Bakersfield.com Osama bin Laden

Inside bin Laden's lair with SEAL Team Six

Wed, 04 May 2011 19:16:05 PDT

WASHINGTON -- So much could have gone wrong as SEAL Team Six swept over Pakistan's dark landscape, dropped down ropes into a compound lined by wall after wall, exchanged gunfire and confronted "Geronimo" face to face. The vital things went right.

Just about every contingency the 25 commandos trained for came at them, rapidly, chaotically and dangerously, in their lunge for Osama bin Laden.

Officials: SEALs thought bin Laden threatening

Wed, 04 May 2011 19:04:50 PDT

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama ordered grisly photographs of Osama bin Laden in death sealed from public view on Wednesday, declaring, "We don't need to spike the football" in triumph after this week's daring middle-of-the-night raid. The terrorist leader was killed by American commandos who burst into his room and feared he was reaching for a nearby weapon, U.S. officials said.

Several weapons were found in the room where the terror chief died, including AK-47 assault rifles and side arms, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they offered the most recent in a series of increasingly detailed and sometimes-shifting accounts of bin Laden's final minutes after a decade on the run.

Property records give new insights into bin Laden

Wed, 04 May 2011 09:56:11 PDT

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- The Pakistani who owned the compound that sheltered Osama bin Laden in his final years said he was buying the property for "an uncle," according to the doctor who sold a piece of the land in 2005.

The man was identified in property records as Mohammad Arshad; neighbors said one of two Pakistani men living in the house went by the name Arshad Khan. The two names apparently refer to the same man and both names may be fake. But one thing is clear -- bin Laden relied on a small, trusted inner circle as lifelines to the outside who provided for his daily needs such as food and medicine and kept his location secret. And it appears they did not betray him.

Raid poses narrative challenge for White House

Wed, 04 May 2011 09:50:39 PDT

WASHINGTON -- The challenge now is in the telling.

The White House struggled to craft its account of the audacious raid that killed Osama bin Laden for both a jubilant American public and a skeptical Muslim world, correcting parts of its narrative, withholding others and hesitating to release photos that could be considered too provocative.

Navy SEAL team likely honored in secret for raid

Wed, 04 May 2011 09:43:54 PDT

SAN DIEGO -- The highly secretive Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden will likely be honored in the only way such a covert group can be: in private with nobody but themselves and their commanders in the know.

Quietly recognizing heroic actions for clandestine operations is not new in the military. Some service members wear war decorations but refuse to talk about how they earned them. Others stash away their medals, either because they've been ordered to hide them or they have chosen to for their own security.

Counselors, teachers: How to talk to kids about bin Laden

Tue, 03 May 2011 19:07:53 PDT

It is nearly impossible to avoid news of Osama bin Laden this week. The terrorist's name and image are all over the media, including social network sites popular with youngsters.

That may inspire difficult questions at school and at home. As tempting as it may be to dismiss it all as not family-friendly, it's unwise to hide from discussions that seem scary or complicated, say those who work with children.

Bin Laden's neighbors noticed unusual things

Tue, 03 May 2011 13:58:42 PDT

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- When a woman involved in a polio vaccine drive turned up at Osama bin Laden's hideaway, she remarked to the men behind the high walls about the expensive SUVs parked inside. The men took the vaccine, apparently to administer to the 23 children at the compound, and told her to go away.

The terror chief and his family kept well hidden behind thick walls in this northwestern hill town they shared with thousands of Pakistani soldiers. But glimpses of their life are emerging -- along with deep skepticism that authorities didn't know they were there.

Essay: 'Closure': Americans find comfort in clear ending

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:01:36 PDT

To surf American airwaves, to read American comments on the Internet by the thousands, to walk American streets on the day after Osama bin Laden's astonishing demise meant you'd almost certainly hear some variation of a single telling word: "closure."

As in ending. As in end of story -- at least, the primary story arc of Osama bin Laden, which for most Americans began in the eastern United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and ended in Pakistan in the early moments of May 2, 2011, in one of the most dramatic undoings imaginable.

Military families praise bin Laden's death, worry

Tue, 03 May 2011 10:47:19 PDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of a U.S. Navy SEALs team was met with praise and pride from military members and their families, but their relief was tempered by the worry that it will send the wrong message that the war on terrorism is finished and the troops can come home.

"We know the war on terror is not over, and we need to take a very sober look at all this and understand what we're fighting," said Brett Farley, whose father, Naval reservist Steven Farley, 57, died in June 2008 when a bomb tore through a municipal building where he was working in Sadr City, Iraq. "(Al Qaida) is not going to sit quietly."

Bin Laden story shows changing media nature

Tue, 03 May 2011 10:37:47 PDT

NEW YORK -- A soldier in Afghanistan learned about the death of Osama bin Laden on Facebook. A TV producer in South Carolina got a tip from comedian Kathy Griffin on Twitter. A blues musician in Denver received an email alert from The New York Times. And a Kansas woman found out as she absently scrolled through the Internet on her smartphone while walking her dog.

In an illustration of how the information world has changed, many people learned through media formats or devices that weren't available a decade ago that the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had been killed.

Pakistan criticizes US raid on bin Laden

Tue, 03 May 2011 11:30:08 PDT

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan criticized the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthorized unilateral action" and warned Washington on Tuesday not to launch similar operations in the future.

The comments laid bare the tensions triggered by Monday's attack, which came at time when U.S.-Pakistani ties were already near rock bottom.

Congress may dock Pakistan aid over bin Laden

Tue, 03 May 2011 13:50:01 PDT

WASHINGTON — Congress may consider cutting the almost $1.3 billion in annual aid to Pakistan if it turns out the Islamabad government knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she wants more details from CIA director Leon Panetta and others about the Pakistani government’s role. Feinstein spoke to reporters about the raid that killed bin Laden early Monday and the questions raised by his hiding place deep inside Pakistan.

White House: bin Laden unarmed during assault

Tue, 03 May 2011 14:06:15 PDT

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden was unarmed when he was confronted by U.S. commandos at his Pakistani hideout but tried to resist the assault, the White House said Tuesday as new details emerged about the audacious raid that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist. The White House said it was considering whether to release photos that were taken of bin Laden after he was killed but was concerned that the photos were "gruesome" and could be inflammatory. Other details that emerged on Tuesday, according to U.S. officials: One of bin Laden’s wives tried to rush the commandos and was shot in the leg. High temperatures caused a lumbering helicopter carrying the raiders to make a hard landing. And as Navy SEALs swept through the compound, they handcuffed those they encountered with plastic zip ties and pressed on in pursuit of their target, code-named Geronimo. Once bin Laden had been shot, they doubled back to move the prisoners away from the compound before blowing up the downed helicopter. The fuller picture of the high-stakes assault emerged as U.S. officials weighed whether to release video and photos of bin Laden, who was killed with a shot above his left eye. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and revealed some of the new details about the raid, said she’d known about the suspected bin Laden compound since last December — offering rare evidence that Washington can indeed keep a blockbuster secret. President Barack Obama made plans to go to ground zero in New York on Thursday to mark the milestone of bin Laden’s demise and to remember the dead of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said the U.S. was scouring items seized in the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan — said to include hard drives, DVDs, a pile of documents and more — that might tip U.S. intelligence to al-Qaida’s operational details and perhaps lead to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. As for publicly releasing photos and video, Brennan said in a series of appearances on morning television. "This needs to be done thoughtfully," with careful consideration given to what kind of reaction the images might provoke. At issue were photos of bin Laden’s corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also anxious to address the stories already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive. In a move that could increase pressure for the release of photos, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah said talk of bin Laden’s death was "premature," adding that the U.S. had not presented "convincing evidence," the SITE Intelligence Group reported. Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, reaped accolades from world leaders he’d kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home. Pakistan, however, called the raid "unauthorized" Tuesday and it shouldn’t serve as a precedent for future actions. CIA Director Leon Panetta, in interviews with Time and PBS’ "Newshour," sketched the scene in the Situation Room as the tense final minutes of the raid played out. "Once those teams went into the compound," he told PBS, "I can tell you there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on." Then, Panetta told Time, when Adm. William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, reported that the commandos had identified "Geronimo" — the code name for bin Laden — "all the air we were holding came out." And when the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, Panetta said, the room broke into applause. Carney filled in details about the assault, saying that bin Laden did resist the commandos, although he was not armed. One of bin Laden’s wives, Carney said, was in the room and tried to charge at the U.S. assaulters." Monday night, Republican and Democratic leaders gave Obama a standing ovation at an evening White House meeting that was planned before the assault but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate. The episode was an embarrassment, at best, for Pakistani authorities as bin Laden’s presence was revealed in their midst. The stealth U.S. operation played out in a city with a strong Pakistani military presence and without notice from Washington. Questions persisted in the administration and grew in Congress about whether some elements of Pakistan’s security apparatus might have been in collusion with al-Qaida in letting bin Laden hide in Abbottabad. Brennan asked the question that was reverberating around the world: "How did Osama bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?" "We have many, many questions about this," he said. "And I know Pakistani officials do as well." Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine "whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable." He questioned in particular why bin Laden’s compound hadn’t come to the attention of local authorities. Feinstein, for her part, said Congress may consider docking the almost $1.3 billion dollars in annual aid to Pakistan if it turns out the Islamabad government knew bin Laden’s whereabouts. In an article published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country’s security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint his whereabouts. As Americans rejoiced, they worried, too, that terrorists would be newly motivated to lash out. In their wounded rage, al-Qaida ideologues fed that concern. "By God, we will avenge the killing of the Sheik of Islam," one prominent al-Qaida commentator vowed. "Those who wish that jihad has ended or weakened, I tell them: Let us wait a little bit." In that vein, U.S. officials warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to encourage attacks from "homegrown violent extremists" even if al-Qaida is not prepared to respond in a coordinated fashion now. U.S. officials say the photographic evidence shows bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away part of his skull. He was also shot in the chest, they said. This, near the end of a frenzied firefight in a high-walled Pakistani compound where helicopter-borne U.S. forces found 23 children, nine women, a bin Laden courier who had unwittingly led the U.S. to its target, a son of bin Laden who was also slain, and more. Bin Laden could have lived at the fortified compound for up to six years, putting him far from the lawless and harsh Pakistani frontier where he had been assumed to be hiding out. They said SEALs dropped down ropes from helicopters, killed bin Laden aides and made their way to the main building. U.S. officials said the information that ultimately led to bin Laden’s death originally came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe. There, agency interrogators were told of an alias used by a courier whom bin Laden particularly trusted. It took four long years to learn the man’s real name, then years more before investigators got a big break in the case, these officials said. Sometime in mid-2010, the courier was overheard using a phone by intelligence officials, who then were able to locate his residence — the specially constructed $1 million compound with walls as high as 18 feet topped with barbed wire. U.S. counterterrorism officials considered bombing the place, an option that was discarded by the White House as too risky, particularly if it turned out bin Laden was not there. Panetta told Time that a "direct shot" with cruise missiles was still under consideration as late as Thursday but was ruled out because of the possibility of "too much collateral" damage. Waiting for more information also was a possibility. Ultimately, Obama signed an order on Friday for the team of SEALs to chopper onto the compound under the cover of darkness. In addition to bin Laden, one of his sons was killed in the raid, Brennan said. Bin Laden’s wife was shot in the calf but survived, a U.S. official said. Also killed were the courier, and the courier’s wife and brother, U.S. intelligence officials believe. Feinstein, asked if the information gleaned from high-value detainees in the CIA’s former secret prisons had proved the worth of such tactics, said "nothing justifies the kind of procedures used." Some people found at the compound were left behind when the SEALs withdrew and were turned over to Pakistani authorities who quickly took over control of the site, officials said. They identified the trusted courier as Kuwaiti-born Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who had been known under the name Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Within 40 minutes, the operation was over, and the SEALs flew out — minus the helicopter that had to be destroyed. Bin Laden’s remains were flown to the USS Carl Vinson, then lowered into the North Arabian Sea. Bin Laden’s death came 15 years after he declared war on the United States. Al-Qaida was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled. AP writers Chris Brummitt in Islamabad and Darlene Superville, Ben Feller, Matt Apuzzo, Erica Werner, Pauline Jelinek, Robert Burns, Matthew Lee, Eileen Sullivan, Nancy Benac and Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this story.

Calif. officials say no terror threats reported

Mon, 02 May 2011 18:24:44 PDT

LOS ANGELES -- Concerned about a potential backlash for the killing of Osama bin Laden, authorities on Monday activated extra police patrols at hundreds of potential terrorist targets and urged Californians to report anything suspicious.

However, officials also said there had been no specific threats reported and that the region has robust security measures in place that were prompted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Bin Laden's death greeted in Bakersfield with happiness, wariness

Mon, 02 May 2011 16:14:01 PDT

News of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's death was greeted with happiness by local residents, plus hope that it can bring some closure to relatives of those killed in 9/11.

While those interviewed by The Californian at Valley Plaza mall and The Marketplace on Monday said they were excited, many cautioned that bin Laden's death could come with violent repercussions from Islamic extremist groups.