Submitted by: Edward Moore
SEALS RELEASE TRUTH ABOUT BIN LADEN RAID
Osama Bin Laden was killed within 90 seconds of the US Navy Seals
landing in his compound and not after a protracted gun battle,
according to the first account by the men who carried out the raid.
The operation was so clinical that only 12 bullets were fired.
The Seals have spoken out because they were angered at the version
given by politicians, which they see as portraying them as cold blooded
murderers on a kill mission. They were also shocked that President Barack
Obama announced Bin Laden's death on television the same evening,
rendering useless much of the intelligence they had seized.
Chuck Pfarrer, a former commander of Seal Team 6, which conducted the
operation, has interviewed many of those who took part for a book,
Seal Target Geronimo, to be published in the US this week.
The Seals own accounts differ from the White House version, which gave
the impression that Bin Laden was killed at the end of the operation
rather than in its opening seconds. Pfarrer insists Bin Laden would
have been captured had he surrendered.
There isn't a politician in the world who could resist trying to take
credit for getting Bin Laden but it devalued the intelligence and gave
time for every other Al-Qaeda leader to scurry to another bolthole,
said Pfarrer. The men who did this and their valorous act deserve better.
It's a pretty shabby way to treat these guys. The first hint of the
mission came in January last year when the team's commanding officer
was called to a meeting at the headquarters of joint special
operations command. The meeting was held in a soundproof bunker three
stories below ground with his boss, Admiral William McRaven, and a CIA
officer.
They told him a walled compound in Pakistan had been under
surveillance for a couple of weeks. They were certain a high-value
individual was inside and needed a plan to present to the president.
It had to be someone important. So is this Bert or Ernie? he asked.
The Seals nicknames for Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are
a reference to two Muppets in Sesame Street, one tall and thin and the
other short and fat. We have a voice print, said the CIA officer, and
were 60% or 70% certain it's our guy. McRaven added that a
reconnaissance satellite had measured the targets shadow. Over 6ft
tall.
When McRaven added they would use Ghost Hawk helicopters, the team
leader had no doubt. These are the most classified, sophisticated
stealth helicopters ever developed, said Pfarrer. They are kept in
locked hangars and fly so quiet we call it whisper mode.
Over the next couple of months a plan was hatched. A mock-up of the
compound was built at Tall Pines, an army facility in a national
forest somewhere in the eastern US.
Four reconnaissance satellites were placed in orbit over the compound,
sending back video and communications intercepts. A tall figure seen
walking up and down was named the Pacer.
Obama gave the go-ahead and Seal Team 6, known as the Jedi, was
deployed to Afghanistan. The White House cancelled plans to provide
air cover using jet fighters, fearing this might endanger relations
with Pakistan.
Sending in the Ghost Hawks without air cover was considered too risky
so the Seals had to use older Stealth Hawks. A Prowler electronic
warfare aircraft from the carrier USS Carl Vinson was used to jam
Pakistan's radar and create decoy targets.
Operation Neptune's Spear was initially planned for April 30 but bad
weather delayed it until May 1, a moonless night. The commandos flew
on two Stealth Hawks, codenamed Razor 1 and 2, followed by two
Chinooks five minutes behind, known as Command Bird and the gun
platform. On board, each Seal was clad in body amour and night vision
goggles and equipped with laser targets, radios and sawn-off M4
rifles. They were expecting up to 30 people in the main house,
including Bin Laden and three of his wives, two sons, Khalid and
Hamza, his courier, Abu Ahmed al- Kuwaiti, four bodyguards and a
number of children. At 56 minutes past midnight the compound came into
sight and the code Palm Beach signaled three minutes to landing. Razor
1 hovered above the main house, a three-story building where Bin Laden
lived on the top floor. Twelve Seals roped the 5ft-6ft down onto the
roof and then jumped to a third-floor patio, where they kicked in the
windows and entered.
The first person the Seals encountered was a terrified woman, Bin
Laden's third wife, Khaira, who ran into the hall. Blinded by a
searing white strobe light they shone at her, she stumbled back. A
Seal grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the floor. Bin Laden's
bedroom was along a short hall. The door opened; he popped out and
then slammed the door shut. Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo, radioed one
Seal, meaning eyes on target.
At the same time lights came on from the floor below and Bin Laden's
son Khalid came running up the stairs towards the Seals. He was shot
dead.
Two Seals kicked in Bin Laden's door. The room, they later recalled,
smelt like old clothing, like a guest bedroom in a grandmother's
house. Inside was the Al-Qaeda leader and his youngest wife, Amal, who
was screaming as he pushed her in front of him. No, no, don't do this!
she shouted as her husband reached across the king-size bed for his
AK-47 assault rifle. The Seals reacted instantly, firing in the same
second. One round thudded into the mattress. The other, aimed at Bin
Laden's head, grazed Amal in the calf. As his hand reached for the
gun, they each fired again: one shot hit his breastbone, the other his
skull, killing him instantly and blowing out the back of his head.
Meanwhile Razor 2 was heading for the guesthouse, a low, shoebox-like
building, where Bin Laden's courier, Kuwaiti, and his brother lived.
As the helicopter neared, a door opened and two figures appeared, one
waving an AK-47. This was Kuwaiti. In the moonless night he could see
nothing and lifted his rifle, spraying bullets wildly.
He did not see the Stealth Hawk. On board someone shouted, Bust him!,
and a sniper fired two shots. Kuwaiti was killed, as was the person
behind him, who turned out to be his wife. Also on board were a CIA
agent, a Pakistani-American who would act as interpreter, and a
sniffer dog called Karo, wearing dog body armor and goggles.
Within two minutes the Seals from Razor 2 had cleared the guesthouse
and removed the women and children.
They then ran to the main house and entered from the ground floor,
checking the rooms. One of Bin Laden's bodyguards was waiting with his
AK-47. The Seals shot him twice and he toppled over.
Five minutes into the operation the command Chinook landed outside the
compound, disgorging the commanding officer and more men. They blasted
through the compound wall and rushed in.
The commander made his way to the third floor, where Bin Laden's body
lay on the floor face up. Photographs were taken, and the commander
called on his satellite phone to headquarters with the words: Geronimo
Echo KIA Bin Laden enemy killed in action.
This was the first time the White House knew he was dead and it was
probably 20 minutes into the raid, said Pfarrer. A sample of Bin
Laden's DNA was taken and the body was bagged. They kept his rifle. It
is now mounted on the wall of their team room at their headquarters in
Virginia Beach, Virginia, alongside photographs of a dozen colleagues
killed in action in the past 20 years.
At this point things started to go wrong. Razor 1 took off but the top
secret green unit that controls the electronics failed. The aircraft
went into a spin and crashed tail-first into the compound. The Seals
were alarmed, thinking it had been shot down, and several rushed to
the wreckage. The crew climbed out, shaken but unharmed.
The commanding officer ordered them to destroy Razor 2, to remove the
green unit, and to smash the avionics. They then laid explosive
charges.
They loaded Bin Laden's body onto the Chinook along with the cache of
intelligence in plastic bin bags and headed toward the USS Carl
Vinson. As they flew off they blew up Razor 2. The whole operation had
taken 38 minutes.
The following morning White House officials announced that the
helicopter had crashed as it arrived, forcing the Seals to abandon
plans to enter from the roof. A photograph of the situation room
showed a shocked Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, with her
hand to her mouth.
Why did they get it so wrong? What they were watching was live video
but it was shot from 20,000 feet by a drone circling overhead and
relayed in real time to the White House and Leon Panetta, the CIA
director, in Langley.
The Seals were not wearing helmet cameras, and those watching in
Washington had no idea what was happening inside the buildings.
They don't understand our terminology, so when someone said the
insertion helicopter has crashed, they assumed it meant on entry, said
Pfarrer.
What infuriated the Seals, according to Pfarrer, was the description
of the raid as a kill mission. I've been a Seal for 30 years and I
never heard the words kill mission, he said.
It's a Beltway [Washington insiders] fantasy world. If it was a kill
mission you don't need Seal Team 6; you need a box of grenades.
Hooyah!
As Paul Harvey would say: You now know the rest of the story!
Please pass this on to everybody in your e-mail address book.
In God we trust! If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English, thank a Veteran.
"Action Always Beats Reaction!"
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