Osama Bin Laden Dead Thread

They should have brought him to justice, like Saddam

See, shit like that is asking for trouble.

 

More details from Marc Ambinder:

 

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

 

After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.

 

Were it not for this high-value target, it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.

This HVT was special, and the raids required practice, so they replicated the one-acre compound. Trial runs were held in early April.

 

DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives. Though the general public knows about the special SEALs and their brothers in Delta Force, most JSOC missions never leak. We only hear about JSOC when something goes bad (a British aid worker is accidentally killed) or when something really big happens (a merchant marine captain is rescued at sea), and even then, the military remains especially sensitive about their existence. Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story -- generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That’s the code.

 

How did the helos elude the Pakistani air defense network? Did they spoof transponder codes? Were they painted and tricked out with Pakistan Air Force equipment? If so -- and we may never know -- two other JSOC units, the Technical Application Programs Office and the Aviation Technology Evaluation Group, were responsible. These truly are the silent squirrels -- never getting public credit and not caring one whit. Since 9/11, the JSOC units and their task forces have become the U.S. government’s most effective and lethal weapon against terrorists and their networks, drawing plenty of unwanted, and occasionally unflattering, attention to themselves in the process.

JSOC costs the country more than $1 billion annually. The command has its critics, but it has escaped significant congressional scrutiny and has operated largely with impunity since 9/11. Some of its interrogators and operators were involved in torture and rendition, and the line between its intelligence-gathering activities and the CIA's has been blurred.

 

But Sunday’s operation provides strong evidence that the CIA and JSOC work well together. Sometimes intelligence needs to be developed rapidly, to get inside the enemy’s operational loop. And sometimes it needs to be cultivated, grown as if it were delicate bacteria in a petri dish.

In an interview at CIA headquarters two weeks ago, a senior intelligence official said the two proud groups of American secret warriors had been “deconflicted and basically integrated” -- finally -- 10 years after 9/11. Indeed, according to accounts given to journalists by five senior administration officials Sunday night, the CIA gathered the intelligence that led to bin Laden’s location. A memo from CIA Director Leon Panetta sent Sunday night provides some hints of how the information was collected and analyzed. In it, he thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for their help. NSA figured out, somehow, that there was no telephone or Internet service in the compound. How it did this without Pakistan’s knowledge is a secret. The NGIA makes the military’s maps but also develops their pattern recognition software -- no doubt used to help establish, by February of this year, that the CIA could say with “high probability” that bin Laden and his family were living there.

 

Recently, JSOC built a new Targeting and Analysis Center in Rosslyn, Va. Where the National Counterterrorism Center tends to focus on threats to the homeland, TAAC, whose existence was first disclosed by the Associated Press, focuses outward, on active “kinetic” -- or lethal -- counterterrorism missions abroad. Its creation surprised the NCTC’s director, Michael Leiter, who was suspicious about its intent until he visited.

 

That the center could be stood up under the nose of some of the nation’s most senior intelligence officials without their full knowledge testifies to the power and reach of JSOC, whose size has tripled since 9/11. The command now includes more than 4,000 soldiers and civilians. It has its own intelligence division, which may or may not have been involved in last night’s effort, and has gobbled up a number of free-floating Defense Department entities that allowed it to rapidly acquire, test, and field new technologies.

 

Under a variety of standing orders, JSOC is involved in more than 50 current operations spanning a dozen countries, and its units, supported by so-called "white," or acknowledged, special operations entities like Rangers, Special Forces battalions, SEAL teams, and Air Force special ops units from the larger Special Operations Command, are responsible for most of the “kinetic” action in Afghanistan.

 

Pentagon officials are conscious of the enormous stress that 10 years of war have placed on the command. JSOC resources are heavily taxed by the operational tempo in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials have said. The current commander, Vice Adm. William McRaven, and Maj. Gen. Joseph Votel, McRaven’s nominated replacement, have been pushing to add people and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technology to areas outside the war theater where al-Qaida and its affiliates continue to thrive.

 

Earlier this year, it seemed that the elite units would face the same budget pressures that the entire military was experiencing. Not anymore. The military found a way, largely by reducing contracting staff and borrowing others from the Special Operations Command, to add 50 positions to JSOC. And Votel wants to add several squadrons to the “Tier One” units -- Delta and the SEALs.

 

When Gen. Stanley McChrystal became JSOC’s commanding general in 2004, he and his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, set about transforming the way the subordinate units analyze and act on intelligence. Insurgents in Iraq were exploiting the slow decision loop that coalition commanders used, and enhanced interrogation techniques were frowned upon after the Abu Ghraib scandal. But the hunger for actionable tactical intelligence on insurgents was palpable.

 

The way JSOC solved this problem remains a carefully guarded secret, but people familiar with the unit suggest that McChrystal and Flynn introduced hardened commandos to basic criminal forensic techniques and then used highly advanced and still-classified technology to transform bits of information into actionable intelligence. One way they did this was to create forward-deployed fusion cells, where JSOC units were paired with intelligence analysts from the NSA and the NGA. Such analysis helped the CIA to establish, with a high degree of probability, that Osama bin Laden and his family were hiding in that particular compound.

 

These technicians could “exploit and analyze” data obtained from the battlefield instantly, using their access to the government’s various biometric, facial-recognition, and voice-print databases. These cells also used highly advanced surveillance technology and computer-based pattern analysis to layer predictive models of insurgent behavior onto real-time observations.

 

The military has begun to incorporate these techniques across the services. And Flynn will soon be promoted to a job within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he’ll be tasked with transforming the way intelligence is gathered, analyzed, and utilized.

 

In all honesty, when I read articles about this subject some things just don't make sense.

 

 

I never liked conspiracies and I will never look into them but you can not deny that our governments are withholding information and manipulating the media. This sort of manipulation has been going on for years (look at how they brought down several governments in South-America where the CIA didn't play by the book), some people are even playing on both teams.

 

And this just sickens me, I can't really complain about the life I'm living and I think most of you agree with me on that. But knowing there is something else going on scares me.

 

 

Of course there is information which will never reach the public because of safety measurements or we just don't need to know about.

 

 

 

I just feel we are being played, big time.

They should have brought him to justice, like Saddam

He resisted.

They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives.

 

I don't know what that means exactly, but I suddenly remembered this - there are people in this world who work for US gov-t who have the right to take out their gun and shoot someone if they think he is bad news. The other guy doesn't even need to have a weapon.

 

Gotta be a strong willed man to be able to resist that kind of power.

The jokes are all over the place this morning. I cant stand Kanye West, but this was funny...

 

See, shit like that is asking for trouble.

 

It's an Internet forum and we are having fun.

I have always had a large amount of respect for the Special Forces teams. Navy Seals, Rangers, Green Berets, etc. But my respect has reached a new found level for them. My appreciation to the men and women overseas serving our military goes out to them. I have read so much about this story since this morning. But all I keep thinking about is this....

 

Somewhere, on a plane, or in a base camp, or on a vehicle out there is someone who took this scumbag down forever. I don't care what Obama said in his speech. I don't care if Pakistan knew about it or not. I don't care if we paid them to let us do this. All I know is that myself and many others can say that the master villain behind the 9/11 attacks has met his maker. And it turns out his ideals were wrong. And he will be sipping one back with Saddam with there 40 virgins that turn out to be dudes, down in hell.

 

May you burn in hell for eternity.

 

And to the team that took this MF-er down, beers on me

I have always had a large amount of respect for the Special Forces teams. Navy Seals, Rangers, Green Berets, etc. But my respect has reached a new found level for them. My appreciation to the men and women overseas serving our military goes out to them. I have read so much about this story since this morning. But all I keep thinking about is this....

 

Somewhere, on a plane, or in a base camp, or on a vehicle out there is someone who took this scumbag down forever. I don't care what Obama said in his speech. I don't care if Pakistan knew about it or not. I don't care if we paid them to let us do this. All I know is that myself and many others can say that the master villain behind the 9/11 attacks has met his maker. And it turns out his ideals were wrong. And he will be sipping one back with Saddam with there 40 virgins that turn out to be dudes, down in hell.

 

May you burn in hell for eternity.

 

And to the team that took this MF-er down, beers on me

 

CHEERS TO THAT BUDDY!!!!!!

 

He resisted.

 

 

 

I AM SO HAPPY this piece of $hit has met his maker or whatever he believes in. I would have loved if we could have had horses drag him through new york city while he was alive, and had all of the FDNY, NYPD, and family of the victims of 9/11 spit and p!ss on his face. Then take him to the top of the Empire state building, strategically set a room on fire and make him jump or be burned to death like many of our American victims had to due to his stupid followers. God it p!sses me off to even think about what this scumbag and his people did to us.

 

IMO now its time to bring the majority of our troops home, and let our Special Forces units surgically cut out the garbage terrorist units around the world.

Even though the identities will be kept secret, do you think we'll get a nice play by play of the takedown in a future book?

 

Or to what level can we get a full account?

Watch this, and you will be all that much more thankful of what our troops did this past weekend. The end of the video also show the various attacks on the UK and other countries...

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv4s3fn8jDc

A couple of questions

 

First one - the media are (rightly) questioning how he could have been at that location for such an extensive period of time?

 

Second - that location was picked up because it did not have any obvious communication capability. So other than the courier how did he communicate to his generals? How did he look after the financial side of his army? Surely he must have documents there which would indicate other activity?

I don't know what that means exactly, but I suddenly remembered this - there are people in this world who work for US gov-t who have the right to take out their gun and shoot someone if they think he is bad news. The other guy doesn't even need to have a weapon.

 

Gotta be a strong willed man to be able to resist that kind of power.

 

I've said it again and this bears repeating! Geneva convention or not, no matter how anyone feels about it, we employ a group of men who are literally walking/swimming/diving/eating/sleeping human exterminators. The capabilities and integrity of these men pale anything hollywood can dream up. I'm thankful they are on call to handle our bullshit whenever duty calls, and believe they should be given near immunity to any scrutiny in how they perform their jobs.

 

When your only choice is to send a dozen of the baddest guys walking the planet to get the job done you don't ask questions about how they accomplished the mission. Any/all decisions they make were clearly the right ones given the circumstances, and I personally refuse to believe some politician sitting in an office has the right to say otherwise.

 

 

I've said it again and this bears repeating! Geneva convention or not, no matter how anyone feels about it, we employ a group of men who are literally walking/swimming/diving/eating/sleeping human exterminators. The capabilities and integrity of these men pale anything hollywood can dream up. I'm thankful they are on call to handle our bullshit whenever duty calls, and believe they should be given near immunity to any scrutiny in how they perform their jobs.

 

When your only choice is to send a dozen of the baddest guys walking the planet to get the job done you don't ask questions about how they accomplished the mission. Any/all decisions they make were clearly the right ones given the circumstances, and I personally refuse to believe some politician sitting in an office has the right to say otherwise.

 

Very happy they are with us... Not that any of us would know their accomplishments by meeting them nor would they talk about what they do as most of them only handle classified missions, but it would be awesome to at least talk about training, etc.

 

 

 

Very happy they are with us... Not that any of us would know their accomplishments by meeting them nor would they talk about what they do as most of them only handle classified missions, but it would be awesome to at least talk about training, etc.

 

Read Lone Survivor and you'll get a small glimpse of what these guys dedicate their lives to.

Did any one see the story about the Pakistani guy who was unknowingly twittering about the raid in progress? Crazy stuff.

Pakistani man unknowingly live tweets raid

Interesting tweets, and you can see the timeline there too... http://twitter.com/#!/reallyvirtual

 

Supposedly a video of the house (how the hell is that thing worth US$1million???)

 

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Compound Where Osama Bin Laden Was Killed - Photos from Inside the Osama Bin Laden Kill Zone

 

Abbottabad looks better from Google maps than it does from the ground!

 

Let the conspiracy theories begin. SHIT, he's already been spotted!

And THAT is going to be a huge problem as time goes on unless they release a picture of the dead body!

~3000 died in 9/11 attacks

2340 coalition members have died in the war in Afghanistan so far.

 

was it worth it?

I'm still confused on the timeline somewhat...when did they do the DNA test to confirm his identity? They came in from Afghanistan and then out to where?

 

And for your second question Cpt Chaos...they had no phone lines, but they did seem to have computers so maybe some type of wireless communications going on at the house or maybe down the street...I think one of the reasons they chose to build close to a military academy was so that maybe some of the communications could be masked by traffic to and from the school maybe? Hell I dont know.

 

Finally, is that a freakin waterbed in the room they keep showing on TV?

when did they do the DNA test to confirm his identity?

 

I'm not 100% sure how the DNA tests work but i'm guessing they have to compare the DNA from the body with some kind of sample. How the hell did they get the sample of Osama's DNA?

 

I'm not 100% sure how the DNA tests work but i'm guessing they have to compare the DNA from the body with some kind of sample. How the hell did they get the sample of Osama's DNA?

 

They have sample DNA from his family and compare it to those.