It was a fitting closure be fore the 10th remembrance anniversary of 9/11. The killing, on Wednesday, May 1, 2011, of Osama Bin Laden, just four months before the month of September, marked what President Barrack Obama of the United States described as “a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people”.

Last Tuesday marked one year since Bin Laden was killed. Fresh reports now reveal how the operation was captured in real time.National Geographic Channel presented a one-hour special package, where never-before-seen footage of the final moments of Bin Laden was presented.

The killing of Bin Laden was the final act in a process that started immediately after the September 11, 2001, bombing of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, when then American President George W. Bush declared that those who committed the crime would soon “hear from us”.

After many operations to track down Bin Laden, one of which was OPERATION ANACONDA in the mountains of Tora Bora, with no success, President Obama said he “directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of Bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

“Then”, the president added, “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.

“I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located Bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.  And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice.

”Today” (May 1, 2011), he continued, “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”.

So, how did all these come together?
Well, the confession leading to the mention of the nickname of the courier, which was provided by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was extracted using water boarding.

There are fresh pieces of informat

Osama Bin Laden

ion suggesting that even the act was carried out in one of the detention centres in Europe and not on American soil.  It was this valuable piece of information gotten some four years before the successful operation that led to the eventual killing of Bin Laden.

One Abu Ahmed Al-Kuwaiti was Bin-Laden’s courier. He lived with his brother and their families in the three-storey house in Abbottabad, 30 miles north of Islamabad, capital of Pakistan. It was in this same house that Bin Laden had been hiding.  Intelligence experts in America had suspected that for a building without visible communication cables or any known sophisticated means of communication – residents of the compound had limited contact with the outside world – the only way Bin Laden could have been communicating with the outside world would be through the use of a courier.

Al-Kuwaiti was the man.  Apart from the Al-Kuwaiti’s, three other women and nine children lived on the second floor – these were suspected to be Bin Laden’s family members.

After infiltrating the area with peasant-looking operatives who blended easily with the locals, the Americans were able to gather as much intelligence as would be sufficient for a possible invasion of the compound.  Not that it had been established that Bin Laden lived there, but there were clues which suggested that Al-Kuwaiti’s movement within and outside Pakistan could only have been for a very high priority target.

With satellite feeds of happenings in the compound, a tall figure was always spotted pacing about.  He was nicknamed the ‘PACER’.  This surveillance went on for months.  The ‘PACER’ never left the compound.  He was always there.

After several months, it was concluded that the ‘PACER’ could be Bin Laden. Therefore, on December 10, 2010, Panetta met with Obama.  The President reportedly asked for the percentage of certainty that Bin Laden lived in the compound.  Panetta’s response:  “Between 40% and 60%”.

Michael Leiter, head, National Counterterrorism Centre, was called in to look at details of the intelligence available.  Leiter questioned some of the intelligence already gathered, insisting that there were yellow lights, meaning, some things were not just right.

For instance, he pointed out that it was difficult to believe that Bin Laden lived in the house because it would not have been wise for  the women, thought to be his wives, to travel  the Middle East frequently and carry cellular phones which could open them to traces.  On balance, however, Leiter concluded that the intelligence was still good to be acted upon.

On March 14, 2011, three options were presented to Obama.  The first was that the intelligence should be shared with ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency.  This idea was junked even before it was debated because there appeared to be a consensus that there would be a leak and Bin Laden would take off immediately.

The second option was for a high altitude bombing raid on the compound.  This idea did not fly because Obama didn’t want fatalities that could be avoided.  More importantly, it would be better to have proof-of-death of Bin Laden to be sure that he had been taken out.

The third option was an invasion by an assault team.  This was the option Obama settled for. Therefore, on April 10, 2011, two Navy Seal teams went into a CIA facility for training and preparation, setting up a replica of the compound and mapping out operational strategy.

On April 28, Obama gathered his top aides and intelligence chiefs for a final briefing where it was decided that a go was worth it.

Five of such meetings were reportedly held in this order:
Monday, March 14, 2011;
Tuesday, March 29, 2011;
Tuesday, April 12, 2011;
Tuesday, April 19, 2011; and
Thursday, April 28, 2011.
The following day, the decision was made.

In fact, the White House tour of May 1, 2011, by tourists was called off. Seated in the Situation Room of the White House were President Obama; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Panetta; Defence Secretary Bob Gates; Leitter; Brennan, Obama’s Counterterrorism Advisor; among other top government officials.

For the operation, two Black Hawk helicopters were deployed while two additional passenger helicopters would follow for evacuation.

23 Navy Seals, an interpreter and a dog, named Cairo, took off from the Jalalabad Airfield in Afghanistan, some 260kms to the compound.  On entering the compound, one of the Black Hawk pilots lost control and made a forced landing.

Fortunately, none of the Seals was injured but plans changed and the Seals had to adapt to the situation.  They shot their way through, killing the Al-Kuwaiti brothers on the first floor.  Bin Laden’s son was gunned down as the Seals moved to the second floor.

As they hit the third floor, two women appeared, shielding Bin Laden.  Thought to be wearing suicide vests, a Seal took aim for the leg of one of them who happened to be Bin Laden’s youngest wife, hugged the two women, before shoving them aside. Another Seal took aim at Bin Laden, first with a shot to the chest and another to the head.

As all of these went on, Obama and his government officials held their breath.  The voice that they heard from the room said:  FOR GOD AND COUNTRY, GERONOMO, GERONOMO, GERONOMO – this was the code name for success which meant Bin Laden had been killed.  His body was wrapped and moved into the waiting chopper.

Computers, hard discs and drives were confiscated and recovered from the building.  The operation lasted 45 minutes, a little longer than was planned. He was buried at sea according to Muslim rights.

Before his death, there was enough evidence to suggest that Bin Laden’s living conditions were not particularly comfortable.  To raise money sometimes, the family traded jewelries.  In one private video of himself, he looked pale and older than the image he portrayed in video messages regularly used for propaganda – he applied black dye to keep a youthful visage. All that is no more!  Last Tuesday marked a year since he was killed.