Osama bin Laden was killed by a bullet fired by a United States Navy SEAL during a 40-minute helicopter assault on a fortified compound of a US$1 million “mansion” outside of Abbottabad, about an hour’s drive (50 km) from Islamabad, Pakistan. A helicopter involved in the raid suffered mechanical failure and was blown up by the American team, none of whom were killed or injured.

The Pakistani government was not informed of the raid until after it was over. Tensions between Pakistan and the United States are expected to reach a new high with the revelation that bin Laden was living in Abbottabad. Osama bin Laden could not possibly have been living there without the blessing of Pakistan’s intelligence service.

After years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, they traced a courier linked to bin Laden to the compound in Abbottabad. When first built in 2005, the compound was secluded and reachable by only a dirt road. In recent years, more residences built up around it, but it remained by far the largest (roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area) and most heavily secured property in the area. Below is summary of how the operation started after Osama was found:

• The compound – about an acre, with a three-story house – is in Abbottabad, a suburb of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Officials were very suspicious of the 12 to 18-foot-high walls, and seven-foot wall on the upper balcony.
• Residents in the mansion burned their trash, and there was no telephone or Internet connection to the compound.
• But officials never had anything directly proving that Osama bin Laden was living there. The U.S. had discovered the compound by following a personal courier for bin Laden. Officials didn’t learn his name until 2007, then it took two years to find him and track him back to this compound, which was discovered in August 2010.
• The original plan for the raid was to bomb the house, but President Obama ultimately decided against that. Officials also knew there were 22 people living there, and Obama wanted to be sure not to kill all the civilians. So he ordered officials to come up with an air-assault plan.  
• According to officials, “The helicopter raid was riskier. It was more daring, but President Obama  wanted proof. He didn’t want to just leave a pile of rubble.”
• The forces held rehearsals of the raid on April 7 and April 13, with officials monitoring the action from Washington.
• As the actual raid approached, daily meetings were held of the national security principals, chaired by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and their deputies, chaired by John Brennan, the president’s counterterrorism adviser.
• At an April 19 meeting in the Situation Room, the president approved the assault, in principle, as the course of action. He ordered the force to fly to the region to conduct it.
• On April 28, just after his East Room announcement that CIA Director Leon Panetta would be succeeding Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, the president held another meeting in the Situation Room, and went through everyone’s final recommendations. He didn’t announce his decision at that time, but kept his counsel overnight.
• At 8:20 a.m. Friday, the president informed National Security Adviser Tom Donilon that he was authorizing the operation. Donilon signed a written authorization to CIA Director Leon Panetta, who commanded the strike team.
• The raid was scheduled for Saturday, but weather pushed it to yesterday. The Navy SEALs arrived at the compound at 3:30 p.m. ET yesterday and were gone by 4:15 p.m. Obama monitored the operation all day from the Situation Room, surrounded by Donilon, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and others.
• Panetta was at CIA headquarters, where he had turned his conference room into a command center that gave him constant contact with the tactical leaders of the strike team.
• The helicopter carrying the assault force appeared to stall as it hovered over the compound, producing heart-stopping moments for the officials back in Washington. Aides thought fearfully of “Black Hawk Down” and “Desert One,” the failed Iranian hostage rescue mission.
• The pilot put the bird down gently in the compound, but couldn’t get it going again. The assault force disembarked. “They went ahead and raided the compound, even though they didn’t know if they would have a ride home,” an official said. The special forces put some bombs on the helicopter and blew it up.
• Bin Laden resisted the assault force, and was shot in the face during a firefight. With the team still in the compound, the commander on the ground told another commander that they had found Osama bin Laden.
• Applause erupted in Washington. Reinforcements came and picked up the SEALs, who had scavenged every shred and pixel of possible intelligence material from the house.
• U.S. forces took photographs of the body, and officials used facial-recognition technology to compare them with known pictures of bin Laden. It was him.

An U.S. official said Osama bin Laden has already been buried at sea. The official said his body was handled in the Islamic tradition, but did not elaborate. In addition to Osama bin Laden, three adult males were killed in the raid. U.S. believe two were the couriers and the third was bin Laden’s adult son. Why was Osama buried at sea within 24 hours of killing him? While this is according to Islamic practice that the body of the deceased to be buried within 24, it sparks speculation as to why at sea.

The U.S. official said that finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, hence the decision was made to bury Osama at sea. But most importantly a physical grave site would be the last thing the U.S. would like to have as it could be turned into a place of worship for Osama bin Laden’s followers. However the Al-Qaeda network may emerge stronger even without Osama bin Laden.

While the stock market and dollar didn’t react too positively to the news, it did inject a much needed boost into President Obama’s credibility. Some said Obama’s re-election can be considered a done deal. But at the same time the pressure on Obama to bring home the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq has increased. Now, Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has every reason to be really scare of his own life.

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• Mad Dog Gaddafi to Spook Oil Prices Up North
• Marcos, Mubarak & Mahathir – Who’s The Richest Man?
• Relax Najib, Stop Worrying About Egypt Uprising

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May 3rd, 2011 by financetwitter

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