The United States declared a world “war on terrorism”, and Osama Bin Laden (the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda) was identified as the main “terrorist”.
For 10 years they chased him throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, and only in 2011 they reported that the criminal was caught and killed as a result of a successful special operation by the US armed forces. US President Barack Obama gave a speech on this occasion, and crowds of citizens gathered in front of the White House in Washington, in city centers, rejoicing and hugging.
Justice, finally. triumphed! America's main enemy is dead...
or not?
As always, let's look at 3 simple questions that should answer the question: was the murder of Bin Laden true or another lie from the US government?
1. The official version of how the operation took place.
2. Evidence: photos, videos.
Now you will see how you can suck a great victory out of nothing. Let's start with the first question: the official version, or what was shown to ordinary citizens.
Official version:
« Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan May 2, 2011 at two o'clock in the morning local time by US special forces. Operation codenamed " Spear of Neptune was authorized by US President Barack Obama and carried out by SEAL Team 6 (known as seals"), part of the US Armed Forces. The location of the special operation is a suburb of Abbottabad (Pakistan). After the attack was completed, the US military delivered body bin Laden to Afghanistan for identification, and then buried him at sea on the same day.«
Okay, let's agree that the operation took place. Or rather, there was “something” in the suburbs of Abbottabad, because we have the following photographs. A modern helicopter crashed in Pakistan, and there were clearly non-Western military personnel nearby, who could not have had such technology. Consequently, the technology is Western, and quite possibly American.
Where did it all happen? Here.
This is Pakistan, 1200 km away from the seashore. where the aircraft carrier “Carl Vinson” stood, from which the body was then hastily “buried.”
Black The location of the helicopter crash has been identified.
Helicopter bowl site— the place where the helicopter crashed.
This estate is the site of a “special operation.”
The house was destroyed less than 1 year later, in February 2012.
Fine. A crashed helicopter, a destroyed house. We can agree with this. Burial on the same day... at sea? How so? They searched for 10 years, frightened the Americans with terrorist attacks, ran after him through the mountains and deserts, and quickly buried him at sea? Was it bin Laden, or the first “corpse” that came along? How was its “truth” established?
Want a dose of fun?
The US military used several methods to accurately identify Osama bin Laden's body.
- Body Measurement: both the corpse and bin Laden were 1.93 m tall; The SEALs did not have a tape measure on site to measure the body, so the SEAL lay down next to the body and the height was determined by comparison. No comments.
- Facial recognition software: photo, ( which no one has ever seen) submitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley for facial recognition was a 90-95% match. You will see the photo below.
- Human identification: one or two women from the hideout, including one of bin Laden's wives, identified bin Laden's body after death. Bin Laden's wife also apparently called him by name during the attack, shouting "Osama bin Laden, Osama."
- DNA analysis: The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing using tissue and blood samples from his sister, who died of a brain tumor. ABC News reported that "two samples were taken from bin Laden's body: one of those DNA samples was analyzed. That is, just so you understand, they took a tissue sample... converted it into digital form... (?)... and sent the digital file to the USA for analysis... Cool, yes!
Now Americans are confident
that YOU are sure
that they killed Bin Laden.
On the same day, the funeral took place. On May 12, 2011, Carl Vincent found himself on the American aircraft carrier Muslim priest, who recited a religious prayer before burying the body at sea. It looked something like this... The body was gone...
The ends are in the water.
2. Factual evidence: photos, videos.
Now it gets more interesting because the Americans haven't given anything. Can you imagine? — NOTHING.
There is a photo that Pakistani television published when announcing the murder. Here it is, by the way, marked “not for the faint of heart.” And from there, all of them have already been replicated around the world, including Western media. Upon inspection it turned out to be a cheap fake.
Looks like bin Laden's broken face, right? Right. Remember what he looked like? If you are interested in politics, you should know. But literally an hour later, the British news agency The Guardian announced that the photograph was a fake, and of very low quality, and showed everyone the original picture. Photo from 1998, where the lower part, open mouth and beard were taken.
Amazing coincidence, isn't it? Even the color of the hairs on the beard matches, as do the open lips.
About the top? The special forces (military) said that bin Laden was shot in the head, the bullet went through the eye, so one eye should look like that in the picture. They confirmed that he was killed there, as shown in the picture. But the upper part of the photograph was also found, where it was taken from, a broken eye, blood, hair, etc.
A photograph of a murdered Arab from Iraq, the top part was taken from it.
It is not surprising that soon the photograph began to be removed from everywhere, but it was copied faster than it was possible to stop the spread of “Photoshop” in the media and on websites.
White House reaction to the revelation?
How is it possible that there was a special operation? An expensive helicopter was crashed, they spent money, and the photo came out with a puncture? Is it possible to get a normal photo so that people don’t have doubts and questions?
To which came the official response from the White House:
« We will not publish anything so as not to provoke Muslims«.
“We won’t publish anything, because we have nothing, and the operation is a fake for Barack Obama’s rating, a guarantee of his election for a second term.”
Do you think where such a dramatic photo urgently appeared, where Obama is sitting with the Secretary of State, along with the Commanders of the Headquarters, as well as the Vice President of the United States in a bunker on May 1, 2011, and intensely looks at the wall? Hilary Clinton even experiences some emotions by covering her mouth with her hand.
Total:
1. No video.
2. No photo.
3. There is no body.
4. There is no evidence.
5. Special forces?
Died!
Every single one of them.
After 3 months (22 people) and 1 year (1 person).
How convenient, right?
3. The fate of those special forces: which special forces?
What about the brave Navy SEALs who eliminated bin Laden. And they were all killed.
In operation May 1, 2011 year in Pakistan took part 23 fighters, which were in two helicopters, you saw one of them in the pictures above. http://lenta.ru/articles/2011/08/05/killbinladem/
August 6, 2011 died 22 special forces, when their transport helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Even NATO Secretary General Rasmussen expressed his condolences to the families, praising them for their dedication during the famous “special operation.” http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=530720
December 10, 2012 died last participant"special operations" Nicholas Check, shot in the head during the battle. http://lenta.ru/news/2012/12/11/seal/
As you can see, there are no witnesses, no photos, no video, no body.
Bin Laden was not killed!
But this doesn’t stop THESE people from thinking that they are the coolest in the world, because to do this you just need to watch TV and refuse to think.
Leaders of countries, presidents, and sometimes terrorists are removed from office and often done so with pomp. Remember video with the hanging of Saddam Hassein? It's online - look it up. Remember video with the last minutes of Gaddafi's life? It also exists. Remember photo with the execution of Ceausescu and his wife? It is there too, you can find it!
But, when it comes to US politics, there are secrets upon secrets and complete coincidences. As well as the fact that it was published April 27, 2011, and on the Internet catastrophically fast Rumors began to spread that it was fake and fake. We discussed this fact in the previous article. And after 4 days, May 1, 2011- a “special operation” happens and the entire Internet is filled with “official news”, what Obama is a cool president, how he famously dealt with terrorism, or even better, forget about the evidence and don’t look there.
No wonder that Osama bin Laden learned that he had been killed, watching American television. Do you think this is a joke? The Americans posted this online too! The video was found ( naturally) in that house, which they destroyed and demolished a year later. A bearded grandfather (apparently the same one) in a hat, from the side, looks at himself, and then at the speech of President Obama. This is so interesting. Doubt the authenticity? Copy the link to your browser https://youtu.be/vVMV1uUJQ60?t=1m22s
This is how big politics is done nowadays. Here's the "war on terrorism." It started with a lie about the year, and ended with a lie about the elimination of the main terrorist. Any methods, for the sake of a goal.
“The gullible are controlled only to the extent that they allow themselves to be controlled.”
And Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Gul further reported that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen for some time - a fact that led the Americans to suspect that he was with bin Laden. Upon learning of Gul's testimony, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed did not recant his original testimony. Abu Faraj al-Libi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. He told CIA investigators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Malawi Abd al-Khaliq Yang and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because Mohammed and al-Libi minimized al-Kuwaiti's significance, investigators assumed he was a member of bin Laden's inner circle.
In 2007, investigators learned al-Kuwaiti's real name. Since Mawlawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan's name appears in the JTF-GTMO prison file on Abu Faraj al-Libi, published by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011, it has been suggested that preparations for the US attack on the Abbottabad hideout were accelerated as a precaution. The CIA never found anyone with the name Malawi Jan and concluded that al-Libi made it up.
In 2010, wiretapping of another suspect revealed a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. The CIA found al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and tracked him to bin Laden's hideout. The courier and his relative (sibling or cousin) were killed during the attack on May 2, 2011. Subsequently, some local residents identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tariq Khan. Arshad Khan was found in possession of an old non-electronic identification document which indicated that he was from Qat Kurun, a village near the town of Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials found no records of Arshad Khan in the area and concluded that the men were living under false names.
Bin Laden's hideout
View of the shelter
Through satellite photographs and intelligence reports, the CIA identified the occupants of the Abbottabad hideout visited by the courier. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the hideout was "specially built to hide someone important," very likely bin Laden. Officials speculated that he lived there with his young wife.
Built in 2004, the three-story shelter was located at the end of a narrow dirt road. Google Earth maps show that the shelter was not there in 2001, but it is in images taken in 2005. The shelter was located 4 kilometers northeast of the center of Abbottabad. Abbottabad is located approximately 160 km from the border with Afghanistan (about 30 km from India). The shelter was located 1.3 km southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy. Situated on a plot of land eight times larger than the neighboring houses, it was surrounded by 3.7-5.5 m high concrete walls with barbed wire.
The shelter had no Internet or landline phone service, and its residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors, who simply put their trash out for collection. Locals called the hideout "Waziristan Haveli" because they believed that its owner was from Waziristan, and "haveli" is a word used in India and Pakistan that roughly translates to "mansion".
Intelligence collection
Aerial photo of the hideout taken by the CIA
Intelligence gathering and surveillance of the hideout was conducted by "the CIA [which] led the operation, with the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence, ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] and the Department of Defense also playing important roles."
Operation Neptune Spear
However, an unnamed US intelligence official told Reuters that "'this was a kill operation,' making it clear that there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan." Another source said that the troops directly carrying out the operation were told: "We believe that we have found Osama bin Laden, and your task is to kill him."
Planning
Following the September 2010 Pakistani courier cover-up, President Obama met with his national security advisers on March 14 to create a plan of action. They met four more times (March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28) in the six weeks leading up to the attack. On March 29, Obama personally discussed the plan with the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Vice Admiral William McRaven. Obama was presented with "many different possible options" in March and these were "refined over the next few weeks."
The first option considered by US officials was to bomb the house using B-2 Spirit bombers, which can drop 32,900 kg JDAMs. Obama rejected this option, opting for an attack that would provide definitive proof that bin Laden was inside and reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties.
Another of the plans proposed by the Joint Special Operations Command was "a joint attack with Pakistani intelligence officers, who would be briefed on the mission several hours in advance." Deploying drones did not appear to be a feasible approach, in part because the hideout location was "inside Pakistan's air defense interception zone." However, the plan using military personnel required extensive preparation and training to achieve the mission's objectives, which "provided a greater chance for information leaks over the coming months that would have failed the mission and forced bin Laden deeper underground."
Members of the DEVGRU team began preparing for the attack (the target of which remained unknown to them) after a national security meeting on March 22, training on structures created to resemble shelters. In April, the DEVGRU team began more specific exercises on a one-acre replica of the Waziristan Haveli built at Camp Alpha, a limited part of the Bagram military base in Afghanistan.
On April 29 at 08:20, Obama held a meeting with Brennan, Thomas Donillon and other national security advisers in the diplomatic office at the White House and gave the final order for the attack on the Abbottabad hideout.
The attack was postponed one day due to cloudy weather.
Performing an operation
Reaching and Penetrating
After President Obama authorized the mission to kill or apprehend Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta gave the go-ahead at noon on May 1st.
DEVGRU fighters were divided into two groups of 12 people each. According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the operation.
The special forces flew to Pakistan in Black Hawk helicopters from Jalalabad (Afghanistan). The military personnel were equipped with machine guns, night vision goggles and pistols.
The attack was planned for a time when there was little lunar illumination so that the helicopters could enter Pakistan undetected. The helicopters flew low over the hilly terrain to reach the shelter without appearing on Pakistani military radar. After the attack began, the Pakistani military scrambled its fighter jets but did not intervene in the attack. One of the SEAL teams had to zipline to the roof of the shelter, while the team in the other Black Hawk had to go out into the courtyard and infiltrate from the ground floor. However, as they hovered over the target, one of the helicopters became caught in a vortex ring due to higher than expected air temperatures and high shelter walls, causing it to "graze one of the shelter walls", "damaging the rotor". The helicopter turned over on its side. The servicemen who were in the helicopter were not seriously injured. The teams connected and continued the attack.
At approximately 01:00 local time (20:00 May 1 UTC), commandos destroyed the walls of the shelter with explosives.
The battle
The US National Security Team gathered in the White House Situation Room to oversee Operation Neptune Spear.
Clashes between the SEALs and residents occurred in the hideout's guest house, in the main building on the first floor where the two men lived, and on the second and third floors where bin Laden lived with his family.
In addition to Osama bin Laden, three other men and a woman were killed during the operation. They were bin Laden's adult son (Hamza or Khalid), bin Laden's courier (Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti), a relative of the courier, and the courier's wife.
Al-Kuwaiti opened fire on the first SEAL team with a Kalashnikov from behind the door of the guest house, and a firefight ensued between him and the SEAL in which Al-Kuwaiti was killed. A woman, identified as the courier's wife, was killed during this shootout. The courier's relative was killed before he could reach the weapon, found lying nearby, by the second SEAL team on the first floor of the main house. Bin Laden's 22-year-old son rushed toward the SEALs on the stairs of the main house and was killed by the second team. An unnamed senior US official said only one of the five killed was armed.
The SEALs encountered bin Laden on the second or third floor of the main building. Bin Laden was "dressed in a local loose shirt and trousers known as bloomers." He looked over the ledge of the third floor at the Americans coming up the stairs and returned to his room; the commando shot at him, but missed. The SEAL quickly followed him into the room and shot him. Near bin Laden in the room were two weapons: a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a Russian nine-millimeter Makarov semi-automatic pistol, but according to his wife Amal, he was shot before he could reach the machine gun. According to the Associated Press, the weapon was lying on a shelf next to the door and the commandos only noticed it when they were photographing the body. Bin Laden was killed by a shot to the chest, followed by a shot above the left eye - a technique sometimes called "double tap". Later, he was found to have 500 euros and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothes.
According to the CBS Evening News, three commandos stormed bin Laden's third-floor room. The first one grabbed the two children and took them aside. When the second one entered the room, one of bin Laden's wives rushed at him or was pushed in his direction by bin Laden. She may have been shot in the leg or pushed aside. Around the same time, a commando shot bin Laden in the chest. The third commando entered the room and shot bin Laden in the head.
The exact number and identities of the people who were in the shelter are unclear. Some appear to be members of Osama bin Laden's family, including his three wives (including his fifth and youngest) and at least three children. According to the Daily Mail, "four children and two women, including bin Laden's daughter Safia, were taken away by ambulance." While bin Laden's body was taken by the US military, the bodies of the four others killed in the attack were left at the compound and were later recovered by Pakistani authorities.
Results
The attack had to be carried out within 30 minutes. Reportedly, 38 minutes passed between the team's entry and exit from the shelter. Time in cover was spent neutralizing the defenders; “careful movement around the shelter, room by room, floor by floor” ensuring the safety of women and children; clearing “weapon caches and barricades” and searching the hideout. Computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, flash drives and “electronic equipment” were recovered from the hiding place for later analysis.
The helicopter that made an emergency landing was damaged and could not be used for departure. They decided to destroy him; After the US military "moved the women and children to safety," they "packed the helicopter with explosives and blew it up."
The assault team called a backup helicopter. Although the Defense Department spokesman did not specify the air bases used in the operation, subsequent reports indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Air Base. The Washington Times reported that the body was flown from Bagram to the USS Carl Vinson in a V-22 Osprey escorted by two US Navy F/A-18s.
US officials say bin Laden was buried at sea because no country would accept his remains. Muslim religious ceremonies were held on board the Carl Vinson in the northern Arabian Sea within 24 hours of bin Laden's death. Preparations began at 10:10 local time and the burial was completed at 11 am. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted plastic bag. The officer read prepared religious commentaries, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. Bin Laden's body was then placed on a flat board. The board was tilted upward on one side and the body slid into the sea.
Exchange of information between Pakistan and the United States
According to Obama administration officials, US authorities did not inform the Pakistani government about the attack until after it was over. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, called the head of the Pakistani army, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, at approximately 03:00 local time to inform him of the operation in Abbottabad.
According to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, the operation was carried out entirely by US forces. Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence officials said they were also present during what they called a joint operation, but President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly denied this.
According to ABC News, Pakistani fighter jets were scrambled in an attempt to find and identify what appeared to be American helicopters used in the attack. Pakistani Foreign Minister Salman Bashir later confirmed that the Pakistani military scrambled F-16 fighter jets after learning of the attack, but they reached cover after the American helicopters had flown away.
Body identification
The US military used several methods to accurately identify Osama bin Laden's body.
Local messages
Beginning at 00:58 local time, a resident of Abbottabad wrote several tweets describing the noise of helicopters and several explosions. By 01:44 all was quiet until a plane flew over the city at 03:39.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, after interviewing survivors of the attack, reported that there were 17 to 18 people in the hideout at the time of the attack, and that the Americans had taken another living person, possibly bin Laden's son. Pakistani intelligence also said the survivors included a wife, daughter and eight to nine other children, apparently not of bin Laden. An unnamed Pakistani intelligence official is said to have said that one of bin Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden was shot in front of family members. The daughter also said that bin Laden was captured alive and then killed by the US military and dragged into a helicopter.
Shelter residents
There were 22 people in the shelter, US officials said. Five were killed, including Osama bin Laden. There were conflicting reports from Pakistani officials about up to 17 survivors. Some reports have confused the identities of Hamza bin Laden and Khalid bin Laden.
Consequences
Address by the President of the United States
Message from President Obama
Late on the evening of May 1, 2011, major American news organizations were informed that the President would be giving an important speech on an undisclosed national security topic. Initially, all sorts of rumors spread about the topic until it became clear that President Barack Obama would have to announce bin Laden's death. At 11:35 pm EDT (May 2 3:35 UTC), Obama confirmed this and said bin Laden was killed by a "small group of Americans." He explained how the killing of bin Laden was achieved, his role in the events and what bin Laden's death meant on a symbolic and practical level.
| Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against this hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small group of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and skill. No Americans were injured. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a shootout, they killed Osama bin Laden and took control of his body. |
(It is especially noted that the Russian leadership was clearly flattered by the fact that President Dmitry Medvedev was among a select group of world leaders whom US President Barack Obama notified of the news before reporting it on television.)
Reaction
People celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden in front of the White House
Within minutes of the official announcement, cheering crowds gathered spontaneously at the White House, the site of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in New York City's Times Square. In Dearborn, a Detroit suburb with a high Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd, many of Middle Eastern descent, gathered outside City Hall to celebrate. In connection with Obama's statement, 5,106 messages per second were written on Twitter at the peak moment, the previous Twitter record was associated with the tragic events of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Baseball fans began shouting “U-S-A!” during a live broadcast of a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. in response to the news. This euphoria has been criticized as an inadequate response to the death of a person.
The deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood said that since bin Laden is dead, Western forces should immediately leave Iraq and Afghanistan; authorities in Iran made similar comments. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the killing; The Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip condemned the killing of the “Arab holy warrior.”
An unnamed Pakistani government official confirmed to France-Presse on May 2 that bin Laden had been killed in the operation. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan issued a statement on May 2 denying reports of bin Laden's killing. Hours later, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said that if bin Laden was indeed killed, it would be "a great victory for us because martyrdom is the goal of all of us" and vowed revenge on Pakistan and the United States. The Tehreek-e-Taliban later confirmed bin Laden's death. Al-Qaeda confirmed bin Laden's death on May 6, 2011 and vowed revenge.
Legality
In accordance with US law
John Bellinger, who was a senior lawyer at the US State Department during George W. Bush's second term as president, said the incident was a legitimate military action:
This killing is not prohibited by the long-standing prohibition on assassination in Executive Order 12333 [signed in 1981], because it was an act of war in the current US armed conflict with al-Qaeda and killing specific leaders of enemy forces is not prohibited. The prohibition against murder also does not apply to killing in self-defense.
David Schaeffer - director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University Law School - said the fact that bin Laden was convicted in Manhattan US District Court in 1998 of plotting to attack US defenses was a complicating factor: "Usually, when a person is under indictment, the purpose is to apprehend that person for the purpose of bringing him to trial.” Schaeffer said it was important to determine whether the purpose of the mission was to capture bin Laden or kill him. If special forces were tasked with killing bin Laden without attempting to apprehend him, it "could violate American ideals, if not international law."
In accordance with international law
Regarding the issue of the US unilaterally hosting an event in Pakistan, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed "deep concern" about the "unauthorized unilateral action". Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the operation was a "violation of the country's sovereignty." According to former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, "this was a very clear violation of international law."
However, Duke University School of Law professor Scott Silliman said that international law of armed conflict and the UN Charter allow a foreign government to conduct a military operation on the territory of another country if that country itself is not capable or prepared to deal with the problem. John Bellinger said the conclusion was justified by "concerns about the close ties between Pakistani intelligence agencies and the Taliban and the fact that bin Laden was in a house just down the road from a Pakistani military base."
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has asked the US government to explain whether US forces acted legally in killing bin Laden. Amnesty International said it was seeking "more clarification" about what happened.
Stephen Ratner, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, said the killing was a "legally complex issue" and that it depended on "whether you believe Osama bin Laden was a war combatant or a mass murder suspect." If the former, then “the law permits the killing of combatants.” In the second case, "you can only kill a suspect if he poses an immediate threat to you."
John Bellinger said the executive branch "asserts that what happened was permissible under international law as a permissible use of force in the U.S. armed conflict with al-Qaida and as a legitimate act of self-defense, given that bin Laden was clearly planning additional attacks." . US Attorney General Eric Holder said the US attack was legal "as an act of national self-defense" and that bin Laden "was the head of al-Qaeda, the organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks. It is lawful to kill the enemy on the battlefield.” A spokesman for the US Embassy in London said: "In war, you have the right to attack the enemy."
Benjamin Ferencz - one of the main prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials - questioned the legality of the killing and said it would be better to "capture bin Laden and bring him to trial": "Killing a prisoner who poses no immediate threat is a crime under military law , just like with any other legislation.” Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said the killing could undermine the rule of law: "The Security Council could set up a tribunal in The Hague with international judges to ensure a fair trial."
Nick Grief - a lawyer in international law at the University of Kent - said the attack looked like an "extrajudicial execution without due process of law". Human Rights Watch stated that legal methods should have been used.
Handling the body
In Islamic tradition, burial at sea is considered by some to be inappropriate when other burial options are available, and several prominent Islamic clerics have criticized the decision.
The stated advantage of burial at sea is that it does not leave a precise location, so the burial does not become a point of attention or a "terrorist shrine". The Guardian expressed doubt that bin Laden's grave would become a shrine because it would be contrary to Wahhabism. Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said that if the Americans wanted to avoid creating a shrine to bin Laden, then an unmarked grave on the ground would achieve the same goal. In addition, The Guardian noted that burial on the day of death according to Islamic customs was not always practiced in the United States. Thus, Saddam Hussein's sons Qusay and Uday were buried only 11 days after their death. The publication of the Iranian Press TV agency also claims that in Islam there are no requirements regarding the time during which the deceased must be buried.
Publishing photos
CNN quoted a senior US official as saying there were three sets of photographs of bin Laden's body: photographs taken in a hangar in Afghanistan, described as the most recognizable and gruesome; photographs taken of his burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson before his body was shrouded; as well as photographs from the attack itself.
Disputes arose about the need to publish photographs. Those in favor of releasing the photos say the photos will prove bin Laden's death and prevent conspiracy theories that bin Laden is still alive. Opponents of the photos' release have expressed concerns that the photos will fuel anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.
CIA Director Leon Panetta told NBC Nightly News that photos of the deceased bin Laden would "eventually" be released, but the White House immediately denied that the decision had been made, citing that photos showing the damaged part of bin Laden's skull Laden, “terrible.”
President Obama ultimately decided not to release the photos. In an interview aired on May 4 on "60 Minutes," Obama said that "we will not use this material as trophies" and he will make sure that "very graphic photographs of someone being shot in the head are not spread and did not become a cause of new violence or a propaganda tool.” Among the Republican members of Congress, the decision was criticized by Senator Lindsey Graham, who said that he wanted to see the photos published, while Senator John McCain and Representative Mike Rogers (chairman of the Intelligence Committee) supported the decision not to publish the photos.
On May 11, 15 photographs of bin Laden were shown to individual members of Congress (the leadership and members of the Intelligence, Homeland Security, Judiciary, Foreign Relations, and Military Committees).
Judicial Watch announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for access to the photos and said it is prepared to file a lawsuit to release the photos to the public.
Role of Pakistan
View of Abbottabad (Pakistan)
Following the attack, Pakistan became the focus of intense international attention. The Pakistani government has denied that it protected bin Laden. It said it had been sharing information about the hideout with the CIA and other intelligence agencies since 2009.
Allegations against Pakistan
Numerous allegations have been made against the Pakistani government that it protected bin Laden. Critics pointed to the proximity of bin Laden's heavily fortified hideout to the Pakistan Military Academy, the U.S. decision not to notify Pakistani authorities in advance of the operation, and Pakistan's double standards regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. US government documents released by WikiLeaks revealed that US diplomats were told that Pakistani intelligence agencies warned bin Laden every time US troops approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence also helped transport al-Qaeda fighters into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the same documents, in December 2009, the Tajik government also told US officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.
CIA Director Leon Panetta said the CIA ruled out Pakistani participation in the operation because it feared that "any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They could warn the targets." However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the hideout in which he was hiding." President Obama expressed the same opinion, however, in this regard, it is interesting to note that while still a candidate for US President in 2008, Obama stated that if the leadership of Pakistan does not properly cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism on its territory, then, as Obama said: “If we have reliable intelligence on important terrorist targets, and President Musharraf does not want to do anything, then we will do it.” Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said bin Laden could not help but have support from Pakistan. In addition, he stated: “We are investigating now how he could hide there for so long.” US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon argued shortly after the operation that they had no evidence that the Pakistani government or individuals within it conspired with bin Laden to hide him, that he had seen no evidence that Pakistani officials "political, military or intelligence apparatus" knew where bin Laden was hiding.
Lights of Abbottabad at night (Pakistan)
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, showing that many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks were still holed up in Pakistan. He called on Pakistan to arrest them.
Pakistani-born British MP Khalid Mahmood said he was "amazed and shocked" after he learned bin Laden was living in a city garrisoned by 1,000 Pakistani troops, raising questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in the Pakistani security forces. (It is known that at one time, “when the Taliban captured Jalalabad (09/11/1996), Bin Laden was introduced to Omar through the Pakistani intelligence services (ISI)” (Olivier Roy, 12/11/2001).)
Pakistan's response
According to a Pakistani intelligence official, the raw phone records were transferred to the US without analysis by Pakistan. Although the US has been "focused on this" information since September 2010, information about bin Laden and the hideout occupants has been "eluding" the Pakistani "radar" for months. Bin Laden left an "invisible trail" and had no contact with other militant networks. It was noted that much attention was paid to the courier's entry and exit from the hideout. According to the official, the transfer of intelligence to the US was common, and he also stated about the attack that "I think they came undetected and left the same day" and that Pakistan does not believe US troops were in the area before the raid .
According to Pakistani diplomat in the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge of the operation. Pakistan was “aware of certain things” and “what happened happened with our consent.” Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani, said Pakistan would have pursued bin Laden if it had known his whereabouts and that Pakistan was "very happy with what our American partners have done. They have superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to them.”
Another Pakistani official said Pakistan "only helped in terms of allowing helicopters to fly into our airspace" and that the operation was carried out by the United States. He also said that "in any case, we wanted nothing to do with such an operation in case something went wrong."
Shortly after the operation, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied information that the country's government was harboring Osama bin Laden: “How is this possible with a person whom we suspect of killing Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto?” he said. The minister noted that the lack of information about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden indicates a failure in the work of the Pakistani intelligence services, however, he said, failures happen in the work of any intelligence service, and cited as an example that even the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States were the result of the ineffective work of the American intelligence services: “However, this does not mean that in such cases the extremists enjoyed support from the intelligence services.” He also noted: “We never invited bin Laden to Pakistan. He came to the region along with hundreds of like-minded people from Arab countries during the years of the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan, and everyone knows which intelligence service provided him with help and support.”
The head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Pakistan, Yusuf Reza Gilani, noted that the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani territory cannot indicate either the incompetence of the country's authorities or their connections with militants.
It is known that soon after the operation, the Pakistani authorities decided to conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons why bin Laden had been in Pakistan for such a long time with impunity. The US will also investigate Pakistani intelligence's involvement in previous failures to capture Osama bin Laden.
Code name
Initially, press reports claimed that the name "Geronimo" was used to refer to bin Laden during the attack, but this was later denied by official sources. The official code name for the mission was "Operation Neptune Spear", with the code name "Jackpot" to refer to bin Laden himself and the code name "Geronimo" to refer to the capture or death of bin Laden. The Spear of Neptune is a trident that is depicted on the SEAL unit insignia, the three prongs of which symbolize the SEAL's capabilities at sea, air and land.
Credibility Doubts and Conspiracy Theories
Reports of Osama bin Laden's death on May 1, 2011 are not universally accepted, despite DNA testing confirming his identity and al-Qaeda confirming his death on May 6, 2011. The hasty disposal of bin Laden's body at sea and Obama's decision not to release photographs of the dead body have fueled conspiracy theories that bin Laden did not die in the May 2 attack. Some blogs suggested that the US government faked the attack, and a number of forums sparked debate about the alleged hoax.
Some experts also have doubts about the evidence provided by the media. In particular, France Presse reported on the exposure of the so-called. "photos of dead bin Laden" appeared in Pakistani newspapers. Additionally, bin Laden's death was reported six times between 2001 and 2010.
At the same time, a number of politicians in Iran said that bin Laden actually worked for the United States. Thus, a member of the Iranian parliament, Javad Jahangirzadeh, said that the United States itself organized terrorist attacks and that bin Laden assisted them in this. According to Jahangirzadeh, Western countries were forced to kill bin Laden in order to “prevent a possible leak of information that he had and which was more valuable than gold.”
Another Iranian parliamentarian, Ismail Kosari, said that bin Laden “...was just a puppet controlled by the Zionist regime to create an aggressive image of Islam after the September 11 attacks. Bin Laden's death represents the disappearance of a US pawn and symbolizes the end of an era in US policy in the region and the beginning of a new one."
May 8, 2011 Iranian intelligence chief Heidar Moslehi (English) Russian denied the American report that bin Laden had been killed and said that he had reliable information that bin Laden died of illness “some time ago.”
Some Russian analysts have suggested that the crash of a NATO helicopter in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011, which killed a large number of SEALs, led to the elimination of almost all participants in the operation to kill bin Laden. President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov noted: “According to the official version, Bin Laden was killed by a 25-member Navy SEAL unit. This entire unit died three months later in Afghanistan - a helicopter with SEALs was shot down by a missile.” Publicist Nikolai Starikov wrote about this: “In total, 23 American special forces took part in the liquidation. And so 22 of them died at once. Of the 23 important witnesses, 22 were neutralized at once. It is enough to place an explosive charge in a transport helicopter. And it will turn out, just like in the song: “It’s so good that you all have gathered here today.”....” However, this hypothesis does not stand up to criticism. First, 22 US Navy personnel did die in the disaster, but only 15 of them served in the DEVGRU unit that killed bin Laden; two more were from another SEAL unit, and the remaining five were from Navy support units. Secondly, the dead DEVGRU fighters were from the Gold squadron, while the operation to destroy bin Laden was carried out by special forces from the Red squadron, that is, from a different unit. According to the US military, there were no participants in the operation among those killed in the helicopter crash.
Notes
- Greg Miller. CIA spied on bin Laden from safe house (May 5, 2011). Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- Cooper, Helene. Obama Announces Killing of Osama bin Laden, The New York Times(May 1, 2011). Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- Philip Sherwell. Osama bin Laden killed: Behind the scenes of the deadly raid (May 7, 2011). Retrieved May 9, 2011.
- Dilanian, Ken. CIA led U.S. special forces mission against Osama bin Laden, Los Angeles Times(May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011.
- C.Christine Fair The bin Laden aftermath: The U.S. shouldn't hold Pakistan's military against Pakistan's civilians. Foreign Policy(May 4, 2011). Retrieved May 10, 2011.
- Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda leader, dead – Barack Obama, BBC News
- Maggie Michael. Al-Qaida Vows Revenge for Osama Bin Laden's Death, ABC News(May 6, 2011). Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- Public "Relieved" By bin Laden's Death, Obama's Job Approval Rises. pewresearch.org
- Newport, Frank Americans Back Bin Laden Mission; Credit Military, CIA Most. gallup.com(2011). Retrieved May 19, 2011.
- UN chief Ban hails bin Laden death as “watershed” , Reuters May 2, 2011
- Fidel Castro slams "assassination" of unarmed bin Laden, CNN(May 5, 2011). Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- Nidal al-Mughrabi. Abbas government welcomes bin Laden death, Hamas deplores (April 26, 2011). Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- “If the information is true, then this murder is part of the American policy based on the oppression and shedding of blood of Arab and Muslim citizens,” said Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Gaza Strip government. The enclave's Islamist leader expressed strong condemnation of the killing, saying he would pray for mercy and acceptance of bin Laden by Allah.
- Questions around operation against Osama bin Laden. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- Phone call by Kuwaiti courier led to bin Laden
- Tracking use of bin Laden's satellite phone, The Wall Street Journal(May 28, 2008). Retrieved May 8, 2011.
- Shane, Scott. Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture (May 3, 2011). Retrieved May 4, 2011.
- Tip to bin Laden may have come from Guantánamo, The Miami Herald
- Brian Ross Osama Bin Laden: Navy SEALS Operation Details of Raid That Killed 9/11 Al Qaeda Leader. ABC News(May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment. Wikileaks (September 10, 2008). Retrieved May 3, 2011.
- Sears, Neil. Did the latest WikiLeaks revelations force U.S. to take out Bin Laden? , Daily Mail(May 3, 2011). Retrieved May 3, 2011.
- Duparcq, Emmanuel. Two quiet men lived in house of wonder, The Australian(May 4, 2011). Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- Gall, Carlotta. Pakistani Military Investigates How Bin Laden Was Able to Hide in Plain View, The New York Times(May 4, 2011). Retrieved May 4, 2011.
- Mazzetti, Mark, Cooper, Helene. Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden (May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- Deadman, Bill. How the U.S. tracked couriers to elaborate bin Laden compound, msnbc.com. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- Zengerle, Patricia, Bull, Alistair. Bin Laden was found at luxurious Pakistan compound (May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- Obama Calls World "Safer" After Pakistan Raid, The New York Times(May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 3, 2011.
- Ackerman, Spencer. Video: Inside bin Laden's Drone-Proof Compound, Wired(May 2, 2011). Retrieved May 3, 2011.
- Osama mansion was called Waziristan Haveli. Indo-Asian News Service(May 3, 2011). Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- Stephen Losey. Intelligence fusion got bin Laden, Federal Times. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
- The Little-Known Agency That Helped Kill Bin Laden. The Atlantic(May 8, 2011). Retrieved May 8, 2011.
- Lolita C. Baldor.
That same evening, he announced bin Laden's death to the world, "thus rendering most of the captured information useless."
Moreover, the role of the president in this situation turned out to be very inflated, writes The Daily Mail. Literally 20 minutes before the assault began, Obama was busy playing golf, and only then returned to the White House, from where photographs of the president and key administration officials were then circulated throughout the world, watching the developments with tense faces. According to the new version, Obama distanced himself to the last from what was happening in Pakistan, so that if something went wrong, “he would have nothing to do with it.”
Two commandos broke down the door to bin Laden's room. As they recall, the room “smelled kind of like old clothes, like a guest bedroom in grandma’s house.” Inside were the al-Qaeda leader and his youngest wife, Amal. Bin Laden pushed her, shielding himself from the attackers, she screamed: “No, no, it’s not him!” Bin Laden reached for his AK-47. The special forces opened fire. One bullet hit the mattress, another grazed Amal's leg. As bin Laden grabbed his weapon, both commandos fired again, one bullet hitting him in the sternum and the other in the skull, killing him instantly and crushing the back of his head.
Two people jumped out of the guest house where bin Laden's personal courier Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti and his brother lived, one opened indiscriminate fire. A sniper from the Razor-2 helicopter fired twice. Al-Kuwaiti and his wife were killed. “In two minutes, special forces from Razor-2 inspected the guest house and took women and children outside,” the article says. They then entered the main house through the ground floor, where they shot and killed one of bin Laden's bodyguards.
Five minutes after the start of the operation, a Chinook landed near the estate with the command and additional special forces. They blew up the wall of the estate and burst inside. Having reached the third floor, the commander saw the body of bin Laden. Photographs were taken and a message about his death was transmitted to headquarters. The entire operation took 38 minutes.
The SEALs also denied that one of their helicopters crashed while landing on the estate. We are talking about that same Hawk (“Razor-1” or “Razor-2”). In fact, it failed after the operation was completed, when they tried to take off again. This happened due to a breakdown of the unit that controls the electronics. No people were hurt. The helicopter was blown up.
The next morning, the White House announced that the helicopter had crashed on landing and the commandos had been forced to abandon their plan to enter through the roof. “When someone said that the ‘input helicopter’ crashed, they assumed that this meant ‘at the moment of arrival,’” Pferrer explained the misunderstanding. The White House watched the drone broadcast of the operation and had no idea what was happening in the buildings. Body Bin Laden and the evidence were taken to the Chinook.
How bin Laden was killed: the White House version
Nicholas Schmidle
On board the helicopters were twenty-three American Navy SEALs from the so-called "Sixth Team" (official name - Naval Special Development Group, DEVGRU), the author reports. “They were accompanied by a translator, an American of Pakistani origin, whom I will call Ahmed, and a Belgian shepherd named Cairo,” the journalist writes.
The helicopters flew over Mohmand, one of the seven so-called "tribal areas" of Pakistan, skirted Peshawar to the north and continued east. The commander of the "Red Squadron" DEVGRU - "James" ("all the names of the participants in the secret operation have been changed," the author explains) was sitting on the floor in the helicopter cabin. He was wearing a digital desert camouflage shirt and pants. He was armed with a suppressed Sig Sauer P226, extra ammunition, and a suppressed M4 short-barreled assault rifle (the other SEALs preferred the Heckler & Koch MP7). He also carried a CamelBak water flask, a supply of energy drinks in the form of jelly, and supplies for the first help on the battlefield. In one pocket he had a laminated map of the estate, in the other a booklet with photos and verbal portraits of the people believed to be there. On his head he had a noise-proof headset that blocked out almost all sounds except the beating of his hearts.
45 minutes after the two Black Hawks took off, four MH-47 Chinook helicopters took off from Jalalabad. Two of them remained on the Afghan side of the border, while the other two proceeded to Pakistan. It was a spontaneous decision made after Obama asked for guarantees that the Americans could "fight their way out of Pakistan." There were 25 more special forces soldiers in two reserve Chinooks on the border. The other two Chinooks landed at a predetermined location in an uninhabited valley in northwestern Pakistan and waited with their engines running, keeping an eye out for Pakistani aircraft.
Meanwhile, two Black Hawks approached Abbottabad from the northwest, hiding behind the mountains. The commandos, wearing gloves and night vision goggles, were about to rappel down into bin Laden's yard. But when the pilot hovered over the estate and began to descend, he felt that he was losing control of the helicopter.
At this point, the author interrupts the narration of the operation and recalls the backstory: Senator Obama promised to kill bin Laden and crush al-Qaeda in 2008 during a debate with McCain, and McCain called this promise stupid.
The CIA stepped up intelligence collection. "According to a recent report by The Guardian, a doctor working for the intelligence agency organized a drive-through vaccination drive in Abbottabad, hoping to obtain DNA samples from bin Laden's children. (In the end, no one at the compound was vaccinated)," the article says.
Brian, James and Red Squadron Chief Petty Officer DEVGRU Mark were developing ways to infiltrate the estate. It was proposed, for example, to land outside the city and get into the city on foot. Or make a tunnel under the wall of the estate, but geologists concluded that the estate is located in a swampy area. Finally, we decided to disembark directly at the estate, reasoning that no one was expecting this.
On March 29, McRaven presented the plan to Obama. The opinions of the president's military advisers were divided: some advocated an assault, others a bombing, and others suggested waiting for more accurate intelligence data. The bombing would eliminate the risk to American soldiers, but an entire Pakistani city could be wiped off the face of the earth. Obama chose the assault. Training began on April 10 at the training ground, where a replica of the estate was built.
It was assumed that the special forces would land in three groups - in the courtyard, on the outskirts of the estate and on the roof. The translator Akhmed was tasked with answering questions from curious neighbors, and the paratroopers and the dog were tasked with using force if necessary. “If there had been any difficulty in finding bin Laden, Cairo would have been sent into the house to look for secret doors or false walls,” the author notes.
According to the author, the only monitor in the White House on which what was happening in Abbottabad was broadcast in real time was at the disposal of Brigadier General Marshall Webb, deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Staff. “The footage was taken from an unarmed RQ 170 drone flying at an altitude of more than 15,000 feet over Abbottabad,” the author writes. The special forces were not supported from the air by fighters or bombers.
"Obama returned to the White House at two o'clock in the afternoon Washington time, having played golf at Andrews Air Force Base. Thirty minutes later the Black Hawks took off from Jalalabad," the author reports. When Panetta announced that helicopters were approaching Abbottabad, Obama jumped to his feet. “I have to see this,” he said, and moved into a small office and sat down next to Webb. He was followed by Biden, Gates, Hillary Clinton and everyone else who could fit in the room. On the screen, the first helicopter appeared over the estate, and immediately it started having problems, the author notes.
Along the road outside the estate, translator Ahmed walked up and down, looking like a Pakistani policeman in plainclothes. They and his group patrolled the approaches to the house. The second group, which landed on the field instead of the roof, entered the estate. When onlookers appeared, Ahmed sent them away, saying in Pashto: “Go back to your home. A special operation is underway.” No one suspected that an American was speaking to them.
“Abrar’s children ran to hide, and the special forces began to inspect the second floor of the main house, room by room. Previously, the Americans believed that there might be mines in the house, but the presence of children did not fit with this option,” the publication notes. Yet the entrance to the stairs leading to the third floor was blocked by a locked iron gate, so that the room resembled a cage.
Having blown up the gate, three commandos climbed the stairs. Bin Laden's 23-year-old son, Khalid, peeked around the corner and then appeared at the top of the stairs with a machine gun and fired at the Americans. “A counterintelligence source claims that Khalid was unarmed, but that his threat should have been taken seriously: “A grown man walking down the stairs of an al-Qaeda building late at night in the dark to meet you,” suggests an enemy ", notes the author. The special forces returned fire and killed Khalid.
Having blown up another iron cage at the entrance to the stairs leading to the fourth floor, three commandos went upstairs. One of them, thanks to night vision goggles, saw that a tall man with a short beard was peeking out from behind the bedroom door, and realized: it was “Crankshaft.” “A counterintelligence source claims that the commando first saw bin Laden on the landing and fired, but missed,” the author notes.
"The Americans rushed to the bedroom door. The first commando opened it. Bin Laden's two wives blocked his way. Amal al-Fatah, bin Laden's fifth wife, was screaming something in Arabic. Judging by her gestures, she was about to attack; commando lowered the barrel and shot her in the leg. Fearing that one or both of the women were wearing suicide vests, he stepped forward, hugged both of them tightly and pulled them aside. If they had blown themselves up, he would almost certainly have died, but perhaps "he would have been able to absorb part of the explosion and save two other special forces soldiers. In the end, it turned out that none of the women was wearing a vest with explosives," the article says.
“Hearing these words in the White House, Obama curled his mouth and solemnly said, without addressing anyone in particular: “We’re done with him,” the author writes.
The women were tied up and taken downstairs. The special forces placed bin Laden's body in a previously prepared nylon bag. This happened 18 minutes after landing. The special forces spent the remaining 20 minutes collecting intelligence data: they collected flash drives, blanks, and computer equipment. The women and children were interrogated. “They seemed to have no idea who the occupant of the top floor was, other than that he was an “old man.” None of the women confirmed that it was bin Laden; although one of them kept calling him “the Sheikh,” the article says. A doctor arrived in a backup Chinook. “He inserted a syringe into bin Laden’s body and took two bone marrow samples for analysis. They also took other DNA samples using swabs. One of the bone marrow samples was loaded onto the Black Hawk, the other onto the Chinook along with bin Laden’s body,” the article says.
Bin Laden's body was photographed. “Bin Laden was believed to be about 6 feet 4 inches tall. But no one had a tape measure. Then one commando, exactly 6 feet tall, lay down next to the corpse: it turned out that the dead man was about 4 inches taller than the American,” writes author. A few minutes later, McRaven confirmed via video link that the bag contained bin Laden's corpse. The corpse was sent to the base in Bagram.
"From the very beginning, the commandos planned to dump bin Laden's body into the sea - a crude way to end the bin Laden myth," the author writes. There was already a precedent: in September 2009, Navy SEALs killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the top leaders of al-Qaeda in East Africa. “Nabhan’s corpse was airlifted to a ship in the Indian Ocean, the required Muslim rituals were performed over it, and it was thrown overboard,” the article says.
True, in this case, John Brennan, Obama's counterterrorism adviser, called a certain representative of the Saudi intelligence services. "Bin Laden's relatives remain a prominent clan in Saudi Arabia, Osama was once a citizen of that country. Is the Saudi government interested in retrieving the body?" - the article says. “I guess your plan is good,” the Saudi replied.
An American plane carrying bin Laden's body crossed Pakistani airspace, without permission: the Americans feared that the Pakistanis, humiliated by the operation in Abbottabad, would not give this permission. The plane landed on the deck of the ship "Carl Vinson". There, bin Laden's body was washed, wrapped in a white shroud, weighed and placed in a bag. According to Brennan, everything was done in strict accordance with Muslim rituals. The body was lowered into the water.
In Abbottabad, local residents and journalists gathered at the estate. “I’m glad that no one was hurt in the accident, but in a way I’m glad that we left the helicopter there. It shuts up the conspiracy theorists and instantly inspires confidence. Since the helicopter is lying there, you immediately believe everything else,” a source among the officers noted. in charge of special operations.
The proximity of bin Laden's home to the Pakistani military academy suggests that he was being protected by the Pakistani military or intelligence agencies. "The Times reported that at least one cell phone found in bin Laden's home contained the phone numbers of senior military personnel from Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a jihadist organization closely linked to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence," the article said. But there was no clear evidence that Pakistani officials helped bin Laden hide in Abbottabad.
On May 6, al-Qaeda confirmed bin Laden's death and promised Americans that their joy would turn to sorrow and their tears would mix with blood. That same day, Obama met with DEVGRU commandos and helicopter crews. (“He previously met McRaven at the White House and gave him a tape measure,” the author notes). The president looked at them in awe, noted Ben Rhodes, the president's deputy national security adviser. "They knew he was risking his presidency on this operation. And he knew they were risking their lives," Rhodes added. Obama also wanted to get acquainted with the service dog Cairo: “he stroked him, but they did not remove the muzzle from the dog.”
Obama also met with the support team and thanked everyone for a job well done.
“He took pictures with all the members of the group one by one and talked to many, but he did not raise one topic. He never asked who exactly fired the killing shot, and the special forces did not take the initiative and did not tell him about it,” concludes author of the article.
American authorities claim that Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the terrorist attack in New York, was killed on May 2, 2011 during the special operation “Neptune Spear” in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. However, many doubt the truth of these words. And there are good reasons for this.
Strange murder
US President Barack Obama was the first to publicly announce the killing of “terrorist number one” by American special forces. He knew this for sure, since together with his administration he watched the liquidation of bin Laden live. It took the Americans a whole decade to reach, as they believe, the culprit who killed 3,000 people in the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in Manhattan.
Soon after the fact of bin Laden's death was made public, Al-Qaeda* confirmed the death of its leader, promising to avenge the murder. The elimination of a dangerous terrorist was greeted with approval in the West. The only exception was the reaction of the non-governmental organization Amnesty International, which condemned a number of legal and ethical aspects of the murder, regretting that bin Laden was not captured alive, despite his unarmed state.
Why were the US military sure that they killed bin Laden? After all, many assumed that a figure of such scale had many doubles. Several identification methods were used to identify bin Laden's body.
First of all, it was necessary to establish the height of the dead man. Since the special forces did not have a tape measure, one of them, with a height approximately matching bin Laden’s height (193 cm), lay down next to the corpse. By eye the growth seemed to match.
Several people from the shelter, which was stormed by special forces, according to the military, seemed to confirm the identity of bin Laden. True, later one of the participants in the operation, hiding his name, admitted that the woman who was in the room with the dead man even before the Americans opened fire assured that it was not bin Laden.
Finally, the body of the alleged al-Qaeda leader was identified by DNA analysis using tissue and blood samples from his deceased sister. DNA testing conducted independently by Department of Defense and CIA laboratories positively identified Osama bin Laden, a senior Pentagon official said. The chance of misidentification based on this analysis is approximately 1 in 11.8 quadrillion, the official said.
Bin Laden was later buried in the Arabian Sea after performing Muslim rites directly from the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. Washington explained such measures by saying that the absence of a specific burial site would prevent pilgrimages to the “terrorist shrine.”
Do not publish evidence
Shortly after the Abbottabad raid, CNN quoted a senior US administration official as saying that there were three sets of photographs of bin Laden's body: photographs taken immediately after the assault; images taken in a hangar in Afghanistan (described as the most "recognizable and gruesome"); and photographs taken of bin Laden's burial on an aircraft carrier before his body was shrouded.
A debate has flared up in the United States about the need to publish photographs of the killed bin Laden so that the public can be sure that the “number one terrorist” no longer exists. In addition, supporters of the release of the images were convinced that this would prevent all kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories. However, opponents of the publication defended their truth: that open access to the disgusting photographs would only increase anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.
CIA Director Leon Panetta assured NBC Nightly News that images of the dead bin Laden would eventually be released, but the White House immediately issued a denial. According to the presidential administration, Obama decided not to publish the photographs, citing the fact that some of the photographs showed a damaged part of bin Laden's skull, which was “terrible.”
However, the pictures were leaked to the media. And then supporters of conspiracy theories became more active. He compared photographs of the “dead” bin Laden and photographs of the living one taken two years ago. The verdict is this: in the photo of the real head of al-Qaeda* we see a significantly older man with a graying beard, while in the post-mortem photo he is youthful and black-haired.
Doubt gnaws
The hasty decision to bury bin Laden's body, the refusal to publish photographs, suspicious DNA analysis, discrepancies in eyewitness accounts - all this gives reason to say that the head of al-Qaeda* was not killed on May 2, 2011. In particular, experts say that even preliminary DNA results are not detected within a matter of hours. Some researchers suggest that the attack on bin Laden's hideout itself was a well-executed staging. Bin Laden's death was reported 6 times between 2001 and 2010. Why not admit that this was just another hoax?
France Press experts believe that the world media showed fake photographs of the liquidated militant. Thus, the editor of the France Press photo service, Mladen Antonov, noted that experts subjected the photographs to a thorough analysis and determined that this was an obvious photomontage. “A beard and the lower part of the face from old photographs of bin Laden were attached to the bloody and disfigured face,” Antonov summarized.
The head of Iranian intelligence, Heidar Moslehi, a week after the operation of the American intelligence services, denied the elimination of bin Laden, saying that he had at his disposal confirmed information that Osama died of illness “some time ago.”
Turkish politician (Chechen by nationality), former CIA agent Berkan Yeshar says the same thing. Through the Chechens who were guarding Osama bin Laden, he learned that the leader of Al-Qaeda* was very ill, and in his last days only “skin and bones” remained of him. Bin Laden was buried in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Yeshar believes that the American intelligence services learned the location of the grave from the captured Chechen guard, opened the burial and showed the world “the just killed terrorist.”
Reputable American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hirsh claims that since 2006, “bin Laden has been under the hood of the Pakistani intelligence services, virtually in captivity.” The operation was a simple murder of a prisoner and was “smartly coordinated in time with the start of President Obama’s re-election campaign.”
It is known that all materials about Operation Neptune’s Spear, classified as “top secret,” were transferred by the military to the CIA archives for 25 years of storage. Perhaps in 2036 we will find out what happened on May 2, 2011 in the suburbs of Abbottabad.
*Al-Qaeda - Prohibited organization of the Russian Federation
On Saturday night, US President Barack Obama said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed during an operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was reportedly killed in the shootout, shot in the head. After his discovery, his body was buried at sea. The response from Washington and the world was immediate and enthusiastic. Osama bin Laden was 54 years old.
(Total 42 photos)
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1. Osama bin Laden in a 1998 photo taken during a meeting in Afghanistan. (AP Photo)
2. US President Barack Obama goes to the Blue Room to announce the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 1. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
3. The US President announces the death of Osama bin Laden, which occurred near Islamabad, almost 10 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
4. Marines watch Barack Obama speak on television at Camp Dwyer in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Barack Obama said that justice had been done, but al-Qaeda would still try to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States again. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)
5. Photographers at the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden during a live broadcast from. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
6. Broadcast of Barack Obama's speech at an electronics store in Tokyo. Obama said that Osama bin Laden, the main US terrorist responsible for the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, was killed during an operation by the US military. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
7. Barack Obama in the press conference room announces the death of Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
8. Barack Obama after announcing the death of Osama bin Laden in the East Room of the White House on May 1. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
9. Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Al Jazeera, File)
10. Fans at the Philadelphia Phillies-New York Mets game, during which the death of Osama bin Laden was announced. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
11. People rejoice at the death of the main terrorist Osama bin Laden at the White House on May 1. (Reuters/Jim Young)
12. Students at the north entrance to the White House chant “USA! USA!" and singing the anthem after the death of Osama bin Laden was announced. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
13. After the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden at the gates of the White House. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
14. A crowd outside the White House celebrates the death of Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
16. New York firefighters in Times Square shortly after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
17. The crowd is on. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
18. On the morning of May 2, David Huber and Nicole Lozare from Arlington, Virginia, at the Pentagon memorial in memory of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
19. Photo of a ticker in Times Square announcing the death of the al-Qaeda leader. (Reuters/Chip East)
20. Arab Americans rejoice after learning of the death of Osama bin Laden in Dearborn, Michigan. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
21. A joyful crowd after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden on the corner of Church and Vesey Streets, near Ground Zero. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
22. A Japanese man demonstrates a special edition of a newspaper with an article about the death of the al-Qaeda leader in Tokyo. Japanese newspaper headlines read: “Is Bin Laden Dead? DNA analysis confirms this, says the US President.” (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
24. Afghans watch the news about the death of bin Laden in a Kabul restaurant. The al-Qaeda leader was killed during a US military operation in Pakistan. The nearly 10-year hunt for the person responsible for the September 11 terrorist attack has ended. (Reuters/Ahmad Masood)
26. Pakistani soldiers stand against a backdrop of red cloth around the site of a reported firefight in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)
27. Shadows of people gathered to celebrate the death of bin Laden in New York on May 2. (Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly)
28. More than two thousand students at Illinois State University at Normal celebrate after learning of the death of Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/The Pantagraph/David Proeber)
29. A young American at a wreath and candles in memory of the victims in New York. (Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly)
30. Dionne Lane (facing camera) and Mary Power after news of bin Laden's death on May 2 in New York. To the left rises the 1 World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
31. This still from a cell phone video shows the burning area of the building in Abbottabad where the al-Qaeda leader was killed. (Reuters/Stringer)
33. Soldiers and residents of Abbottabad remove debris after the shootout that killed Osama bin Laden. (Reuters/Faisal Mahmood)36. Anti-government protesters watch news of the killing of an al-Qaeda leader in a tent near the site of demonstrations about the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa. (AP Photo/Muhammad Muheisen) 
39. Part of a crashed helicopter near the site where Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad. (Reuters/Stringer)
40. Indian artist and sculptor Sudarshan Pattnaik made a sand sculpture in honor of the killing of Osama bin Laden on the beach of Puri, Orissa, India. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Route)
41. Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam rally against the killing of Osama bin Laden in Quetta, Pakistan, May 2. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
42. Assistant Director of Fort Snelling National Cemetery Jim Schweitzer arranges flowers at the grave of Thomas Burnett in Bloomington, Minnesota. Burnett died on September 11, 2001. He was one of 39 passengers aboard Flight 93, which was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Richard Sennott)
