was when two gunship helicopters carrying U.S. special forces flew over a moonless night sky towards Osama bin Laden's hiding place. The planners of this operation were not yet sure that their goal lived there.
Some intelligence analysts believe that the probability of success of this operation is only 60%.
US President Barack Obama also chose a risky attack strategy: directly attack this house in deep Pakistan instead of bombing with stealth fighters. This may allow American combatants to have face-to-face confrontations with each other in this labyrinth-like building.
From caves in southern Afghanistan to provinces in eastern Pakistan that are not legally bound, the pursuit of bin Laden over the past decade has caused great setbacks for the United States. This time American officials decided to take a risk. An evaluation of this US decision shows that it was built to a certain extent on unrelenting planning over the past few months, but the final decision to take action relied on intuition.
An American official said that everyone thought that apart from bin Laden, it was impossible for anyone else to hide in that house. Some people speculate that another possibility is that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 figure of Al-Qaida, is hiding here.
In December last year, the Central Intelligence Agency (Central Intelligence Agency) convened a secret meeting to raise tens of millions of dollars in funds to launch a five-month special operation. The raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Sunday ended the operation perfectly. The reporter wrote this report after interviewing nearly 12 officials from the White House, intelligence agencies, the Pentagon and Congress and listening to relevant briefings.
Obviously, this heavily fortified complex in Abbottabad, Pakistan was built to conceal someone who does not want outsiders to see him. It has become the focus of interest for American intelligence agencies. By last fall, the United States had known that most of the 22 residents in this building were relatives of one of bin Laden’s most trusted messengers. The "messenger" is bin Laden's confidant, and is responsible for sending messages between al Qaeda leaders and al Qaeda's global "friends".
But another family also lives in this three-story building, whose identity remains a mystery to this day. The intelligence officer knew that there was an adult male living in the building, but he could not be seen because he never showed up.
The United States has been searching for bin Laden for more than a decade and missed opportunities six times. One setback after another sowed the seeds for Sunday's action.
In 2002, just a year after bin Laden escaped from the hunt in the Tora Bora mountainous area in dense caves in Afghanistan, through interrogation of al-Qaeda members detained by the CIA, the United States learned the pseudonym of a courier of bin Laden. . This messenger was a disciple of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), the mastermind behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and Abu Faraj, the third figure of Al Qaeda who was previously captured. al-Libbi)’s loyal assistant. U.S. officials have not yet released the name of the courier.
It took several years for the United States to know the real name of this messenger. In 2007, CIA analysts finally knew the person's name and started looking for him. Nevertheless, the trace of this person is hard to find. In February 2009, Panetta's first briefing on bin Laden after taking office as the director of the CIA was disappointing. During that time, American intelligence personnel had caught a glimpse of this messenger working with his brother. But the two were very careful and never revealed their whereabouts.
It took more than a year to achieve a major breakthrough. In late August 2010, the CIA was able to follow the messenger until he reached his residence, which is the building complex in Abbottabad.
The United States has launched an intensive investigation of this complex. Teams from the CIA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency used satellites and other surveillance equipment to study it. Panetta receives weekly updates on the situation.
The building was built in 2005 at the end of a narrow dirt road on the outskirts of the city. The main structure is a three-story building with few windows facing the street. There is a platform on the third floor and a seven-foot (approximately 2.1 meters) high wall to prevent others from seeing the interior.
An American official said that as soon as intelligence personnel saw it, they knew there was a problem.
The spies cannot even search for clues by digging through the trash. Unlike almost all the neighbors, the people living in this complex burned and disposed of the garbage by themselves.
In September 2010, Obama heard about this complex, and learned that it may live important targets of the war on terrorism-the messenger and his family, as well as his brother's family.
An American official said that besides this, there was a third mysterious family living in it. The official said that there was an adult male. The intelligence personnel did not know what he looked like, but knew that he lived in it. There was also a woman who might be his wife and more than one child; the family was with Usama Ben. Bin Laden may have a match in the family. The members of the third family never left this residence.
In November 2010, Panetta ordered the National Counterterrorism Center (National Counterterrorism Center) to give 10 plans to better understand who is living in this complex. The Anti-Terrorism Center submitted 38 proposals, but only a few are feasible. An American official said that we must pay attention to the trade-offs.
There is also an equally urgent concern about this operation: the United States may let Pakistanis receive information, and Pakistanis are deemed unable to bear confidentiality trust. An American official said that the Pakistani side had provided some intelligence about the courier to the United States, but may not realize his importance. Some U.S. officials have long suspected that someone in the Pakistani government or military is providing help to bin Laden.
The evidence is still inadequate, but Panetta, the CIA director, determined in December 2010 that the intelligence already possessed was sufficiently convincing to take action. He held a secret meeting with members of Congress, hoping to obtain tens of millions of dollars in funding to implement a grand plan for large-scale intelligence gathering of the complex.
After Panetta received the money from Congress in December 2010, CIA analysts still did not agree on the possibility of bin Laden living there. Some people think the probability is 60%, others say it is 80%. An official said that this uncertainty makes Panetta very embarrassed, but he believes that even if bin Laden is only half as likely to live there, the American people will support the operation.
In February 2011, Panetta believed that the time had come for an action plan. He met with Lieutenant General William McRaven, the head of the U.S. Special Forces Command, and asked for a small team to develop a plan of action.
In the beginning, the preferred course of action in the United States was bombing. This approach will minimize the risk to the US military, most likely to kill all the residents living in this complex, but it may also destroy any evidence that Bin Laden is lurking in this building.
If a helicopter is used to launch a surprise attack, the situation will be more complicated, but it is more likely to get evidence that bin Laden is indeed hiding in this building. Some U.S. officials are afraid to repeat the military defeat of the U.S. military in Somalia, the "Black Hawk Down" (Black Hawk Down), when the U.S. military launched a botched attack on the Somali warlord, resulting in the death of many U.S. soldiers.
John Brennan, the White House’s chief counter-terrorism adviser, said that due to the above-mentioned risks and the lack of direct evidence, and it is impossible to determine the true identity of the residents in this building, what should the advisers of US President Barack Obama do next? There was a disagreement on the issue. The top national security advisers briefed Obama on the situation in the US Situation Room on March 14. They said that there is an important goal in this complex, most likely bin Laden.
Obama told these advisers that the opportunity is here.
Two weeks later, Obama said to his team of national security advisers that he hoped they would start an attack exercise on the building. The consultant team built a physical model of the building in Afghanistan to fully examine the effectiveness of the attack exercise.
In April, Panetta holds meetings every day. He once said at a meeting that this is the best clue we got, and we must find out who is in this building.
On April 19, Panetta told Obama that the CIA believed bin Laden was there. Other advisers briefed Obama on the preparations for the attack, including the exercise. A government official said that Obama asked these advisers to assume that this was a good opportunity to achieve the goals of the plan, and that we must be prepared.
Also on the same day on April 19, Obama gave provisional approval for the assault helicopter attack despite the increased risk. Senior US officials said that to correctly identify bin Laden’s identity, this has become a decisive factor.
At 8 o'clock in the morning on Friday, April 29, Obama convened a meeting with National Security Advisor Tom Donilan, White House Chief of Staff William Daley and White House Chief Counter-Terrorism Counsel Brennan in the White House Diplomatic Room. , Authorized the action.
Panetta called Adm. McRaven, the U.S. Admiral, and said, "My friend, everything is up to you. I would like to offer you my most heartfelt blessings, and all I can do is pray for you."
On Sunday morning, Obama issued the final order for the military operation, which had been postponed for 24 hours due to weather. Panetta went to the church. Obama played nine holes of golf.
According to information seen by Pakistani officials, bin Laden has been occupying this huge building since at least August last year. Green farmland. Residents said that the building has been inhabited since 2005.
The center of the building is a three-story building surrounded by a concrete wall about 14 feet (4.2 meters) high, with barbed wire on the wall and surveillance cameras. Some nearby residents said that the building still has an underground area.
After Sunday night fell, several US helicopters brought a special operations unit from the Jalalabad Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Due to the "vortex" caused by the high walls of the building, a helicopter was severely damaged after it hit the ground heavily. This can be called the most worrying moment of the US military action.
Panetta monitored the operation in the combat command room converted from a conference room on the seventh floor. Obama and his senior aides watched the progress of the operation in real time in the White House Situation Room. Brennan said that at the time it felt like every second of the day.
The commandos realized that a helicopter might have to be abandoned, and they spent 40 minutes searching every part of the building while firing. When the main building was finally searched, bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floors. US officials said bin Laden tried to defend himself with a gun before he was shot.
Bin Laden's body was initially confirmed by the commando members. A woman in the building who was identified as his wife also identified it as bin Laden's body.
The commando team also received orders to take away items of intelligence value. An American intelligence official said that they took away everything they could find, including computer hard drives; intelligence personnel are carefully examining these items and do not miss any information that may be obtained from them.
A video obtained by the local television station after the attack showed that there was a blood-stained bed in the room where bin Laden was reportedly killed.
A senior official of the US Department of Defense said that bin Laden was killed by an "American bullet," which ruled out the possibility that he was killed by his own guards to prevent him from being captured alive. At least one of the bullets fired by the US commando hit Bin Laden's left eye.
Three other adult men were killed in the raid, including the two messengers mentioned above and an adult son of bin Laden. A woman was used as a "shield" by one of the men and was killed. Two other women were injured. Before the commando left, the crew destroyed the damaged American helicopter.
At 3:50 pm Eastern time on Sunday, Obama learned for the first time that Bin Laden's body had been initially confirmed. At 7:01 in the evening, Obama learned that the corpse was "very likely" bin Laden.
According to a senior intelligence official, bin Laden’s body was confirmed not only by the commando, but also by one of his wife. Experts from the CIA compared the pictures of the corpse with the public photos of Bin Laden, and with 95% certainty, they determined that this was him. On Monday morning, preliminary DNA analysis showed that the corpse’s DNA was "almost 100%" consistent with the DNA of multiple family members of Bin Laden.
According to the Islamic tradition that must be buried within 24 hours after death, bin Laden's body was buried by sea on Monday. A senior U.S. defense official said that religious ceremonies were held on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson. The body was contained in a heavy bag. A military official read a prepared religious speech.
A senior defense official said that after the speech, the body was placed on a prepared slab, and then the slab was slowly tilted, and the body slid into the sea.
The Wall Street Journal Siobhan Gorman / Adam Entous / Zahid Hussain
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