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Revision as of 21:07, 3 May 2011
This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (May 2011) |
It has been suggested that Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2011. |
Operation Geronimo | |||||||
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Part of the War in North-West Pakistan | |||||||
Map of Pakistan showing Abbottābad (green), where bin Laden was killed, and the capital, Islamabad (red). Abbottābad is 32 miles (51 km) north of Islamabad. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
al-Qaeda Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Barack Obama | Osama bin Laden † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
20 to 25 helicopter-borne United States Navy SEALs | at least 22 bin Laden supporters; possibly more | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
At least 1 helicopter (self-destructed by US forces) |
Osama bin Laden † |
Osama bin Laden أسامة بن لادن | |
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File:Osama bin Laden portrait.jpg | |
Buried | North Arabian Sea |
Allegiance | Al-Qaeda |
Battles/wars | Soviet war in Afghanistan War on Terror: |
Osama bin Laden was killed by gunshots to the head and chest,[1][2][3] during Operation Geronimo,[4] a raid by United States special operations forces operators on his safe house[5] in Bilal Town, Abbottābad, Pakistan,[6] on May 2, 2011, around 01:00 Pakistan Standard Time (May 1, 20:00 UTC). U.S. forces then took his body to Afghanistan for investigation before burying it at sea.[7][8][9]
The operation was carried out by members of the United States Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU),[10] informally referred to by its former name, SEAL Team Six,[11] under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command, in conjunction with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives. The team was sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack.[12]
The killing of bin Laden received a favorable reaction in the United States and was welcomed by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations,[13] NATO, the European Union, and a large number of countries as a positive and significant turning point for global security and the War on Terror.
The Pakistani government was criticized for its failure to apprehend bin Laden who was living in a large and prominent compound in a major Pakistani city close to a military academy and not far from the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani officials denied knowingly harboring bin Laden saying that they had no prior knowledge bin Laden was there and strongly denied allegations of official support to bin Laden.
Locating Osama bin Laden
American intelligence officials discovered the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden by tracking one of his couriers, as bin Laden was believed not to have let any al-Qaeda foot soldiers or top commanders know his whereabouts.
Identity of the courier
Information regarding the identity of the bin Laden courier who led to the discovery of the Abbottābad compound, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan, came from intelligence gathered at CIA black sites, Pakistani prisons, Guantanamo Bay detention camp and CIA operations on the ground in Pakistan.[14][15] Initially, the nom de guerre (or "pseudonym of war") Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti was learned from interrogations of unknown detainees at CIA secret prisons. The hunt for Al-Kuwaiti—a Pakistani whose real name was Sheikh Abu Ahmed—was cold until 2010, when a wiretap of another suspect picked up a phone call with the courier.[16] CIA interrogations of al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confirmed an acquaintance with Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, but he denied Abu Ahmed had anything to do with al-Qaeda. CIA interrogation of al-Qaeda operative Hassan Ghul again led to the name Abu Ahmed, and provided a connection to al-Qaeda planner Abu Faraj al-Libi. Abu Faraj al-Libi, however, denied knowing Abu Ahmed when interrogated by the CIA.[15]
Abu Faraj al-Libi and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were later transferred to Guanatamo Bay detention camp, where they provided further information on Abu Ahmed under standard interrogation.[15][17] Hassan Ghul was transferred to a Pakistani prison and no reliable information has been available on his whereabouts for several years.[18] Reports indicate that the real name of the courier, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan, came from Abu Faraj al-Libi during his time at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[19] The name appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj released by WikiLeaks.[20] There has been speculation that the release of the courier's name by WikiLeaks forced the United States to act quickly in assaulting the Abbottābad compound.[21]
Some sources have cited the real name of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti as Sheikh Abu Ahmed, from Kuwait.[15] However, since Sheikh is an honorific and al- means "the", the two names are effectively identical.
Location of the compound
A telephone conversation between Ahmed and another operative monitored by the CIA led the agency in August 2010 to track Ahmed to the compound in Abbottābad.[15]
Using satellite photos and intelligence reports, the CIA determined the identities of the inhabitants of the mansion to which the courier was traveling. In September, the CIA concluded that the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of significance" and that bin Laden's residence there was very likely.[22][23] Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.[23]
Built in 2005, the million-U.S. dollar three-story[24] mansion was located "at the end of a narrow dirt road"[25] 2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of the city center of Abbottābad.[22] Abbottābad is about 100 miles from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (only about 20 miles from India). The compound was 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA).[26][27][28][29] On a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, it was surrounded by 12-to-18-foot (3.7–5.5 m)[23] concrete walls topped with barbed wire.[22] There were two security gates and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall (which could hide the 6'4" bin Laden).
There was no Internet or telephone service connected to the compound. Its residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors, who simply set it out for collection.[24] The mansion was known as Waziristan Haveli by the local residents, and owned by a transporter from Waziristan; bin Laden previously spent time in the Waziristan area of Afghanistan.[30]. Google Earth maps show that the compound was not present in 2001, but was present on images taken in 2005.[31]
The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, using drone-derived intelligence, developed "what amounted to a detailed four-dimensional 'map' of the bin Laden compound and its occupants and their patterns of living and working." This map was used to create a model of the compound for practice runs.[clarification needed][32]
CIA director Leon Panetta issued a memo that also credited the National Security Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for contributing to the intelligence-gathering that made the raid possible. The National Journal reported that "NSA figured out, somehow, that there was no telephone or Internet service in the compound."[33]
Role of Pakistan
Pakistan's role in the operation was criticized by many people around the world. Pakistan defended its role and stated that it had no prior information that bin Laden was in Abbottabad.
Allegations against Pakistan
Numerous allegations were made that the government of Pakistan was involved in shielding bin Laden.[34][35][36] Aspects of the incident that have fueled the allegations include the proximity of bin Laden's heavily fortified compound to the Pakistan Military Academy, that the United States did not notify the Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the alleged double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[36][37][38][39] U.S. government files leaked by Wikileaks disclosed that American diplomats were told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time U.S. forces approached. Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also helped smuggle al-Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had told U.S. officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.[40]
In his first interview after the operation CIA chief Leon Panetta stated that US had ruled out involving its nominal ally Pakistan in the operation stating "it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets."[41]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended Pakistan and stated that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding".[42] Obama echoed these sentiments.[43]
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said "This is going to be a time of real pressure on Pakistan to basically prove to us that they didn’t know that bin Laden was there".[44] John O. Brennan, the chief counterterrorism advisor to Obama, stated that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support from within Pakistan. He further stated "People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking right how he was able to hide out there for so long."[45] Senator Dianne Feinstein stated that "it's hard for me to understand how the Pakistanis ... would not know what was going on inside the compound." and said that top Pakistan officials may be "walking both sides of the street."[46] Senator Lindsey Graham questioned, "How could [bin Laden] be in such a compound without being noticed?", raising suspicions that Pakistan was either uncommitted in the fight against Islamist militants or was actively sheltering them while pledging to fight them.[47] A Pakistani intelligence official said that they had passed on raw phone tap data to U.S. that led to the operation but had failed to analyze this data themselves.[48]
Pakistani-born British MP Khalid Mahmood stated that he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops, reviving questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's security forces.[49]
Gulf News reported that the compound where bin Laden was killed had previously been used as a safe house by ISI but was no longer being used for this purpose.[50]
Pakistani response
According to a Pakistani intelligence official, raw phone-tap data had been transferred to the United States without being analyzed by Pakistan. While the U.S. "was concentrating on this" information since September 2010, information regarding bin Laden and the compound's inhabitants had "slipped from" Pakistan's "radar" over the months. Bin Laden left "an invisible footprint" and he had not been contacting other militant networks. It was noted that much focus had been placed on a courier entering and leaving the compound. The transfer of intelligence to the U.S. was a regular occurrence according to the official, who also stated regarding the raid that "I think they came in undetected and went out the same day", and Pakistan did not believe that U.S. personnel were present in the area before the special operation occurred.[43]
According to the Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge that an operation would happen. Pakistan was "in the know of certain things" and "what happened happened with our consent. Americans got to know him—where he was first—and that's why they struck it and struck it precisely." Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., had said that Pakistan would have pursued bin Laden had the intelligence of his location existed with them and Pakistan was "very glad that our American partners did. They had superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to them."[43]
Another Pakistani official stated that Pakistan "assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and the operation was conducted by the United States. He also said that "in any event, we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong."[43]
Operation Geronimo
Objectives and plan
After an intelligence-gathering effort on the courier's Pakistan compound that began September 2010, Obama met with his national security advisers on March 14 to create an action plan. They met four more times (March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28) in the six weeks before the raid, including once on March 29, 2011 when Obama personally discussed the plan with Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.[22][51] Jake Tapper of ABC News reported that "many multiple possible courses of action" were presented to Obama in March and "refined over the course of the next several weeks."[52]
According to ABC News, the first approach considered by U.S. officials was to bomb the house using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, which could drop 32[53] 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Obama rejected this option, however, opting for a raid that would provide definitive proof that bin Laden was inside, and limit civilian casualties. Another one of the "courses of action" (COA) suggested by JSOC was "a joint raid with Pakistani intelligence operatives who would be told about the mission hours before the launch."[53] Deploying drones was apparently not a feasible approach, in part because the compound's location was "within the Pakistan air defense intercept zone for the national capital."[54][55][56]
Members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group began training for the raid (the objective of which remained unknown to them) after the March 22 national security meeting, "holding dry runs at training facilities on both American coasts, which were made up to resemble the compound."[53] As plans progressed through the month of April, the DEVGRU SEALs began more specific training exercises on a one-acre replica of the "Waziristan Mansion" compound, practicing rappelling down into it from helicopters, among other tactical approaches.[33][57] The replica was built at Camp Alpha, a restricted section of the Bagram military base in Afghanistan.[33] According to The Daily Telegraph, 24 Navy SEALs carried out practice runs on April 7 and April 13.[58]
White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan stated after the raid that "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that."[59] However, another U.S. national security official, who was not named, told Reuters that "'This was a kill operation,' making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan."[60] Another source referencing a kill (rather than capture order) states, "Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the mission. 'They were told, "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him,"' an official recalled. The SEALs started to cheer."[61]
On April 29, at 8:20 am, Obama convened with Brennan, Thomas E. Donilon, and other national security advisers in the Diplomatic Reception Room and gave the final order to raid the Abbottābad compound. A senior administration official told reporters after the operation was completed that the government of Pakistan had not been informed of the operation in advance.[62]
The raid planned for that day was postponed until the following day due to cloudy weather.[63]
Execution of the operation
After President Obama authorized the mission to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta gave the go-ahead at midday on May 1.[64]
The raid was carried out by 20 to 25 helicopter-borne United States Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command, led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to The New York Times, "79 commandos and a dog were involved."[65] Additional personnel on the mission included "tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers."[33]
The SEALs flew from Afghanistan to Tarbela Ghazi Airbase in northwest Pakistan.[66] The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a U.S. Army airborne special operations unit nicknamed the "Night Stalkers," provided four modified Black Hawk helicopters, two of which were intended to be backups.[57][61][33][67] The raid was scheduled for a time with little moon luminosity so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected."[68]
The SEALs fast-roped out of the helicopters.[69] One of the helicopters stalled, in a vortex created by its own prop wash and the high compound walls,[70] and was forced to make an emergency landing outside[69] the compound. At approximately 1:00 a.m. local time (20:00, May 1 UTC),[71][72] the SEALs attacked the compound's structures and the compound's guards opened fire.[73]
The SEALs neutralized the compound's guards, then cleared the main building room-to-room.[74] Fighting occurred on the first floor, where two adult males lived, and on the second and third floors, where bin Laden lived with his family; the second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be cleared.[75]
Osama bin Laden and the DEVGRU team encountered each other on the third floor of the residence; bin Laden was "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a shalwar kameez."[53] "The encounter with bin Laden lasted only seconds," according to Politico, and took place during "the last five or 10 minutes" of the raid.[61] It is claimed that Bin Laden resisted[53], however it is also clamed that he had no weapon when he was shot.[76] White House spokesman Jay Carney explained with the comment, "Resistance does not require a firearm."[77]
Sources seem to generally agree that bin Laden was killed by at least one and possibly two or more American bullets, one of which struck the left side of his head, but the exact location of the bullet wounds is the subject of contradictory media reports. Some state that bin Laden was shot once in the head, and once in the chest[75][78][79][80][81][69]. National Journal reported that he was "done in by a double tap—boom, boom—to the left side of his face."[33][82] The New York Times states that he was "shot above the left eye."[53]
Three other men present at the compound were also reportedly killed in the operation, including bin Laden's adult son, the courier and the courier's brother.[83] Also killed was a woman, identified by some reports as bin Laden's fourth wife, Amal al Ahmed Sadah,[84][85] while other sources claim this to be incorrect.[86] (According to the New York Times, during the firefight one of the men in the compound "held an unidentified woman living there as a shield while firing at the Americans. Both were killed."[53]) Two other women were injured.[87] According to ABC News, bin Laden's wife was one of the injured females, "When the SEALs entered the room in which bin Laden was hiding, his wife charged them and was shot in the leg."[88] According to another report, bin Laden's 12-year or 13-year old daughter also saw him killed.[89]
It remains unclear which of bin Laden's adult sons was killed in the raid. The New York Times reported that U.S. authorities determined that the man was Hamza bin Laden.[90] The Associated Press cited John O. Brennan as giving the man's identity as Khaled bin Laden.[91] While Osama bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound.[92]
The exact number and identity of the people living in the compound is uncertain. Several appear to be members of the Osama bin Laden family, including possibly his fourth wife and their daughter. A U.S. official told the Associated Press that in addition to the five adults who were killed during the operation, 23 children and nine women were in the compound. The National Journal reported that 22 people were counted in the compound.[33] A Pakistani official told the New York Times that nine children ranging from two to 12 years old were placed in Pakistani custody.[53] According to the British Daily Mail, "four children and two women, including Bin Laden's daughter Safia, were taken away in an ambulance."[66] One other person was reportedly taken away alive by the U.S. military.[89][93]
The raid was intended to take 30 minutes. All told, the time between the team's entry in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes.[61] Time in the compound was split into exchanging gunfire with the defenders[75] and searching the compound for information.[94] U.S. personnel removed computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, thumb drives and "electronic equipment" from the compound for later analysis.[61][95]
The helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged[57] and could not fly the team out. It was consequently destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment; after they "moved the women and children to a secure area"[53] U.S. forces "improvise[d] by packing the helicopter with explosives and blowing it up."[23][96] The assault team "called in one of two backup [helicopters]" to ferry them back to their base.[25]
The SEAL team helicopters were supported by multiple other aircraft, including fixed-wing fighter jets and drones. According to CNN, "The Air Force also had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available."[97]
Diplomatic cooperation
According to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share information about the raid with the government of Pakistan before the operation,[8] but did notify Pakistan after its successful completion.[98] According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the U.S. forces;[99] however, Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials stated that they were also present at what they called a joint operation,[34] a claim which President Asif Ali Zardari has flatly denied.[100] Reasons for not alerting Pakistan have not yet been provided.
According to ABC News, Pakistani fighter jets were scrambled in an attempt to locate and identify what turned out to be the U.S. helicopters used in the raid.[57]
Local accounts of raid
Details of the raid, albeit observed from a distance, were tweeted by Abbottābad resident Sohaib Athar, who initially did not know what was happening; he had begun tweeting by complaining about the unaccustomed noise of low-flying helicopters.[101][102][103] Karachi's Geo News described a helicopter crash and "heavy firing" on the evening of May 1 "near the PMA Kakul Road".[104]
The UK Telegraph quoted a resident of the area who said, "We saw four helicopters at around 2 am. We were told to switch off lights of our homes and stay inside."[105]
According to BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad, reporting two days after the raid, ISI informed him after questioning survivors of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a Bin Laden son. The ISI also said that survivors included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's; all subsequently had their hands tied.
The BBC report also stated that, according to the ISI, a surviving Yemeni wife said they had moved to the compound a few months ago and that Bin Laden's daughter, aged 12 or 13, saw her father shot.[106]
Identification of the body
Immediately following the raid, the body believed to be bin Laden's was taken to Jalalabad, Afghanistan.[51]
ABC News, the Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body was identified by DNA testing,[12][107][108] using tissue and blood samples taken from his sister who died of brain cancer.[109] Reuters reported, however, that DNA test results will be available in the next few days and that bin Laden's body was identified using facial recognition techniques.[110] One of bin Laden's wives identified the body.[111] ABC News stated, "Two samples were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a sample."[51]
A wife of bin Laden also apparently called him by name during the raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. armed forces on the ground.[85][112][113]
According to ABC News, additional identification methods included measurement of the body, both the corpse and bin Laden were 6'4" (1.93 meters) tall; facial recognition software (a photograph transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely match), and two women from the compound identified bin Laden's body after death.[51]
Potential release of photos
Photos were taken of bin Laden's body before it was buried at sea, sparking a debate about whether to release the photos.[114] Those supporting the release of the photos said it would prove his death and prevent conspiracy theories that bin Laden is still alive, while others expressed concern that the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.[115]
Burial at sea
According to a U.S. official on May 2, bin Laden's body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition[116] and was buried at sea less than a day after his death.[117][118][119][120] The body was transported to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson (pictured), the flagship of Carrier Strike Group One, operating in the northern Arabian Sea,[121] and at 1:10 am EDT, the body was "washed in accordance with Islamic custom, placed in a white sheet, then put inside a weighted bag". After religious statements translated into Arabic were made, the body "was placed onto a flat board, which was then elevated upward on one side, and... slid off into the sea".[111] Bin Laden Gayab Salat al-Janazah was performed by Pakistan militant groups such as Jama'at-ud-Da'wah[122] and Lashkar-e-Taiba[123]
Under Islamic tradition, however, burial at sea is considered by some to be inappropriate when other, preferred forms of burial are available, and several prominent Islamic clerics criticized the decision.[111][124][125] Dr Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar University, Egypt's seat of Sunni Muslim learning, said the disposal of the body at sea was an affront to religious and human values.[126]
In the famous Sunni Shafi'i Fiqh book Umdat al-Salik wa Uddat al-Nasik, the condition for sea burial is given as follow: "It is best to bury him in the cemetery... If someone dies on a ship and it is impossible to bury him on land, the body is placed between two planks and thrown into the sea."[127] This implies that the dead should only be buried in sea when it is impossible to bury the deceased on land in a cemetery.
The advantage to the United States of a burial at sea is that the burial site is not readily identified or accessed, thus preventing a burial site from becoming a focus of attention or "terrorist shrine".[128] The Guardian has questioned whether bin Laden's grave would have been a shrine, a concept rejected by Wahhabism. It also quotes a U.S. official explaining the difficulty of finding a country that would accept the burial of bin Laden in its soil.[129] Khalid Latif, an imam who serves as a chaplain and the director of the Islamic Center of New York University, argued that the sea burial was respectful.[130] Other American Muslim chaplains such as Imam Abdullah El-Amin of Detroit's Muslim Center have voiced concern against the sea burial, given the deceased died on land.[131]
According to two Pentagon officials, a video of the burial may be released.[132]
Address of President Barack Obama
Late in the evening of May 1, 2011, major American news organizations were informed that the president would give an important speech on an undisclosed subject related to national security. Rumors initially spread wildly about the subject,[133] until it was revealed that President Barack Obama was to announce the death of Osama bin Laden. At 11:35 p.m. EDT (May 2, 2011, 3:35 UTC), Obama confirmed this and said that bin Laden had been killed by "a small team of Americans".[134][135] He explained how the killing of bin Laden was achieved after following up on a lead from August 2010, what his role was in the series of events, and what the death of bin Laden meant on a symbolic and practical level.[136]
Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound, in Abbottābad, 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.
— President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011[137]
Aftermath
An unnamed Pakistani government official confirmed to Agence France-Presse on May 2 that bin Laden was killed in the operation.[138] The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan issued a statement on May 2 denying that bin Laden had been killed.[139] Hours later, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said that if bin Laden had, in fact, been killed, it was, "a great victory for us because martyrdom is the aim of all of us" and vowed to take revenge on Pakistan and the United States.[140] Tehrik-i-Taliban later confirmed bin Laden's death.[141]
Reactions
Within minutes of the official announcement, large crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House, Ground Zero, the Pentagon and in New York's Times Square to celebrate.[9] In Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit with a large Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd gathered outside the City Hall in celebration, many of them being of Middle Eastern descent.[142] From the beginning to the end of Obama's speech, 5,000 tweets per second were sent on microblogging platform Twitter.[143] Fans attending a nationally televised Major League Baseball game between two National League East rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets, at Citizens Bank Park initiated "U-S-A!" cheers in response to the news.[144] This resultant euphoria has, however, been criticized as an inappropriate reaction to human death.[145]
Mahmud Ezzat, the deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said that, with bin Laden dead, western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan; authorities in Iran made similar comments.[146] Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomed bin Laden's death; the rival Hamas administration in the Palestinian Gaza Strip condemned the killing of an "Arab holy warrior", possibly in order to "cool tensions in the territory with Al-Qaeda inspired Salafi groups" that consider Hamas "too moderate".[147]
Domestic political effects in the United States
In the United States, commentators and analysts have discussed the possible political effects of bin Laden's death. Statistician Nate Silver of the New York Times predicted that significant near-term improvement in Obama's approval rating, but cautioned against overestimating the bin Laden death's long-term impact on Obama's prospects for reelection in the 2012 presidential election.[148] Later, Silver cautioned against underestimating the electoral implications of bin Laden's death.[149] A Washington Post/Pew Research Center poll taken shortly after the event showed that 56 percent of Americans say they approve of Obama's performance in office overall, the highest rating for Obama since 2009 and nine percentage points higher than an ABC News/Washington Post poll found the previous month.[150]
The successful operation also seemed to burnish the reputation of the CIA and its director, Leon Panetta.[151][152]
After the operation was announced, Obama was praised even by Republicans who have been sharply critical of him, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Republican businessman and potential presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.[153] Michael D. Shear of the New York Times wrote that the bin Laden raid complicates the Republican message in the 2012 elections, as it might undermine the assertion that Obama was weak and indecisive, a charge leveled at the president during the Middle East and North Africa protests in 2010 and 2011.[154][155]
Earlier death reports
- December 2001: Quoting an unnamed Taliban official, the Pakistan Observer reported that bin Laden died of untreated lung complications and was buried in an unmarked grave in Tora Bora on December 15.[156] This report was picked up by Fox News in the U.S. on December 26.[157] Also on December 26, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Wafd carried a short obituary by a "prominent official" of the Afghan Taliban, who was supposedly present at the funeral, stating bin Laden had been buried on or around December 13:[158]
A videotape was released on December 27 showing a gaunt, unwell bin Laden, prompting an unnamed White House aide to comment that it could have been made shortly before his death.[156] On CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta commented that bin Laden's left arm never moved during the video, suggesting a recent stroke and possibly a symptom of kidney failure.[159] According to Pakistani President Musharraf, bin Laden required two dialysis machines, which also suggested kidney failure.[160] "I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a... kidney patient," Musharraf said.[160] If bin Laden suffered kidney failure, he would have required a sterile environment, electricity, and continuous attention by a team of specialists, Gupta said.[159] In April 2002, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated, "We have heard neither hide nor hair of him since, oh, about December in terms of anything hard."[161] FBI Counterterrorism chief Dale Watson and President Karzai of Afghanistan also expressed the opinion that bin Laden probably died at this time.[162][163]"[Osama bin Laden] suffered serious complications and died a natural, quiet death. He was buried in Tora Bora, a funeral attended by 30 Al Qaeda fighters, close members of his family and friends from the Taliban. By the Wahhabi tradition, no mark was left on the grave"
- July 2002: FBI counterterrorism chief Dale Watson states that bin Laden "is probably not with us anymore but I have no evidence to support that."[164][165]
- October 2002: Hamid Karzai stated that "I would come to believe that [bin Laden] probably is dead."[166]
- November 2005: Senator Harry Reid stated that "I heard today that he may have died in the earthquake that they had in Pakistan, seriously."[167][168]
- Late 2005: CIA disbands "Bin Laden Issue Station", codenamed "Alec Station", the CIA's bin Laden tracking unit, 1996–2005.[169]
- September 2006: On September 23, 2006, the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) stating that bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs.[170] According to the newspaper, Saudi security services first heard of bin Laden's supposed death on September 4, 2006.[171][172][173] The supposed death was reported by the Saudi Arabian secret service to its government, which reported it to the French secret service. The French defense minister Michèle Alliot-Marie expressed her regret that the report had been published while French President Jacques Chirac declared that bin Laden's death had not been confirmed.[174] American authorities also could not confirm reports of bin Laden's death,[175] with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying only, "No comment, and no knowledge."[176] Later, CNN's Nic Robertson said that he had received confirmation from an anonymous Saudi source that the Saudi intelligence community has known for a while that bin Laden has a water-borne illness, but that he had heard no reports that it was specifically typhoid or that he had died.[177]
- November 2007: Political interviewer David Frost interviewed Pakistani politician and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Benazir Bhutto on November 2, 2007. In answering a question as to who had previously attempted her assassination, Bhutto named Omar Sheikh as a possible suspect, identifying him as "the man who murdered Osama bin Laden." Despite the significance of such a statement, neither Bhutto nor Frost attempted to clarify it or discuss it further during the remainder of the interview.[178] Omar Chatriwala, a journalist for Al Jazeera English, said that he chose not to pursue the story at the time because he believed Bhutto misspoke, meaning to say that Sheikh had murdered Daniel Pearl — and not Osama bin Laden.[citation needed] The BBC drew criticism when it rebroadcast the Frost/Bhutto interview on its website, but edited out Bhutto's statement regarding bin Laden. Later the BBC apologized and replaced the edited version with the complete interview.[179] In October 2007, Bhutto stated in an interview that she would cooperate with the American military in targeting bin Laden.[180]
- 2008: Robert Baer, a former CIA operative, stated that "Of course he’s dead" and questioned the relevancy of bin Laden.[181][164]
- April 2009: During an interview with The Telegraph, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari raised the prospect that bin Laden could be dead, after he said that intelligence officials could find "no trace" of the al Qaeda chief. Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, similarly suggested that bin Laden could be dead. Additionally, Pakistan's intelligence agencies believed bin Laden possibly to be dead.[182]
- March 2009: Angelo M. Codevilla, a professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, wrote that "All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama bin Laden."[183]
- May 2009: In Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?, it was argued that bin Laden had died of kidney failure.[158][164]
Previous attempts to capture or kill bin Laden
- February 1994: A team of Libyans attacked bin Laden's home in the Sudan. The government[clarification needed] investigated and reported that they had been hired by Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia accused them of lying to make bin Laden more amenable to Sudanese interests.[184]
- August 20, 1998: In Operation Infinite Reach, the US Navy launched 66 cruise missiles at a suspected al Qaeda training camp outside Khost, Afghanistan, where bin Laden was expected to be. Reports said that 30 people may have been killed.[185]
- 2000: Foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding.[186]
- December 2001: During the opening stages of the war in Afghanistan launched following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies believed that bin Laden was hiding in the rugged mountains at Tora Bora. Despite overrunning the Taliban and al-Qaeda positions they failed to capture or kill him.[187]
See also
{{{inline}}}
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
- High-value target
- Manhunt (military)
- Death of Osama bin Laden conspiracy theories
- Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden
References
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The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the CIA Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.
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- ^ Codevilla, Angelo M. (March 2009). "Osama bin Elvis". The American Spectator.
- ^ Riedel, Bruce. "The Search for al-Qaeda", 2008
- ^ "CIA Trained Pakistanis to Nab Terrorist But Military Coup Put an End to 1999 Plot", The Washington Post, October 3, 2001.
- ^ "Report: Clinton Targeted Bin Laden", CBS News, September 16, 2001.
- ^ "Lost at Tora Bora", New York Times Magazine, Sept. 11, 2005.
External links
Works related to Remarks by the President on Osama Bin Laden at Wikisource Osama bin Laden dead, report U.S. officials at Wikinews
- China.org.cn "The Strange Death of Osama Bin Laden." Chinese English-language website opinion column. May 3, 2011.
- Phillips, Macon. "Osama Bin Laden Dead." The White House Blog. May 2, 2011.
- "Photo Gallery May 1, 2011." The White House
- Garamone, Jim. "Obama Declares 'Justice Has Been Done'." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
- Garamone, Jim. "Intelligence, Operations Team Up for bin Laden Kill." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
- "Office of the Spokesperson Press Release Death of Osama bin Ladin." Embassy of Pakistan in Washington. May 2, 2011.
- "Most Wanted Terrorist Dead." Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 2, 2011.
- "Message from the Director: Justice Done." (Archive). Central Intelligence Agency. May 2, 2011.
- "Statement from September 11 Families’ Association Tribute WTC Visitor Center." September 11 Families Association. May 2, 2011.
- January 2011 satellite image of the area where Osama bin Laden was captured (DigitalGlobe)