How the raid on bin Laden's hideout unfolded
The latest accounts of the US raid on Osama bin Laden's compound reveal the shooting was over quickly, that only one man ever fired on the American commandos and that the Al-Qaeda chief had an AK-47 in his bedroom when he was killed.
According to US officials and media reports, here is how the operation unfolded:
-- Under cover of night, several helicopters ferry 79 commandos towards Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, flying low to avoid detection by radar, as Pakistan has not been told of the raid in advance.
-- Two helicopters deliver more than 20 US Navy SEALs to the residence, which has 12-18 foot (four-to-six meter) walls covered with barbed wire. One of the choppers, a MH-60 Blackhawk apparently modified to evade radar, is out of commission due to "mechanical failure," according to initial reports from US officials.
-- One group of commandos moves toward a smaller guest house next to the compound's main building. Bin Laden's trusted courier opens fire and is shot and killed, along with his wife.
The courier is the only man at the compound who fires on the Americans, contrary to earlier accounts from the White House that described a firefight throughout the nearly 40-minute operation.
-- Another US special forces team enters the main three-story house. They encounter the courier's brother, who has one hand behind his back, causing the SEALs to suspect he may have a gun, which turns out not to be the case, according to NBC news. He is shot and killed.
-- The commandos move up the stairs and meet up with bin Laden's adult son, Khalid, who is killed after he lunges at the Americans, according to the New York Times.
-- On the top floor, they find bin Laden and his wife in the bedroom. She reportedly tries to move between her husband and the commandos, and is shot in the leg. bin Laden, who gives no signal of surrender, is shot in the head, and some media say he is also struck in the chest.
Earlier versions of the raid said bin Laden "resisted" and that he had used his wife as a human shield, but the White House later acknowledges those details are incorrect.
-- President Barack Obama, following events from the White House, is told the SEALs have tentatively identified bin Laden. A Time magazine report, based on an interview with CIA Director Leon Panetta, suggests bin Laden was killed less than 25 minutes into the raid.
-- In bin Laden's room, the US team finds an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9 mm Russian pistol. Other weapons are discovered in the compound.
-- The special forces find cash and telephone numbers sown into Bin Laden's clothing, suggesting he was prepared for a quick escape.
-- In an intelligence coup, the Navy SEALs haul away five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, which will be scoured for leads on possible plots, financing and the location of Al-Qaeda deputies.
-- The US team destroys the downed helicopter, after moving women and children in the compound to a safe area.
-- About 38 minutes after the start of the raid, the US helicopters fly away, carrying the corpse of the man the United States has hunted for years.
-- At 0335 GMT on Monday, Obama announces on television that bin Laden has been killed.
- Bin Laden's body is taken to the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier off the coast of Pakistan. At about 0600 GMT, after Islamic religious rites are administered, bin Laden's body is eased into the Arabian Sea.
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Joan Nelson
May 6th 2011, 20:42
They make it seem like a chicken feed operation. And it took them all these years to find Osama!! These are US forces. If they really wanted, It will be even easier to eliminate Gaddafi by tagging a sniper on him and then say he died by friendly fire ( mercenaries ). They sure know how to make up stories, why not another one to end all this brutality. The US is getting itself tangled in its own web of lies and soon all hell is gonna break loose.
Patrick Sacco
May 6th 2011, 16:25
Obama also received the Nobel Prize!
For what?!
Mr Keith Davis
May 6th 2011, 13:33
How on earth could you think one being a president of the most powerful country of all would want to be the joke of the century by balantly declaring on national TV such a huge lie to the whole world?!
Come on, get real !
Mr Christopher Grech
May 6th 2011, 10:26
Lies, Damn Lies, and Bin Laden’s Death
Stephen Lendman
Winston Churchill rightly explained that “(a) lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” He said it perhaps before television. For sure before 24-hour cable TV and modern technology instantly communicating globally.
It applies to Obama’s latest lie, announced at 11:35PM EDT on bin Laden, saying:
“Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
Highlighting 9/11, he painstakingly discussed everything but the truth. America’s media repeated it. Celebratory crowds in front of the White House, in Times Square, and at “ground zero” cheered it past midnight, mindlessly believing a lie. More on that below.
On May 1, New York Times writers Peter Baker, Helene Cooper and Mark Mazzetti headlined, “Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama says: continuing:
Calling him “the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world,” Obama announced his death Sunday night, declaring “justice has been done.”
Cheerleading, not reporting, Baker, Cooper and Mazzetti called his “demise….a defining moment in the American-led fight against terrorism, a symbolic stroke affirming the relentlessness of the pursuit of those who attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.”
New Year’s eve arrived early in America, celebrating a lie, the “bewildered herd” again seduced by presidential deception.
A USA Today editorial headlined, “At last, bin Laden is dead,” saying:
“Could there be any more satisfying words to hear?”
The Boston Globe highlighted “a moment of unity” after nearly a decade of war, calling Obama’s announcement a “vindication of a manhunt spanning presidential administrations, and involving numerous agencies and countless intelligence officers.”
AP quoted Bill Clinton saying:
“I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al Qaeda attacks.”
House speaker John Boehner (R. OH) said it was “great news…”
House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi called it “historic.”
Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid “reaffirm(ed) our resolve to defeat the terrorist forces that killed (9/11 victims) and thousands of others across the globe.”
Expect lots more cheerleading ahead, led by major media reports doing what they do best, providing sanitized, managed news, not truth.
Separating Fact from Fiction
Post-9/11, bin Laden became “Enemy Number One,” the nation’s top “security threat.” In fact, if he hadn’t existed, he’d have been invented for political advantage.
In March 1985, after Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 166 to arm Afghan Mujahideen fighters, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) recruited bin Laden to fight Soviet Afghan forces as a CIA asset. He likely remained one until his death, while simultaneously called “Enemy Number One,” using him advantageously both ways.
David Ray Griffin wrote seminal books on 9/11, including “The New Pearl Harbor,” “The 9/11 Commission Report,” “9/11 and American Empire,” “9/11 Contradictions,” “Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7,” and “Osama Bin Laden: Dead of Alive?”
It was also the title of his October 9, 2009 Global Research article, covering two types of evidence:
(1) Objective evidence that he’s dead:
After December 13, 2001, his regularly intercepted messages stopped.
On December 26, 2001, according to “a leading Pakistani newspaper” story, a prominent Taliban official said he attended his funeral.
Bin Laden, in fact, was very ill with kidney disease. In September 2001, CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported that he was admitted to a Rawalpindi, Pakistan hospital on September 10, 2001, and France’s Le Figaro said:
“Dubai….was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July (2001). A partner of the administration of the American Hospital….claims that (bin Laden) stayed (there) between the 4th and 14th of July (and) received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. (During the same period), the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking (the hospital’s) main elevator (to) bin Laden’s room.”
Why not if he was a valued asset.
In July 2002, “CNN reported that (his) bodyguards had been captured in February of that year, adding: ‘Sources believe that if the bodyguards were captured away from bin Laden, it is likely the most wanted man in the world is dead.”
Finally, despite Washington offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture or killing, no one came forward.
(2) Testimonial evidence of his death:
In 2002, influential “people in a position to know” that he died included:
– Pakistan President Musharraf;
– FBI counterterrorism head Dale Watson;
– Oliver North saying, “I’m certain that Osama is dead….and so are all the other guys I stay in touch with;”
– Afghanistan President Karzai;
– Israeli intelligence saying supposed bin Laden messages were fake; and
– Pakistan’s ISI “confirm(ing) the death of….Osama bin Laden (and) attribut(ing) the reasons behind Washington’s hiding (the truth) to the desire of (America’s hawks) to use the issue of al Qaeda and international terrorism to invade Iraq.”
Other evidence includes former CIA case officer Robert Baer telling National Public Radio (NPR): “Of course he’s dead.”
Then in March 2009, “former Foreign Service officer Angelo Codevilla published an essay in the American Spectator entitled ‘Osama bin Elvis,’ ” saying:
“Seven years after (bin Laden’s) last verifiable appearance among the living, there is more evidence of Elvis’s presence among us than for his.”
Griffin also explained fake messages and videos, saying today’s advanced technology can fool experts, but not all of them.
For years, bin Laden tapes surfaced at strategically-timed moments. Consider one on Friday, September 7, 2007 ahead the sixth 9/11 anniversary. Hector Factor’s Neal Krawetz, a digital image forensics expert, said it was full of low quality visual and audio splices, a likely fake.
Striking also was bin Laden’s beard that was gray in recent images. In this one, it was black. In addition, he was dressed in a white hat and shirt, as well as a yellow sweater, the same attire as on an October 29, 2004 video. Moreover, the background, lighting, desk and camera angle were identical.
Krawetz noted that “if you overlay the 2007 and 2004 videos, bin Laden’s face is the same (unaged).” Only his beard was darker, and the picture contrast was adjusted. Most important are the edits showing obvious splices, at least six video ones in all. Even more audio ones were used that appeared to be words and phrases spliced together, making Krawetz suspect a vocal imitator was used.
A Final Comment
Clear evidence showed bin Laden died years ago, likely in December 2001. However, reporting it was concealed to pursue America’s “war on terror.”
As a result, “Enemy Number One” was used to stoke fear as pretext for imperial wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, perhaps others now planned, and numerous proxy ones in Somalia, Yemen, Bahrain, Palestine, Central Africa, Colombia, and elsewhere.
Griffin wrote his bin Laden book, hoping to shorten America’s wars. He also wished to expose “fake bin Laden tapes (used as) one part of an extensive propaganda operation….furthering the militarization of America and its foreign policy” while popular needs go begging.
Obama’s latest lie left America’s imperial agenda unchanged. In fact, his announcement likely bolsters public support for what’s clearly become unpopular, saying:
“(T)hink back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11,” urging people to show it again despite how militarism harms their security, well-being and futures by draining funds badly needed for domestic needs.
Instead, expect increasing amounts used for corporate handouts and wars, Obama as uncaring about human needs as extremist Republicans. He’s also an inveterate liar.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.