The Inside Story Of The Hunt For Osama
When one of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted aides picked up the phone last year, he unknowingly led US pursuers to the doorstep of his boss, the world's most wanted terrorist.
That monitored phone call, recounted Monday by a US official, ended a years-long search for bin Laden’s personal courier, the key break in a worldwide manhunt. The courier, in turn, led US intelligence to a walled compound 60km from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, where a team of
Navy Seals shot him dead.
The violent final minutes were the culmination of years of intelligence work. To the CIA team hunting bin Laden, it was always clear that bin Laden’s vulnerability was his couriers. He was too smart and too paranoid to let Qaida foot soldiers, or even his senior commanders, know his hideout. But if he wanted to get his messages out, somebody had to carry them, someone bin Laden trusted with his life. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, detainees in the CIA’s secret prison network told interrogators about an important courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti who was close to bin Laden. After the CIA captured Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, he confirmed knowing al-Kuwaiti but denied he had anything to do with al-Qaida.
Then in 2004, al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Ghul told the CIA that al-Kuwaiti was crucial to Qaida. In particular, Ghul said, he was close to Faraj al-Libi, who had replaced Mohammed as al-Qaida’s operational commander. It was a key break in the hunt for in bin Laden’s personal courier.
“Hassan Ghul was the lynchpin,” a US official said.Finally, in May 2005, al-Libi was captured. He admitted to the CIA that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed, he received the word through a courier. But he made up a name for the courier and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti, a denial that was so adamant and unbelievable that the CIA took it as confirmation that he and Mohammed were protecting the courier. It only reinforced the idea that al-Kuwaiti was very important to al-Qaida. If they could find the man known as al-Kuwaiti, they’d find bin Laden. AGENCIES
US shuts down Pak missions
Fearing reprisals by the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida, the US on Tuesday closed its embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi until further notice. Routine business such as issuance of visas will be held up but the missions will remain open for “other business and for emergency American citizen services”, a statement said. TORTURE, SAT SURVEILLANCE, TAILING CAR...
PANETTA TO OBAMA
“They’ve reached the target” After some time, “We have a visual on Geronimo (Osama)” A few minutes later: “Geronimo EKIA (Enemy Killed In Action).”
After a prolonged silence, Obama spoke:
“We got him.” THE FIRST CLUE
Shortly after 9/11, Qaida men told CIA interrogators at Gitmo about an Osama confidant, or ‘courier’, codenamed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti After CIA captured Qaida No. 3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
in Rawalpindi, he confirmed knowing al-Kuwaiti but denied the latter had anything to do with Qaida In 2004, top Qaida operative Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Ghul told CIA al-Kuwaiti was a courier and close to Faraj al-Libi, who replaced Khalid Sheikh as Qaida’s operational commander In May 2005, al-Libi was captured. He admitted that when he was promoted to succeed Khalid, he was told through a courier. But he denied knowing al-Kuwaiti The denial was so unbelievable, it made the CIA certain al-Libi and Khalid were protecting the courier, and he was the key to finding Osama
A FATAL PHONE CALL
The CIA identified the courier as Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani born in Kuwait Last year, Ahmed had a phone conversation with someone being monitored by US intel
In July 2010, Pakistanis working for the CIA drove up behind a white Suzuki in Peshawar, Pakistan, and wrote down the license plate number. It was Ahmed’s car, and the CIA tracked him down to the compound in Abbottabad where they finally found Osama bin Laden
OBAMA’S OPTIONS
For weeks, US spy agency National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) tracked satellite and drone images of the compound, building up a detailed four-dimensional map
In Feb 2011, Panetta asked Vice Admiral William H McRaven, commander of Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command, to plan a military strike
McRaven suggested 3 options: 1) Helicopter assault using American commandos, 2) Strike with B-2 bombers and 3) Joint raid with Pakistani operatives who would be told about the mission hours before the launch
On Friday, April 29, Obama ordered a raid, telling his aides, “It’s a go”. He rejected a bombing as it could do so much damage that it might leave uncertainty whether Osama was really killed
TOI on Tuesday carried a blow-by-blow account of the events leading up to the killing of Osama, and the operation itself. But with every passing hour, more details are emerging (including some conflicting versions). Here’s an account pieced together from multiple sources, including US counter-terrorism czar John Brennan
THE STRIKE
On a moonless Sunday night, 79 Navy Seals in four choppers set off for Osama’s hideout from Jalalabad in Afghanistan (Pak denied reports that they took off from Ghazi in Pakistan, saying they sneaked in through
‘blind spots’ in radar coverage due to hilly terrain. Reached Abbottabad around 12.30am
A “fight your way out” option had been built into the plan, with two helicopters following the two main assault copters as back-up
Osama shot in head. Conflicting reports in US press over whether he used his wife, Amal al-Sadeh (27) as human shield. Pak media claims he was killed by bodyguard to avoid capture
A Seal snapped his picture with a camera and uploaded it to analysts who fed it into a facial recognition program and confirmed that it was Osama
The Seals took off at 1.10am local time, taking along documents and computer hard drives described as an ‘intelligence mother lode’ and the dead bodies, but leaving behind women and children. Nine children, aged 2-12, now said to be in Pakistani custody
Osama's body flown to USS Carl Vinson and buried in the North Arabian Sea at about 12 noon IST US to probe if Pakistan helped Qaida chief
The top counterterrorism official in the US pledged on Tuesday to get to the bottom” of whether the Pakistani government provided help
Osama bin Laden in his decade-long efforts to avoid detection by those who were hunting him.
John O. Brennan, said on Tuesday on National Public Radio that “it would be premature to rule out the possibility.” He added that “we’re not accusing anybody at this point, but we want to make sure we get to the bottom of this.”
Other senior US officials, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton, however, praised the working relationship between the allies in the fight against terrorism.
“Our counterterrorism cooperation over a number of years now, with Pakistan, has contributed greatly to our
efforts to dismantle al-Qaida,” Clinton said on Monday. “And in fact, cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to
bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding. We are absolutely committed to continuing that cooperation.”
The competing messages reflect the delicate diplomatic challenge the Obama administration faces.
On Monday, Brennan suggested that the US would go further than just letting Pakistan ask those questions. He said it was “inconceivable” that bin Laden did not have a support network inside of Pakistan, though he stopped short of suggesting that the network involved government officials. “We are going to pursue all leads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors that bin Laden might have had,” Brennan said.
That question may be critical to the complicated relationship between the two countries. NYT NEWS SERVICE
Who was Geronimo? The legendary Apache warrior eluded American and Mexican troops for almost 28 years from 1858-1886. Osama bin Laden was famously described as a “21stcentury Geronimo, trying to elude the US military somewhere in a dry mountain range (in Af-Pak) that could easily pass for the American West”. Incidentally, two elite US army units — the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion and the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment, have the regimental nickname “Geronimo”. In 1940, soldiers from the parachute division were preparing to test a manoeuvre in which men jumped from the plane in rapid succession. The night before the jump, a small group of soldiers left the base to watch a western about Geronimo. The next day, to motivate themselves, the soldiers yelled “Geronimo” as they leapt from the plane. It has since become a standard battlecry of many American units.
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