Operation Neptune Spear

The Death of Osama bin Laden ( German "project Neptune Spear") of 2 May 2011 was a by US President Barack Obama arranged and the CIA -led military operation of the United States in Abbottabad , Pakistan . According to US data, members of the DEVGRU (Navy SEAL Team 6) special unit killed Osama bin Laden , the founder and leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network , which was responsible for several attacks against the United States, including the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 with about 3,000 dead, believed to be responsible, and others present.

The US government and the soldiers involved have presented the course of the operation in different ways. It is also controversial whether the Pakistanis disclosed bin Laden's place of residence to the USA and were privy to the action.

The operation's code name refers to the trident of the Roman god of the sea, Neptune , which is also included in the Special Warfare Insignia of the United States Navy SEALs . He thus refers to the selected special unit.

prehistory

Bin Laden's whereabouts

Bin Laden's whereabouts in Abbottabad - schematic diagram

The house with the entrance gate in which Bin Laden was hiding

Comparison of the property in 2004 and 2011

According to testimony from bin Laden's family members, Pakistani intelligence officers and the information provided by the wife of the courier al-Kuwaiti, bin Laden had lived with his wives and children and the courier's family in a property in the northern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the suburb of Bilal Town of the military garrison city since August 2005 Abbottabad, which is about 50 kilometers northeast of the capital Islamabad . First information in the press from 2011 had named January 6, 2006 as the move-in date.

The complex, regional Waziristan Haveli called because a liaison bin Laden, who organized the construction of the building, from the region of Waziristan came. The property was built from 2003 to 2005. Noor Mohammed is the building contractor and Gul Mohammed is the structural engineer. The building was owned by bin Laden's personal courier, Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti. The US government initially assumed it was worth around $ 1 million . This assessment was later corrected and the facility was downgraded to $ 250,000.

The property was about 3,500 m² and was completely surrounded by a 3 to 5.5 meter high wall topped with barbed wire . This had two gates that served as security gates. There were also a number of surveillance cameras and several satellite dishes . Several buildings had been erected on the property, the main building consisted of three floors. From the outside, it differed from the buildings in the surrounding area due to its size and safety devices, such as particularly small windows and a balcony on the top floor surrounded by a 2.10 meter high wall as a screen. The house had no phone lines or internet connections.

On May 1, 2011, there was an approximately 1000 m², carefully tended vegetable garden with cabbage , potatoes and cannabis on the premises. A cow and chickens were also kept. It is believed that there was also a self-sufficient water supply with a well. In contrast to the neighbors, all garbage in Bin Laden's house was burned on his property and not put on the street for collection.

The building was demolished by Pakistani security forces in February 2012.

Manhunt

Statements by witnesses who allegedly saw bin Laden or people who look like him did not produce any concrete results. Therefore, from 2006 onwards , the investigators of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) did not pursue such leads, but instead concentrated on possible couriers of bin Laden. In 2007, they finally learned from statements by al-Qaeda member Hassan Ghul , who was captured in Iraq , that bin Laden had a personal courier with the code name Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti . The high-ranking al-Qaida members questioned afterwards, Abu Faraj al-Libi and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , who is considered the main planner of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, denied knowing the name. Among other things, this contradiction confirmed the investigators in the assumption that al-Kuwaiti could actually be a confidante of bin Laden. Months later, Chalid finally admitted to knowing al-Kuwaiti, but at the same time claimed that he was no longer a member of al-Qaeda and was of no importance to bin Laden.

In June 2009, President Barack Obama instructed CIA Director Leon Panetta to submit a detailed plan for the location and capture of Osama bin Laden within thirty days. Obama gave the matter a higher priority after instructing Panetta when he took office to step up the search for bin Laden again.

A National Security Agency document made known by Edward Snowden in June 2010 revealed that among other things there was a proposal to locate Bin Laden based on his medical profile. Bin Laden had suffered from diseases of the urinary tract for a long time and was dependent on medical treatment, which is why it was considered, among other things, to hide tracking transmitters in medical aids in order to track him down. Around this time, the CIA was able to identify bin Laden's courier al-Kuwaiti and trace it to Abbottabad in Pakistan. Al-Kuwaiti's attempts to throw off any tailors indicated that he was still serving as a courier for al-Qaeda. This suspicion was further corroborated by a bugged phone call in which Al-Kuwaiti mentioned, among other things, that he was "with the same people as before".

CIA Director Panetta reported the new findings to the President in August 2010 and said that Bin Laden's courier had been located in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Obama then asked to be kept informed. In September, a CIA report called Anatomy of a Lead described the Abbottabad property and suspected that Osama bin Laden was there. In another briefing in December 2010, Panetta was able to show President Obama additional videos and descriptions of the Abbottabad property. However, at this point in time, the secret services were not sure whether bin Laden was actually there. Because of the size and shielding, the secret service suspected that at least one of al-Qaida's leaders must live there. It is unclear to what extent the NSA provided administrative assistance, but Jon Darby (then Deputy Director of Counter-Terrorism for the NSA) mentioned in an interview on May 17, 2011 that his agency had played a key role in identifying the property.

According to media reports, under the guise of a free vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, the CIA attempted to obtain DNA samples from the residents of the property in order to identify bin Laden and prove his presence. This vaccination campaign was carried out by the Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi in March 2011. A nurse employed by Afridi is said to have been given access to Bin Laden's property. However, it is not known whether she was actually able to obtain DNA samples.

According to CIA chief Panetta, Afridi obtained "extremely useful information" for the later Operation Neptune Spear. After the killing of Bin Laden, Afridi was arrested by Pakistani security authorities, charged in Pakistan with cooperating with the CIA and sentenced on May 23, 2012 to 33 years in prison for high treason . In response, the Senate Grants Committee cut US grants to Pakistan by $ 33 million in a symbolic act. The Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was that it was "outrageous that Pakistan find the man who helped us, Osama Bin Laden, called a traitor."

Action plans

In January 2011, during a consultation with Panetta, CIA analysts recommended that action be taken quickly because the intelligence situation would not improve. Panetta then announced to President Obama that al-Kuwaiti could disappear and that further investigations would then be required. Obama called for action plans to be developed by April. Four possible scenarios emerged, including Operation Neptune Spear , based on Vice Admiral William H. McRaven's key principles for special operations - repeatability, surprise, safety, speed, simplicity, and purpose. At the same time, the US investigators collected further evidence until February 2011 and observed the property; they found out that the courier and his wife lived in the outbuilding, and that other families lived on the top two floors of the main building. You once saw a tall man walking in the courtyard.

On March 14th, at the meeting of the United States National Security Council , President Obama was briefed on the four plans of action. There was a choice: first, the bombing of the property by B-2 stealth bombers, second, a drone attack, third, a helicopter attack on the building complex with the deployment of US special forces, and fourth, a joint operation between the United States and Pakistan. McRaven noted at the meeting that he would review the third option for its feasibility and will report soon whether it was feasible. To do this, he needs three weeks of practice. The action itself is not difficult to carry out, but it would be a challenge to drop the units without triggering an exchange of fire with Pakistan. The mission is sporty, but doable , says McRaven.

On March 29, Operation Neptune Spear emerged as Obama's preferred. The bombing was abandoned because it would destroy valuable evidence and kill too many civilians. The inclusion of Pakistan was also ruled out as there was no relationship of trust. At that time, analysts had assessed the likelihood of Osama bin Laden being in the shelter: the main CIA analysts assumed a 95 percent probability, another group estimated 80 percent, while a third group assumed a probability between 30 and 40 percent ran out of.

On April 12th, Panetta undertook a reassessment of the intelligence situation, but this did not result in a clear identification of Osama. At the same time, soldiers from DEVGRU (SEAL Team Six) practiced in North Carolina and Nevada from the beginning to the middle of April on a facility replicated on the property. The exercise setup conveyed the size and environmental conditions to the marines . After the technical details had been practically modeled, McRaven informed the President of the collected exercise results. The operation seems like a routine operation in Afghanistan and Iraq . The challenge is still the flight through the Pakistani airspace, because the sovereignty of this airspace is being violated. In late April, the DEVGRU unit was relocated to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. She continued the operational exercises on the local replica of the complex.

On April 19, the US National Security Council discussed concerns about the operation. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates feared the risk of failure similar to the Raymond Davis incident and the associated rise in anti-Americanism in Pakistan. All parties involved agreed that protecting the emergency services is over the interests of Pakistan. In the end, the decision was made to assign additional MH-47 helicopters to the mission .

The CIA feared exposure at the end of April because of possible leaked information. On April 25, she therefore gave a final estimate of the likelihood that Osama bin Laden would be in the property, at 40 to 60 percent. For Obama, this reduced to a fifty-fifty decision. Shortly afterwards, on April 28, the last meeting of the National Security Council took place; only a follow-up meeting in the afternoon between McRaven and Obama prompted the President to announce his final decision for Operation Neptune Spear the following day. Obama gave McRaven the order to start on April 30, 2011 by phone. On May 1, CIA Director Panetta sent out President Obama's final authorization to conduct the operation.

The reasons for the appointment later cited the moonless night - which was supposed to facilitate an unnoticed approach - and the fear of the leakage of the action plan, which would have thwarted the plan and permanently denied bin Laden any access in Pakistan.

course

Map of Pakistan , Abbottabad is 55 km from the capital Islamabad, 269 km from the Jalalabad military airfield and 373 km from Bagram Air Base

Representation of the US government

The CIA, to which units of the United States Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) were subordinated, had official responsibility for the action . The JSOC under Vice Admiral McRaven directed the operation from Bagram. A special unit of the Navy SEALs, the Red Squadron of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU, formerly known as Team Six ), carried it out on the night of May 1-2, 2011. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) took over their air transport . A total of 79 soldiers and a service dog were involved. The dog should sense possible explosives and the approach of strangers in the building and warn about them.

The emergency services were flown into the operational area with four helicopters - two MH-47 Chinooks and two modified MH-60 "Black Hawk" . The air temperature was 8.3 ° C (17 ° F) higher than expected and made flight conditions difficult. The MH-47s waited on call near Bin Laden's property, the two other helicopters flew to the main building.

Originally it was planned that one Black Hawk should land on the roof of the house and the other on the property in order to storm the main building from above and below at the same time and thus better surprise the residents. However, one of the helicopters got into a vortex ring stage while hovering . It had to make an emergency landing on the property, its tail rotor hit a wall and was so badly damaged that it had to be left behind and blown up by the emergency services. Using photographs of its intact tail rotor, experts from helicopter manufacturers explained that it was a publicly unknown version of a Black Hawk with stealth technology . This also explains that the approach through Pakistan succeeded without being noticed by the Pakistani air surveillance.

The MH-60 were each manned by a team of about twelve men who abseiled from the helicopters, blew gaps in the walls and stormed the two buildings in the inner courtyard. Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti was on the ground floor of an outbuilding, opened fire on the first group as they entered the building, and was apparently shot dead with his wife during the course of the action. There is evidence that al-Kuwaiti may have been the only armed man in the property. According to other sources, he is said to have used his wife as a protective shield, so that both were shot.

The second group stormed the main building. In the stairwell, the soldiers shot Kuwaiti's brother, who is said to have suspected his hand behind his back, but who turned out to be unarmed. A son of bin Laden was also shot looking down the stairs that the soldiers were storming up. According to other reports, the son was in Bin Laden's bedroom and was killed there with his father.

Bin Laden is said to have been in a room on the second floor with his youngest wife and a daughter. According to the first information of the presidential advisor John O. Brennan , he is said to have participated in a firefight opened by his companions and to have used his wife as a protective shield; she was killed with him. CIA director Leon Panetta stated that bin Laden made threatening movements and was therefore shot. According to Panetta, cash worth 500 euros and two telephone numbers were sewn into Bin Laden's clothes: According to them, he was prepared to flee.

Jay Carney , White House spokesman, corrected some of this information on May 2: Bin Laden was unarmed, the allegedly killed woman was not his wife and she was only injured. Bin Laden was killed by one shot each in the chest and head, and Carney left it open whether and how he should have put up resistance. According to an unnamed government spokesman, the woman is said to have called bin Laden's name and positioned herself between him and the soldiers before she was injured and he was shot. According to statements made by individual participants on May 4, 2011, bin Laden was allegedly found with a rifle and a pistol within range and shot with an HK416 after showing no sign of surrendering. Official observers of the operation released on May 17 that three US soldiers met Bin Laden at the end of the hallway on the second floor, recognized him and followed him to his bedroom. There two women tried to protect bin Laden and were pushed aside by the first soldier, while the next soldier behind him immediately shot bin Laden. According to this representation, two weapons were only found on a shelf near the door of the room after the dead man had been photographed. The US government admitted incorrect details in the first representations and corrected them several times.

According to the US government, Obama had given priority to the safety of the soldiers involved: they should not give bin Laden an opportunity to shoot fatally. None of them were injured. According to a US government security advisor, they had been ordered to be targeted and had no intention of capturing bin Laden. Government spokesmen contradicted this insofar as it was assumed that the action could end with bin Laden's killing, but this was not intended from the outset, but his arrest was also planned. The task of killing or capturing , which is common in such anti-terrorist campaigns , does not, however, require any specific precautions for the survival of the target person.

In total, the US soldiers killed five people in the property. In addition to Bin Laden's body, they secured three AK-47 assault rifles, two pistols, several cell phones, over 100 storage media such as USB sticks , DVDs and computer floppy disks as well as ten hard drives , five computers and large amounts of documents in the house. The whole operation on the premises took 38 minutes.

The National Security Council is following the operation in an adjoining room of the White House Situation Room . Situation Room photo taken by Pete Souza at the time one of the incoming helicopters crashes.

The action was broadcast directly to the White House via satellite using the helmet cameras of the soldiers involved . In addition to Obama, Vice President Joe Biden , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , Secretary of Defense Robert Gates , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Adm. Michael G. Mullen, and Deputy Commander of the JSOC , Brigadier General Marshall B. Webb , watched the operation. CIA Director Leon Panetta was on conference call from Langley . Contrary to initial reports, after the helicopter had landed, they initially received no live images of the storming of the house and the killing of bin Laden for about 23 minutes, but heard the radio message "Geronimo EKIA" ("Enemy killed in action"). : "Enemy killed in battle"). Obama then said: We have him.

According to the US government, bin Laden's body was photographed at the crime scene and then flown to Afghanistan, where a DNA analysis and comparison with DNA samples from his sister, who had died in the US, confirmed his identity. He was then taken aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and, according to John Brennan, buried there in strict accordance with Muslim funeral regulations around 11:00 a.m. local time at an unknown location in the Arabian Sea .

Representations from Pakistan

According to initial reports by the Pakistani government, Pakistani warplanes arrived in Abbottabad shortly after the US soldiers left, so that, according to initial reports, they almost intercepted the helicopters. According to documents that are said to come from the later report of the Pakistani Abbottabad Commission on the killing of Bin Laden, the Pakistani air force is said to have only become aware of the incident via television; then the fighter planes were dispatched. The operation was unexpected and the airspace was not covered by radar, so that the Pakistani armed forces could not have detected the American helicopters beforehand.

According to initial reports, police only arrived after the American units had withdrawn. However, the Abbottabad police were made aware of the incident by constant ringing of the phones since the arrival of the US helicopters. According to police chief Muhammad Nazir, strips were sent from the Nawan Shehr police station. He and two other police officers found the area surrounded by the military when they arrived. They asked to be able to build a security corridor. An unnamed police officer told the BBC that he was aware of a Pakistani military operation. They were prevented from entering the property.

According to various statements by Pakistani officials, the Pakistani police found two bin Laden's widows and nine and 14 children, respectively, between the ages of two and twelve years old, some with minor injuries, handcuffed and detained there early on May 2. Three male and one female dead were recovered: They are said to have been the courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, his wife, his brother (also a bodyguard of Bin Laden) and Bin Laden's son Ibrahim (age 21). Later reports named 17 people living and abandoned, including three widows, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren of bin Laden. Others report 27 people, including 18 children and nine women.

Pakistani reports from May 5, 2011 contradicted the versions of the incident by the US government: According to this, bin Laden's twelve-year-old daughter Safia is said to have testified in Pakistani interrogations that bin Laden was only executed at close range after he was arrested and only when he was transported to the helicopter on the ground floor been. According to other information from the Pakistani secret service Inter-Services Intelligence , however, she is only said to have said that she observed the shooting of her father at close range.

Representations of soldiers involved

Chuck Pfarrer, former SEAL , denied the representation of the US government in his book SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden , published in August 2011 . He claims to have spoken to participating SEALs as part of the research. According to the pastor, the SEAL team landed on the roof of the building; Just 90 seconds after the storm began, bin Laden was shot in an act of self-defense, the pastor claimed, because he had reached for a weapon. There were no long exchanges of fire, the US soldiers only fired twelve shots in total. The SEALs interviewed said that the special forces' operation was not a killing mission, because it did not require a SEAL team. A US government security advisor had announced that the SEALs were on a killing mission before President Barack Obama later denied it.

According to information in the book 'No Easy Day,' Bin Laden Raid Book: Osama Was Unarmed (written by Matt Bissonnette - who is considered a SEAL involved in the storming - under the pseudonym Mark Owen), which has not been approved by the US Department of Defense or received the White House, some soldiers shot bin Laden from the stairs. This had disappeared into the room from which he came. When the SEALs entered the room, he was lying unarmed on the floor and was wrestling with death. The SEALs fired more shots in his chest, killing him. Then two unloaded weapons were found in the room; thus bin Laden was in no way able to defend himself armed. Contrary to earlier reports, wrote Matt Bissonnette, they were not shot at when they landed on the property, and there was no 40-minute gun battle. Before the action, a government representative had instructed all soldiers involved that although no one said how the special unit should do its work, bin Laden should be arrested if he did not pose a threat.

In October 2014, former SEAL Robert O'Neill stated that he fired the instantly fatal headshot when he entered the bedroom where bin Laden was hiding behind his youngest wife. According to information from the Basler Zeitung, it is certain that O'Neill was one of the three US soldiers next to Matt Bissonnette who first penetrated the room. However, the third, unnamed "Point Man" is the actual shooter bin Laden. However, the latter will not reveal his identity and thus adhere to the requirements of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command .

Play media file

US President Obama's televised address on the killing of Bin Laden, May 1, 2011, from 11:35 p.m. (local time)

Reactions in the US

Announcement

On May 1, 2011 at 10:25 p.m. local time ( UTC − 4 ), the White House announced that important news from the US President would soon be available. Shortly afterwards, an employee of the former US administration under George W. Bush spread the death news as an unconfirmed rumor on Twitter . At 10:45 p.m., major US news channels and newspapers relayed the news as an oral testimony from various anonymous government officials, so it quickly spread around the world. At 11:35 p.m. Obama announced bin Laden's killing in his announced television speech to the nation.

On May 2, the official White House Flickr photo stream posted nine photos of Pete Souza showing Obama and his leadership team before, during and after the military operation. One of them was Situation Room , which quickly rose to the rank of icon . A photograph of the killed Bin Laden circulating on the Internet turned out to be fake on May 3. Obama decided on May 5th not to publish any photographs of the person killed in order not to stir up hatred and violence. On May 11, the CIA offered members of the US Senate and House Armed Forces Committees the opportunity to view the photographs. Some accepted the offer.

Book author Chuck Pfarrer accused the US government of prematurely announcing the shooting of bin Laden in November 2011, saying that other high-ranking al-Qaida members were warned and could have fled.

Celebrations and Precautions

Spontaneous meeting at Ground Zero New York

Immediately after Obama's television speech, cheering crowds gathered in front of the White House and at Ground Zero New York . Ex-Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and international officials congratulated Obama.

In anticipation of possible revenge attacks, US diplomatic missions abroad were put on alert and US citizens were called to be more vigilant. Interpol called for increased vigilance due to the increased threat of terrorism around the world.

According to a representative survey from May 5 to 7, 2011, 87% of the US citizens questioned believed Bin Laden's killing was correct, and 86% also believed the unilateral approach of the US troops.

Amnesty International

On May 4, 2011, Amnesty International sent the US government a questionnaire on the condition and whereabouts of the injured and underage escorts, the circumstances surrounding bin Laden's killing and the nature of his alleged resistance to his arrest. In the case of an unarmed man, if he was not an immediate danger to the US soldiers, this should have priority in order to be able to bring him to justice under international law.

Government spokesman Jay Carney said on May 4, 2011:

“The team had the authority to kill Osama bin Laden unless he offered to surrender, in which case the team was required to accept his surrender, if the team could do so safely. The operation was conducted in a manner fully consistent with the laws of war. The operation was planned so that the team was prepared and had the means to take Bin Laden into custody.
There is simply no question that this operation was lawful. Bin Laden was the head of Al Qaeda, the organization that conducted the attacks of September 11, 2001, and Al Qaeda and Bin Laden himself had continued to plot attacks against the United States. We acted in the nation's self defense. The operation was conducted in a way designed to minimize and avoid altogether if possible civilian casualties. And if I might add, that was done at great risk to Americans. "

“The team was authorized to kill Osama bin Laden unless he offered to surrender. In this case, the team was required to take on the task, if they could safely do so. The operation was carried out in a manner entirely in accordance with the laws of war. The operation was planned so that the team was prepared and equipped to arrest bin Laden.
Without question, this operation was legal. Bin Laden was the leader of al-Qaeda, the organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks, and al-Qaeda and bin Laden himself have continued to plan attacks against the United States. We acted in defense of the nation. The operation was carried out in a manner designed to reduce and avoid potential civilian casualties altogether. And may I add that this was done at great risk for Americans. "

Debate about the name Geronimo

Geronimo - the name of a legendary Apache chief who had a reputation for leaving no traces - initially erroneously appeared in the press as the codename of the operation. The US government then announced that this was the code name for Osama bin Laden himself. With the radio message Geronimo EKIA ( Enemy Killed In Action : Enemy killed in action) involved US soldiers announced his killing in the course of the action. According to information from those involved, the code word Geronimo denoted the letter G, which in internal radio communications stood for the seventh and final stage of the planned action: to catch or kill bin Laden. The completion of the entire contract has been announced with Geronimo EKIA.

Representatives of the indigenous population of North America criticized this code word as defamation, since it compares the most hated enemy of the USA with the historical Apache chief.

Debate about torture practices

Some of the prisoners whose statements led to the discovery of Bin Laden's whereabouts were also subjected to interrogation methods such as waterboarding , which are internationally recognized as torture . This is why the debate about these methods flared up again in the USA. For example, the former attorney general Michael B. Mukasey claimed on May 6, 2011 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libi had disclosed the alias of the courier and other details about him because of the waterboarding. Donald Trump claimed on May 11th that without torture, bin Laden would not have been caught and killed.

John McCain , Obama's rival candidate in the 2008 presidential election in the United States on May 5 and 12, 2011, contradicted this : CIA Director Panetta had assured him when asked that it was not Khalid Mohammed, but someone who was imprisoned in another country and who had not been tortured Prisoner mentioned the courier's name first. His real names were not disclosed to any of the prisoners who were exposed to waterboarding. On the contrary, Khalid Mohammed made false and misleading statements about the courier. He urged Mukasey and others to correct their claims. The harsh interrogation methods should be defined as torture and thus illegal under US law and incompatible with American identity. However, Mukasey reiterated on May 12 that Khalid Mohammed had uncovered the courier's name and other terrorist plans as a result of waterboarding; this was both effective and legal.

From a precise comparison of their statements, a commentator for the Washington Post concluded : The decisive reference to bin Laden's whereabouts was probably not obtained through torture, since Mukasey only spoke of the alias and did not claim this as a decisive lead, but only suggested it linguistically.

After the film Zero Dark Thirty about Bin Laden's killing was released in December 2012 , three US senators asked the film producer to clarify that the information that led to the discovery of bin Laden was not obtained through torture of al-Qaeda members Representation in the film is fictional.

Retention of information and destruction of documents

The conservative US foundation Judicial Watch submitted an application under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Department of Defense for inspection of photographs and video recordings of Bin Laden's body and the funeral ceremony on May 2, 2011 and to the CIA one day later. Since both authorities did not allow this, a legal battle ensued. A court ruling that upheld the previous instance rejected the FOIA applications in May 2013. The United States Supreme Court did not allow an appeal . The court followed the arguments of the US government that the publication could provoke riots. In addition, in January 2014 it became known that Judical Watch had received documents from the Ministry of Defense. These contained e-mails that revealed that after the FOIA request was made shortly after the killing of Bin Laden, the commander in charge of the operation, McRaven, gave instructions eleven days later to destroy photos immediately. According to the Freedom of Information Act, the photos should have been kept until the legal dispute was finally resolved.

The Associated Press also submitted FOIA requests. The Pentagon said in 2012 that it could not find a death certificate , autopsy reports , or DNA identification tests for bin Laden. Further inquiries about the FOIA to the Department of Defense were rejected in July 2013. It became known that records of the operation had been handed over to the CIA by the Department of Defense as the mission was under their responsibility. CIA spokesman Preston Golson said this was not done to circumvent the FOIA, but for legal reasons.

In addition to Judicial Watch and Associated Press , Politico , Citizens United , Fox news , National Public Radio , CBS News and Reuters filed FOIA requests for access to various documents related to bin Laden's death.

Contradicting representation

Left to right: Admiral Michael Mullen and Scott Van Buskirk on the USS Abraham Lincoln talking to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha in August 2008.

In 2011, Raelynn Hillhouse put forward the thesis that Pakistani security circles knew about Bin Laden's whereabouts and that he had been betrayed by a member of the security forces. The Kurier story would have been a cover to relieve the ally Pakistan and to conceal its knowledge of the whereabouts. Carlotta Gall, long-time correspondent for the New York Times in Kabul, also wrote that she had learned from credible sources that it was actually a Pakistani army officer [...] who told the CIA where bin Laden was hiding. According to NBC, two of their intelligence sources confirmed the so-called walk-in of the informant who revealed bin Laden's whereabouts. In Germany, the Pakistan expert Hein G. Kissling had written in his book in the same year that: the Abbottabad operation of the Americans [...], even if officially different declarations come from Washington and Islamabad, most likely after prior agreements of the CIA were carried out with the ISI leadership. The German secret service responsible for foreign intelligence, BND , also assumed that a small circle within the Pakistani military secret service was aware of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad.

In May 2015 the US journalist Seymour Hersh published the investigative report "The Killing of Osama Bin Laden". He claims that it was not US agents that tracked down bin Laden, but that an informant from the ranks of the Pakistani secret service ISI revealed his whereabouts. The property in Abbottabad was not a hiding place, but a prison in which the ISI had held bin Laden since 2006 in order to be able to use him as a means of pressure in negotiations with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The "biggest lie" for Hersh was that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , head of the Pakistani army at the time, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha , head of the ISI, had not been informed.

US government officials responded with denials on May 11. The publication was commented on with scorn and ridicule. see also: Seymour Hersh allegations

Reactions in Pakistan

Government and authorities

Pakistani police arrested and interrogated those found on bin Laden's property, including some of his family members. Pakistan only allowed direct interrogation by US officials on condition that the country of origin of the interrogated persons had to agree; after a corresponding application by the USA, the permit was granted on May 11th.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry confirmed Bin Laden's killing on May 4, 2011 and criticized the US for not informing Pakistan until after the operation. The Pakistani government categorically ruled out that - contrary to press reports - the civilian as well as the military leadership had premature knowledge of the American operation.

According to an article in the Guardian - citing unnamed American and Pakistani sources - from May 9, Pakistan's former head of state and ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf is supposed to allow the United States under President George W. Bush to take arbitrary actions against bin Laden in Pakistan in a secret agreement in 2001 also the Pakistani outrage over the violated sovereignty agreed to deceive the public. A spokesman for Musharraf denied this the following day.

Some MPs, including a former minister, prayed for bin Laden in parliament on May 11th. On May 14, the latter condemned the US operation with a resolution as a breach of the country's sovereignty and threatened to ban NATO military transports through Pakistan if US drone attacks were not ended.

Publicity

In Abbottabad around 70 - in Peshawar around 200 - lawyers are said to have demonstrated against the killing by May 5.

In response to bin Laden's killing, CIA chief Mark Carlton was exposed on May 9 in Islamabad.

In view of bin Laden's residence near the Pakistan Military Academy , the country's largest military academy, for whose safety the neighborhood was often and strictly checked, there were discussions in Pakistan about how he could stay there undetected for years. Some suspected that Pakistan's ISI had covered him; others thought this was inconceivable, as al-Qaeda also killed many Pakistanis. Foreign Minister Salman Bashir , on the other hand, referred on May 6 to the successes of the ISI's manhunt against al-Qaida members. The fact that he passed on his knowledge to the CIA also led to the unmasking of bin Laden.

Pakistani Taliban

In a first act of revenge for Osama bin Laden's “martyrdom”, the Pakistani Taliban carried out an attack on May 13th. In front of an academy of the paramilitary police unit Frontier Constabulars in the district of Charsadda near the provincial capital Peshawar , more than 70 recruits and civilians died; there were also at least 115 injured. On the night of May 23, 2011, a group of 15 men armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the Mehran naval aviation base near Karachi . A Tehrik-i-Taliban-Pakistan spokesman then said it was revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden. By the end of the month there had been at least four attacks and actions involving other dead and injured in Pakistan in retaliation by the Taliban for bin Laden's death.

Abbottabad Commission of Inquiry Report

In June 2011, the Pakistani government set up the Abbottabad Inquiry Commission to investigate the circumstances of the attack on demands for fact-finding and to bring those responsible to justice. After more than a year of work, the committee made 200 suggestions after interviewing over 300 witnesses and reviewing over 3,000 documents. The commission's work was curtailed after senior Pakistani officials such as President Asif Ali Zardari , Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Military Commander Ashfaq Parvez Kayani refused to testify. The Commission also noted that it feared the Commission's report would be ignored or even suppressed and recommended that the Pakistani leadership publish it.

In July 2013, a version of the Commission's report was disclosed by the Al Jazeera news channel, forcing the government to make the official final version available. According to the government, the version by Al Jazeera was not authentic, with Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as a member of the four-man commission later saying that the final version was a "muted" version of the unauthorized one. The Al-Jazeera version mainly represents the final version of the report from the point of view of three members, namely the presiding judge Javaid Iqbal , Nadeem Ahmads and the former police inspector Abbas Khan.

The Abbottabad Commission of Inquiry report outlined how the United States was able to undermine Pakistan's defense. It also highlighted tensions between Pakistani security forces and the United States. The commission accused the Pakistani authorities of gross negligence and incompetence in failing to discover bin Laden for a decade. The report considered the possibility that current and former officials were providing assistance to the al-Qaeda leader, but there was no evidence of complicity to support these allegations. The commission found that the American operation was Pakistan's greatest humiliation since 1971. The report does not identify individuals responsible for the failure to find bin Laden or the American incursion into Pakistan, and says it is politically unrealistic to propose punishments, but honorable men who vow to do honorable things should formally contact the Apologize to the nation for its failure in service.

More reactions

Other Islamic states and groups

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke of the "punishment for his actions". Some Taliban called for increased efforts to promote the peace process as a consequence of bin Laden's death. Saudi Arabia welcomed the news of death. Many Shiites reacted with relief, as al-Qaeda had also killed many Shiites in attacks.

Some Muslim clergy criticized the burial at sea of a person who died on land as a breach of Islamic tradition that could humble Muslims and provoke acts of revenge. Others said that Muslims were only allowed to be buried at sea if no one wanted to receive the body; he would have been handed over to the family and they should have looked for a place to bury him.

For Iran , Minister Heydar Moslehi claimed in an interview on May 8, 2011 that bin Laden had already died on December 16, 2001. He also criticized the United States for disposing of his body without evidence of his killing.

Al-Qaeda officials admitted bin Laden's killing in a multi-page Internet text, extolled those killed as a role model and called on Muslims to retaliate, especially in Pakistan.

The Hamas leader Ismail Haniya condemned the killing as an attack on a Muslim and Arab warrior, with which the US continued its bloody suppression.

Relatives of Bin Laden

According to Pakistani reports from May 5, 2011, bin Laden's twelve-year-old daughter Safia is said to have observed the actions of the US soldiers and described it as follows: He was first captured alive, then dragged to one of the helicopters and lying on the ground on the ground floor at close range been executed.

On 11 May 2011, published New York Times the open letter of the sons of bin Laden in which they doubted his killing and criticized. They asked the UN to investigate the circumstances of his death and announced that they would involve the International Criminal Court in the absence of such an investigation . At the same time, the alleged author, the son Omar bin Laden, recalled that he had repeatedly distanced himself from his father's actions and views. The typewritten letter is said to have first appeared on a Talib's website.

On May 12, US media reported that US intelligence officers in Pakistan, in the presence of Pakistani officials, interrogated bin Laden's three widows arrested in the building for the first time: Khairiah Sabar (nickname Umm Hamza), Siham Sabar (Umm Chalid) and 29-year-old Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah. The latter had confirmed Bin Laden's killing, in which she was injured in the leg, on May 7th. She said the family had lived in Abbottabad for five years, prior to that in the village of Chak Shah Mohammad for two years . Apart from receiving donations, bin Laden had hardly anything to do with al-Qaeda.

Germany

In Germany , the apparently planned and targeted killing of bin Laden without consulting the sovereign state of Pakistan was often criticized as a violation of international law , including by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt . The quick burial of the body at sea was also criticized as unusual in Islam.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the other hand, said in an initial reaction that she was pleased that bin Laden had been killed. This statement was criticized by church representatives, but also by CDU representatives , and defended by others. The Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann filed a criminal complaint against Merkel for rewarding and approving criminal offenses in accordance with Section 140 of the Criminal Code .

According to the ARD survey Deutschlandtrend from May 2011, 64 percent of those questioned saw no reason to be happy about Bin Laden's death. 42 percent said the US had the right to kill him; 52 percent said they should have tried to get arrested.

Original misinformation

In the first days and weeks after the access, media reports based on official statements and information from anonymous sources appeared. Many representations and details were incorrect and corrected over time. The official statements have also been changed several times.

Role of Pakistan

Both American and Pakistani authorities said after the operation that the Pakistani government had no knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts, a place less than two kilometers from the Pakistani officers' academy in Abbottabad. As early as 2012, Carlotta Gall expressed the thesis that bin Laden had been housed in Abbottabad by the Pakistani secret service ISI with the knowledge of the highest authorities. In March 2014, Gall replied and felt confirmed, also in the view of Afghanistan, which located the uncertainty in the country in the undisturbed supplies from Pakistan.

Determination of the whereabouts of Bin Laden

The CIA and military authorities involved, as well as the White House, portrayed the investigation into bin Laden's whereabouts in Abbottabad as a long-running CIA operation, during which the interrogation of captured terrorists revealed evidence of a bin Laden's courier. The CIA then managed to identify this courier and trace it to the house. These investigations were carried out without the involvement of the Pakistani secret service, just as the subsequent deployment of the Pakistani side was only announced when it was already running.

Long before the access, rumors were circulating that the Pakistani secret service ISI had been informed of Bin Laden's whereabouts - after the access it spread that an ISI employee was offering him a part of the 25 (or 50) million dollar bonus betrayed the CIA. Further statements about the involvement of the ISI and the betrayal were known until 2013/14, but could not be verified by journalists. Carlotta Gall agreed on one point of the rumors due to "strong indications" but was skeptical of other publications by Seymour Hersh in May 2015 claiming high Pakistani officials knew about it. A retired brigadier general named Usman Chalid is said to have sold bin Laden's whereabouts to the CIA in exchange for US citizenship and a new identity.

Similar operations

In the operation Kayla Mueller in 2019 a US Special Forces came Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed the leader of the terrorist organization IS.

literature

Mark Owen: No Easy Day. The only first-hand account of the Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. Penguin Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7181-7751-5 .
Mark Bowden : The Finish - The Killing of Osama bin Laden. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-8021-2152-3 . German edition: Killing Osama - Barack Obama's secret war. Berlin Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8270-1146-6 .
Chuck Pfarrer: Seal Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden. St. Martins Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-250-00635-6 .
Peter L. Bergen : The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden: A Story of Revelation . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04551-5 (English: Manhunt . Translated by Helmut Dierlamm and others).

Movies

The hunt for bin Laden - In the crosshairs of the secret services (2012), BBC documentary .
Zero Dark Thirty (2012), feature film by Kathryn Bigelow based on a script by Mark Boal
Code Name: Geronimo (2012), TV movie directed by John Stockwell

Web links

Commons : Tod Osama bin Laden - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Barack Obama's speech on the death of Osama bin Laden - sources and full texts

New York Times, May 8, 2011: How Osama bin Laden Was Located and Killed (overview of preparation and course of the mission including photographs)
Background discussion in Esquire with the Navy SEAL who fired the fatal shots at Bin Laden
3D reconstruction of the property ( memento from January 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Reuters, May 2, approx. 2:30 a.m. local time: Photographs of the destroyed helicopter and three men killed
Video with indoor footage of Good Morning America on abc news
More photos from Daily Mail online

Individual evidence

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↑

"The most blatant lie was that Pakistan's two most senior military leaders - General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha , director general of the ISI - were never informed of the US mission."

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