The process took 7 years, and started with a nugget of information offered by a Gitmo-ite, the nome de guerre of Bin Laden's most trusted messenger/courier, someone who was also a minion of KSM.
We have known this courier was in this swank area of Pakistan for some time, but it took a painstaking process of elimination to narrow the target to the single structure, which, in hindsight, stands out (barbed wire, 10 foot walls, armed security, no windows, no trash generation) even in this upscale neighborhod. It's not the typical household of a messenger. That sent flags up. From all appearances, it looks like OBL's hubris paid off.
He was hold up in (to use the real estate term) a "new build," a walled and secured compound built especially to hide him, somewhere in 2005.
The compound is very near the Pakistani equivalent of West Point, both located in a swanky suburb of the Pak capital city, Islamibad. This raises obvious questions as to exactly who was aware of Bin Laden's presence.
The Paks should be sweating this...we have put up with too much..
After the DIA and CIA finished their painstaking detective work, President Obama ordered the insertion of Navy Seals. He did not first let the Paks know what he was doing. Why? We all know. OBL would have been tipped off. Nice move.
Here's the account from UK's Guardian, and from the NYT.
This is a 'Google Earth' satellite view of the area, with the compound and the Pak military academy indicated.
View Larger Map
Views from the ground, the day after (from UK's Daily Mail).
Methinks the 1 million dollar US value of that new build might have taken a hit.
President Obama let's us in on it while I was sound asleep...damn. But had a good morning eh?
For those that Facebook, some great snaps from an outstanding photographer here at the Naval Academy, Bobby Dixon. The Midshipmen partied all night!
That's the Supe lightin' up a stogie!
And, there were stogies-a-plenty in and around the White House.
And New York City..
No comments:
Post a Comment