Osama killed in Pakistan

[Laaloo]

Phone call by Kuwaiti courier led to bin Laden WASHINGTON – When one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted aides picked up the phone last year, he unknowingly led U.S. pursuers to the doorstep of his boss, the world's most wanted terrorist. That monitored phone call, recounted Monday by a U.S. official, ended a years-long search for bin Laden's personal courier, the key break in a worldwide manhunt. The courier, in turn, led U.S. intelligence to a walled compound in northeast Pakistan, where a team of Navy SEALs shot bin Laden to death. The violent final minutes were the culmination of years of intelligence work. Inside the CIA team hunting bin Laden, it always was clear that bin Laden's vulnerability was his couriers. He was too smart to let al-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 Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist 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 al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he confirmed knowing al-Kuwaiti but denied he had anything to do with al-Qaida. Then in 2004, top al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Ghul told the CIA that al-Kuwaiti was a courier, someone crucial to the terrorist organization. In particular, Ghul said, the courier was close to Faraj al-Libi, who 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 linchpin," a U.S. official said. Finally, in May 2005, al-Libi was captured. Under CIA interrogation, al-Libi admitted 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. The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history. "We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden. Mohammed did not discuss al-Kuwaiti while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He acknowledged knowing him many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic. It took years of work before the CIA identified the courier's real name: Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. When they did identify him, he was nowhere to be found. The CIA's sources didn't know where he was hiding. Bin Laden was famously insistent that no phones or computers be used near him, so the eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency kept coming up cold. Ahmed was identified by detainees as a mid-level operative who helped al-Qaida members and their families find safe havens. But his whereabouts were such a mystery to U.S. intelligence that, according to Guantanamo Bay documents, one detainee said Ahmed was wounded while fleeing U.S. forces during the invasion of Afghanistan and later died in the arms of the detainee. But in the middle of last year, Ahmed had a telephone conversation with someone being monitored by U.S. intelligence, according to an American official, who like others interviewed for this story spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation. Ahmed was located somewhere away from bin Laden's hideout when he had the discussion, but it was enough to help intelligence officials locate and watch Ahmed. In August 2010, Ahmed unknowingly led authorities to a compound in the northeast Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where al-Libi had once lived. The walls surrounding the property were as high as 18 feet and topped with barbed wire. Intelligence officials had known about the house for years, but they always suspected that bin Laden would be surrounded by heavily armed security guards. Nobody patrolled the compound in Abbottabad. In fact, nobody came or went. And no telephone or Internet lines ran from the compound. The CIA soon believed that bin Laden was hiding in plain sight, in a hideout especially built to go unnoticed. But since bin Laden never traveled and nobody could get onto the compound without passing through two security gates, there was no way to be sure. Despite that uncertainty, intelligence officials realized this could represent the best chance ever to get to bin Laden. They decided not to share the information with anyone, including staunch counterterrorism allies such as Britain, Canada and Australia. By mid-February, the officials were convinced a "high-value target" was hiding in the compound. President Barack Obama wanted to take action. "They were confident and their confidence was growing: 'This is different. This intelligence case is different. What we see in this compound is different than anything we've ever seen before,'" John Brennan, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, said Monday. "I was confident that we had the basis to take action." Options were limited. The compound was in a residential neighborhood in a sovereign country. If Obama ordered an airstrike and bin Laden was not in the compound, it would be a huge diplomatic problem. Even if Obama was right, obliterating the compound might make it nearly impossible to confirm bin Laden's death. Said Brennan, "The president had to evaluate the strength of that information, and then made what I believe was one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory." Brennan told CNN Tuesday that "there was no single piece of information that was an 'ah-hah' moment." He said officials took "bits and pieces" of intelligence gathered and analyzed over a long period of time to nail down the leads they needed. Obama tapped two dozen members of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six to carry out a raid with surgical accuracy. Before dawn Monday morning, a pair of helicopters left Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. The choppers entered Pakistani airspace using sophisticated technology intended to evade that country's radar systems, a U.S. official said. Officially, it was a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender. But it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering, two U.S. officials said. The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side for reasons the government has yet to explain. None of the SEALs was injured, however, and the mission continued uninterrupted. With the CIA and White House monitoring the situation in real time — presumably by live satellite feed or video carried by the SEALs — the team stormed the compound. Thanks to sophisticated satellite monitoring, U.S. forces knew they'd likely find bin Laden's family on the second and third floors of one of the buildings on the property, officials said. The SEALs secured the rest of the property first, then proceeded to the room where bin Laden was hiding. A firefight ensued, Brennan said. Ahmed and his brother were killed, officials said. Then, the SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet just above his left eye, blowing off part his skull, another official said. Using the call sign for his visual identification, one of the soldiers communicated that "Geronimo" had been killed in action, according to a U.S. official. Bin Laden's body was immediately identifiable, but the U.S. also conducted DNA testing that identified him with near 100 percent certainty, senior administration officials said. Photo analysis by the CIA, confirmation on site by a woman believed to be bin Laden's wife, who was wounded, and matching physical features such as bin Laden's height all helped confirm the identification. At the White House, there was no doubt. "I think the accomplishment that very brave personnel from the United States government were able to realize yesterday is a defining moment in the war against al-Qaida, the war on terrorism, by decapitating the head of the snake known as al-Qaida," Brennan said. U.S. forces searched the compound and flew away with documents, hard drives and DVDs that could provide valuable intelligence about al-Qaida, a U.S. official said. The entire operation took about 40 minutes, officials said. Bin Laden's body was flown to the USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian sea, a senior defense official said. There, aboard a U.S. warship, officials conducted a traditional Islamic burial ritual. Bin Laden's body was washed and placed in a white sheet. He was placed in a weighted bag that, after religious remarks by a military officer, was slipped into the sea about 2 a.m. EDT Monday. Said the president, "I think we can all agree this is a good day for America." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bin_laden_hunt_for_bin_laden

[Aaku]

^ great read:omg:

[Misu243]

The circus has just begun -- Ladies and Gentlemen' date=' for a change does not involve their cricketers.[/quote'] Oh please tell me they are not trying to make a scapegoat of that farmer. This is TERRIBLY EMBARRASING STUFF for Pakistan. First you don't even know that another country's military is in your soil for about an hour and then the worlds most wanted man is found...terrible

[Misu243]

BY BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, April 25, 2011 Secret government documents leaked to the media last night reveal a top Gitmo detainee vowed to unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" if Osama Bin Laden was ever captured or assassinated. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, claimed Al Qaeda had hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe that was tied to Bin Laden's fate, according to a dump of classified documents released by the WikiLeaks website. The frightening information was in thousands of pages of dossiers of detainees being held at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-25/news/29492085_1_wikileaks-nuclear-hellstorm-nuclear-bomb :nervous::nervous::nervous:

[b555]

:ohmy:

[asterix]

Cong distances itself from Digvijay's remark on Laden's burial Congress today appeared to be distancing itself from senior party leader Digvijay Singh's remarks disapproving the sea burial given to al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by the US. Party spokesman Manish Tewari parried questions on whether Singh's remark on Laden's burial is the official party view. "On the question of Laden and terror per say, we have repeatedly cleared our position. The position of Congress has been very clearly articulated and delineated. We have nothing further to say on the articulation (of the party) on the neutralisation of Laden after what we said yesterday," he said. Tewari said, "If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind", adding that he was making this observation in relation to all terrorists and terrorist organisations. Party sources indicated Singh's comments do not reflect the party view. A senior party leader said the remarks by Singh are somewhat similar to drawing an analogy that “if Afzal Guru is punished, it will anger all Muslims in Kashmir”. Singh had yesterday said, "However big a criminal one might be, his religious traditions should be respected while burying him," when asked about the burial given to Laden. Singh also said it is "surprising" that Laden with his family was staying near the military academy of Pakistan and the government there had no idea about that. "Only America and Pakistan can say what had happened," he said. The US has maintained that the body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. The burial at sea was apparently due to fears that his land burial may become a site to attract his followers. However, some Islamic organisations have said it was not appropriate. The Congress had yesterday said the fight against terrorism has to be globally coordinated and all resources need to be directed towards ensuring that those perpetrating these acts are brought to justice. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cong-distances-itself-from-digvijays-remark-on-ladens-burial/785289/

[Rajiv]

BY BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, April 25, 2011 Secret government documents leaked to the media last night reveal a top Gitmo detainee vowed to unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" if Osama Bin Laden was ever captured or assassinated. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, claimed Al Qaeda had hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe that was tied to Bin Laden's fate, according to a dump of classified documents released by the WikiLeaks website. The frightening information was in thousands of pages of dossiers of detainees being held at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-25/news/29492085_1_wikileaks-nuclear-hellstorm-nuclear-bomb :nervous::nervous::nervous:

very Similar to this movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158583/ ..US itself supplies Nukes to rogue states as the demand would lead them to get it anwyays, so why not supply them to make them happy..but they turned out to be duds as nukes hit all around the world

[Asim]

Hey Mods! I just noticed it... why my yesterday thread of "OBL death – Conspiracy theories" been deleted? You guys expect and take each of our word as conspiracy theory and when someone himself titled his thoughts as "conspiracy theories’, you deleted that... Not fair :protest:

[Stuge]

Cong distances itself from Digvijay's remark on Laden's burial Congress today appeared to be distancing itself from senior party leader Digvijay Singh's remarks disapproving the sea burial given to al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by the US. ]

This guy has become a pain in the *****$ for congress now . saala traitor !! D**kloser Singh !

[Mamu]

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, plans to introduce legislation this week to freeze U.S. aid to Pakistan "unless the State Department can certify to Congress that Pakistan was not harboring America's number one enemy."

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., similarly called for more information on what Pakistan knew before they can receive the $3 billion in foreign aid requested for Pakistan in 2012, and potentially more in additional military funding.

Please go to www.congress.org and write to your sentaors and congressmen to support this bill.

[ganeshran]

Digvijay Singh is both an attention who re and a vote bank politician...

[King]

Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye. The Seal then carried out what is known in the military as a ‘double tap’ – shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead. The footage of the battle in Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout – relayed to the White house by satellite – is said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle. She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden’s sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader’s body was buried at sea. Despite President Obama claiming the master terrorist’s death made the world a ‘safer, better place’, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency declared that terrorists would ‘ almost certainly’ respond. The warning came on a day when: ■ Relations between Pakistan and the West were under i ntense strain amid disbelief that intelligence chiefs in Islamabad had no idea Bin Laden was living in a compound only 800 yards from the country’s leading military academy. ■ U.S. officials sought to justify the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by claiming it provided the crucial breakthrough in hunting down Bin Laden. ■ It emerged that a terror operative captured i n Pakistan i n 2004 said Al Qaeda would detonate a nuclear bomb in the U.S. if Bin Laden were killed or captured. David Cameron said Bin Laden’s death would be ‘ welcomed right across our country’. But security was stepped up as he warned: ‘It does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist terrorism. Indeed, we will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead.’ Last night the Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Government’s emergency planning committee Cobra to assess the implications for the UK. Security sources have been told of specific threats against targets in North Africa and europe. Officials in Britain fear a ‘ lone wolf ’ – currently off the security services’ radar – could be inspired to take revenge. There is no specific intelligence pointing to any attack i n response to Bin Laden’s death, but it is ‘common sense’ to be on guard, Whitehall officials say. Possible targets include popular tourist and business locations including the houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf and the London eye, say security experts.

[King]

Site of hideout raises questions about complicity islamabad, pakistan — Even in a neighborhood of roomy modern residences, the three-story white house stood out. The home, down the street from an elite Pakistani military academy, was eight times as large as others nearby. Its razorwire-topped walls were higher. Its occupants acted mysteriously, neighbors said, burning trash rather than placing it outside. A Pakistani soldier stands guard on the roof of a house where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. operation Sunday. With the Monday killing of Osama bin Laden, the mystery of who lived in the Abbottabad house was solved. And that resolution revealed that the world’s most wanted man had been living for years not only in relative comfort but also at the doorstep of Pakistan’s powerful army. The disclosure threatened to unravel the remaining threads in a U.S.-Pakistan relationship that is severely strained by mistrust. The scene of bin Laden’s killing immediately raised questions about how Pakistan’s powerful military, which U.S. officials have long suspected of tolerating and harboring Islamist militants, could not have known about his presence — and even whether it had provided him shelter. Bin Laden joined a long list of highvalue terrorism figures captured or killed in recent years not in Pakistan’s remote tribal belt but in the sprawling urban centers in the heart of the country. “Either we’re dealing with an extraordinarily incompetent military and army and intelligence agency, or at some level they were complicit,” said Shaun Gregory, a Pakistan scholar at the University of Bradford in England. Abbottabad, the bucolic city just north of Islamabad where bin Laden had been hiding, has long been a refuge for tourists and a hub for Pakistan’s military, with two infantry regiments based there. Bin Laden’s home was in a neighborhood well traveled by military vehicles and full of military families. In Washington, convictions deepened that Pakistan — which has accepted billions of dollars in military aid since allying itself with the United States in 2001 in counterterrorism efforts — was either uncommitted to the hunt for terrorists on its soil or protecting them. U.S. officials have long said that bin Laden was in Pakistan, and Pakistan has long called on the United States to provide proof. But in the end, after a decade-long hunt, it appeared that the United States did not trust Pakistan enough to do so. U.S. officials insisted that Pakistan was not told about the operation until U.S. forces had left Pakistani airspace. Officials were cryptic about whether Pakistani intelligence had aided the operation in any way. The Pakistanis “were not aware of our interest in this compound, but they provided us information attached to it to help us complete the robust intelligence case that eventually carried the day,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who like other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Basking in the glow of the successful operation, senior Obama administration officials tried hard to sidestep questions about possible Pakistani complicity in hiding bin Laden, while also acknowledging skepticism about Pakistan’s assertion that it had been in the dark. “I think it’s inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in [Pakistan] that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time,” said John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser. “I am not going to speculate about what type of support he might have had on an official basis inside Pakistan.” On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were more pointed. “ They got a lot of explaining to do,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said of the Pakistanis. Many bluntly said U.S. military and economic assistance to Pakistan is at risk. “We clearly need to keep the pressure on Pakistan, and one way to do that is to put more strings attached to the tremendous amount of military aid that we give the country,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said at a news conference. A Senate hearing on U.S.-Pakistan relations is scheduled for this week. Compound in Abbottabad A U.S. defense official briefing reporters on the mission said unequivocally, “We have no indications that the Pakistanis were aware that Osama bin Laden was at the compound in Abbottabad.” That line was echoed by Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, and a senior Pakistani intelligence official, both of whom insisted that Pakistan was unaware bin Laden was living there. Many in Pakistan, including former president Pervez Musharraf, deemed the U.S. operation a violation of the country’s sovereignty that was likely to spur more reprisal terrorist attacks against Pakistan. Others described it as profoundly embarrassing for the Pakistani military. A U.S. official said the Obama administration was “very concerned” that bin Laden was hiding in such a well-populated part of Pakistan. Other terrorism figures have also been caught in Pakistani cities, far from the rugged borderlands where al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are thought to hide. But bin Laden was not the first terrorism figure discovered in Abbottabad: Earlier this year, Pakistani officials said they arrested Umar Patek, an Indonesian al-Qaeda leader, in the city. Abbottabad has attracted many refugees from recent Pakistani counterinsurgency offensives in the western tribal areas and in the Swat Valley, as well as from Afghanistan. They have made the city a linguistic and ethnic patchwork — and probably a good place to hide despite the military presence, some here said. “People don’t really care now to ask who’s there,” said Gohar Ayub Khan, a former foreign minister from the city. “ That’s one of the reasons why, possibly, he came in there.” Worsening bilateral ties U.S. officials have long asserted that the Afghan Taliban leadership is based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and that another lethal Afghan insurgent group, the Haqqani network, enjoys relative freedom inside Pakistan’s mountainous tribal areas thanks to its long-standing ties to Pakistani intelligence. Pakistan denies both allegations. U.S.-Pakistan relations, long marred by suspicions, have deteriorated this year. After a CIA contractor fatally shot two Pakistanis in January, joint intelligence operations came to a standstill, and Pakistan recently demanded a scaling back of CIA operations, including drone strikes. Other U.S. officials have expressed growing frustration about Pakistan’s hesitant military fight against insurgents and its suspected ties to the Haqqani network, which is based in Pakistan but strikes U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Those comments have riled Pakistan’s army, whose chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, told cadets at the military academy in Abbottabad just last week that his troops had “ broken the backs” of insurgents. Pakistani officials deflected the criticisms, saying their nation was committed to fighting terrorism. A statement from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said it was time for “positive messaging about Pakistan rather than finger pointing.” But a Pakistani official also said that the government’s near silence on the Abbottabad operation was indicative of a delicate balancing act in a strongly anti-American nation where a significant section of society sympathizes with jihadists. On Monday, insurgent leaders were threatening to avenge bin Laden’s death with attacks on Pakistan. The Pakistani intelligence official said the discovery that bin Laden was living very close to Pakistani military installations was embarrassing “ to an extent, yes.” But the official denied any prior knowledge of bin Laden’s presence. “Had we known,” the official said, “we would have taken him out.”

I fear the Pakistan officials or the military kept Osama secured for the last half a decade or so. Either for ideology or for a price. The US navy seals carried out the operation on their own and there wasn't a single Pakistani military man or police present at the scene. USA knew this all too well and carried out a secret operation. I guess they may also know who's been aiding Osama all these years. I won't be surprised if USA goes after the rest of the blokes in Pakistan.

[jonas10]

ISI - they can find some villager taking 100 rupee cricket bets in some remote village but not the worlds most famous terrorist living 100 yards from a defense academy. Thank god this is the level of competency for India's so called "number one enemy". :two_thumbs_up:

[vvvslaxman]

Jon stewart ripped musharraf apart :hysterical:

[satyam1729]

Xinhua's headline... :haha::haha: Pakistan military groups pray for bin Laden http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-05/04/c_13858259.htm

[Stuge]

he has become a matyr now and soon his mansion will become a tourist spot for his followers to get inspiration :facepalm:

[Prakat]

:hysterical: The Spin Quartet in action

[veer]

i think the evidence that navy seal took from OBL's residence will reveal lot of details.. and that can put pakis in even worst situation.. i feel sorry for our neighbors..

[Prakat]

9SSLk_tXvlM

America wants to take full credit for the operation because "Aaj Amreeka duniya ko yeh bata sakta hai, ki dekhein, Pakistan jaise mulk ke andar bhi jaakar hum intervene kar sakte hain." :cantstop: