Search for Osama bin Laden

Coordinates: 18°N 66°E / 18°N 66°E / 18; 66 Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, went into hiding following the start of the War in Afghanistan in order to avoid capture by the United States and its allies for his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 1999.[1] After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, his whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.

In the decade following his disappearance, there were many attempts made by the United States government to locate bin Laden. In December, 2009, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal said that bin Laden would need to be "captured or killed" in order for the U.S. to "finally defeat al-Qaeda."[2] According to the U.S. government's official account of the operation, in August 2007 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency located a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan and identified it as the likely location of bin Laden. On May 1, 2011, United States Navy SEALs of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru) carried out an assault on the compound on orders from U.S. President Barack Obama. During a 40-minute raid, bin Laden was killed by one bullet above the left eye and another to the chest.[3] The SEALs overpowered the compound's remaining residents, killing several, and extracted bin Laden's body (which was subsequently buried at sea) as well as computer hard drives, documents, and other material.

Bin Laden's life between 2001 and 2011

Further information: Bin Laden Issue Station

New information of Bin Laden's location has been emerging since his death and the arrest of his wives. According to one of his wives,[4] bin Laden was united with his family the first time after the 9/11 attacks in the second half of 2002 in Peshawar. After this, bin Laden took his family into rural mountain areas of northwest Pakistan (and very notably, not in the tribal belt where main US attention was focused.) First they stayed in the Shangla district in the Swat valley, where they stayed in two houses for eight to nine months. In 2003 they moved to Haripur, a small town close to Islamabad, where they stayed in a rented house for two years. In mid-2005, Bin Laden and his family moved to Abbottabad.

Location and death of Osama bin Laden

View of Abbottabad, Pakistan
Osama bin Laden's last home, in Abbottabad.

Tracking

American intelligence officials discovered the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden by tracking one of his couriers. Information was collected from Guantánamo Bay detainees, who gave intelligence officers the courier's pseudonym as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and said that he was a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.[5] In 2007, U.S. officials discovered the courier's real name and, in 2009, that he lived in Abbottābad, Pakistan.[6] Using satellite photos and intelligence reports, the CIA surmised the inhabitants of the mansion. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was "custom built to hide someone of significance" and that bin Laden's residence there was very likely.[7][8] Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.[8]

Identification attempt

To identify the occupants of the compound, the CIA worked with doctor Shakil Afridi to organize a fake vaccination program. Nurses gained entry to the residence to vaccinate the children and extract DNA,[9] which could be compared to a sample from his sister, who died in Boston in 2010.[10] It's not clear if the DNA was ever obtained.[11]

Location

Built in 2005, the three-story[12] mansion was located in a compound about 4 km (2.5 mi.) northeast of the center of Abbottabad.[7] While the compound was assessed by US officials at a value of US$1 million, local real-estate agents assess the property value at US$250,000.[13] On a lot about eight times the size of nearby houses, it was surrounded by 12- to 18-foot (3.7-5.5 m)[8] concrete walls topped with barbed wire.[7] There were two security gates and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall.[12] There was no Internet or telephone service coming into the compound. Its residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors, who simply set it out for collection. The compound is located at 34°10′09″N 73°14′33″E / 34.169275°N 73.242588°E / 34.169275; 73.242588, 1.3 km (0.8 mi.) southwest of the closest point of the sprawling Pakistan Military Academy.[14] President Obama met with his national security advisors on March 14, 2011, in the first of five security meetings over six weeks. On April 29, at 8:20 a.m., Obama convened with Thomas Donilon, John O. Brennan, and other security advisers in the Diplomatic Room, where he authorized a raid of the Abbottābad compound. The government of Pakistan was not informed of this decision.[7]

Death of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden was killed after being shot in the head and chest,[15][16][17] during Operation Neptune's Spear,[18][19] with Geronimo as the code word for bin Laden's capture or death.[20] The operation was a 40-minute raid by members of the United States special operations forces and Navy Seals on his safe house[21] in Bilal Town, Abbottābad, Pakistan.[22] It took place on May 2, 2011, around 01:00 Pakistan Standard Time (May 1, 20:00 UTC). U.S. forces then took his body to Afghanistan for identification before burying it at sea.[23][24][25]

Following his death new details of where he lived were learned from interrogations of his widows and surviving associates.[26] According to the Associated Press reports based on interrogations they had determined he lived in five different safehouses in Pakistan. They located his penultimate home in Haripur. They described his home as a relatively upscale house in a neighbourhood that contained other upscale homes but also bordered Afghan refugee huts. He lived there for eleven months while the Abbottabad compound was being built.

Pakistan's alleged role

Critics have accused Pakistan's military and security establishment of protecting bin Laden.[27] Most believe bin Laden lived at the compound for at least six years before being killed there.[28]

On March 29, 2012, Pakistani newspaper Dawn acquired a report produced by Pakistani security officials, based on interrogation of his three surviving wives, that detailed his movements while living underground in Pakistan.[29] Declan Walsh, writing in the New York Times, reported on speculation that Pakistan was planning to charge bin Laden's wives and adult daughters with immigration offenses, rather than simply deporting them, so that they will be in prison and unable to offer details of Pakistani cooperation with bin Laden that would be politically embarrassing.

Rumors and speculation about bin Laden's whereabouts from 2001 until 2011

Bin Laden's location and state of health were a continuing topic of speculation since his disappearance from Tora Bora. It has become clear that most of these rumors and speculation were not based on fact. First, rumors surfaced that bin Laden was killed or fatally injured during U.S. bombardments, most notably near Tora Bora, or that he died of natural causes. According to Gary Berntsen, in his 2005 book, Jawbreaker, a number of al-Qaeda detainees later confirmed that bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an eastern route through snow-covered mountains in the area of Parachinar, Pakistan. The media reported that bin Laden suffered from a kidney disorder requiring him to have access to advanced medical facilities, possibly kidney dialysis. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command and a close bin Laden associate, is a physician and may have provided medical care to bin Laden.

Between 2002 and 2011, the most common suggestion from U.S. national security officials and others was that "their best intelligence suggested that bin Laden was living along the mountainous, ungoverned border of Pakistan and Afghanistan," such as in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (an area that includes Waziristan) or volatile regions in North-West Frontier Province (now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), where an ongoing insurgency has taken place. Several experts and former officials expressed surprise when bin Laden was instead revealed to have been hiding in the urban city of Abbottabad.[30] Less common suggestions were that bin Laden had died (either by illness or military attack), or that he was alive and living in countries other than Pakistan, such as Afghanistan or Iran.

2001

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

See also

References

  1. "F.B.I. List Adds Fugitive And Terror Suspect". The New York Times. 1999-06-08. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  2. "Gen McChrystal: Bin Laden is key to al-Qaeda defeat". BBC News. December 9, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  3. Bob Drogin, Christi Parsons and Ken Dilanian, "How Bin Laden met his end" (May 3, 2011). Los Angeles Times.
  4. "In Hiding, Bin Laden Had Four Children and Five Houses". New York Times. March 29, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  5. Michael Isikoff, Bin Laden's death rekindles 'enhanced' interrogation debate, msnbc.com (from NBC news), 5/2/2011.
  6. NY Times Abbottābad graphic, The New York Times
  7. 1 2 3 4 Mazzetti, Mark; Cooper, Helene (May 2, 2011). "Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  8. 1 2 3 Dedman, Bill. "How the US tracked couriers to elaborate bin Laden compound". msnbc.com. Archived from the original on May 2, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  9. Pakistan holds doctor who tried to collect bin Laden DNA
  10. "CIA organized fake vaccination drive to get Osama bin Laden's family DNA". The Guardian. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  11. "Bin Laden death: 'CIA doctor' accused of treason". BBC News. 6 October 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  12. 1 2 Zengerle, Patricia; Bull, Alister (May 2, 2011). "Bin Laden was found at luxurious Pakistan compound". Reuters. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  13. "Osama bin Laden hideout 'worth far less than US claimed", by Declan Walsh, The Guardian, May 4, 2011
  14. "US forces kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan". BBC News. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  15. "Bin Laden 'shot in the head and chest'" - Daily News - May 03, 2011 - Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  16. Doug Luzader (May 2, 2011). "Bin Laden Killed after Firefight in Pakistan". Fox News.
  17. MacAskill, Ewen (May 2, 2011). "How was Osama bin Laden found?". The Guardian (London). |section= ignored (help)
  18. Jake Tapper. "US Official: "This Was a Kill Mission"". ABC News.
  19. @GMA Twitter, 5/3
  20. "'For God and Country Geronimo, Geronimo, Geromimo'". CBN News (Christian Broadcasting Network). May 3, 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
  21. "Bin Laden compound in Pakistan was once an ISI safe house". gulfnews. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  22. Declan Walsh, Richard Adams, Ewen MacAskill (May 2, 2011). "Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces". The Guardian (London).
  23. Cooper, Helene (May 1, 2011). "Obama Announces Killing of Osama bin Laden". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 2, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
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  25. Adams, Richard; Walsh, Declan; MacAskill, Ewen (May 2, 2011). "Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  26. "Bin Laden's favoured wife details safehouse in report: Slain al-Qaeda leader lived in 2-storey home before moving to Abbotabad villa". CBC News. 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2012-05-03. According to the interrogation report, bin Laden lived in five safe houses and fathered four children — the two youngest born in a public hospital in Abbotabad. But investigators have only located the houses in Abbottabad and Haripur. mirror
  27. Marisa Schultz. "Levin questions Pakistan's role". The Detroit News.
  28. Associated, The (2008-04-02). "Report: Bin Laden hid in Pakistan compound for more than three years - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  29. Declan Walsh (2012-03-30). "On the Run, Bin Laden Had 4 Children and 5 Houses, a Wife Says". New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 2012-03-30. mirror
  30. Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, "Why the US had it wrong about bin Laden's hideout" (May 4, 2001). Associated Press.
  31. John M. Glionna (2005-11-20). "'We Are Not Such Monsters'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-11-20. Aziz met Bin Laden for the second time in November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Aziz was in the process of establishing a surgical unit at the University of Jalalabad in Afghanistan to treat people injured during the U.S. bombing there. mirror
  32. "Doctor says bin Laden is healthy: Well-known Pakistani physician told agents, terrorist is strong". Lubbock online. 2002-11-28. Retrieved 2011-11-20. Aziz said that when he went to Afghanistan last November to set up a surgical unit at the University of Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan, he had no idea that he was going to meet bin Laden. 'I was stunned,' he said. 'I thought, "This is the most wanted man in the world." But he seemed so calm.' mirror
  33. Paul Haven (2002-11-20). "Bin Laden was in excellent health, doctor says". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2011-11-16. Aziz said he met bin Laden twice -- in 1999 after the al-Qaida leader hurt his back falling off a horse in southern Afghanistan, and in November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks.
  34. Niles Latham (2002-11-15). "Agents snag bin Laden's doctor". New York Post. p. 2. Retrieved 2011-11-17. Amer Aziz, a popular figure who became radicalized when he went to Kosovo to treat wounded Albanian Muslims, once treated senior Taliban and al Qaeda figures and wounded fighters during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. officials say they do not believe Aziz has been in recent contact with the al Qaeda leader, but hope he can provide important insight into bin Laden's health.
  35. "Osama Bin Laden 'alive and well'" (June 15, 2005). BBC.
  36. "Osama Out of Loop, Say Pakistanis" (September 25, 2005). New York Daily News.
  37. Steve Coll, "Young Osama" (December 12, 2005). New Yorker.
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  43. "Taliban: Bin Laden alive and well" (June 7, 2007). Al Jazeera.
  44. "New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al-Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive" (September 7, 2007). ABC News.
  45. Christina Lamb, "Stop bombing us: Osama isn't here, says Pakistan" (July 12, 2009). The Sunday Times.
  46. "Bin Laden 'cut off from al-Qaeda'" (November 18, 2008). BBC.
  47. Gillespie, Thomas W.; et al. (2009). "Finding Osama bin Laden: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery" (PDF). MIT International Review. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  48. "Find Osama Bin Laden, Gordon Brown urges Pakistan". BBC. November 29, 2009.
  49. 1 2 Orla Guerin (December 4, 2009). "Bin Laden 'seen in Afghanistan in early 2009'". BBC.
  50. Mark Colvin, "'I was Bin Laden's bodyguard'" (April 29, 2010).
  51. Mekado Murphy, "Inside the Documentary 'Feathered Cocaine'" (April 30, 2010). The New York Times.
  52. "Osama bin Laden 'living in luxury in Iran'" (May 5, 2010). The Telegraph.
  53. "Bin Laden said to be in Iran" (June 8, 2010). UPI.
  54. "CIA Had Last 'Precise Information' on bin Laden in 'Early 2000s'" (June 27, 2010). ABC News.
  55. "NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan" (October 18, 2010). CNN.
  56. "Bin Laden tape is real, French say" (October 28, 2010). CNN.
  57. "Map of Where Osama bin Laden Was Killed". The New York Times. May 2, 2011.

External links

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