To hunt Osama bin Laden, satellites watched over Abbottabad, Pakistan, and Navy SEALs. The disclosures about the hunt for the elusive founder of al-Qaeda are contained in classified documents that detail the fiscal 2013 “black budget” for U.S. intelligence agencies, including the NSA and the CIA. The documents, provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, make only brief references to the bin Laden operation. But the mission is portrayed as a singular example of counterterrorism cooperation among the U.S. government’s numerous intelligence agencies. Eight hours after the raid, according to the documents, a forensic intelligence laboratory run by the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan had analyzed DNA from bin Laden’s corpse and “provided a conclusive match” confirming his identity. Also playing a role in the search for bin Laden was an arm of the NSA known as the Tailored Access Operations group. That doctor was convicted by a Pakistani court in May 2012 of “conspiring against the state.”
CIA leaked bin Laden operation details to Sony. Global Voices · The Death of Osama Bin Laden. On Second Thought: The White House's Shifting Story on bin Laden Raid. Certain features of the White House story about the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound were irresistible to the media: A fierce firefight. The feared terrorist leader crouching behind his wife as the Navy SEALs approached, before resisting or possibly even reaching for a weapon. And on and on. Of course, those details have been substantially altered by the White House, if not scrapped altogether. And thus we started to see headlines like this one in the New York Times: "Raid Account, Hastily Told, Proves Fluid.
" As that story put it: a classic collision of a White House desire to promote a stunning national security triumph–and feed a ravenous media–while collecting facts from a chaotic military operation on the other side of the world. If by "classic," the Times means to say that the government often misleads or lies about its accomplishments–well, no argument here. We never meant to mislead anyone–but don't quote me on that! Goal Was Never to Capture bin Laden - Yochi Dreazen, Aamer Madhani & Marc Ambinder - Politics. The Navy SEALs knew their mission was to kill the al Qaeda leader, not take him alive In the weeks before President Obama ordered Navy SEALs into Pakistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden, administration officials weighed using American warplanes to obliterate the terror mastermind's fortified compound from the sky or sending commandos on a high-risk mission to assault the structure from the ground.
But there's one option the administration appears to have never seriously considered: taking bin Laden alive. (RELATED: 5 Things White House Got Wrong on Raid) In an important new detail about Sunday's raid, the White House disclosed on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when the SEALs shot him in the head and chest, killing him instantly.
The SEALs' decision to fatally shoot bin Laden -- even though he didn't have a weapon - wasn't an accident. Publicly, the White House insists it was prepared to capture bin Laden if he tried to surrender, a possibility senior officials described as remote. Statement From the Family of Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden Wives Interrogated: Breaking News Updates. The U.S. has finally been allowed to question three widows of Osama bin Laden, who were described as "hostile" toward America. Plus, recordings reveal new details on the U.S. raid. Pakistan top spy blasted the U.S. raid on bin Laden in a Parliament meeting on Friday—but admitted his agency's own slip-ups, too, and offered his resignation. Plus, more updates below and full coverage here.
Pakistan Spy Chief Admits Intel Failure Pakistan’s top spy issued a strong denouncement of the United States is a secret, 11-hour, closed-door session of Parliament on Friday, sources said. The spy chief, Lt. Photos: Inside bin Laden's Compound Bin Laden's Porn Stash So far, U.S. officials have released information about several materials the Navy SEALs found in bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, including Pepsi, Vaseline, and Avena syrup—a sexual stimulant. Aside from the dirty secrets, the thumb drives promise to out a whole new class of al Qaeda operatives. SEAL Helmet Cams Caught Osama Running for His Life. Daughter: Bin Laden captured alive, executed later.
Osama Raid Video Doesn't Exist: CIA | 25 Minute Video Blackout. Bin Laden raid story changes again The White House's depiction of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has changed sharply since President Barack Obama's first version of events. P 6, 2011 LONDON: The head of the CIA has admitted that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound as further doubts emerged about the US version of events. Leon Panetta said there was a 25-minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off. A photograph issued by the White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded.
US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and security officials watch events in Pakistan unfold in the White House situation room. Advertisement Mr Panetta said the US Navy SEALs made the final decision to kill bin Laden rather than the President. News Desk: Bin Laden: The Rules of Engagement. Earlier this week, the White House revised its account of the killing of Osama bin Laden, explaining that the Al Qaeda leader was unarmed at the time of his death, contrary to earlier official declarations that he had been wielding a weapon. More details about the military raid on bin Laden’s compound, its scope and conceptualization, are sure to surface in the coming days. But the image of the weaponless, aging Al Qaeda figurehead and founder, shot in the head in his spacious house, has raised some public consternation that the Navy SEALs responsible for the killing acted illegally, or that the United States violated a longstanding Executive Order that bars U.S. employees from engaging in “political assassination.”
Human-rights groups and academics have called for inquiries, suggesting that laws may have been broken, or that an “extrajudicial killing without due process of the law” might have occurred. The request for more information about the raid is certainly valid. The Osama bin Laden exception - Glenn Greenwald. When I first wrote about the bin Laden killing on Monday, I suggested that the intense (and understandable) emotional response to his being dead would almost certainly drown out any discussions of the legality, ethics, or precedents created by this event. That, I think, has largely been borne out, at least in the U.S.
(one poll shows 86% of Americans favor the killing, though that’s hardly universal: a poll in Germany finds 64% view this as “no reason to rejoice,” while 52% believe an attempt should have been made to arrest him; many European newspapers have harshly criticized U.S. actions; and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s declaration of happiness over bin Laden’s death provoked widespread criticism even in her own party). I expected — and fully understand — that many people’s view of the bin Laden killing is shaped first and foremost by happiness over his death. Then there’s the strange indifference to finding out whether bin Laden was actually captured before executed. Was the Hit on Bin Laden Illegal? | Danger Room. But one thing it might not have been is legal. Which is not to say it wasn’t necessary, and even good. Clearly, bin Laden deserved to die — and the world is a safer place with him gone.
But just because the man needed killing, doesn’t mean the hit that took him out didn’t bend or even break U.S. law. That’s the subject of my new piece for Politico. The legality of the bin Laden hit is neither a pointless question nor a purely academic one. In considering the legal case, some observers have focused on whether bin Laden was armed and fought his Navy SEAL assailants. No, the legal issue actually boils down to one central question: Was the attack on Osama bin Laden truly a CIA-dominated covert action, or was it a mostly military one? The day after the raid, CIA Director Leon Panetta deftly described the attack both ways to PBS. Moreover, the raid’s manpower was mostly or even entirely military, as were the secretive stealthy helicopters that transported the attackers. See Also: The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden - Monday, May 2, 2011. JSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden. Share The team of US Special Operations Forces who killed Osama bin Laden in a pre-dawn raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, were led by elite Navy SEALS from the Joint Special Operations Command.
Operators from SEAL Team Six, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or just DevGru, are widely considered to be the most elite warriors in the US national security apparatus. Col. W. “They’re the ace in the hole. JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, is an all-star team made up of the Army’s Delta Force, SEAL Team Six, Army Rangers and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the “Night Stalkers.” Marc Ambinder described the bin Laden raid in his excellent report on National Journal: “From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad.
Col. Like this blog post? Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. The killing of the terrorism mastermind who had eluded U.S. forces for nearly a decade drew a spontaneous, cheering crowd outside the White House gates and at New York’s Ground Zero, the site of al-Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. “We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies,” a somber Obama said in his nine-minute statement that aired live on television worldwide. “We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda’s terror: Justice has been done.” Bin Laden’s killing will provide a clear moment of victory for Obama at a time of deep political turmoil overseas that is upending long-standing U.S. policy in much of the Muslim world, particularly the Middle East.
“Today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people,” Obama said. CIA director Leon E. Years in the making The courier Rep. Osama bin Laden is Dead. Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, was killed on Sunday in Abbottabad, Pakistan.Photo: FBI Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda and the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, was killed on Sunday in Pakistan. Here's what we know so far. Where was Bin Laden killed? He was killed in a "compound near Abbottabad," which is a relatively wealthy city of about one million people about 150 km north of Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. How did he die? The operation was a "surgical strike" by a small US team that entered by helicopter. The team was in the compound for under 40 minutes. Who killed him?
Were there eyewitnesses to the raid? The National also reports that top members of Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban currently hiding out in Pakistan are preparing to flee the country, according to a Karachi-based militant source. The Arabic news network Al-Arabiya says bin Laden's twelve-year-old daughter witnessed his death. Good evening.