Obama to meet commandos involved in bin Laden operation

President Obama will meet Friday with some of the special operations commandos who helped take out Osama bin Laden, administration officials said.

The meeting will occur at Fort Campbell, Ky., where Obama will also speak with soldiers just back from Afghanistan, the officials said.

Two officials also said Obama met yesterday with one of the organizers of the raid, Adm. William McRaven. The admiral is commander of the Joint Special Operations Command.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt Obama, and also because of the secretive nature of special operations work, including the weekend raid on a compound in Pakistan that took bin Laden's life.

Obama "will have the opportunity to privately thank some of the special operators involved in the operation tomorrow at Fort Campbell," one official said, but would not elaborate.

The meeting will be private, with no press coverage.

Obama will also make public remarks to the troops at Fort Campbell, some of whom are just returning from Afghanistan. Press secretary Jay Carney said Obama wants to thank all the nation's troops in the wake of the bin Laden operation.

"The successful mission against Osama bin Laden is a monumental achievement, but the fact remains that we're still at war, that we have 100,000 combat personnel in Afghanistan," Carney told reporters. "We have troops in a support-and-assist role in Iraq, and we have U.S. military men and women in other places around the globe and, in some cases, in difficult situations."

Obama is scheduled to begin a withdrawal process from Afghanistan in July, but Carney said he doesn't expect "any policy announcements" during the Fort Campbell speech.