Logan Darklighter Wrote:Ok - I would love to know details of the operation. (If possible, I'd love to know who made the actual kill-shot. That man should never ever have to buy his own drinks anywhere in the western world for the rest of his life.) But realistically I know many details, if not most, will have to remain classified for some time. But it'll be a hell of a story when finally told.

Logan Darklighter Wrote:I find the "we are not at war with Islam" comments in the address needless. But fine, Bush said the same things. Whatever.

Logan Darklighter Wrote:Oh and today is my birthday. Best damn birthday present I've had for many years.

Quote:Update (AP): Nicholas Jackson of the Atlantic says the location of the compound has already been marked — by someone — on Google Maps.
Follow the link and have a look. Assuming it’s correct, the compound
is less than a thousand feet away from a (rundown) Pakistani police
station.

Update (AP): WSJ reporter Tom Wright
notes an amazing coincidence: Arch-terrorist and longtime Bin Laden
crony Umar Patek was also captured in Abbottabad three months ago.
Here’s a Jakarta Post
story on the arrest published just two weeks ago. (Patek is Indonesian
and was linked to the Bali bombings in 2002.) Pakistani intel is now
claiming, per Wright, that they helped lead the U.S. to Bin Laden via
information gleaned from Patek. That seems unlikely — apparently, we’ve
known Bin Laden was in Abbottabad for six months or so, and if Pakistan
was providing intel on OBL, Obama wouldn’t have waited until after
today’s operation to phone Zardari. Still, it’s too startling a
coincidence to actually be a coincidence. Did Patek lead us right to
Bin Laden’s door by rendezvousing with him? And why didn’t Bin Laden
run once Patek was picked up? He must have known by then that either
Pakistan or the U.S. was interested in arresting local super-terrorists.

Update (AP): Howard Kurtz listened in on a conference call given by U.S. officials about the raid on the compound:

Quote:Security at the compound was “extraordinary,” an official
said, with 12- to 18-foot walls topped by barbed wire. Yet the $1
million compound had no phone or Internet service. “Our best assessment
was that bin Laden was living there with several family members,
including his youngest wife,” the official said.

Asked what bin Laden did once the U.S. team landed, an official would say only: “He did resist the assault force.”

Officials said three other men were killed in the raid—one who is believed to be bin Laden’s adult son, and two couriers. One woman was killed when she was used as a shield by one of the combatants, they said. The U.S. team lost a helicopter due to mechanical failure.

I can’t wait for the full details tomorrow and then, in a year or two, the inevitable movie. More from ABC News and Brian Ross. It was, of course, the Navy SEALs who were the tip of the spear:

Quote:The U.S. had been monitoring the compound in Abbottabad
for months after receiving a tip in August that Bin Laden might be
seeking shelter there. He had long been said to be in the mountainous
region along the Afghanistan, Pakistan border, hiding in a cave as the
U.S. sought to kill him with drone strikes from above. Instead, he was
in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, with a seven-foot wall
and valued at $1 million. The house had no phone of television and the
residents burned their trash. The house had high windows and few points
of access, and U.S. officials concluded it had been built to hide
someone.

According to U.S. officials, two U.S. helicopters swept into the
compound at 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Twenty to 25 U.S. Navy
Seals under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command in
cooperation with the CIA stormed the compound and engaged Bin Laden and
his men in a firefight, killed Bin Laden and all those with him.

Pakistani officials say it was a joint operation; U.S. officials say
that only Americans were involved in the raid. Hmmmm. Oh — and Bin
Laden did, reportedly, fire his gun. Savor the terror he must have felt
in those last moments as those SEALs came through the windows and
doors.

Quote:Update (AP): Amazing. This Pakistani IT consultant
lives in Abbottabad and ended up tweeting about strange goings-on this
morning without knowing the significance, of course. A few choice
tweets:

Quote:Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

the few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani…

I wonder which cable news net will land the first interview with him tomorrow.

Quote:Update: An Al-Arabiya correspondent
claims that two of Bin Laden’s wives and four of his sons were captured
during the raid. Apparently, the key to the whole operation was
finding and tracking Bin Laden’s most trusted courier, a process that
took years — and involved info given by Guantanamo detainees:

Quote:Some time after Sept. 11, detainees held by the U.S. told
interrogators about a man believed to work as a courier for bin Laden,
senior administration officials said. The man was described by detainees
as a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and “one of the few Al Qaeda
couriers trusted by bin laden.”

Initially, intelligence officials only had the man’s nickname, but they discovered his real name four years ago.

Two years ago, intelligence officials began to identify areas of
Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated, and the great
security precautions the two men took aroused U.S. suspicions.

Last August, intelligence officials tracked the men to their
residence in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a relatively wealthy town 35 miles
north of Islamabad where many retired military officers live.

Ultimately, it was the conspicuous size and security precautions
taken at the compound that made it stand out. And when they got further
intel that a family roughly the size of Bin Laden’s was living there,
they nailed it down. In other words, Osama was, for all intents and
purposes, hiding in plain sight.

Also: U.S. officials confirmed that Pakistan was not, in fact, informed before the operation.

ordnance11 Wrote:Because now Congress is going to be extremely leery of giving them any more bakseesh for thier putative help. Let's face it, the Pakistanis having been playing a double game. I'm more going with placing him at sea to prevent any shrines to his quote "martrydom". Should had blown up the compound also, but I understand the strict timetable.
Rob, we are celebrating (and rubbing it in the eyes of every jihadi out there) that it may have taken a long time to get Bin Laden, but he didn't die in bed. He had been more or less taunting the U.S that for all our might, we could not catch Public Enemy #1. Well we now did. And yes, #2 is a combat stategist. But does he have the makings of a leader? He may very well be just the first among equals. I suspect these guys will retaliate somewhere along the line, but I also suspect a shaking out right for a while. Look what happened to Al Fatah after Arafat croaked.

Wiredgeek Wrote:Well it was only a matter of time in this age if WikiLeaks. The names of the Team 6 soldiers that were on the mission have been leaked. They are:
Slab Bulkhead, Fridge Largemeat, Punt Speedchunk, Butch Deadlift, Bold Bigflank, Splint Chesthair, Flint Ironstag, Bolt Vanderhuge, Thick McRunfast, Blast Hardcheese, Buff Drinklots, Trunk Slamchest, Fist Rockbone, Stump Beefgnaw, Smash Lampjaw, Punch Rockgroin, Buck Plankchest, Stump Chunkman, Dirk Hardpeck, Rip Steakface, Slate Slabrock, Crud Bonemeal, Brick Hardmeat, Rip Sidecheek, Punch Sideiron, Gristle McThornBody, Slake Fistcrunch, Buff Hardback, Bob Johnson, Blast Thickneck, Crunch Buttsteak, Slab Squatthrust, Lump Beefrock, Touch Rustrod, Reef Blastbody, Big McLargeHuge, Smoke Manmuscle, Beat Punchbeef, Pack Blowfist, and Roll Fizzlebeef

robkelk Wrote:Hate to put a damper on things, but this needs to be mentioned... They didn't get his deputy.

Control of al-Queda has now been removed from the public-relations expert and placed in the hands of the combat strategist.

Consider that while you're celebrating.

Ayiekie Wrote:Eh, to be honest, al-Q's been fairly irrelevant for years now. Not much a small group can actually do when they're hiding in the mountains in Pakistan. I suppose some of that pressure will be off now that the US got the top guy, but it remains to be seen if they even possess enough remaining assets to be a factor in Afghanistan, let alone further afield.

Ayiekie Wrote:As far as Bin Laden goes, in theory I'd have preferred it if he'd been
taken alive and tried in a proper court, but LOL at the concept of rule
of law applying to Barack Obama's America.

Ayiekie Wrote:Despite Bin Laden's general
irrelevance, he had value as a symbol and would certainly have plotted
to kill more people had he remained alive to do so, so it's good he's
gone

Ayiekie Wrote:

robkelk Wrote:Hate to put a damper on things, but this needs to be mentioned... They didn't get his deputy.

Control of al-Queda has now been removed from the public-relations expert and placed in the hands of the combat strategist.

Consider that while you're celebrating.

Eh, to be honest, al-Q's been fairly irrelevant for years now. Not much a small group can actually do when they're hiding in the mountains in Pakistan. I suppose some of that pressure will be off now that the US got the top guy, but it remains to be seen if they even possess enough remaining assets to be a factor in Afghanistan, let alone further afield.

As far as Bin Laden goes, in theory I'd have preferred it if he'd been taken alive and tried in a proper court, but LOL at the concept of rule of law applying to Barack Obama's America. Despite Bin Laden's general irrelevance, he had value as a symbol and would certainly have plotted to kill more people had he remained alive to do so, so it's good he's gone.

blackaeronaut Wrote:Definitely agree with you on that one.  With him out of the way, Al-Q's lost some serious momentum - their figurehead, so to speak.  While the war is going to be far from over (plenty of 2nd-in-commands to snipe) I definitely feel we've hit a mid-way point.

robkelk Wrote:

blackaeronaut Wrote:Definitely agree with you on that one.  With him out of the way, Al-Q's lost some serious momentum - their figurehead, so to speak.  While the war is going to be far from over (plenty of 2nd-in-commands to snipe) I definitely feel we've hit a mid-way point.

What BA said. We've reached the beginning of the end for al-Qeada - I'm just worried that the end is going to be bloody... and not just on their side.