Six new things we learned about the bin Laden raid
An article in the New Yorker offers revelations about the Navy Seal attack on terrorist leader’s Abbotabad compound.
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From Thursday's Globe and Mail
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An article in the New Yorker offers revelations about the Navy Seal attack on terrorist leader’s Abbotabad compound.Outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates was skeptical of a helicopter assault
Mr. Gates recalled being in the Situation Room of the Carter White House when military officials presented Eagle Claw – the 1980 Delta Force operation aimed at rescuing American hostages in Tehran that ended up killing eight U.S. servicemen . “They said that was a pretty good idea, too,” warned Mr. Gates, who preferred an air strike by B-2 Spirit bombers.
Obama pulled a Dubya before the raid
“Obama returned to the White House at two o’clock after playing nine holes of golf at Andrews Air Force Base. The Black Hawks departed from Jalalabad thirty minutes later.”
Not every daring feat merits the helmet-cam treatment
“The SEALs were not wearing helmet cams, contrary to a widely cited report by CBS.”
Two bin Laden wives tried to protect their husband
Amal al-Fatah, bin Laden’s fifth wife, was screaming in Arabic, and while standing in front of him, she looked as though she were about to charge, earning her a bullet in the calf. Fearing that one or both women were wearing suicide jackets, a SEAL gripped them both in a bear hug and shunted them aside. “He would almost certainly have been killed had they blown themselves up, but by blanketing them he would have absorbed some of the blast and potentially saved the two SEALs behind him. In the end, neither woman was wearing an explosive vest.”
Geronimo was the code word given for identifying bin Laden
“A second SEAL stepped into the room and trained the infrared laser of his M4 on bin Laden’s chest. The Al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap on his head, froze; he was unarmed. ‘There was never any question of detaining or capturing him – it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees,’ the special-operations officer told me. (The Administration maintains that had bin Laden immediately surrendered he could have been taken alive.) … The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, ‘For God and country – Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.’ After a pause, he added, ‘Geronimo E.K.I.A.’ – ‘enemy killed in action.’”
His former country, Saudi Arabia, refused his body
“Bin Laden’s relatives were still a prominent family in the Kingdom, and Osama had once been a Saudi citizen. The Saudi government was asked if it had any interest in taking the body. “Your plan sounds like a good one,” the Saudi replied.”
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