Monday, 2 May 2011

The timeline of the mission to kill Osama bin Laden

The mission to kill Osama bin Laden was years in the making, but began in earnest last fall with the discovery of a suspicious compound near Islamabad, and culminated with a helicopter based raid in the early morning hours in Pakistan Sunday.
"Last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground," President Obama told the nation in a speech Sunday night.
"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body," he said.
Sitting in a row of chairs beside the podium were National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden. White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Press Secretary Jay Carney stood in the back with about a dozen White House staffers.
Since last August, Obama convened at least 9 meetings with national security principals about this operation and the principals met 5 times without the president, a senior administration official said. Their deputies met 7 times formally amid a flurry of other interagency communications and consultations.
ABC News reported that the principals' meetings were held on March 14, March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28.
Last week Obama finally had enough intelligence last to take action. The final decision to go forward with the operation was made at 8:20 AM on Friday, April 29 in the White House's Diplomatic Room. In the room at the time were Donilon, his deputy Denis McDonough, and counterterrorism advisor John Brennan. Donilon prepared the formal orders.
On Sunday, Obama went to play golf in the morning at Andrews Air Force Base. He played 9 holes in chilly, rainy weather and spent a little time on the driving range, as well. Meanwhile, the principals were assembling in the situation room at the White House. They were there from 1:00 PM and stayed put for the rest of the day.
At 2:00, Obama met with the principals back at the White House. At 3:32 he went to the situation room for another briefing. At 3:50 he was told that bin Laden was "tentatively identified." At 7:01 Obama was told there was a "high probability" the high value target at the compound was bin Laden. At 8:30 Obama got the final briefing.
Before speaking to the nation, Obama called former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Three senior administration officials briefed reporters late Sunday night on the surveillance, intelligence, and military operations that ended with bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. operatives.
"The operation was the culmination of years of careful and highly advanced intelligence work," a senior administration official said.
The stream of information that led to Sunday's raid began over four years ago, when U.S. intelligence personnel were alerted about two couriers who were working with al Qaeda and had deep connections to top al Qaeda officials. Prisoners in U.S. custody flagged these two couriers as individuals who might have been helping bin Laden, one official said
"One courier in particular had our constant attention," the official said. He declined to give that courier's name but said he was a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a "trusted assistant" of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a former senior al Qaeda officer who was captured in 2005.
"Detainees also identified this man as one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden," the official said. The U.S. intelligence community uncovered the identity of this courier four years ago, and two years ago, the U.S. discovered the area of Pakistan this courier and his brother were working in.
In August 2010, the intelligence agencies found the exact compound where this courier was living, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The neighborhood is affluent and many retired Pakistani military officials live there.
"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw," one official said.
The compound was 8 times larger than the other homes around it. It was built in 2005 in an area that was secluded at that time. There were extraordinary security measures at the compound, including 12 to 18 foot walls topped with barbed wire.
There were other suspicious indicators at the compound. Internal sections were walled off from the rest of the compound. There were two security gates. The residents burned their trash. The main building had few windows.
The compound, despite being worth over $1 million, had no telephone or internet service. There's no way the courier and his brother could have afforded it, the official said.
"Intelligence officials concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance," the official said, adding that the size and makeup of one of the families living there matched the suspected makeup of bin Laden's entourage.
The intelligence community had high confidence that the compound had a high value target, and the analysts concluded there was high probability that target was bin Laden, one official said.
When the small team of U.S. operatives raided the compound in the early morning hours Sunday Pakistan time, they encountered resistance and killed three men besides bin Laden and one woman. The three men were the two couriers and one of bin Laden's sons. The woman was being used as a human shield, one official said. Two other women were injured.
One U.S. helicopter was downed due to unspecified "maintenance" issues, one official said. The U.S. personnel blew up the helicopter before leaving the area. The team was on the ground for only 40 minutes.
A senior defense official told CNN that US Navy SEALs were involved in the mission.
No other governments were briefed on the operation before it occurred, including the host government Pakistan.
"That was for one reason and one reason alone. That was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel," one official said. Only a "very small group of people" inside the U.S. government knew about the operation. Afterwards, calls were made to the Pakistani government and several other allied countries.
"Since 9/11 the United States has made it clear to Pakistan that we would pursue bin Laden wherever he might be," one official said. "Pakistan has long understood we are at war with al Qaeda. The United States had a moral and legal obligation to act on the information it had."
Americans abroad should stay indoors be aware of the increased threat of attacks following bin Laden's killing, the State Department said in a new travel warning issued Sunday night. State also issued a specific travel warning for Pakistan.
"Al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers may try to respond violently to avenge bin Laden's death and other terrorist leaders may try to accelerate their efforts to attack the United States," one official said. "We have always understood that this fight would be a marathon and not a sprint."
Josh Rogan @'FP'

A Post-Osama America: What Bin Laden's Death Means For Obama, Our Country

Al-Qaeda threat more diffuse but persistent

Breaking News - Bin Laden's address details were gleaned from the Sony Playstation database.

(Thanx Stan!)

RBReich Robert Reich

Apparently knowledge of BL's hideout came from careful analysis rather than from anyone imprisoned, coerced, or tortured. A lesson here?

Osama Bin Laden Body Headed for Burial at Sea, Officials Say

F(a)ux news

They do it all by themselves really don't they...

evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov

So the compound has no telephone or Internet service? Wait, Osama wasn't in charge of the world's first cyber-jihad?...

The Man Who Broke the News of the US Attack (But Didn't Know It)

Sohair Athar --- @ReallyVirtual on Twitter --- is, in his words, "an IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops". His current hideout is in Abbottabad, about 80 miles from Lahore in Pakistan. Athar was not the only person, however, who tried to find seclusion in the area --- a Mr Osama Bin Laden was also looking for some peace and quiet.
Late on Sunday night, Athar became the first witness --- although he never realised it --- to the US operation to kill Osama Bin Laden:

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)....
Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/ ...
A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S ...
All silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 km away too... the helicopter is gone too....
http://bit.ly/ljB6p6 seems like my giant swatter worked ! [The link is to a blog that reported, "A big blast is heard near the biggest military academy of Kakool, in Abbottabad . People are saying that it is due to a helicopter crash near the Kakool academy's residential academy. Security forces have surrounded the place and investigations are underway."] ....
The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani....
Funny, moving to Abbottabad was part of the 'being safe' strategy....
Technically, it is unidentified until identified, and it is a flying object, so year, why the hell not, we have seen weirder stuff....
The abbottabad helicopter/UFO was shot down near the Bilal Town area, and there's report of a flash. People saying it could be a drone....
People are saying it was not a technical fault and it was shot down. I heard it CIRCLE 3-4 times above, sounded purposeful....
It was too noisy to be a spy craft, or, a very poor spy craft it was....

Three hours ago, Athar resumed Tweeting, still unaware or unconvinced --- despite President Obama's announcement --- of the US operation against Bin Laden: "Interesting rumors in the otherwise uneventful Abbottabad air today....Leave Abbottabad alone, Osama and Obama...."
An hour ago, however, the situation sunk in: "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it....And here come the mails from the mainstream media....*sigh*"
Scott Lucas @'EnduringAmerica'

daveblev Dave Blevins

Oh great, it's the return of the right-wing patriotic redneck people and their stupid flag waving. patriotism is lame.

Osama bin Laden: How it took years to find him but just minutes to kill him

U.S. Forces Kill Osama bin Laden

Almost ten years after the 9/11 attacks, the leader of al-Qaida is dead.
President Obama announced on Sunday night that Osama bin Laden is dead. Not just dead — killed by U.S. operatives.
In a “compound” near an area deep inside Pakistan called Abottabad — not far from the capitol of Islamabad — U.S. operatives engaged in a “firefight” with bin Laden’s handlers, Obama said, and killed the terrorist leader. This was no drone strike. It was a “small team” of U.S. operatives, pulling the trigger and delivering what Obama called “justice” on a man responsible for the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans.
The operation was the result of eight months of intelligence work, with Obama giving the order to carry out the operation last week. Obama didn’t exactly specify, but it appears bin Laden’s death is the result of a joint operation by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command. But Obama said that bin Laden’s body has been recovered.
The Afghanistan war will surely continue. Drone strikes in Pakistan will surely continue. al-Qaida will surely proclaim imminently that it’s merely transitioning into its next phase. But Obama called it the “most significant achievement to date in our effort to defeat al-Qaida.” Killing bin Laden has been the dream of countless U.S. soldiers and intelligence operatives I’ve encountered since 9/11.
Bin Laden’s escape from the U.S. at Tora Bora in 2001 became a potent symbol of American impotence. Since bin Laden reconstituted al-Qaida’s senior leadership in Pakistan, a terrorist cell defined by hijacked religious symbolism and conspiracy theories franchised operations to affiliates from Iraq to Yemen, willing itself into a geopolitical force and killing thousands worldwide. His appearances in years’ worth of audio and videotapes mocked the U.S. and pledged to “bleed it to bankruptcy.”
Starting in 2008, the U.S. massively accelerated attacks from armed Predator drones over the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, killing hundreds. It built an intelligence network in the Pakistani tribal areas, largely from scratch and with — to be charitable — inconsistent assistance from the Pakistani intelligence service. Obama said that the operation couldn’t have happened without Pakistani cooperation.
There’s a longstanding debate in counterterrorism circles about the importance of bin Laden to al-Qaida. For years, al-Qaida theoreticians, chief among them a man known as Abu Musab al-Suri, have attempted to refashion al-Qaida into a global movement that can outlast bin Laden. al-Qaida’s Yemen branch, in its English language magazine, have discouraged American Muslims from joining the jihad overseas, urging them instead to launch attacks inside the U.S. on their own.
al-Qaida has now sustained two massive blows to its relevance in the past few months. First, the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia refuted al-Qaida’s argument that only violent actions focused on the “far enemy” — the U.S. — could overthrow sclerotic dictatorships. Now bin Laden is dead, without a charismatic figure to take his place. For al-Qaida, it’s show-and-prove time. U.S. counterterrorism officials have to expect attempted retaliatory attacks.
In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — which would have been inconceivable without bin Laden’s 9/11 attacks — the U.S. learned painfully that the death of an organization’s leader doesn’t equate to the death of the organization. al-Qaida in Iraq remains lethal — but at far diminished levels than during the horror years of 2004 to 2006.
But not every decapitation should be understood as “just” a decapitation. It took months of painstaking intelligence work to kill al-Qaida in Iraq’s most potent leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The maintenance of that intelligence acumen; along with al-Qaida’s miscalculations that alienated Iraqis; along with a sustained U.S. military effort — all that led to what’s been a demonstrable attrition of the Iraq chapter of al-Qaida’s global efforts.
While pledging that “we will be relentless in defense of our citizens,” and not indicating that this ten-year-long war against al-Qaida is over, Obama is clearly hoping that the reversals suffered this year by al-Qaida are as durable.
The feeling among the global jihadist community? Online, at least, it’s disbelief. “I will wait for the Mujahideen to confirm this, and will not believe until I see a picture of his dead body,” one Internet extremist writes.
“Most top tier al-Qaida forums have forbidden all discussion about the topic, insisting that they will not allow any more messages until there is official confirmation from Al-Qaida,” says top terrorism watcher Evan Kohlman. “Nonetheless, people are posting dozens of messages praying for the safety and well-being of ‘the Mujahid Shaykh.’”
Update, May 2, 12:40 a.m.: Senior administration officials just offered more detail about the lethal raid on a background conference call with reporters. The operation took under 40 minutes. bin Laden “did resist the assault force,” a senior administration official says, but was shot “as our operators came into the compound.” A woman was used as a human shield but doesn’t appear to have died in the firefight — which can’t be said of bin Laden, one of his adult sons and two “couriers.”
The Pakistanis provided intelligence useful to the raid, the official says, but the Pakistani government didn’t know about it beforehand. The official says it was “conducted [with the] utmost operational security.”
The compound itself, the official says, is about five years old, and believed to have been built to shelter bin Laden — wow, so close to the Pakistani capitol — but it’s unknown how long bin Laden was there.
The U.S. lost one helicopter in the operation, but U.S. officials wouldn’t specify more about it. bin Laden’s body is being “handled in accordance with Islamic practices and traditions.” No word on where it is, or if and when it or pictures of it will be released.
As for the overall importance of the killing, the official calls it a “major, essential step in al-Qaida’s eventual disruption.” Intelligence from the raid indicates that bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, will become the new leader, but his authority isn’t “universally accepted,” and the Egyptian Zawahiri will have difficulty maintaining the loyalty of “al-Qaida’s Gulf Arab followers.” While the official predicts attempted retribution attacks, he further predicts that al-Qaida is on a “path of decline [that's] difficult to reverse.”
Spencer Ackerman @'Wired'

blakehounshell Blake Hounshell

SAO mentions that Abbottabad full of retired military officers. Compound 8x larger than homes in the area, built in 2005.

Statement by George W. Bush

Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.