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Tonight, I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts. They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates. For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda’s leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda. And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.
Compound residents
Yellow flowered curtains screened the room from curious eyes, and the walls were filled with hundreds of tapes (audio and video) carefully organized in rows. “Arshad” hired a local architectural firm to draw up plans for a large, two-story building on the premises—with very specific criteria. On the ground floor, the new villa was designed with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, as well as a kitchen; the second floor had another four bedrooms and four bathrooms. A third floor was added later, write Levy and Scott-Clark; it would become bin Laden’s living area, with a bedroom, study and tiny bathroom and kitchen.
Bin Laden's neighbors noticed unusual things - NBC News
Bin Laden's neighbors noticed unusual things.
Posted: Tue, 03 May 2011 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Intelligence linked a courier to a large compound in Pakistan.
The president, still wearing the clothes in which he had played golf earlier in the day (to avoid alerting anyone else to the fact that something unusual was happening at the White House), stayed out of the way of his team until just before the helicopters arrived at the compound. He wrote that didn’t want to sidetrack them by having them rehash all the plans and the strategies they’d deploy to address any glitches. Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we’ve made great strides in that effort. We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support.
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Then, on October 12, 2000, a small boat loaded with explosives plowed into the hull of the U.S.S. Cole, an American naval destroyer docked off the coast of Yemen. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.
“Minutes seemed like hours,” he recalled, even after the SEAL team members were back on board their helicopters with bin Laden’s body and a trove of data retrieved from the compound. He had said at a White House briefing on Tuesday that Bin Laden had not been armed. "On the first floor of Bin Laden's building two al-Qaida couriers were killed, along with a woman who was killed in crossfire," he said.
Another family, including Kuwaiti's brother, who was the co-owner of the complex, lived on the first floor of the main house with further women and children. Bin Laden was thought to be living with his fifth wife and some of his children on the second and third floors behind translucent windows. All in all, at the time of the raid the compound was inhabited by eight or nine children aged from two to 12, three women and at least four men. Ahead of a Monday morning briefing about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the U.S. government released some graphics that shed new light on the compound where the most-wanted terrorist had been hiding for years. When Seal Team Six carried out a raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011, they not only killed the al Qaeda leader but swept up a treasure trove of his personal belongings.
Killing of bin Laden
Eventually he rebelled against indoor confinement, sending his son Khalid to buy him a hat with a wide brim, like a cowboy hat, that would mask his features if he went outside late in the day. Khalid also oversaw the construction of a gazebo and trellises that would prevent a satellite from obtaining a clear image of his face or physique. Khalil and his family lived there for more than 20 years but were forced to flee following the September 11 attacks. According to Fox 35 Orlando, the home - which sits on 17 acres of land - has changed owners several times over the years and it used to belong to the family that created Tupperware and a creator of Jello. “If he had failed that night, I think it would have cost Obama the presidency,” Mullen said later, citing the thought that haunted him as he and others watched the raid unfold.
They picked up the bloodied bodies of Bin Laden and his son and flew into the night, back to Afghanistan. They were out of sight by the time the first Pakistani officials arrived shortly afterwards to find four dead bodies – including an unnamed man thought perhaps to have been a guard or household retainer – and the bound survivors in reportedly hysterical mood. Kuwaiti lived with his family in the complex's guesthouse, divided from the main house by a high wall.
It's Unclear How Many People Lived There
He was known to be a skilled orator, able to manipulate a variety of rhetorical strategies and to make his message easily accessible even to the uneducated. At the end of the 20th century, bin Laden was thought to have had thousands of militant followers worldwide, in places as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Bosnia, Chechnya, and the Philippines. Osama bin Laden studied business administration at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, where it is likely that he also received instruction in religious studies from Muḥammad Quṭb, brother of the Islamic revivalist Sayyid Quṭb, and Abdullah Azzam, a militant leader.
Newly released White House photos capture the day bin Laden was killed - The Washington Post
Newly released White House photos capture the day bin Laden was killed.
Posted: Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
However, Khalil’s family swiftly departed the vacation abode in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, leaving the mansion to face its fate. The SEALs operated in teams and used weapons including the HK416[74] assault rifle (their primary weapon), the Mark 48 machine gun for fire support, and the MP7[55] personal defense weapon, which is used by some SEALs for close quarters and greater silence. Just as the foundation of bin Laden's compound remains in Abbottabad, certain attitudes about him persist. A couple of hours away, in the city of Rawalpindi, we talked with people in the Raja Bazaar amid the chaos of shoe vendors and banana carts. We asked the first 10 people we met about bin Laden and got two kinds of answers.
Four combatants and one woman used as a human shield were killed in the raid, according to Pentagon statements. The second group poured into the main house before working their way, clearing room by room, up to Bin Laden's quarters. Kuwaiti's brother was killed as he prepared to fire a gun and as the troops moved to ascend the stairs to the second and third floors, they killed a fourth person, thought to be Bin Laden's adult son Hamza as he "lunged" towards them, according to the New York Times report.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has since made a large portion of these materials available to the public. Bin Laden’s personal possessions paint a more complete picture of the notoriously secretive leader behind the 9/11 attacks. Here are nine unexpected things discovered in Bin Laden’s compound and what they reveal about the founder of the international terrorist network al Qaeda. The 44th president of the United States, perched on what Souza described as a folding black chair, is one of the most informally dressed people in the room—and simultaneously the most intensely focused on what was unfolding in front of him. Obama had decided very early on in his first term that he wanted to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. “I wanted to remind the world…that these terrorists were nothing more than a band of deluded, vicious killers,” he later recounted in his memoirs.
International reactions to bin Laden’s death ranged from favorable to mixed. Some Arab countries and leaders condemned the actions of the United States. The actual mission, dubbed Operation Neptune Spear, officially started in the early-morning hours of May 2, Pakistan time (afternoon of May 1, Eastern Daylight Time). The model depicts the compound known to locals in Abbottabad as ” the Waziristan Haveli.” “Haveli” means “mansion” in Pashtun and Waziristan is a region in Pakistan.
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