Al-Qaeda

U.S. Pledges $60 Million, for New Sahel Counter-Terror Force

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced on Monday that the United States has pledged $60 million dollars to support the counterterrorism initiative by allies in Africa’s Sahel region.

Tillerson said the US will support the Group of Five Sahel Joint Task Force, a military headquarters that will encompass up to 5,000 troops set up by Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger earlier this year.

“Defeating terrorism depends on making sure terrorist organizations cannot have safe havens on any continent,” Tillerson said. “This money will bolster our regional partners in their fight to ensure security and stability in the face of ISIS and affiliated groups and other terrorist networks.”

At a U.N. Security Council meeting about the Sahel Joint Task Force Monday, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley made clear that the funding would be on a bilateral basis, subject to congressional approval, and not given through the United Nations, which is trying to establish sustained funding and assistance to the force.
“We believe that the G5 force must be, first and foremost, owned by the countries of the region themselves,” Haley said, referring to the group of five African nations. “We also have serious and well-known reservations about using U.N. resources to support non-U.N. activities,” she added.
In the coming weeks, the Security Council will discuss four options for U.N. support to the force to make its work fully operational. They range from expanding the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali – known as MINUSMA – to establishing a dedicated U.N. support office to deliver logistics and other soft support on a limited scope.

Mali’s foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop welcomed the news but said that other countries can do more in helping Mali and the other countries fighting terrorism. He said the financially strapped country is spending 70 percent of its GDP to combatting terror, and multi-national criminal networks while trying to improve its infrastructure.

Among the terror networks active in the five-country Sahel region are the Islamic State, several al-Qaida-linked groups operate in the area, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Nigeria-based Boko Haram.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

It is Time to Prepare for our Next Round of Terrorist Incidents

With the summer of 2017 over and the fall arriving today, our National Preparedness Month is nearly over. And in that vein, let’s forget about the idiot White Supremacists and the equally vile Antifa dolts for a minute and talk about some issues that are bound to crop up and soon here in the United States.

Terrorism and not the big attacks like 9-11 are on the horizon. One doesn’t have to read the tea leaves very hard to see what is happening and what we have to expect. The news that Islamic State is getting their fourth point of contact handed to them in Iraq and Syria is good news…to an extent. But with their dreams of a “caliphate” dashed by the coalition forces smashing them out both countries, they and Al-Qaeda are going back to do what terrorists have always done. Take shots at soft targets that are easy to pick out and nearly impossible to defend against. Expect many more car/truck type of attacks on crowded pedestrians and attempts to derail our train systems.

In the latest Al-Qaeda propaganda magazine, “Inspire”, the author goes on at length about the “lone jihadi” and how effective he is at “targeting aggression.” By targeting aggression he means targeting women and children in the west, specifically in Europe and the United States.

The latest issue of “Inspire” had a six-page how-to manual for the lone jihadi on train derailing operations. The magazine went on to say, “We present to you the 17th issue of Inspire, devoted to targeting trains, specifically by derailing them from the tracks using a simple tool. And for the first time, we present to you a simple way in designing this derail tool. If implemented, it can greatly affect and damage the enemy in multiple ways.”

So although they’re moving from airlines (more to that later) to trains, they still have a plethora of targets that they can identify that will be much easier to attack with just one or two terrorists and get the maximum exposure for the incident.

They spend a lot of time talking about designing a simple derailment tool that can be used either outside or inside the train. “Railways extend across America, and there are 10,000 daily express trains operating throughout the country transporting different loads and freights. Therefore, 95% of trains’ economic income come from freight transportation, not passengers. Most railways and train movement are concentrated in the Eastern states, where the population density is too high. And on a daily basis, over 3.5 million U.S. passengers use train transportation.”

In this instance, they are exactly correct. If you live in one of the states in the eastern US, nearly every town has a rail line running through it. Trying to secure all of those is impossible. They take a page out of the US playbook, (they read our doctrine closer than many of our leaders do) and speak using our current terminology. “This method of Jihad is one of the modes of conflict between us and the West — something both new and old — a way of hemming in the enemy and breaking its strength, and this mode of asymmetrical warfare was pioneered by our predecessors centuries ago,” the article states.

The idea of derailing trains is hardly new, the French Resistance just prior to D-Day in France with the help from Special Operators from the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) blew up or derailed countless trains to disrupt the German war machine. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, want to attack the civilian populace. They break it down further with sections on Urban Rail Transit, Inner-City Trains, and Regional Trains.

In an attempt to bring its past glory to the forefront, the magazine includes a message from Hamza Usama bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden. He’s being groomed now as one of their future leaders. He gave “advice” for martyrdom-seeking people in the west. We can expect to see and hear much more from him in the future.

So, car and truck attacks will continue in our crowded inner cities, train derailment is the next thing. And a word to anyone out there, if you see anything that doesn’t look right in the circumstances, then it probably isn’t. And report it immediately.

A final word about preparedness. Our airlines have gone to great lengths to protect us in the air against future terrorist incidents. But our security is still far too reactive. Because of the idiot shoe bomber, we still must, in many cases, remove our shoes before going thru security. The planes and boarding terminals are safer than they’ve been in our history. But what about our ticketing terminals?

They’re a sieve. The next time you travel, especially on a busy travel weekend, look at the long queues to get to the ticketing counters. Hundreds, perhaps a thousand people can be lined up waiting to get to the counter with bags in hand. What kind of security do they go thru prior to entering the ticketing terminal?

Anyone can enter with bags and go straight to the lines in our ticketing terminals. All of our security really begins when the ticketing process is over and you try to get to the boarding terminals. The same holds true for returning passengers at baggage claim. Anyone can enter with zero security checks to pick up loved ones and/or business partners. With hundreds of people around a baggage carousel, how easy would it be for a couple of terrorists to hit one of these targets? Far too easy.

When I worked as a security professional and traveled extensively I saw the difference between the US and the airports that the Israelis run. Tel Aviv’s airport a passenger goes thru three checks BEFORE getting to the ticket counter. Then additional checks are done before getting to the boarding terminals.

Our airports are NOT the safe places our leaders think they are. We still have much work to be done there…Hopefully before something bad happens there.

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia (Boston Marathon bombing)

Special Forces Lost a Brother in Twin Towers, a Member of the NYFD

Yesterday we wrote about the tragedy of 9-11 and the horror that we all felt that day 16 years ago as we watched planes fly into the World Trade Center and the thousands of lives that were lost in New York City, in Washington D.C., and in rural Pennsylvania.

Almost everyone in the country either lost someone they knew or knows someone who lost people that fateful day.

But today we’re going to talk about just one of those people, he was a member of the Special Forces Regiment, a brother, although we never met. He was a member of the New York City Fire Department, a Fire Marshall who answered the call that morning and died comforting those around him in those final minutes. He was helping those people high up in the WTC who were worried that no one would come for them.

Ronald Bucca was everything you’d look for in both a Special Forces soldier and firefighter in the city of New York. Dedicated, relentless, brave and an absolute self-starter, he is the epitome of what made both professions the envy of their different realms in the world.

As a Fire Marshall, Bucca would investigate fires after the fact. But at the station when they got the call that the first Tower was hit, he was ten blocks away. He told his boss James Devery, “Let’s go.”

Bucca joined the Army near the end of the war in Vietnam and was a member of both Military intelligence and SF with the 11th SFG. All told he spent 29 years as a member of the military between his active duty and reserve time. His daughter joked that she learned early never to lie to her father as his intel background would alert him in a second if she wasn’t telling the truth.

Bucca joined the NYFD in the late 1970s and became a member of Rescue One which was a highly specialized part of the Fire Department. In 1986, he somehow survived a five-story fall while trying to help a fellow firefighter. Telephone wires broke his fall but his army training may have saved his life. As he plummeted to the ground, he executed a PLF (parachute landing fall) although he still broke his back and knee in the process. After his miraculous landing, he became known as the “Flying New York City Fireman”

Bucca could have retired with a disability pension but he vowed to return to Rescue One in a year. He designed his own physical therapy program and spent the next year in grueling, painful training, slowly working his way back. And sure enough in 1987, he returned to Rescue One. In 1992 he became a Fire Marshall.

With his background as a Green Beret and with the Defense Intelligence Agency, he was the only member of the NYFD on the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York City.

Having been on the scene for the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, Bucca kept plans for the WTC in his locker and was very familiar with the layout. He frequently told members of the task force that he expected another big terrorist attack in the city and especially at the WTC.

He kept flow charts of the terrorist’s cells and linked al-Qaeda to the bombing. He also identified a mole within the NYFD working as an accountant working for the terrorists. The mole had gotten blueprints of the World Trade Center and lied to get a second ID for Metrotech in Brooklyn, where the plans for the major city buildings were kept.

On the morning of September 11, he telephoned his wife who was at her job as a nurse to tell her the awful news. “A plane just went into the Trade Center, and we’re going into the building now,” he said.

He and Devery arrived just as the South Tower was hit. Using Bucca’s knowledge of the layout, they were sprinting up the stairs. But the athletic Bucca began to leave Devery in his wake. On the 51st floor, Devery came across Lin Young a worker for the city who was badly burned and bloodied and was making her way down from the 78th floor. Devery led the badly injured woman down the stairs through the debris and thick smoke to safety. Through radio recordings, the department tracked Bucca’s movements

He and a Battalion Commander, Otto Palmer made it all the way to the 78th floor, Palmer taking a freight elevator part of the way up. Bucca was the only firefighter to climb all 78 floors to the Sky Lobby. He and Palmer made it higher than any other firefighter did on that fateful day.

The two men were in contact via a radio at 9:52, that they were on the floor and there were pockets of fires that could be extinguished. They also reported that many of the people were beyond saving. “78th floor, numerous 10-45s, Code One,” Palmer said.

Bucca took off his jacket and wrapped it around two women who were injured. Then at 9:58:59 the tower collapsed. The civilians were later found with Bucca’s coat still wrapped around them.

His body wasn’t found until October 23, he was identified by his badge. His son walked beside the fire truck that bore his father’s body for his funeral. He later joined the Army and became a member of Special Forces, like his father. The Army named a camp in the Middle East after his dad, Camp Bucca where several high-value detainees were kept. Ron Bucca Jr. visited the camp before it was closed in Iraq. By then it was not his first deployment. The camp once held Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who would become the leader of the Islamic State. He was needlessly and foolishly released telling his captors that he would see them in New York.

Bucca would become the only Fire Marshall in the history of the New York City Fire Department to die in the line of duty. His story is one of resilience, dedication, and bravery. RIP, Never Forget.

Photos Courtesy of Wikipedia, Bucca Family

Former al-Qaida Operatives Launch New Militant Group in Pakistan

A new al-Qaida-inspired militant group, the Ansar al-Sharia Pakistan, whose members have grown disaffected with the Islamic State group in the country, has recently emerged in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi claims to act as a platform for militants who breaking away from the IS.

The group, Ansar al-Sharia Pakistan, was reportedly formed by two former al-Qaida members who had severed ties with the organization in early 2017. Since then, the group has been involved in several attacks in Karachi, according to Pakistani counterterrorism authorities.
“The Ansar al-Sharia group started killings in Karachi since the beginning of this year and claimed responsibility for killing an army officer on Faisal Highway [in Karachi],” Major General Mohammad Saeed, the head of Rangers paramilitary security force in Karachi, told local media. He added the group has been focusing attacks on “the police only.”
The group was allegedly created to operate as a platform for militants who have parted ways with IS in the country, it said in an online statement. It claimed to be active in several parts of the country.

While the group is said to be breaking away from the IS, they use much the same language in their posts on Twitter, calling for attacks through “jihad against infidels and apostates.”

Though having no official affiliation with al-Qaida, the group pledges loyalty to and gets its ideology from Osama bin Laden. Pakistani police have identified some members of the group and said that three men from their “killer teams” have degrees in applied physics. They also claim to have arrested at least four women members.

The al-Qaida branch in South Asia, known as al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), has been active in the region especially in the Karachi region. The Pakistani police have vowed to root them out, even in Karachi.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Sixteen Years Later, the 9-11 Suspects Are Still Awaiting Trial

Amazingly, sixteen years after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, five of the accused terrorists who are still held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are still awaiting trial which isn’t expected until at least 2019.

Some of the family of the victims in the attacks of that day say they don’t expect to see a trial completed in their lifetimes.
The five men on trial were arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003, and for some periods were held in undisclosed CIA detention facilities. Among them is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks.
The most recent example of the complexity of the process is a newly unsealed document in which the Pentagon prosecutor asked the military judge to set jury selection for the first week of January 2019, according to the Miami Herald.
The prosecution also asked the judge to impose a four-week deadline by which the defense would have to submit all “legal motions,” something the defense called “impossible.” The judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, seemed inclined to agree with the defense.

One of the snags in the system is the fact that Guantanamo Bay has only a single courtroom and that is being used for the pretrial hearings for the 2000 USS Cole bombing, which preceded the 2001 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Now, the prosecution is calling for construction of extra office space and additional holding cells to hold the six defendants. The prosecution is also wrestling over the death penalty in the case as this will necessitate the use of a top-secret courtroom.

Defense attorneys will argue against a death penalty citing the accused long confinement, the sleep deprivation and alleged torture of their clients.

To read the entire article from The Washington Examiner, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

9-11, Sixteen Years Later And What It Means To Us Now

It is hard to believe that the awful events on September 11th are now 16 years in the past. Much has changed since then. Our country has been in a constant state of war since that date, and we’re no closer to the end of it than we were on that fateful morning. We, as a country are as divided as we’ve ever been, since the time of the American Civil War. Too few members of our political parties seek to work together and reach across the aisle to help erase the problems that face our country. They instead, point the finger and are more consumed with gathering power than representing the people which is what they were elected for.

But for a short period after 9-11, Americans put aside their petty differences and went back to doing what makes this country the great one that it is. They worked through unity, bravery, sacrifice, and strength and brought us as a nation back together. The one thing that bonded the hijackers together that morning was only their capacity to hate. Their vision, thru Osama bin Laden, was to destroy everything that didn’t conform to their idea of what would be a perfect world. Bin Laden attracted the angry, damaged and vulnerable members of the Islamic world and tried to tear us apart. While shocking and disheartening to be sure, it had the opposite effect.

But what does 9-11 mean to you now? Well, depending on who and what you are it may mean a variety of different things. And we’ll touch on a few of those but first. Where were you when you heard the news? It is a moment that many people will forever remember, like when JFK was shot or the first man walked on the moon.

September 11th was a beautifully clear, crisp morning that year. The type of September morning that makes everyone flock to the Northeast in the fall months. Schools had just gone back into session and it was a slow start of the week. Monday had been a day where not much of anything had gotten done, and Tuesday was starting off much the same way.

I had transitioned from the military to the civilian work force and was working for a company that had many of its clients in the World Trade Center. My boss, like myself, then was an avid cigar smoker. He popped into my office just before 8:30 and said, “Let’s go outside and smoke a cigar.” We had been out there just a few moments when two ladies from the building came outside to join us for a cigarette.

8:46 the first plane hits the World Trade Center: This is when Mohammed Atta and the hijackers and passengers on Flight 11 smashed into the 93-99th floors of the WTC North. Everyone on the plane and several hundred people were killed instantly. Just a few minutes later the window opens outside and one of our co-workers tell us that the news broke in stating that a plane just crashed into the WTC. I remember telling my boss that it was a terrorist act. He disagreed. I said, “Look around, a clear day like today, there’s no way a pilot could accidentally hit a skyscraper that big.” We were discussing it and what could make an airliner veer off course so badly.

9:03 the second plane hits the World Trade Center: Now, hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into floors 75-85 of the WTC’s South Tower, killing everyone on board and hundreds more inside the building. As we’re discussing this further, and giving directions to some poor guy who was hopelessly lost, the window opens again to tell us the news. Now there is no longer any doubt what is happening. Everyone from the building piles into the boss’ office where he has a large television and we’re watching things on the news as the confusion of events begins to unfold.

9:37 the Pentagon is Hit: Hijackers aboard Flight 77 crash the plane into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, killing all 59 on board the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building.

9:59 am the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses: Shock is the only way to describe watching that unfold. It looked surreal, like a bad disaster film, and the only thing one could think about was the hundreds if not thousands of people trapped inside. Later as we’ve seen in the documentaries done on 9-11, the NYC Fire Department was inside the building and making their way up to the worst hit floors. As filmmakers recorded the firemen, what sounded like artillery shells hitting outside was the sound of bodies impacting on the concrete as people hurtled out the windows rather than be burned alive. There were no illusions now as to what they were facing.

10:07 am Flight 93 crashes into a field in Pennsylvania: After passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked Flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they mount an attempt to retake the plane. In the ensuing fight, the hijackers deliberately crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 passengers and crew aboard.

10:28 am the World Trade Center’s North Tower collapses: 102 minutes after being struck by Flight 11, the first tower that was hit collapses. It was a stunning sequence of events, Manhattan was covered by a pall of smoke and dust. My boss at that moment made the smartest decision of the day when he sent everyone home. “There’s no work to be done here today. Go home and be with your families. We’re all only going to watch the television the rest of the day. Plan on being back tomorrow morning.”

The aftermath triggered what some people called the worst governmental overreaction in our history with the oversight on our websites and Muslim’s being under surveillance, etc. While there were certainly abuses to this and other facets of the “Patriot Act” that followed, it in no way reached the point of rounding up and interning thousands of Muslim citizens like the Japanese-Americans had to endure during the World War II years.

What did it mean to me? Personally, my feelings were towards those who lost loved ones either on the planes or in the buildings that day. Particularly to the first responders, the NYC firemen and police who ran into the inferno, instead of away from it.

Both my wife and I lost our jobs over it. As I stated earlier, our company’s biggest clients resided in the WTC and most of them were now dead. But feeling sorry for ourselves over this seemed petty considering what others had lost. We regrouped as we’ve always done and moved on. I felt anger that those hijackers who have nothing but hate in their hearts were able to strike at our biggest city but it also brought home the realization that we always knew in the back of our minds that terrorism can strike anywhere, the only thing we can be is ultra vigilant and not let them change our lives.

I’ve always believed that bin Laden, before getting canoed from SEAL Team Six, died a disillusioned man. He had a vision that his brand of Islam would be swept into power after “he showed the way” and they’d all be aligned in one cause. The fact that the vast majority of Muslims rejected his vision, to me at least is comforting. He died, alone, hiding and wondering how the hell did they find me here.

I belonged to the Cold War Era veterans and many of us had our service that was closing or close to it when the War on Terror (WOT), began. And unfortunately, we’ve reached that curmudgeon status in a lot of ways. Like the Wilford Brimleys of the world, a lot of times we are a bit too critical of the other eras, especially the current one. We turned into our fathers somewhere along the way. But to the younger generation that came after us, you’ve done as well as any group ever. Tip of the Beret to all of you.

The events of 9-11 pushed me right back into the military in a way. I ended up working for a few years on a military training contract with mostly Iraqis and some Afghans. It was a minor piece of the puzzle but it was fun and rewarding to get back into the pool at least a little bit. That led to a few more years of private security work providing protection to clients which included working on a few film sets. Which, while very different in what we were used to in Special Operations, was an eye-opener in other ways. Everything happens for a reason.

Many of our nation’s young people enlisted in the aftermath of 9-11 and if they stayed the course and are still serving, then they’re on the downside of their career as they reach the three-quarter mark towards 20. That we’re still at war 16 years later is a scary proposition. They answered the call and have served as well as any generation served before them. And they’re still paying the price, both overseas and at home.

For the thousands that served and separated from the service, they found a country that was ill-prepared to handle the massive influx of veterans and veterans’ services that would be required after serving in wars all over the globe. There was no plan for handling all of these veterans once their service was complete.The Veterans Affairs system is broken and many have to wait for months at times over a year to get seen for injuries that they have incurred in the line of duty. That the fat cats in Congress, who voted themselves a separate but hardly equal health care system allow this to happen is unconscionable. And it isn’t getting fixed fast enough.

But for today, we remember the friends, family, and love one’s lost on that awful day in New York City 16 years ago. It was one of America’s darkest days but through the ashes, we banded together and remembered what we stand for. “Never Forget…Let’s Roll.”

Photos courtesy: Wikipedia

Pentagon Rushes Doctors Ahead of Irma to Operate on Gitmo Detainee

With Hurricane Irma bearing down on the Caribbean, the Pentagon rushed a neurosurgery team to the Navy base at Guantánamo to operate on the spine of an al-Qaida detainee who was at risk of paralysis.

Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, awaiting trial on charges he led the al-Qaida army in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, has been using a wheelchair and experiencing pain with a bulging lower-back disc from a decade-long degenerative disease, according to his lawyers, who blamed years of “useless treatment” at Guantánamo for the situation.
But U.S. military officials described the same episode differently — as a demonstration of Department of Defense determination to provide their captives with top-notch healthcare at the isolated outpost.
At the heart of the crisis is a law forbidding any of Guantánamo’s 41 captives to come to the United States for any reason. That means the small base hospital has to import expertise to address medical care rather than med-evac captives to treatment, like any of the other 5,500 residents of the base in southeast Cuba.

Pentagon spokesman refused to name Hadi by name by addressed his condition and surgery, which took place on Tuesday in parallel terms. The surgery was deemed to be an emergency on Sunday, with a change in the patient’s condition which became dire, and the doctors remained at the facility with the patient until Thursday.

Hadi, 56, who announced his real name is Nashwan al Tamir, allegedly directed and paid insurgents to carry out attacks on U.S. and allied troops and civilians in the post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan and take out the Taliban. He was captured in Turkey, and in April 2007 was brought to Guantánamo’s clandestine Camp 7 prison for former CIA captives. He was formally charged at the war court in June 2014.

To read the entire article from The Miami Herald, click here:

Photo courtesy Red Cross

On This Day in 2011, Navy SEALs Eliminate Osama bin Laden

In one of the most daring raids in US Special Operations history, during the early spring of 2011, US Navy SEALs of SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU raided the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottobad, Pakistan and killed the terrorist leader, who was living less than a mile from the Pakistani military academy.

The raid took place at 1:00 a.m. on May 2 in Pakistan but in the US, it was mid-afternoon on May 1^st. The operation called “Neptune Spear” was a joint CIA, JSOC operation with SEALs and aviators from the 160^th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (The Night Stalkers) flying specially designed stealth helicopters on the mission.

But the operation was actually in the works for several years before it was finally unleashed by President Obama.

The Intelligence Prep: The CIA found out the name of bin Laden’s courier as early as 2007. This was considered a high-value intelligence coup because the CIA learned thru their Black sites and thru interrogations at Guantanamo Bay that bin Laden communicated only via couriers. He stopped using phones since the US tracked a cell phone of one of his subordinates and the US launched a missile strike on the location in Afghanistan back in 1998.

The courier named Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed according to Pakistani officials and his brother lived at the Abbottobad compound with bin Laden. The CIA picked up a wiretap of another individual and the courier and CIA paramilitary operatives tracked the man back to the compound.

The compound then became a focus of intense scrutiny. The CIA had a female analyst that had been on bin Laden’s trail for nearly five years. She earned the team’s and superiors’ respect and she believed with 100 percent certainty, that bin Laden was living there with his youngest wife and children. It was built in the 2004-2005 timeframe and was at the end of a long, narrow dirt road. It was outside of the main area of Abbottobad and about 100 miles from Afghanistan.

The compound cost about a million dollars to build and was constructed on a plot of land much larger than the surrounding properties. Walls 12-18 feet high surrounded it and were topped with 2 feet of barbed wire. There were two security gates and the property had no telephone or internet service. Unlike their neighbors, the inhabitants didn’t put their trash out for collection but burned it inside the compound.

The family lived on the second and third floors of the structure and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high privacy wall installed to conceal the tall (6’4’’) bin Laden. The “principal” was seen in intelligence photos every day pacing in the garden that was partially covered with a tarp. The CIA analysts called him ‘the Pacer”. But the photos couldn’t positively identify the target.

In trying to gather more intelligence, the CIA used a fake polio vaccination program to gain entrance to the compound and rented a home nearby where they could keep up surveillance on the potential target.

Despite intense efforts, the CIA was never able to get a picture of the third-floor inhabitant or get a recording of his voice. But after exhaustive intelligence analysis, the CIA deemed that only bin Laden could be living there.

Planning the Operation: The job of planning this fell to Adm. William McRaven of JSOC. He assigned a Navy captain from DEVGRU to set up the plan of a raid with the help of the agency at the CIA HQs in Langley, VA.

There was also talk in using B-2 Stealth bombers but the problems that arose from that plan was that they’d have no way of confirming the death of bin Laden after the raid and the use of the 2000-pound radar-guided JDAM munitions was sure to cause civilian casualties in the area.

The idea of using the Pakistanis in a joint operation was quickly discounted as everyone up the chain of command believed that the leaks that would quickly follow would compromise the mission.

Therefore, since the US isn’t at war with Pakistan, the members of the team were taken off military roles and placed as civilians under the CIA control for the duration of the mission.

The agency and DEVGRU built a mockup of the compound in Harvey Point Defense Testing facility in North Carolina, and another in Nevada. The SEALs still were not told what their target was or its location. Nevada was chosen because, at 4000-foot altitude, it would be close to the actual altitude of the target and test the helicopters’ capabilities.

A full-scale replica was built in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base. The raid team arrived on the 27^th of April at Jalalabad where the operation would base out of. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter with a quick reaction force would be placed nearby in case the unit had to fight their way out of Pakistan. The entire operation was to last 40 minutes.

The order was given at 1:22 p.m. EST on May 1 for Adm. McRaven to proceed with the raid. The President and members of his Cabinet watched the events unfold from the Situation Room at the White House via a Drone flying overhead.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.

The Operation: The raid force consisted of 79 operators and a dog. The dog team was to be used if there were hidden rooms or compartments that needed to be searched. The Chinook with the QRF of 24 SEAL operators was landed in a deserted field about halfway to Abbottobad in case they were needed on the ground. Another QRF in Chinooks with an addition 25 SEALs would be waiting just over the border in Afghanistan.

After a 90-minute flight, the first of the Blackhawks deployed over the compound where the SEALs were to fast rope to the ground. A second was to land in the compound with the dog team and interpreter. However, due to a weather phenomenon, the first Blackhawk crashed into the compound sliding up onto the security wall. No one was seriously hurt. The second landed outside the compound where the operators scaled it and began the operation.

Using an assortment of breaching tools and explosives the teams began clearing the compound in a methodical, dance of death. The SEALs cleared the guest house and the ground floor of the main building where two men and woman were dispatched quickly. Numerous other women and children were encountered and they were flex-cuffed and moved outside where they’d be found and questioned by the Pakistanis.

The SEALs moved to the second level of the main building where they killed bin Laden’s son on the staircase before moving up to the top floor. There they found bin Laden, wearing the traditional loose-fitting garb of the region. Later it was found out that he carried 500 Euros and two phone numbers sewn into the lining of his clothes.

Nearly 15 minutes had elapsed since the SEALs crash-landed in the compound until they came face-to-face with him on the third floor. The killing of bin Laden is described in detail by Navy SEAL Mark Bisonette who was later reprimanded by the Navy and forced to give up his $6.8 million dollars in royalties from the book he wrote of the incident. But his first-hand account was riveting.

When the team reached the top, bin Laden was behind his wife, with his hands on her shoulders and was pushing her towards the SEALs. The SEAL who shot bin Laden Robert O’Neill has also written a book about the incident. He was the first in the room. Bisonnette’s book describes in detail what happened next.

“We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard suppressed shots.”
BOP. BOP. “The point man had seen a man peeking out of the door on the right side of the hallway about 10 feet in front of him. I couldn’t tell from my position if the rounds hit the target or not. The man disappeared into the dark room.”
“In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless.”

Bissonette’s role called for him to photograph the body to positively identify it as bin Laden and confirm for the government that they had indeed got their man.

“It was strange to see such an infamous face up close. Lying in front of me was the reason we had been fighting for the last decade. It was surreal trying to clean blood off the most wanted man in the world so that I could shoot his photo. I had to focus on the mission, right now we needed some good quality photos.”

One of the SEALs (pseudonym Will) spoke Arabic and asked one of the children on the third floor who the dead man was. She replied that it was indeed Osama bin Laden a fact that was confirmed by his wife who was lightly wounded in the foot.

“Will knelt down and asked the girls, ‘Who is the man?’
The girl didn’t know to lie.
‘Osama bin Laden.’
Will smiled.
‘Are you sure that is Osama bin Laden?’
‘Yes,’ the girl said.”

The SEAL team leader had a satellite phone and immediately call Adm. McRaven to relay the code phrase that bin Laden was dead.

“‘For God and country, I pass Geronimo,’ Jay said. Geronimo E.K.I.A.’ “

The entire assault took just 15 minutes. Now the team set about finding intelligence that they could bring back with them to Afghanistan. The SEALS recovered three AK-47s and two pistols, ten computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a dozen cell phones, and “electronic equipment” for later analysis as well as a large stash of opium.

The crashed helicopter was stripped of classified material and then blown in place, with the team placing enough explosives to completely demolish the crashed Blackhawk. Down one chopper, the team brought in one of the Chinooks to exfil the team back to Afghanistan.

After arriving in Afghanistan, bin Laden was positively identified via facial recognition and DNA analysis and his body was transferred to the USS Carl Vinson where he was buried at sea. The US had contacted Saudi contacts offered to turn bin Laden’s body over to them for burial in Saudi Arabia. But they didn’t want him in death any more than they did in life. They agreed with the burial at sea option.

Aftermath: Reports were being leaked out about bin Laden’s death so President Obama addressed the nation at 11:35 p.m. and confirmed the news.

“Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”

The President decided not to release the photos of bin Laden’s body stating that “we don’t have to spike the football here.” And despite the DNA evidence and confirmation from his wife and daughter at the scene, the non-release of the photos created a conspiracy theory that he wasn’t dead.

The Pakistanis then began to do damage control and arrested the owner of the CIA’s safe house and five Pakistani informants. The doctor who helped the CIA with the fake polio inoculation ruse was arrested and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Some of bin Laden’s correspondence was released but very little of it has come to light. One interesting tidbit was that bin Laden stated that both General David Petraeus and President Obama should be assassinated if the opportunity availed itself but that VP Joe Biden should remain untouched. Why?

In bin Laden’s own words, “Biden is totally unprepared for that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis.”

The tail boom from the crashed and destroyed Blackhawk was eventually returned to the US but not until the Pakistanis allowed Chinese scientists to study the stealth technology in the boom as well as in the paint.

This was one of the better-executed raids in US Special Operations history. The detailed planning, outstanding execution, and professionalism of all of the operators involved, even when things went wrong as they invariably do is a testament to their dedication to their craft and level of training.

In doing so, they rid the world of one of the worst terrorists in history.

Photo courtesy of DOD

Trump Expanding Special Operations To Target Militants in Somalia

President Trump is expanding the Pentagon’s ability to and the US Africa Command to launch a more effective offensive campaign against the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia. This signing off by the President should clear the way for more airstrikes and a more active presence of U.S. Special Operations Forces on the ground.

This move should also mark a shift in policy where in the past, Special Operations forces were forced to act in a defensive posture or “self-defense” of US advisors and their Somali counterparts. Now they will be able to take a more offensive role in helping Somali units recapture territory from al-Shabab and putting more pressure on them.

American forces have been increasingly active in Somalia in recent years. The Obama administration never abandoned its “signature strike” bombing program in either Somalia or Yemen, which allowed for U.S. drones and manned aircraft to target groups of men who merely showed signs and behaviors of belonging to terrorist groups. The largest of those strikes came in March 2016, when U.S. warplanes bombed an al-Shabab training camp north of Mogadishu, killing what the Pentagon estimated were about 150 militants.
Late last year, the Obama team declared Shabab an “associated force” of al Qaeda, putting the group under the same tenuous legal umbrella that allows the U.S. government to wage war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
U.S. commandos on the ground in Somalia accompany government forces on patrol, and have the authority to shoot back or call in airstrikes if threatened, under rules set down by the Obama administration.

General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of Africa Command has said that welcomes the ability to call for attacks and airstrikes from his command HQs rather than have to wait for approval by Washington.

He said the shift in policy from the Obama administration will give his commanders the ability to launch offensive strikes that would allow his ability “to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion.”

To read the Foreign Policy entire article click here:

Photo courtesy of US Africa Command

Devices Seized in Yemen Special Operations Raid Bearing Fruit

Despite conflicting reports, the Special Operations mission in Yemen right after President Trump took office has been a source of large amounts of intelligence.

According to recent reports, the computers, cell phones, and devices that were taken in the raid by the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 have provided an inside glimpse of training tactics, new bomb making, and hidden explosives types, as well as targets that Al-Qaeda may be looking at in the future.

President Trump called the raid “highly successful” at the address to Congress, but many Democrats are saying that the raid netted little usable intelligence. A member of SEAL Team 6, Chief Petty Officer William, “Ryan” Owens was killed in action, three other Americans were wounded and an aircraft was destroyed deliberately during a fierce 50-minute firefight with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorists in Central Yemen.

On February 1, Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary said that the raid had “gathered an unbelievable amount of intelligence that will prevent the potential deaths or attacks on American soil.” Last Sunday, his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the mission “did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save American and other lives.”
Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for Central Command, responded this week to criticism leveled at the information’s significance, writing in an email: “The information that was gathered was part of an ongoing effort to build our understanding of AQAP. We are not expecting to find any particular fact or puzzle piece. We are looking to build our understanding of an enemy who exports and inspires terrorist acts around the world.”

Preliminary intelligence centered around the new explosive devices, non-metallic explosives that can be hidden in body cavities to deter detection, Al-Qaeda’s training techniques and the global network of terror organizations that may give clues to where they intend to strike next.

To read the entire article from the New York Times, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD