Obama Special Announcement 10:30 PM eastern (5/1/2011)

[cavman]

Latest comprehensive article on the OBL raid:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all



What I got from this-

- Pakistan's air defenses were mostly turned east toward India, their most immediate enemy

- The 2 blackhawk choppers were specially modded to cover heat, noise, and movement

- The team that took him out had 10-12 previous missions into Pakistani airspace

- 4 Chinooks (heavier troop transport choppers) were involved, 2 stayed at Afgh/Pak border, 2 further inside Pakistan
- 1 Chinook had to go to OBL compound to rescue the downed Blackhawk crew
- The other Chinook inside Pakistan refueled the surviving Blackhawk on its way back

- A dog was on the team to sniff for false walls/hidden doors

- CIA had earlier staged an immunization drive (shots) for kids in Abbotabad to hopefully get OBL's kids' DNA. Unsuccessful, and doc later arrested by Pakistan

- 4 Command Centers were in on the raid- White House, Pentagon, CIA Headquarters Afghanistan (prob Bagram Air Force base N of Kabul), and American Embassy Islamabad (holy crap, risk of intel being intercepted by Pakistani ISI)

- Overhead drone at 15,000 ft provided live feed of operation (that's what they're watching in the White House photo)

- Blackhawk1 likely crashed because of absorbed heat from the compound wall, they had trained using chainlink fence, after crash sent distress call to the 2 Chinooks idling inside Pakistani border, 1 of which came as the rescue chopper, also was the one to take OBL away

- they found the gold threaded robes OBL used for his video addresses

- Noises neighbors would've heard if they were awake- Chopper crashing on wall, 4 seperate C4 explosions, sporadic gunfire. Later blew up downed Blackhawk critical systems with C4, thermo grenades

- had an interpreter dressed as plainclothes Pakistani policeman to ward off curious neighbors, backed up by 4 SEALs around perimeter, plus the dog

- DNA- Took 2 bone marrow samples from OBL, 1 on each chopper, numerous swabs (cheek I guess) taken

- OBL was flown to Bagram AFB before the sea burial

- 1 cell phone found at compound contained #s of a mujadeen group closely associated with ISI (Pakistani intel). This is the only concrete evidence so far of Pakistan actively protecting OBL. See Post 583 above though, where we've purposely fed Pakistani intelligence information about targets, only to see the baddies pack up and leave hours before Pakistan police or military get there.

I don't trust articles from the future, that's witchcraft.

 

[Kypus]

Heh, it's just from a magazine, many are dated for the next week or month or whatever.

 

[Kypus]

&!@% Pakistan.

Pakistan let China see crashed U.S. "stealth" copter

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown U.S. "stealth" helicopter that crashed during the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May despite explicit requests from the CIA not to, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The disclosure, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, which has been improving slightly after hitting its lowest point in decades following the killing of bin Laden.

During the raid, one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters, believed to employ unknown stealth capability, malfunctioned and crashed, forcing the commandos to abandon it.

"The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," the paper quoted a person "in intelligence circles" as saying on its website.

It said Pakistan, which enjoys a close relationship with China, allowed Chinese intelligence officials to take pictures of the crashed aircraft as well as take samples of its special "skin" that allowed the American raid to evade Pakistani radar.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was reason to believe Pakistan had allowed the Chinese to inspect the aircraft. But the official could not confirm it happened with certainty.

No one from the Pakistani army was available for comment, but the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Pakistan's top spy agency, denied the report. The paper said Pakistan's top general, chief of army staff Ashfaq Kayani, denied that China had been given access.

The surviving tail section, photos of which were widely distributed on the Internet, was returned to the United States following a trip by U.S. Senator John Kerry in May, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy told Reuters.

Shortly after the raid, Pakistan hinted that it might give China access to the helicopter, given its fury over the raid, which it considers a grievous violation of its sovereignty.

"We had explicitly asked the Pakistanis in the immediate aftermath of the raid not to let anyone have access to the damaged remains of the helicopter," the Financial Times quoted the source as saying.

In an incident such as the helicopter crash, it is standard American procedure to destroy sophisticated technology such as encrypted communications and navigation computers.

DISPLEASURE

Pakistan is a strategic ally to the United States but the relationship has been on a downward spiral since the killing of the al Qaeda leader in the raid by U.S. forces.

Islamabad was not informed in advance and responded by cutting back on U.S. trainers in the country and placing limits on CIA activities there.

The fact that the al Qaeda chief lived for years near the Pakistani army's main academy in the northwestern garrison town of Abbottabad reinforced suspicions in Washington about Islamabad's reliability in the war against militant Islamists.

There are also growing frustrations with Pakistan over its reluctance to mount offensives against militant factions in the northwest who are fighting U.S.-led foreign forces across the border in Afghanistan.

In a show of displeasure over Pakistan's cutback in U.S. trainers, its limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants, the United States has suspended about a third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan.

Despite this, both sides have tried to prevent a breakdown of relations.

The head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, visited the United States last month for talks with U.S. government and intelligence officials, which both sides said went well. :uhh:

Despite the billions in aid, Pakistan still considers China a more reliable ally than the United States. China is a major investor in predominantly Muslim Pakistan in areas such as telecommunications, ports and infrastructure. The countries are linked by a Chinese-built road pushed through Pakistan's northern mountains.

Trade with Pakistan is worth almost $9 billion a year for Pakistan, and China is its top arms supplier.

In the wake of attacks that left 11 people dead in the China's western region of Xinjiang in late July, Pakistan dispatched the ISI's Pasha to Beijing.

http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-let-china-see-stealth-chopper-bin-laden-182139386.html

 

[Maximus]

Suspend all aid. Make them miserable any way possible and publicise it worlwide. Fuck em...hard.

 

[Kypus]

New info keeps surfacing about bin Laden's whereabouts until we found him, and we did spend hundreds of millions in logistics tracking him down. This stuff just fascinates me. US Intel had the general mountainous area in northern Pakistan correct. The speculation about them living in caves was just that- speculation.

On the run, bin Laden lived in 5 houses

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children — two of them born in government hospitals, his youngest widow has told investigators.

The details of bin Laden's life as a fugitive in Pakistan are contained in the interrogation report of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, bin Laden's 30-year-old Yemeni widow. They appear to raise fresh questions over how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Details from the report were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The Associated Press obtained a copy on Friday.

Al-Sada is currently in Pakistani custody, along with bin Laden's two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the U.S raid that killed bin Laden in May in his final hideout in the Pakistani army town of Abbottabad. The U.S. Navy SEALs shot her in the leg during the operation.

Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April 2. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Since the raid that killed bin Laden, it has been known that he lived mostly in Pakistan since 2002.

Al-Sada's account says she flew to Pakistan in 2000 and traveled to Afghanistan where she married bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

After that, the family "scattered" and she traveled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met up with bin Laden in Peshawar(20 mi from Afghan border) and then moved to the Swat Valley(about 100 mi north, further up in the mountains), where they lived in two houses. They moved one more time before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.

According to the report, al-Sada said that two of her children were born in government hospitals, but that she stayed only "two or three hours" in the clinics on both occasions. The charge sheet against the three women says that they gave officials fake identities.

During the manhunt for bin Laden, most U.S. and Pakistani officials said that bin Laden was likely living somewhere along the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border, possibly in a cave.

The fact he was living in populated parts of Pakistan raised suspicions elements in the Pakistani security forces may have been hiding him. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence this was the case.

http://news.yahoo.com/run-bin-laden-lived-5-houses-131236231.html


A) Peshwar- 1st house B)Swat River Valley- 2nd/3rd houses C) Haripur- 4th house while waiting for Abbotabad compound to be built D)Abbotabad- 5th and final house. You can see how close Peshwar is to the Afghan border (about 25 mi), and I believe eventually we had a military presence in Jalalabad, which looks to be about 100 miles away. The larger Bagram Air Base is in Kabul (E), 286 km away. So we were in fact pretty close early on.

 

[Man Called X]

FUCK ALL THIS COMING OUT. This is shit that was ignored for years, because there was no way "Osama was hiding in the general pop."

History is written by the victors, nice to know we make up tons of shit that will get put in history books. We already have. Just pissses me off this is another one of those times.

 

[Kypus]

:uhh: How would there not be new information, and a LOT of it...we captured 3 of his wives and most of his kids, plus hard drives full of information. He's dead- there's really no reason for misinformation at this point. Kids blab, and women screwing the same man stab each other in the back. So...odds are.

Moving on... Added the 4th location in Haripur to the houses map 2 posts ago.

In this photo taken Thursday, March 8, 2012, Afghan refugees gather outside the house in Haripur, Pakistan, that Pakistan's intelligence agency believes Osama bin Laden lived in for nearly a year until he moved into the villa where he was eventually killed. The home in the frontier town of Haripur was used by bin Laden while he waited for construction crews to finish his new home in the garrison town of Abbottabad, just 30 kilometers (18 miles) away. The graffiti at right reads, "journey with persistence in light and congregation" in Punjab Universality Lahore called by an Islamic students group Islami Jamaiat Tulba, Haripur." (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

http://news.yahoo.com/bin-ladens-relatives-short-prison-sentence-094530625.html

A) Peshwar- 1st house B) Swat River Valley- 2nd/3rd houses C) Haripur- 4th house while waiting for Abbotabad compound to be built D) Abbotabad- 5th and final house. You can see how close Peshwar is to the Afghan border (about 25 mi), and I believe eventually we had a military presence in Jalalabad, which looks to be about 100 miles away. The larger Bagram Air Base is in Kabul (E), 286 km away. So we were in fact pretty close early on.

 

[Damage]

What a dump..

 

[elbarko]

The Rock knew before all of us:

At 10:24 p.m. on May 1, Donald Rumsfeld's Chief of Staff and Navy Reserve intel officer Keith Urbahn tweeted from his BlackBerry, "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn." He is being credited with breaking the news "long before the networks or any other news source reported it," and clarified in an interview, "I'm not going to reveal the source, but I do feel it is important to make clear that it was not Mr. Rumsfeld or anyone who has access to classified information."

Also at exactly 10:24 p.m. on May 1, Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock, tweeted:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/05/the_rock_osama_bin_laden_keith_urbahn.php

 

[Kypus]

So, this "Mark Owen" SEAL that wrote the Bin Laden raid book is playing with fire, they've already found out his identity and will probably come after his family eventually Mossad-style. Still- he gives some good details:

In excerpts published by the New York Post, Owen (pseduonym) recalls hearing the shots that killed bin Laden and the graphic scene that followed:

We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard shots. ... In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless. ... Lying in front of me was the reason we had been fighting for the last decade. It was surreal trying to clean the blood off the most wanted man in the world so that I could shoot his photo.

The Post also printed the part that's drawn the most pre-publication attention--that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot:

Bin Laden had in his room on a shelf above the door an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol. But they were both empty.

"He had no intention of fighting," Owen writes.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/navy-seal-book-excerpts-no-easy-day-191947766.html

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

So, this "Mark Owen" SEAL that wrote the Bin Laden raid book is playing with fire, they've already found out his identity and will probably come after his family eventually Mossad-style. Still- he gives some good details:




http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/navy-seal-book-excerpts-no-easy-day-191947766.html

Normally, I'd said with the SEAL. But this is utter crap. The Administration took pains to paint a version of events most likely to play well in the Muslim world, and I can't blame them for that. Admitting that you shot the guy while he was still alive and incapacitated has no value at all other than to raise questions about whehter our most elite forces follow the Law of War.

Don't get me wrong -- I think they did the right thing. But he should have kept his yapper shut.