire from a group of former intelligence and special forces officials who criticized the president for taking credit for bin Laden’s killing, when it was the SEAL team who actually carried out the mission.