INTRODUCTION TO HOMELAND SECURITY COURSE.
The Death of Osama bin Laden
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed during a raid by U.S. naval special forces on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The successful attack by a unit popularly known as SEAL Team Six ended an intensive manhunt for the most wanted terrorist leader in the world.
The successful hunt for Osama bin Laden originated from fragments of information gleaned during interrogations of prisoners over several years, beginning in 2002. Believing that bin Laden retained couriers to communicate with other operatives, interrogators focused their attention on questioning high-value targets about the existence and identities of these couriers. This focus was adopted with an assumption that bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders would rarely communicate using cell phone technology as a precaution against being intercepted by Western intelligence agencies.
Early interrogations produced reports that a personal courier did indeed exist, a man whose given code name was Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. In about 2007, intelligence officers learned al-Kuwaiti’s real name, located him, and eventually followed him to a recently built compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. U.S. intelligence operatives observed the compound locally from a safe house and concluded that it concealed an important individual. Based on other surveillance and circumstantial intelligence information, officials surmised that Osama bin Laden resided at the compound with his couriers and their families.
Options for assaulting the compound included a surgical strike by special forces, deploying strategic bombers to obliterate the compound, or a joint operation with Pakistani security forces. The latter two options were rejected because of the possibility of killing innocent civilians and distrust of Pakistani security agencies. Approximately two dozen SEAL commandos practiced intensely for the assault and were temporarily detailed to the CIA for the mission. A nighttime helicopter-borne attack was commenced on May 2, 2011. The courier al-Kuwaiti and several others were killed during the assault, and women and children found in the compound were bound and escorted into the open to be found later by Pakistani security forces. Osama binLaden was located on an upper floor of the main building and shot dead by SEALs. Four others were killed in addition to bin Laden, whose body was taken away by the assault team. He was subsequently buried at sea.
Al-Qaeda threatened retribution for the attack and named Ayman al-Zawahiri as bin Laden’s successor in June 2011. Subsequent to bin Laden’s death, al-Qaeda’s leadership brand faced competition from a new Islamist movement calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
1. What effect did the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden have on domestic homeland security?
2. Which options are most desirable when conducting global manhunts for terrorist suspects?
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