I have sold items to coutries such as Afghanistan * Albania * Algeria * American Samoa (US) * Andorra * Angola * Anguilla (GB) * Antigua and Barbuda * Argentina * Armenia * Aruba (NL) * Australia * Austria * Azerbaijan * Bahamas * Bahrain * Bangladesh * Barbados * Belarus * Belgium * Belize * Benin * Bermuda (GB) * Bhutan * Bolivia * Bonaire (NL) * Bosnia and Herzegovina * Botswana * Bouvet Island (NO) * Brazil * British Indian Ocean Territory (GB) * British Virgin Islands (GB) * Brunei * Bulgaria * Burkina Faso * Burundi * Cambodia * Cameroon * Canada * Cape Verde * Cayman Islands (GB) * Central African Republic * Chad * Chile * China * Christmas Island (AU) * Cocos Islands (AU) * Colombia * Comoros * Congo * Democratic Republic of the Congo * Cook Islands (NZ) * Coral Sea Islands Territory (AU) * Costa Rica * Croatia * Cuba * Curaçao (NL) * Cyprus * Czech Republic * Denmark * Djibouti * Dominica * Dominican Republic * East Timor * Ecuador * Egypt * El Salvador * Equatorial Guinea * Eritrea * Estonia * Ethiopia * Falkland Islands (GB) * Faroe Islands (DK) * Fiji Islands * Finland * France * French Guiana (FR) * French Polynesia (FR) * French Southern Lands (FR) * Gabon * Gambia * Georgia * Germany * Ghana * Gibraltar (GB) * Greece * Greenland (DK) * Grenada * Guadeloupe (FR) * Guam (US) * Guatemala * Guernsey (GB) * Guinea * Guinea-Bissau * Guyana * Haiti * Heard and McDonald Islands (AU) * Honduras * Hong Kong (CN) * Hungary * Iceland * India * Indonesia * Iran * Iraq * Ireland * Isle of Man (GB) * Israel * Italy * Ivory Coast * Jamaica * Jan Mayen (NO) * Japan * Jersey (GB) * Jordan * Kazakhstan * Kenya * Kiribati * Kosovo * Kuwait * Kyrgyzstan * Laos * Latvia * Lebanon * Lesotho * Liberia * Libya * Liechtenstein * Lithuania * Luxembourg * Macau (CN) * Macedonia * Madagascar * Malawi * Malaysia * Maldives * Mali * Malta * Marshall Islands * Martinique (FR) * Mauritania * Mauritius * Mayotte (FR) * Mexico * Micronesia * Moldova * Monaco * Mongolia * Montenegro * Montserrat (GB) * Morocco * Mozambique * Myanmar * Namibia * Nauru * Navassa (US) * Nepal * Netherlands * New Caledonia (FR) * New Zealand * Nicaragua * Niger * Nigeria * Niue (NZ) * Norfolk Island (AU) * North Korea * Northern Cyprus * Northern Mariana Islands (US) * Norway * Oman * Pakistan * Palau * Palestinian Authority * Panama * Papua New Guinea * Paraguay * Peru * Philippines * Pitcairn Island (GB) * Poland * Portugal * Puerto Rico (US) * Qatar * Reunion (FR) * Romania * Russia * Rwanda * Saba (NL) * Saint Barthelemy (FR) * Saint Helena (GB) * Saint Kitts and Nevis * Saint Lucia * Saint Martin (FR) * Saint Pierre and Miquelon (FR) * Saint Vincent and the Grenadines * Samoa * San Marino * Sao Tome and Principe * Saudi Arabia * Senegal * Serbia * Seychelles * Sierra Leone * Singapore * Sint Eustatius (NL) * Sint Maarten (NL) * Slovakia * Slovenia * Solomon Islands * Somalia * South Africa * South Georgia (GB) * South Korea * South Sudan * Spain * Sri Lanka * Sudan * Suriname * Svalbard (NO) * Swaziland * Sweden * Switzerland * Syria * Taiwan * Tajikistan * Tanzania * Thailand * Togo * Tokelau (NZ) * Tonga * Trinidad and Tobago * Tunisia * Turkey * Turkmenistan * Turks and Caicos Islands (GB) * Tuvalu * U.S. Minor Pacific Islands (US) * U.S. Virgin Islands (US) * Uganda * Ukraine * United Arab Emirates * United Kingdom * United States * Uruguay * Uzbekistan * Vanuatu * Vatican City * Venezuela * Vietnam * Wallis and Futuna (FR) * Yemen * Zambia * Zimbabwe and major cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, New York City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Mexico City, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Manila, Mumbai, Delhi, Jakarta, Lagos, Kolkata, Cairo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Shanghai, Karachi, Paris, Istanbul, Nagoya, Beijing, Chicago, London, Shenzhen, Essen, Düsseldorf, Tehran, Bogota, Lima, Bangkok, Johannesburg, East Rand, Chennai, Taipei, Baghdad, Santiago, Bangalore, Hyderabad, St Petersburg, Philadelphia, Lahore, Kinshasa, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Madrid, Tianjin, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Milan, Shenyang, Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Belo Horizonte, Khartoum, Riyadh, Singapore, Washington, Detroit, Barcelona,, Houston, Athens, Berlin, Sydney, Atlanta, Guadalajara, San Francisco, Oakland, Montreal, Monterey, Melbourne, Ankara, Recife, Phoenix/Mesa, Durban, Porto Alegre, Dalian, Jeddah, Seattle, Cape Town, San Diego, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Rome, Naples, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Tel Aviv, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Manchester, San Juan, Katowice, Tashkent, Fukuoka, Baku, Sumqayit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Sapporo, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Taichung, Warsaw, Denver, Cologne, Bonn, Hamburg, Dubai, Pretoria, Vancouver, Beirut, Budapest, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Campinas, Harare, Brasilia, Kuwait, Munich, Portland, Brussels, Vienna, San Jose, Damman , Copenhagen, Brisbane, Riverside, San Bernardino, Cincinnati and Accra
September 11 attacks
Part of terrorism in the United States
Black smoke billowing over Manhattan from the Twin Towers
Rescue workers climb through rubble and smoke at the World Trade Center site, and an American flag flies at left
A portion of the Pentagon charred and collapsed, exposing the building's interior
A fragment of Flight 93's metal fuselage with two windows, sitting in a forest
Illuminated
water falls into the square 9/11 Memorial south pool at sunset, and
glass-clad One World Trade Center and other skyscrapers rise in the
background
From top, left to right: The Twin Towers
burningRescue workers at Ground ZeroCollapsed section of the
PentagonFragment of the Flight 93 fuselage9/11 Memorial reflecting pool
and One World Trade Center
Location
New York City, New York, U.S.;
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.;
Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Date September 11, 2001; 20 years ago
8:14 a.m.[a] – 10:03 a.m.[b] (EDT)
Target
World Trade Center
(AA 11 and UA 175)
The Pentagon (AA 77)
U.S. Capitol or White House
(UA 93; unsuccessful due to diversion by passengers)
Attack type
Islamic terrorism
Aircraft hijackings
Suicide attacks
Mass murder
Deaths 2996
(2,977 victims + 19 al-Qaeda terrorists)
Injured ~25,000[1]
Perpetrators Al-Qaeda,[2] led by Osama bin Laden (see also: responsibility)
No. of participants
19
Motive Several; see Motives for the September 11 attacks and Fatawā of Osama bin Laden
vte
al-Qaeda attacks
The
September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11,[c] were a series of four
coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant
Islamic extremist network al-Qaeda[3][4][5] against the United States.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists
hijacked four commercial airliners mid-flight while traveling from the
northeastern U.S. to California. The attackers were organized into three
groups of five members and one group of four, with each group including
one designated flight-trained hijacker who took control of the
aircraft. Their goal was to crash the planes into prominent American
buildings, inflicting mass casualties and major structural damage. The
hijackers successfully crashed the first two planes into the North and
South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the third
plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane was
intended to hit a federal government building[d] in Washington, D.C.,
but instead crashed down in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
following a passenger revolt that foiled the attack.[6]
The first
plane to hit its target was American Airlines Flight 11. It was crashed
into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower
Manhattan at 8:46 am. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 am, the World
Trade Center's South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both
110-story towers collapsed within an hour and forty-two minutes, leading
to the collapse of the other World Trade Center structures including 7
World Trade Center, and significantly damaging surrounding buildings. A
third hijacked flight, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the
west side of the Pentagon (the headquarters of the American military) in
Arlington County, Virginia at 9:37 am, causing a partial collapse of
the building's side. The fourth, and final flight, United Airlines
Flight 93, was flown in the direction of Washington, D.C. The plane's
passengers, alerted about the previous attacks, attempted to regain
control of the aircraft and prevent it from crashing into its intended
target. A struggle broke out in the aircraft and the hijackers crashed
the plane in a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania near
Shanksville, at 10:03 am. Investigators determined that Flight 93's
target was either the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
In the
immediate aftermath of the attacks, suspicion quickly fell onto
al-Qaeda. The United States formally responded by launching the War on
terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had not
complied with U.S. demands to expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and
extradite their leader Osama bin Laden. In the aftermath of the attacks
the United States invoked Article 5 of NATO for the first time and
called upon its allies to aid its fight against al-Qaeda. As U.S. and
NATO ground forces swept through Afghanistan, bin Laden fled to the
White Mountains where he was nearly captured by U.S.-led forces, but
managed to escape.[7] Although bin Laden initially denied any
involvement, in 2004 he formally claimed responsibility for the
attacks.[2] Some of the motivations for the attack Al-Qaeda cited were:
U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and
sanctions against Iraq. After evading capture for almost a decade, bin
Laden was located in a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and subsequently
killed by the U.S. military on May 2, 2011.
The destruction of
the World Trade Center and nearby infrastructure seriously harmed the
economy of New York City and created a global economic recession. Many
countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the
powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent
terrorist attacks. The U.S. and Canadian civilian airspaces were closed
until September 13, while Wall Street trading was closed until September
17. Many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of
respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center
site took eight months and was completed in May 2002, while the Pentagon
was repaired within a year. Design of a replacement World Trade Center
complex took several years because of the many stakeholders involved.
Work on the new iconic building for the site, One World Trade Center,
began in November 2006, and opened in November 2014 after several
construction delays.[8][9]
The attacks resulted in 2,977
fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term health
consequences, in addition to at least $10 billion in infrastructure and
property damage.[10][11] It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in
human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law
enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 340[12]
and 72 killed,[13][14] respectively. Numerous memorials have been
constructed, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
in New York City, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia,
and the Flight 93 National Memorial at the Pennsylvania crash site.
Background
Further information: Responsibility for the September 11 attacks
See also: Jihadist extremism in the United States and 9/11 Commission Report
Al-Qaeda
Main article: Al-Qaeda
Further information: Jihad and Wahhabism
The
origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden traveled to the central Asian country[15]
to volunteer, viewing the war as a holy cause to help fellow Muslims (in
Afghanistan) defeat Communist invaders (the Soviets).[16] Bin Laden
organized fellow Arab mujahideen (the "Afghan Arabs") to resist the
Soviets until that country's exit from Afghanistan in 1989.[17] The U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funneled several billion dollars
worth of weapons to the indigenous Afghan mujahideen resistance, a
portion of which bled to the Arab volunteers.[18] However, no direct
U.S. aid to bin Laden or any of his affiliates has ever been
established.[19]
In 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā,
calling for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia.[20] In a second
fatwā in 1998, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign
policy with respect to Israel, as well as the continued presence of
American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War.[21] Bin Laden used
Islamic texts to exhort Muslims to attack Americans until the stated
grievances were reversed. Muslim legal scholars "have throughout Islamic
history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the
enemy destroys the Muslim countries", according to bin Laden.[21][22]
Osama bin Laden
Main article: Osama bin Laden
Further information: Militant activity of Osama bin Laden
Bin Laden circa 1997–1998
Bin
Laden orchestrated the attacks. He initially denied involvement, but
later recanted his false statements.[2][23][24] Al Jazeera broadcast a
statement by him on September 16, 2001: "I stress that I have not
carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by
individuals with their own motivation."[25] In November 2001, U.S.
forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad,
Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden is seen talking to Khaled al-Harbi
and admits foreknowledge of the attacks.[26] On December 27, 2001, a
second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he said:
It has become clear that the West in general and America in particular
have an unspeakable hatred for Islam. ... It is the hatred of crusaders.
Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a
response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for
Israel, which kills our people. ... We say that the end of the United
States is imminent, whether Bin Laden or his followers are alive or
dead, for the awakening of the Muslim ummah [sic] (nation) has occurred.
... It is important to hit the economy (of the United States), which is
the base of its military power...If the economy is hit they will become
reoccupied.
— Osama bin Laden
but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.[27]
Shortly
before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, bin Laden used a taped
statement to publicly acknowledge al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks
on the United States. He admitted his direct link to the attacks and
said they were carried out because ...
we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security, we undermine yours.[28]
Bin
Laden said he had personally directed his followers to attack the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.[29][30] Another video obtained by Al
Jazeera in September 2006 shows bin Laden with one of the attacks' chief
planners, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi
and Wail al-Shehri, as they made preparations for the attacks.[31] The
U.S. never formally indicted bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, but he was
on the FBI's Most Wanted List for the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.[32][33] After a 10-year
manhunt, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that bin Laden was killed
by American special forces in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on
May 1, 2011.[34]
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Main article: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after his capture in 2003
Journalist
Yosri Fouda of the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reported that
in April 2002 al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his
involvement in the attacks, along with Ramzi bin al-Shibh.[35][36][37]
The 2004 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity towards
the United States felt by Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11
attacks, stemmed from his "violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy
favoring Israel".[38] Mohammed was also an adviser and financier of the
1993 World Trade Center bombing and the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, the lead
bomber in that attack.[39][40]
Mohammed was arrested on March 1,
2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Pakistani security officials working
with the CIA. He was then held at multiple CIA secret prisons and
Guantanamo Bay where he was interrogated and tortured with methods
including waterboarding.[41][42] During U.S. hearings at Guantanamo Bay
in March 2007, Mohammed again confessed his responsibility for the
attacks, stating he "was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z"
and that his statement was not made under duress.[37][43]
A
letter presented by Mohammed's lawyers in the U.S. District Court,
Manhattan, on July 26, 2019, indicated that he was interested in
testifying about Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks and helping the
victims and families of the victims of 9/11 in exchange for the United
States not seeking the death penalty against him. James Kreindler, one
of the lawyers for the victims, raised question over the usefulness of
his testimony.[1]
Other al-Qaeda members
Further information: Trials related to the September 11 attacks
In
"Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed" from the trial
of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been
completely aware of the operation's details. They are bin Laden; Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; Abu Turab al-Urduni; and Mohammed
Atef.[44] To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted
for the attacks.
On September 26, 2005, the Spanish high court
sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years in prison for conspiracy on the 9/11
attacks and being a member of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. At
the same time, another 17 al-Qaeda members were sentenced to penalties
of between 6 and 11 years.[45] On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme
Court reduced Abu Dahdah’s penalty to 12 years because it considered
that his participation in the conspiracy was not proven.[46]
Also
in 2006 Moussaoui, who some originally suspected might have been the
assigned twentieth hijacker, was convicted for the lesser role of
conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and air piracy. He was sentenced
to life in prison without parole in the United States.[47][48] Mounir
el-Motassadeq, an associate of the Hamburg-based hijackers, served 15
years in Germany for his role in helping the hijackers prepare for the
attacks. He was released in October 2018 and deported to Morocco.[49]
The
Hamburg cell in Germany included radical Islamists who eventually came
to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks.[50] Mohamed Atta; Marwan
al-Shehhi; Ziad Jarrah; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; and Said Bahaji were all
members of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell.[51]
Motives
Main article: Motives for the September 11 attacks
Further information: Fatwa of Osama bin Laden
See also: Islam and violence and Islam and war
Osama
bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a
1998 fatwā signed by bin Laden and others, calling for the killing of
Americans,[21] are seen by investigators as evidence of his
motivation.[52]
In bin Laden's November 2002 "Letter to America", he explicitly stated that al-Qaeda's motives for their attacks include:
U.S. support of Israel[53][54]
Support for the "attacks against Muslims" in Somalia
Support of Philippines against Muslims in the Moro conflict
Support for Israeli "aggression" against Muslims in Lebanon
Support of Russian "atrocities against Muslims" in Chechnya
Pro-American governments in the Middle East (who "act as your agents") being against Muslim interests
Support of Indian "oppression against Muslims" in Kashmir
The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia[55]
The sanctions against Iraq[53]
After
the attacks, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri released additional
videotapes and audio recordings, some of which repeated those reasons
for the attacks. Two particularly important publications were bin
Laden's 2002 "Letter to America"[56] and a 2004 videotape by bin
Laden.[57]
Bin Laden interpreted Muhammad as having banned the
"permanent presence of infidels in Arabia".[58] In 1996, bin Laden
issued a fatwā calling for American troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In
1998, al-Qaeda wrote "for over seven years the United States has been
occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian
Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating
its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the
Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim
peoples."[59]
In a December 1999 interview, bin Laden said he
felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca", and considered this a
provocation to the entire Muslim world.[60] One analysis of suicide
terrorism suggested that without U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda
likely would not have been able to get people to commit to suicide
missions.[61]
In the 1998 fatwā, al-Qaeda identified the Iraq
sanctions as a reason to kill Americans, condemning the "protracted
blockade" among other actions that constitute a declaration of war
against "Allah, his messenger, and Muslims."[59] The fatwā declared that
"the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies – civilians and
military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any
country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the
al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque of Mecca from their grip, and in
order for their [the Americans'] armies to move out of all the lands of
Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."[21][62]
In
2004, Bin Laden claimed that the idea of destroying the towers had first
occurred to him in 1982, when he witnessed Israel's bombardment of
high-rise apartment buildings during the 1982 Lebanon War.[63][64] Some
analysts, including Mearsheimer and Walt, also claimed that U.S. support
of Israel was one motive for the attacks.[54][60] In 2004 and 2010, bin
Laden again connected the September 11 attacks with U.S. support of
Israel, although most of the letter expressed bin Laden's disdain for
President Bush and bin Laden's hope to "destroy and bankrupt" the
U.S.[65][66]
Other motives have been suggested in addition to
those stated by bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Some authors suggested the
"humiliation" that resulted from the Islamic world falling behind the
Western world – this discrepancy was rendered especially visible by
globalization[67][68] and a desire to provoke the U.S. into a broader
war against the Islamic world in the hope of motivating more allies to
support al-Qaeda. Similarly, others have argued that 9/11 was a
strategic move with the objective of provoking America into a war that
would incite a pan-Islamic revolution.[69][70]
Documents seized
during the 2011 operation that killed bin Laden included a few notes
handwritten by bin Laden in September 2002 with the heading "The Birth
of the Idea of September 11". In these notes he describes how he was
inspired by the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 on October 31, 1999, which
was deliberately crashed by co-pilot Gameel Al-Batouti. "This is how the
idea of 9/11 was conceived and developed in my head, and that is when
we began the planning" bin Laden continued, adding that no one but Abu
Hafs and Abu al-Khair knew about it at the time. The 9/11 Commission
Report identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the architect of 9/11, but
he is not mentioned in bin Laden’s notes.[71]
Planning
Main article: Planning of the September 11 attacks
Ground zero and surrounding area as seen from directly above depicting where the two planes impacted the towers
Map showing the attacks on the World Trade Center (Planes are not drawn to scale)
The
attacks were conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented
it to Osama bin Laden in 1996.[72] At that time, bin Laden and al-Qaeda
were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to
Afghanistan from Sudan.[73] The 1998 African embassy bombings and bin
Laden's February 1998 fatwā marked a turning point of al-Qaeda's
terrorist operation,[74] as bin Laden became intent on attacking the
United States.
In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave
approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot.[75]
Mohammed, bin Laden, and bin Laden's deputy Mohammed Atef held a series
of meetings in early 1999.[76] Atef provided operational support,
including target selections and helping arrange travel for the
hijackers.[73] Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting potential targets
such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles for lack of time.[77][78]
Diagram showing the attacks on the World Trade Center
Bin
Laden provided leadership and financial support and was involved in
selecting participants.[79] He initially selected Nawaf al-Hazmi and
Khalid al-Mihdhar, both experienced jihadists who had fought in Bosnia.
Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in the United States in mid-January 2000. In
early 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar took flying lessons in San Diego,
California, but both spoke little English; performed poorly in flying
lessons; and eventually served as secondary ("muscle")
hijackers.[80][81]
In late 1999, a group of men from Hamburg,
Germany, arrived in Afghanistan. The group included Mohamed Atta; Marwan
al-Shehhi; Ziad Jarrah; and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.[82] Bin Laden selected
these men because they were educated, could speak English, and had
experience living in the West.[83] New recruits were routinely screened
for special skills and al-Qaeda leaders consequently discovered that
Hani Hanjour already had a commercial pilot's license.[84] Mohammed
later said that he helped the hijackers blend in by teaching them how to
order food in restaurants and dress in Western clothing.[85]
Hanjour
arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hazmi.[86]: 6–7 They
soon left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher training.[86]: 7
Marwan al-Shehhi arrived at the end of May 2000, while Atta arrived on
June 3, 2000, and Jarrah arrived on June 27, 2000.[86]: 6 Bin al-Shibh
applied several times for a visa to the United States, but as a Yemeni,
he was rejected out of concerns he would overstay his visa.[86]: 4, 14
Bin al-Shibh stayed in Hamburg, providing coordination between Atta and
Mohammed.[86]: 16 The three Hamburg cell members all took pilot
training in South Florida at Huffman Aviation.[86]: 6
In the
spring of 2001, the secondary hijackers began arriving in the United
States.[87] In July 2001, Atta met with bin al-Shibh in Spain, where
they coordinated details of the plot, including final target selection.
Bin al-Shibh also passed along bin Laden's wish for the attacks to be
carried out as soon as possible.[88] Some of the hijackers received
passports from corrupt Saudi officials who were family members or used
fraudulent passports to gain entry.[89]
There have been a few
theories that 9/11 was selected by the hijackers as the date of the
attack because of its resemblance to 9-1-1, the phone number used to
report emergencies in the United States. However, Lawrence Wright wrote
that the hijackers chose the date when John III Sobieski, the King of
Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, began the battle which turned back
the Ottoman Empire's Muslim armies that were attempting to capture
Vienna on 11 September 1683. During 1683, Vienna was the seat of the
Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg monarchy, both major powers in Europe at
the time. For Osama bin Laden, this was a date when the West gained some
dominance over Islam, and by attacking on this date, he hoped to make a
step in Islam "winning" the war for worldwide power and influence.[90]
Prior intelligence
Main article: September 11 intelligence before the attacks
In
late 1999, al-Qaeda associate Walid bin Attash ("Khallad") contacted
Mihdhar, telling him to meet him in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Hazmi and
Abu Bara al Yemeni would also be in attendance. The NSA intercepted a
telephone call mentioning the meeting, Mihdhar, and the name "Nawaf"
(Hazmi). While the agency feared "Something nefarious might be afoot",
it took no further action.
The CIA had already been alerted by
Saudi intelligence about the status of Mihdhar and Hazmi as al-Qaeda
members, and a CIA team broke into Mihdhar's Dubai hotel room and
discovered that Mihdhar had a U.S. visa. While Alec Station alerted
intelligence agencies worldwide about this fact, it did not share this
information with the FBI. The Malaysian Special Branch observed the
January 5, 2000, meeting of the two al-Qaeda members and informed the
CIA that Mihdhar, Hazmi, and Khallad were flying to Bangkok, but the CIA
never notified other agencies of this, nor did it ask the State
Department to put Mihdhar on its watchlist. An FBI liaison to Alec
Station asked permission to inform the FBI of the meeting but was told:
"This is not a matter for the FBI."[91]
By late June, senior
counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke and CIA director George Tenet
were "convinced that a major series of attacks was about to come",
although the CIA believed the attacks would likely occur in Saudi Arabia
or Israel.[92] In early July, Clarke put domestic agencies on "full
alert", telling them "Something really spectacular is going to happen
here. soon." He asked the FBI and the State Department to alert the
embassies and police departments, and the Defense Department to go to
"Threat Condition Delta".[93][94] Clarke later wrote: "Somewhere in CIA
there was information that two known al Qaeda terrorists had come into
the United States. Somewhere in FBI, there was information that strange
things had been going on at flight schools in the United States ... They
had specific information about individual terrorists from which one
could have deduced what was about to happen. None of that information
got to me or the White House."[95]
On July 13, Tom Wilshire, a
CIA agent assigned to the FBI's international terrorism division,
emailed his superiors at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC)
requesting permission to inform the FBI that Hazmi was in the country
and that Mihdhar had a U.S. visa. The CIA never responded.[96]
The
same day in July, Margarette Gillespie, an FBI analyst working in the
CTC, was told to review material about the Malaysia meeting. She was not
told of the participant's presence in the U.S. The CIA gave Gillespie
surveillance photos of Mihdhar and Hazmi from the meeting to show to FBI
counterterrorism but did not tell her their significance. The Intelink
database informed her not to share intelligence material on the meeting
with criminal investigators. When shown the photos, the FBI were refused
more details on their significance, and they were not given Mihdhar's
date of birth nor passport number.[97] In late August 2001, Gillespie
told the INS, the State Department, the Customs Service, and the FBI to
put Hazmi and Mihdhar on their watchlists, but the FBI was prohibited
from using criminal agents in searching for the duo, hindering their
efforts.[98]
Also in July, a Phoenix-based FBI agent sent a
message to FBI headquarters, Alec Station, and FBI agents in New York
alerting them to "the possibility of a coordinated effort by Osama bin
Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation
universities and colleges". The agent, Kenneth Williams, suggested the
need to interview all flight school managers and identify all Arab
students seeking flight training.[99] In July, Jordan alerted the U.S.
that al-Qaeda was planning an attack on the U.S.; "months later", Jordan
notified the U.S. that the attack's codename was "The Big Wedding" and
that it involved aeroplanes.[100]
On August 6, 2001, the CIA's
Presidential Daily Brief ("PDB"), designated "For the President Only",
was entitled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S." The memo noted
that FBI information "indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this
country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of
attacks".[101]
In mid-August, one Minnesota flight school alerted
the FBI about Zacarias Moussaoui, who had asked "suspicious questions".
The FBI found that Moussaoui was a radical who had traveled to
Pakistan, and the INS arrested him for overstaying his French visa.
Their request to search his laptop was denied by FBI headquarters due to
the lack of probable cause.[102]
The failures in
intelligence-sharing were attributed to 1995 Justice Department policies
limiting intelligence sharing, combined with CIA and NSA reluctance to
reveal "sensitive sources and methods" such as tapped phones.[103]
Testifying before the 9/11 Commission in April 2004, then-Attorney
General John Ashcroft recalled that the "single greatest structural
cause for the September 11th problem was the wall that segregated or
separated criminal investigators and intelligence agents".[104] Clarke
also wrote: "[T]here were... failures to get information to the right
place at the right time."[105]
Attacks
For a chronological guide, see Timeline for the day of the September 11 attacks.
Flight paths of the four planes
Early
on the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four
commercial airliners (two Boeing 757s and two Boeing 767s) en route to
California (three of them headed to LAX in Los Angeles and one to SFO in
San Francisco) after takeoffs from Logan International Airport in
Boston, Massachusetts; Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark,
New Jersey; and Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun and
Fairfax counties in Virginia.[106] Large planes with long coast-to-coast
flights were selected for hijacking because they would have more
fuel.[107]
The four flights were:
American Airlines
Flight 11: a Boeing 767 aircraft, departed Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. en
route to Los Angeles with a crew of 11 and 76 passengers, not including
five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the northern façade
of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46
a.m.
United Airlines Flight 175: a Boeing 767 aircraft, departed
Logan Airport at 8:14 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of nine
and 51 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the
plane into the southern façade of the South Tower of the World Trade
Center in New York City at 9:03 a.m.
American Airlines Flight 77:
a Boeing 757 aircraft, departed Washington Dulles International Airport
at 8:20 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of six and 53
passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane
into the western façade of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia,
at 9:37 a.m.
United Airlines Flight 93: a Boeing 757 aircraft,
departed Newark International Airport at 8:42 a.m. en route to San
Francisco, with a crew of seven and 33 passengers, not including four
hijackers. As passengers attempted to subdue the hijackers, the aircraft
crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania near
Shanksville, at 10:03 a.m.
Media coverage was extensive during
the attacks and aftermath, beginning moments after the first crash into
the World Trade Center.[108]
Operator Flight number Aircraft
type Time of departure* Time of crash* Departed from En
route to Crash site Fatalities
(There were no survivors from the flights)
Crew Passengers† Ground§ Hijackers Total‡
American
Airlines 11 Boeing 767-223ER 7:59 a.m. 8:46 a.m.
Logan International Airport Los Angeles International Airport
North Tower of the World Trade Center 11 76 2,606 5
2,763
United Airlines 175 Boeing 767–222 8:14 a.m.
9:03 a.m. Logan International Airport Los Angeles International
Airport South Tower of the World Trade Center 9 51 5
American
Airlines 77 Boeing 757–223 8:20 a.m. 9:37 a.m.
Washington Dulles International Airport Los Angeles International
Airport West wall of Pentagon 6 53 125 5 189
United
Airlines 93 Boeing 757–222 8:42 a.m. 10:03 a.m.
Newark Int'l Airport San Francisco International Airport Field
in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville 7 33 0 4 44
Totals 33 213 2,731 19 2,996
* Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
† Excluding hijackers
§ Including emergency workers
‡ Including hijackers
The four crashes
See also: Media documentation of the September 11 attacks
Collapse of the towers as seen from across the Hudson River in New Jersey
At
8:46 a.m., five hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the
northern facade of the World Trade Center's North Tower (1 WTC). At 9:03
a.m., another five hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into
the South Tower’s southern facade (2 WTC).[109][110] Five hijackers flew
American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.[111] A
fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, at 10:03 a.m. after passengers
fought the four hijackers. Flight 93's target is believed to have been
either the Capitol or the White House.[107] Flight 93's cockpit voice
recorder revealed crew and passengers tried to seize control of the
plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that Flights
11, 77, and 175 had been crashed into buildings that morning.[112] Once
it became evident that the passengers might gain control, the hijackers
rolled the plane and intentionally crashed it.[113][114]
The north face of Two World Trade Center (South Tower) immediately after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175
Some
passengers and crew members who called from the aircraft using the
cabin air phone service and mobile phones provided details: several
hijackers were aboard each plane; they used mace, tear gas, or pepper
spray to overcome attendants; and some people aboard had been
stabbed.[115] Reports indicated hijackers stabbed and killed pilots,
flight attendants, and one or more passengers.[106][116] According to
the 9/11 Commission's final report, the hijackers had recently purchased
multi-function hand tools and assorted Leatherman-type utility knives
with locking blades (which were not forbidden to passengers at the
time), but were not found among the possessions left behind by the
hijackers.[117][118] A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on
Flight 175, and passengers on Flight 93 said the hijackers had bombs,
but one of the passengers said he thought the bombs were fake. The FBI
found no traces of explosives at the crash sites, and the 9/11
Commission concluded that the bombs were probably fake.[106]
Three
buildings in the World Trade Center collapsed due to fire-induced
structural failure. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., having
burned for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines
Flight 175 and the explosion of its fuel. The North Tower collapsed at
10:28 a.m. after burning for 102 minutes.[119] When the North Tower
collapsed, debris fell on the nearby 7 World Trade Center building (7
WTC), damaging the building and starting fires. These fires burned for
nearly 7 hours, compromising the building's structural integrity, and 7
WTC collapsed at 5:21 p.m.[120][121] The west side of the Pentagon
sustained significant damage.
Security camera footage of American
Airlines Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon.[122] The plane hits the
Pentagon approximately 86 seconds after the start of this recording.
At
9:42 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all
civilian aircraft within the continental U.S., and civilian aircraft
already in flight were told to land immediately.[123] All international
civilian aircraft were either turned back or redirected to airports in
Canada or Mexico, and were banned from landing on United States
territory for three days.[124] The attacks created widespread confusion
among news organizations and air traffic controllers. Among the
unconfirmed and often contradictory news reports aired throughout the
day, one of the most prevalent said a car bomb had been detonated at the
U.S. State Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C.[125] Another
jet (Delta Air Lines Flight 1989) was suspected of having been hijacked,
but the aircraft responded to controllers and landed safely in
Cleveland, Ohio.[126]
In an April 2002 interview, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who are believed to have organized the
attacks, said Flight 93's intended target was the United States Capitol,
not the White House.[127] During the planning stage of the attacks,
Mohamed Atta (Flight 11’s hijacker and pilot) thought the White House
might be too tough a target and sought an assessment from Hani Hanjour
(who hijacked and piloted Flight 77).[128] Mohammed said al-Qaeda
initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things
could "get out of control".[129] Final decisions on targets, according
to Mohammed, were left in the hands of the pilots.[128] If any pilot
could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane.[107]
Casualties
Main article: Casualties of the September 11 attacks
See also: Deaths in September 2001 § 11, and Emergency workers killed in the September 11 attacks
The
attacks are the deadliest terrorist attacks in world history,[11]
causing the deaths of 2,996 people (including the hijackers) and
injuring more than 6,000 others.[130] The death toll included 265 on the
four planes (from which there were no survivors); 2,606 in the World
Trade Center and in the surrounding area; and 125 at the
Pentagon.[131][132] Most who died were civilians; the rest included 343
firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and
the 19 terrorists.[133][134] After New York, New Jersey lost the most
state citizens.[135] More than 90 countries lost citizens in the
attacks;[136] for example, the 67 Britons who died were more than in any
other terrorist attack anywhere.[137]
In Arlington County,
Virginia, 125 Pentagon workers died when Flight 77 crashed into the
building’s western side. 70 were civilians and 55 were military
personnel, many of whom worked for the United States Army or the United
States Navy. The Army lost 47 civilian employees; six civilian
contractors; and 22 soldiers, while the Navy lost six civilian
employees; three civilian contractors; and 33 sailors. Seven Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) civilian employees died, and one Office of the
Secretary of Defense (OSD) contractor.[138][139][140] Lieutenant
General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the
highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon.[141]
In
New York City, more than 90% of the workers and visitors who died in
the towers had been at or above the points of impact. In the North
Tower, 1,355 people at or above the point of impact were trapped and
died of smoke inhalation; fell or jumped from the tower to escape the
smoke and flames; or were killed in the building's collapse. The
destruction of all three staircases in the tower when Flight 11 hit made
it impossible for anyone above the impact zone to escape. 107 people
below the point of impact died.[142]
In the South Tower, one
stairwell, Stairwell A, was left intact after Flight 175 hit, allowing
14 people located on the floors of impact (including Stanley Praimnath, a
man who saw the plane coming at him) and four more from the floors
above to escape. New York City 9-1-1 operators who received calls from
people inside the tower were not well informed of the situation as it
rapidly unfolded and as a result, told callers not to descend the tower
on their own.[143] In total 630 people died in the South Tower, fewer
than half the number killed in the North Tower.[142] Casualties in the
South Tower were significantly reduced because some occupants decided to
leave the building as soon as the North Tower was struck, and because
Rick Rescorla, head of security at Morgan Stanley, defied an order to
remain in place and evacuated almost all of the company's 2,700
employees in the South Tower to safety after Flight 11 had struck the
North Tower.[144][145] The failure to order a full evacuation of the
South Tower after the first jet crash into the North Tower was described
by USA Today as "one of the day's great tragedies".[146]
At
least 200 people fell or jumped to their deaths from the burning towers
(as exemplified in the photograph The Falling Man), landing on the
streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.[147]
Some occupants of each tower above the point of impact made their way
toward the roof in the hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access
doors were locked.[148] No plan existed for helicopter rescues, and the
combination of roof equipment, thick smoke, and intense heat prevented
helicopters from approaching.[149]
A total of 411 emergency
workers died as they tried to rescue people and fight fires. The New
York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 343 firefighters, including a
chaplain and two paramedics.[150] The New York City Police Department
(NYPD) lost 23 officers.[151] The Port Authority Police Department
(PAPD) lost 37 officers.[152] Eight emergency medical technicians (EMTs)
and paramedics from private emergency medical services (EMS) units were
killed.[153]
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. (an investment bank on the
North Tower’s 101st–105th floors) lost 658 employees, considerably more
than any other employer.[154] Marsh Inc., located immediately below
Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–100, lost 358 employees,[155][156] and
175 employees of Aon Corporation were also killed.[157] The National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated that about 17,400
civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the
attacks. Turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest 14,154 people
were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m.[158][page needed][159]
Most people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings.[160]
Weeks
after the attack, the death toll was estimated to be over 6,000, more
than twice the number of deaths eventually confirmed.[161] The city was
only able to identify remains for about 1,600 of the World Trade Center
victims. The medical examiner's office collected "about 10,000
unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the
list of the dead".[162] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 by
workers who were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank
Building.
In 2010, a team of anthropologists and archaeologists
searched for human remains and personal items at the Fresh Kills
Landfill, where 72 more human remains were recovered, bringing the total
found to 1,845. DNA profiling continues in an attempt to identify
additional victims.[163][164][165] The remains are being held in storage
in Memorial Park, outside the New York City Medical Examiner's
facilities. It was expected that the remains would be moved in 2013 to a
repository behind a wall at the 9/11 museum.[needs update]
In
July 2011, a team of scientists at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner
was still trying to identify remains, in the hope that improved
technology will allow them to identify other victims.[165] On August 7,
2017, the 1,641st victim was identified as a result of newly available
DNA technology,[166] and a 1,642nd on July 26, 2018.[167] Three more
victims were identified in 2019 and further two in 2021. As of September
2021, 1,106 victims are yet to be identified.[168][169]
Damage
Further information: Collapse of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center site (Ground Zero) with an overlay showing the original building locations
Remains of 6, 7, and 1 WTC
on September 17
Aerial view of the Pentagon
Along
with the 110-floor Twin Towers, numerous other buildings at the World
Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including WTC
buildings 3 through 7 and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.[170] The
North Tower, South Tower, the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC), and 7 WTC were
destroyed. The U.S. Customs House (6 World Trade Center), 4 World Trade
Center, 5 World Trade Center, and both pedestrian bridges connecting
buildings were severely damaged. The Deutsche Bank Building (still
popularly referred to as the Bankers Trust Building) on 130 Liberty
Street was partially damaged and demolished some years later, starting
in 2007.[171][172] The two buildings of the World Financial Center also
suffered damage.[171] The last fires at the World Trade Center site were
extinguished on December 20, exactly 100 days after the attacks.[173]
The
Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade
Center complex was later condemned as uninhabitable because of toxic
conditions inside the office tower, and was deconstructed.[174][175] The
Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West
Broadway was condemned due to extensive damage from the attacks, and was
reopened in 2012.[176]
Other neighboring buildings (including 90
West Street and the Verizon Building) suffered major damage but have
been restored.[177] World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza,
the Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage and have
since been restored.[178] Communications equipment on top of the North
Tower was also destroyed, with only WCBS-TV maintaining a backup
transmitter on the Empire State Building, but media stations were
quickly able to reroute the signals and resume their
broadcasts.[170][179]
The PATH train system's World Trade Center
station was located under the complex. As a result, the entire station
was demolished completely when the towers collapsed, and the tunnels
leading to Exchange Place station in Jersey City, New Jersey were
flooded with water.[180] The station was rebuilt as the $4 billion World
Trade Center Transportation Hub, which reopened in March
2015.[181][182] The Cortlandt Street station on the New York City
Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was also in close proximity to
the World Trade Center complex, and the entire station, along with the
surrounding track, was reduced to rubble.[183] The latter station was
rebuilt and reopened to the public on September 8, 2018.[184]
The
Pentagon was severely damaged by the impact of American Airlines Flight
77 and the ensuing fires, causing one section of the building to
collapse.[185] As the airplane approached the Pentagon, its wings
knocked down light poles and its right engine hit a power generator
before crashing into the western side of the building.[186][187] The
plane hit the Pentagon at the first-floor level. The front part of the
fuselage disintegrated on impact, while the mid and tail sections kept
moving for another fraction of a second.[188] Debris from the tail
section penetrated the furthest into the building, breaking through 310
feet (94 m) of the three outermost of the building's five
rings.[188][189]
Rescue efforts
Main article: Rescue and recovery effort after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center
See also: List of emergency and first responder agencies that responded to the September 11 attacks
Search and rescue teams inspect the wreckage at Ground Zero on September 13
The
New York City Fire Department deployed 200 units (half of the
department) to the World Trade Center. Their efforts were supplemented
by numerous off-duty firefighters and emergency medical
technicians.[190][191][192] The New York City Police Department sent
Emergency Service Units and other police personnel and deployed its
aviation unit. Once on the scene, the FDNY, the NYPD, and the PAPD did
not coordinate efforts and performed redundant searches for
civilians.[190][193]
As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD
aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who issued
orders for its personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD officers were
able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.[193][194] With
separate command posts set up and incompatible radio communications
between the agencies, warnings were not passed along to FDNY commanders.
After
the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders issued evacuation warnings.
Due to technical difficulties with malfunctioning radio repeater
systems, many firefighters never heard the evacuation orders. 9-1-1
dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed
along to commanders on the scene.[191] Within hours of the attack, a
substantial search and rescue operation was launched. After months of
around-the-clock operations, the World Trade Center site was cleared by
the end of May 2002.[195]
Aftermath
Main article: Aftermath of the September 11 attacks
See also: Timeline for September following the September 11 attacks
The
9/11 attacks resulted in immediate responses to the event, including
domestic reactions; closings and cancellations; hate crimes;
Muslim-American responses to the event; international responses to the
attack; and military responses to the events. An extensive compensation
program was quickly established by Congress in the aftermath to
compensate the victims and families of victims of the 9/11 attacks as
well.[196][197]
Immediate response
Further information: U.S. military response during the September 11 attacks
See also: Communication during the September 11 attacks
President
George W. Bush is briefed in Sarasota, Florida, where he learned of the
attacks unfolding while he was visiting an elementary school.
Eight hours after the attacks, Donald Rumsfeld, then U.S. Secretary of Defense, declares "The Pentagon is functioning."
At
8:32 a.m., FAA officials were notified Flight 11 had been hijacked and
they, in turn, notified the North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD). NORAD scrambled two F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base in
Massachusetts and they were airborne by 8:53 a.m. Because of slow and
confused communication from FAA officials, NORAD had nine minutes'
notice, and no notice about any of the other flights before they
crashed.
After both of the Twin Towers had already been hit, more
fighters were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30
a.m.[198] At 10:20 a.m., Vice President Dick Cheney issued orders to
shoot down any commercial aircraft that could be positively identified
as being hijacked. These instructions were not relayed in time for the
fighters to take action.[198][199][200] Some fighters took to the air
without live ammunition, knowing that to prevent the hijackers from
striking their intended targets, the pilots might have to intercept and
crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, possibly ejecting at the
last moment.[201]
For the first time in U.S. history, the
emergency preparedness plan called Security Control of Air Traffic and
Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) was invoked,[202] thus stranding tens of
thousands of passengers across the world.[203] Ben Sliney, in his first
day as the National Operations Manager of the FAA,[204] ordered that
American airspace would be closed to all international flights, causing
about 500 flights to be turned back or redirected to other countries.
Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and launched Operation
Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and
stranded passengers.[205]
The 9/11 attacks had immediate effects
on the American people.[206] Police and rescue workers from around the
country took a leave of absence from their jobs and traveled to New York
City to help recover bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin
Towers.[207] Blood donations across the U.S. surged in the weeks after
9/11.[208][209]
The deaths of adults in the attacks resulted in
over 3,000 children losing a parent.[210] Subsequent studies documented
children's reactions to these actual losses and to feared losses of
life, the protective environment in the attacks’ aftermath, and the
effects on surviving caregivers.[211][212][213]
Domestic reactions
Further information: U.S. government response to the September 11 attacks
President Bush addressed the nation from the White House at 8:30PM ET.
The President spoke to rescue workers at Ground Zero on September 14.
34:18
During
a speech to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush
pledges "to defend freedom against terrorism", September 20, 2001 (audio
only).
Following the attacks, President George W. Bush's
approval rating soared to 90%.[214] On September 20, 2001, he addressed
the nation and a joint session of Congress regarding the events of
September 11 and the subsequent nine days of rescue and recovery
efforts, and described his intended response to the attacks. New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani's highly visible role won him high praise in
New York and nationally.[215]
Many relief funds were immediately
set up to assist the attacks’ victims, with the task of providing
financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and to the victims’
families. By the deadline for victims’ compensation on September 11,
2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those
who were killed.[216]
Contingency plans for the continuity of
government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented soon after the
attacks.[203] Congress was not told that the United States had been
under a continuity of government status until February 2002.[217]
In
the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary
history, the United States enacted the Homeland Security Act of 2002,
creating the Department of Homeland Security. Congress also passed the
USA PATRIOT Act, saying it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and
other crimes.[218] Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT
Act, saying it allows law enforcement to invade citizens’ privacy and
that it eliminates judicial oversight of law enforcement and domestic
intelligence.[219][220][221]
In an effort to effectively combat
future acts of terrorism, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given
broad powers. NSA commenced warrantless surveillance of
telecommunications, which was sometimes criticized since it permitted
the agency "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between
the United States and people overseas without a warrant".[222] In
response to requests by various intelligence agencies, the United States
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permitted an expansion of
powers by the U.S. government in seeking, obtaining, and sharing
information on U.S. citizens as well as non-U.S. people from around the
world.[223]
Hate crimes
See also: Islamophobic incidents and Persecution of Muslims
Six
days after the attacks, President Bush made a public appearance at
Washington, D.C.'s largest Islamic Center and acknowledged the
"incredibly valuable contribution" that millions of American Muslims
made to their country and called for them "to be treated with
respect".[224] Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes against
Muslims and South Asians were reported in the days following the
attacks.[225][226][227]
Sikhs were also subject to targeting due
to the use of turbans in the Sikh faith, which are stereotypically
associated with Muslims. There were reports of attacks on mosques and
other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple),
and assaults on individuals, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a
Sikh mistaken for a Muslim, who was fatally shot on September 15, 2001,
in Mesa, Arizona.[227] Two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's family
were urgently evacuated out of the country on a private charter plane
under FBI supervision three days after the attacks.[228]
According
to an academic study, people perceived to be Middle Eastern were as
likely to be victims of hate crimes as followers of Islam during this
time. The study also found a similar increase in hate crimes against
people who may have been perceived as Muslims, Arabs, and others thought
to be of Middle Eastern origin.[229] A report by the South Asian
American advocacy group known as South Asian Americans Leading Together
documented media coverage of 645 bias incidents against Americans of
South Asian or Middle Eastern descent between September 11 and 17 2001.
Various crimes such as vandalism, arson, assault, shootings, harassment,
and threats in numerous places were documented.[230][231] Women wearing
hijab were also targeted.[232]
Discrimination and racial profiling
Further information: Detentions following the September 11 attacks, Islamophobia in the United States, and Flying while Muslim
See also: Airport racial profiling in the United States
A
poll of Arab-Americans, conducted in May 2002, found that 20% had
personally experienced discrimination since September 11. A July 2002
poll of Muslim Americans found that 48% believed their lives had changed
for the worse since September 11, and 57% had experienced an act of
bias or discrimination.[232]
Following the September 11 attacks,
many Pakistani Americans identified themselves as Indians to avoid
potential discrimination and obtain jobs (Pakistan was created as a
result of the partition of India in 1947).[233]
By May 2002,
there were 488 complaints of employment discrimination reported to the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 301 of those were
complaints from people fired from their jobs. Similarly, by June 2002,
the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) had investigated 111
September 11th-related complaints from airline passengers purporting
that their religious or ethnic appearance caused them to be singled out
at security screenings. DOT investigated an additional 31 complaints
from people who alleged they were completely blocked from boarding
airplanes on the same grounds.[232]
Muslim American response
See also: Muslim attitudes towards terrorism
Muslim
organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks
and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and
resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and
their families".[234] These organizations included the Islamic Society
of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council,
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America,
and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. Along with
monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and
provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for
victims.[235][236][237]
Interfaith efforts
Curiosity about
Islam increased after the attacks. As a result, many mosques and Islamic
centers began holding open houses and participating in outreach efforts
to educate non-Muslims about the faith. In the first 10 years after the
attacks, interfaith community service increased from 8 to 20 percent.
and the percentage of US congregations involved in interfaith worship
doubled from 7 to 14 percent.[238]
International reactions
Main article: Reactions to the September 11 attacks
The
attacks were denounced by mass media and governments worldwide. Across
the globe, nations offered pro-American support and solidarity.[239]
Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, as well as Libya and
Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with
an immediate official statement that, "the American cowboys are reaping
the fruit of their crimes against humanity".[240] The government of
Saudi Arabia officially condemned the attacks, but privately many Saudis
favored bin Laden's cause.[241][242]
Although Palestinian
Authority (PA) president Yasser Arafat also condemned the attacks, there
were reports of celebrations of disputed size in the West Bank, Gaza
Strip, and East Jerusalem.[243][244] Palestinian leaders discredited
news broadcasters that justified the attacks or showed
celebrations,[245] and the Authority claimed such celebration do not
represent the Palestinians' sentiment, adding that it would not allow "a
few kids" to "smear the real face of the Palestinians".[246][247]
Footage by CNN[vague] and other news outlets were suggested by a report
originating at a Brazilian university to be from 1991; this was later
proven to be a false accusation, resulting in a statement being issued
by CNN.[248][249] As in the United States, the aftermath of the attacks
saw tensions increase in other countries between Muslims and
non-Muslims.[250]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368
condemned the attacks, and expressed readiness to take all necessary
steps to respond and combat all forms of terrorism in accordance with
their Charter.[251] Numerous countries introduced anti-terrorism
legislation and froze bank accounts they suspected of al-Qaeda
ties.[252][253] Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of
countries arrested alleged terrorists.[254][255]
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair said Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the
United States.[256] A few days later, Blair flew to Washington, D.C. to
affirm British solidarity with the United States. In a speech to
Congress nine days after the attacks, which Blair attended as a guest,
President Bush declared "America has no truer friend than Great
Britain."[257] Subsequently, Prime Minister Blair embarked on two months
of diplomacy to rally international support for military action; he
held 54 meetings with world leaders and traveled more than 40,000 miles
(60,000 km).[258]
Vladimir Putin (right) and his then-wife Lyudmila Putina (center) on November 16
The
U.S. set up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold inmates they
defined as "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these
detentions has been questioned by the European Union and human rights
organizations.[259][260][261]
On September 25, 2001, Iran's fifth
president, Mohammad Khatami, meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw, said: "Iran fully understands the feelings of the Americans about
the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11." He
said although the American administrations had been at best indifferent
about terrorist operations in Iran (since 1979), the Iranians felt
differently and had expressed their sympathetic feelings with bereaved
Americans in the tragic incidents in the two cities. He also stated that
"Nations should not be punished in place of terrorists."[262]
According
to Radio Farda's website, when the news of the attacks was released,
some Iranian citizens gathered in front of the Embassy of Switzerland in
Tehran, which serves as the protecting power of the United States in
Iran (U.S. interests-protecting office in Iran), to express their
sympathy, and some of them lit candles as a symbol of mourning. This
piece of news at Radio Farda's website also states that in 2011, on the
anniversary of the attacks, the United States Department of State
published a post at its blog, in which the Department thanked the
Iranian people for their sympathy and stated that it would never forget
Iranian people's kindness on those harsh days.[263] After the attacks,
both the President[264][265] and the Supreme Leader of Iran, condemned
the attacks. The BBC and Time magazine published reports on holding
candlelit vigils for the victims by Iranian citizens on their
websites.[266][267] According to Politico Magazine, following the
attacks, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, "suspended the
usual 'Death to America' chants at Friday prayers" temporarily.[268]
In
September 2001, shortly after the attacks, Greek soccer fans burned an
Israeli flag and unsuccessfully tried to burn an American flag. Though
the American flag did not catch fire, the fans booed during a moment of
silence for victims of the attacks.[269]
Effects in Afghanistan
If there are Americans clamoring to bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone
Age, they ought to know that this nation does not have so far to go.
This is a post-apocalyptic place of felled cities, parched land and
downtrodden people.
— Barry Bearak, The New York Times, September 13, 2001[270]
Most
of the Afghan population was already going hungry at the time of the
September 11 attacks.[271] In the aftermath of the attacks, tens of
thousands of people attempted to flee Afghanistan due to the possibility
of military retaliation by the United States. Pakistan, already home to
many Afghan refugees from previous conflicts, closed its border with
Afghanistan on September 17, 2001.[272] Thousands of Afghans also fled
to the frontier with Tajikistan, although were denied entry.[273] The
Taliban leaders in Afghanistan themselves pleaded against military
action, saying "We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan
into more misery because our people have suffered so much.", referring
to two decades of conflict and the humanitarian crisis attached to
it.[270]
All United Nations expatriates had left Afghanistan
after the attacks and no national or international aid workers were at
their post. Workers were instead preparing in bordering countries like
Pakistan, China and Uzbekistan to prevent a potential "humanitarian
catastrophe", amid a critically low food stock for the Afghan
population.[274] The World Food Programme stopped importing wheat to
Afghanistan on September 12 due to security risks.[275] The Wall Street
Journal suggested the creation of a buffer zone in an inevitable war,
similarly as in the Bosnian War.[276]
Approximately one month
after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of
international forces to overthrow the Taliban regime from Afghanistan
for their harboring of al-Qaeda.[272] Though Pakistani authorities were
initially reluctant to align themselves with the United States against
the Taliban, they permitted the coalition access to their military
bases, and arrested and handed over to the U.S. over 600 suspected
al-Qaeda members.[277][278]
In a speech by the Nizari Ismaili
Imam at the Nobel Institute in 2005, Aga Khan IV stated that the "9/11
attack on the United States was a direct consequence of the
international community ignoring the human tragedy that was Afghanistan
at that time".[279]
Military operations
Further information: War on terror
At
2:40 p.m. on September 11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was
issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi
involvement. According to notes taken by senior policy official Stephen
Cambone, Rumsfeld asked for, "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough
hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL" [Osama bin
Laden].[280] Cambone's notes quoted Rumsfeld as saying, "Need to move
swiftly – Near term target needs – go massive – sweep it all up. Things
related and not."[281][282]
In a meeting at Camp David on
September 15 the Bush administration rejected the idea of attacking Iraq
in response to 9/11.[283] Nonetheless, they later invaded the country
with allies, citing "Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism".[284] At
the time, as many as seven in ten Americans believed the Iraqi president
played a role in the 9/11 attacks.[285] Three years later, Bush
conceded that he had not.[286]
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan
The
NATO council declared that the terrorist attacks on the United States
were an attack on all NATO nations that satisfied Article 5 of the NATO
charter. This marked the first invocation of Article 5, which had been
written during the Cold War with an attack by the Soviet Union in
mind.[287] Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was in Washington,
D.C. during the attacks, invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty.[288]
The Bush administration announced a War on Terror, with the stated goals
of bringing bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the
emergence of other terrorist networks.[289] These goals would be
accomplished by imposing economic and military sanctions against states
harboring terrorists, and increasing global surveillance and
intelligence sharing.[290]
On September 14, 2001, the U.S.
Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against
Terrorists. It is still in effect, and grants the President the
authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those
whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the
September 11 attacks or who harbored said persons or groups.[291]
On
October 7, 2001, the War in Afghanistan began when U.S. and British
forces initiated aerial bombing campaigns targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda
camps, then later invaded Afghanistan with ground troops of the Special
Forces.[292] This eventually led to the overthrow of the Taliban’s rule
of Afghanistan with the Fall of Kandahar on December 7, 2001, by
U.S.-led coalition forces.[293] Osama bin Laden, who went into hiding in
the White Mountains, was targeted by U.S. coalition forces in the
Battle of Tora Bora, but he escaped across the Pakistani border and
would remain out of sight for almost ten years.[7]
The
Philippines and Indonesia, among other nations with their own internal
conflicts with Islamic terrorism, also increased their military
readiness.[294][295] The military forces of the United States of America
and the Islamic Republic of Iran cooperated with each other to
overthrow the Taliban regime which had had conflicts with the government
of Iran.[268][296] Iran's Quds Force helped U.S. forces and Afghan
rebels in the 2001 uprising in Herat.[297][298][299]
Effects
See also: Post-9/11
Health issues
Main article: Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks
Survivors covered in dust after the collapse of the towers
Hundreds
of thousands of tons of toxic debris containing more than 2,500
contaminants, including known carcinogens, were spread across Lower
Manhattan due to the Twin Towers’ collapse.[300][301] Exposure to the
toxins in the debris is alleged to have contributed to fatal or
debilitating illnesses among people who were at Ground Zero.[302][303]
The Bush administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to issue reassuring statements regarding air quality in the
aftermath of the attacks, citing national security, but the EPA did not
determine that air quality had returned to pre-September 11 levels until
June 2002.[304]
Health effects extended to residents, students,
and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.[305] Several
deaths have been linked to the toxic dust, and the victims' names were
included in the World Trade Center memorial.[306] Approximately 18,000
people have been estimated to have developed illnesses as a result of
the toxic dust.[307] There is also scientific speculation that exposure
to various toxic products in the air may have negative effects on fetal
development. A notable children's environmental health center is
currently[when?] analyzing the children whose mothers were pregnant
during the WTC collapse, and were living or working nearby.[308] A study
of rescue workers released in April 2010 found that all those studied
had impaired lung functions, and that 30%–40% were reporting little or
no improvement in persistent symptoms that started within the first year
of the attack.[309]
Years after the attacks, legal disputes over
the costs of illnesses related to the attacks were still in the court
system. On October 17, 2006, a federal judge rejected New York City's
refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers, allowing for the
possibility of numerous suits against the city.[310] Government
officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower
Manhattan in the weeks shortly after the attacks. Christine Todd
Whitman, administrator of the EPA in the attacks’ aftermath, was heavily
criticized by a U.S. District Judge for incorrectly saying that the
area was environmentally safe.[311] Mayor Giuliani was criticized for
urging financial industry personnel to return quickly to the greater
Wall Street area.[312]
On December 22, 2010, the United States
Congress passed the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act,
which President Barack Obama signed into law on January 2, 2011. It
allocated $4.2 billion to create the World Trade Center Health Program,
which provides testing and treatment for people suffering from long-term
health problems related to the 9/11 attacks.[313][314] The WTC Health
Program replaced preexisting 9/11-related health programs such as the
Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program and the WTC Environmental
Health Center program.[314]
Economic
Main article: Economic effects of the September 11 attacks
The
attacks had a significant economic impact on United States and world
markets.[315] The stock exchanges did not open on September 11 and
remained closed until September 17. Reopening, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average (DJIA) fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8921, a record-setting
one-day point decline.[316] By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen
1,369.7 points (14.3%), at the time its largest one-week point drop in
history. In 2001 dollars, U.S. stocks lost $1.4 trillion in valuation
for the week.[317]
In New York City, about 430,000 job-months and
$2.8 billion in wages were lost in the first three months after the
attacks. The economic effects were mainly on the economy's export
sectors.[318] The city's GDP was estimated to have declined by $27.3
billion for the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The U.S.
government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the
Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in
early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.[319]
U.S. deficit and debt increases 2001–2008
Also
hurt were small businesses in Lower Manhattan near the World Trade
Center (18,000 of which were destroyed or displaced), resulting in lost
jobs and their consequent wages. Assistance was provided by Small
Business Administration loans; federal government Community Development
Block Grants; and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.[319] Some 31,900,000
square feet (2,960,000 m2) of Lower Manhattan office space was damaged
or destroyed.[320] Many wondered whether these jobs would return, and if
the damaged tax base would recover.[321] Studies of 9/11’s economic
effects show the Manhattan office real-estate market and office
employment were less affected than first feared, because of the
financial services industry's need for face-to-face
interaction.[322][323]
North American air space was closed for
several days after the attacks and air travel decreased upon its
reopening, leading to a nearly 20% cutback in air travel capacity, and
exacerbating financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline
industry.[324]
The September 11 attacks also led to the U.S. wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq,[325] as well as additional homeland security
spending, totaling at least $5 trillion.[326]
Cultural influence
Main article: Cultural influence of the September 11 attacks
Further
information: List of cultural references to the September 11 attacks,
Entertainment affected by the September 11 attacks, and Osama bin Laden
in popular culture
See also: Osama bin Laden (elephant)
The
impact of 9/11 extends beyond geopolitics and into society and culture
in general. Immediate responses to 9/11 included greater focus on home
life and time spent with family, higher church attendance, and increased
expressions of patriotism such as the flying of American flags.[327]
The radio industry responded by removing certain songs from playlists,
and the attacks have subsequently been used as background, narrative, or
thematic elements in film, music, literature, and humor.
Already-running television shows as well as programs developed after
9/11 have reflected post-9/11 cultural concerns.[328]
9/11
conspiracy theories have become social phenomena, despite lack of
support from expert scientists, engineers, and historians.[329] 9/11 has
also had a major impact on the religious faith of many individuals; for
some it strengthened, to find consolation to cope with the loss of
loved ones and overcome their grief; others started to question their
faith or lose it entirely, because they could not reconcile it with
their view of religion.[330][331]
The culture of America
succeeding the attacks is noted for heightened security and an increased
demand thereof, as well as paranoia and anxiety regarding future
terrorist attacks that includes most of the nation. Psychologists have
also confirmed that there has been an increased amount of national
anxiety in commercial air travel.[332] Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose
nearly ten-fold in 2001, and have subsequently remained "roughly five
times higher than the pre-9/11 rate."[333]
Government policies toward terrorism
Further
information: Anti-terrorism legislation, Airport security repercussions
due to the September 11 attacks, and Legal issues related to the
September 11 attacks
See also: Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture
Alleged "extraordinary rendition" illegal flights of the CIA, as reported by Rzeczpospolita.[334]
As
a result of the attacks, many governments across the world passed
legislation to combat terrorism.[335] In Germany, where several of the
9/11 terrorists had resided and taken advantage of that country's
liberal asylum policies, two major anti-terrorism packages were enacted.
The first removed legal loopholes that permitted terrorists to live and
raise money in Germany. The second addressed the effectiveness and
communication of intelligence and law enforcement.[336] Canada passed
the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, their first anti-terrorism law.[337]
The United Kingdom passed the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act
2001 and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.[338][339] New Zealand
enacted the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.[340]
In the United
States, the Department of Homeland Security was created by the Homeland
Security Act of 2002 to coordinate domestic anti-terrorism efforts. The
USA Patriot Act gave the federal government greater powers, including
the authority to detain foreign terror suspects for a week without
charge; to monitor terror suspects’ telephone communications, e-mail,
and Internet use; and to prosecute suspected terrorists without time
restrictions. The FAA ordered that airplane cockpits be reinforced to
prevent terrorists gaining control of planes, and assigned sky marshals
to flights.
Further, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act
made the federal government, rather than airports, responsible for
airport security. The law created the Transportation Security
Administration to inspect passengers and luggage, causing long delays
and concern over passenger privacy.[341] After suspected abuses of the
USA Patriot Act were brought to light in June 2013 with articles about
the collection of American call records by the NSA and the PRISM program
(see Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)), Representative
Jim Sensenbrenner,(R- Wisconsin) who introduced the Patriot Act in 2001,
said that the NSA overstepped its bounds.[342][343]
Criticism of
the war on terror has focused on its morality, efficiency, and cost.
According to a 2021 study conducted under the auspices of the Watson
Institute for International and Public Affairs, the several post-9/11
wars participated in by the United States in its War on Terror have
caused the displacement, conservatively calculated, of 38 million people
in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the
Philippines.[344][345][346] The study estimated these wars caused the
deaths of 897,000 to 929,000 people and cost $8 trillion dollars.[346]
The U.S. Constitution and U.S. law prohibits the use of torture, yet
such human rights violations occurred during the War on Terror under the
euphemism Enhanced interrogation.[347][348] In 2005, The Washington
Post and Human Rights Watch (HRW) published revelations concerning CIA
flights and "black sites", covert prisons operated by the CIA.[349][350]
The term "torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe
situations in which the CIA and other U.S. agencies have transferred
suspected terrorists to countries known to employ torture.[351][352]
Investigations
FBI
Further information: Hijackers in the September 11 attacks
Immediately
after the attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started
PENTTBOM, the largest criminal inquiry in United States history. At its
height, more than half of the FBI's agents worked on the investigation
and followed a half-million leads.[353] The FBI concluded that there was
"clear and irrefutable" evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the
attacks.[354]
A head shot of a man in his thirties looking expressionless toward the camera
Mohamed Atta, an Egyptian national, was the ringleader of the attacks.
The
FBI was quickly able to identify the hijackers, including leader
Mohamed Atta, when his luggage was discovered at Boston's Logan Airport.
Atta had been forced to check two of his three bags due to space
limitations on the 19-seat commuter flight he took to Boston. Due to a
new policy instituted to prevent flight delays, the luggage failed to
make it aboard American Airlines Flight 11 as planned. The luggage
contained the hijackers' names, assignments, and al-Qaeda connections.
"It had all these Arab-language [sic] papers that amounted to the
Rosetta stone of the investigation", said one FBI agent.[355] Within
hours of the attacks, the FBI released the names and in many cases the
personal details of the suspected pilots and hijackers.[356][357] Abu
Jandal, who served as bin Laden’s chief bodyguard for years, confirmed
the identity of seven hijackers as al-Qaeda members during
interrogations with the FBI on September 17. He had been jailed in a
Yemeni prison since 2000.[358][359] On September 27, 2001, photos of all
19 hijackers were released, along with information about possible
nationalities and aliases.[360] Fifteen of the men were from Saudi
Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and
one was from Lebanon.[361]
By midday, the U.S. National Security
Agency and German intelligence agencies had intercepted communications
pointing to Osama bin Laden.[362] Two of the hijackers were known to
have traveled with a bin Laden associate to Malaysia in 2000[363] and
hijacker Mohammed Atta had previously gone to Afghanistan.[364] He and
others were part of a terrorist cell in Hamburg.[365] One of the members
of the Hamburg cell in Germany was discovered to have been in
communication with Khalid Sheik Mohammed who was identified as a member
of al-Qaeda.[366]
Authorities in the United States and United
Kingdom also obtained electronic intercepts, including telephone
conversations and electronic bank transfers, which indicated that
Mohammed Atef, a bin Laden deputy, was a key figure in the planning of
the 9/11 attacks. Intercepts were also obtained that revealed
conversations that took place days before September 11 between bin Laden
and an associate in Pakistan. In those conversations, the two referred
to "an incident that would take place in America on, or around,
September 11" and they discussed potential repercussions. In another
conversation with an associate in Afghanistan, bin Laden discussed the
"scale and effects of a forthcoming operation." These conversations did
not specifically mention the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or other
specifics.[367]
Origins of the 19 hijackers Nationality Number
Saudi Arabia
15
United Arab Emirates
2
Egypt
1
Lebanon
1
The
FBI did not record the 2,977 deaths from the attacks in their annual
violent crime index for 2001. In a disclaimer, the FBI stated that "the
number of deaths is so great that combining it with the traditional
crime statistics will have an outlier effect that falsely skews all
types of measurements in the program's analyses."[368] New York City
also did not include the deaths in their annual crime statistics for
2001.[369]
CIA
Further information: September 11 intelligence before the attacks
In
2004, John L. Helgerson, the Inspector General of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), conducted an internal review of the agency's
pre-9/11 performance and was harshly critical of senior CIA officials
for not doing everything possible to confront terrorism.[370] According
to Philip Giraldi in The American Conservative, Helgerson criticized
their failure to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and
Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States and their failure
to share information on the two men with the FBI.[371][better source
needed]
In May 2007, senators from both major U.S. political
parties drafted legislation to make the review public. One of the
backers, Senator Ron Wyden said, "The American people have a right to
know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical
months before 9/11."[372] The report was released in 2009 by President
Barack Obama.[370]
Congressional inquiry
Main article: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
In
February 2002, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence formed a joint inquiry
into the performance of the U.S. Intelligence Community.[373] Their
832-page report released in December 2002[374] detailed failings of the
FBI and CIA to use available information, including about terrorists the
CIA knew were in the United States, in order to disrupt the plots.[375]
The joint inquiry developed its information about possible involvement
of Saudi Arabian government officials from non-classified sources.[376]
Nevertheless, the Bush administration demanded 28 related pages remain
classified.[375] In December 2002, the inquiry's chair Bob Graham (D-FL)
revealed in an interview that there was "evidence that there were
foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least
some of the terrorists in the United States."[377] September 11 victim
families were frustrated by the unanswered questions and redacted
material from the Congressional inquiry and demanded an independent
commission.[375] September 11 victim families,[378] members of
congress[379] and the Saudi Arabian government are still seeking release
of the documents.[380][381] In June 2016, CIA chief John Brennan said
that he believes 28 redacted pages of a congressional inquiry into 9/11
will soon be made public, and that they will prove that the government
of Saudi Arabia had no involvement in the September 11 attacks.[382]
In
September 2016, the Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of
Terrorism Act that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11
attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the
attacks.[383][384][385]
9/11 Commission
Main articles: 9/11 Commission and 9/11 Commission Report
See also: Criticism of the 9/11 Commission
The
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11
Commission), chaired by Thomas Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, was formed in
late 2002 to prepare a thorough account of the circumstances surrounding
the attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to
the attacks.[386] On July 22, 2004, the Commission issued the 9/11
Commission Report. The report detailed the events of 9/11, found the
attacks were carried out by members of al-Qaeda, and examined how
security and intelligence agencies were inadequately coordinated to
prevent the attacks.
Formed from an independent bipartisan group
of mostly former senators, representatives, and governors, the
commissioners explained, "We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four
kinds of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities, and
management."[387] The Commission made numerous recommendations on how to
prevent future attacks, and in 2011 was dismayed that several of its
recommendations had yet to be implemented.[388]
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Main article: NIST World Trade Center Disaster Investigation
See also: 7 World Trade Center § 9/11 and collapse
The exterior support columns from the lower level of the South Tower remained standing after the building collapsed.
The
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigated
the collapses of the Twin Towers and 7 WTC. The investigations examined
why the buildings collapsed and what fire protection measures were in
place, and evaluated how fire protection systems might be improved in
future construction.[389] The investigation into the collapse of 1 WTC
and 2 WTC was concluded in October 2005 and that of 7 WTC was completed
in August 2008.[390]
NIST found that the fireproofing on the Twin
Towers' steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial impact of
the planes and that had this not occurred, the towers likely would have
remained standing.[391] A 2007 study of the north tower's collapse
published by researchers of Purdue University determined that since the
plane's impact had stripped off much of the structure's thermal
insulation, the heat from a typical office fire would have softened and
weakened the exposed girders and columns enough to initiate the collapse
regardless of the number of columns cut or damaged by the
impact.[392][393]
The director of the original investigation
stated that "the towers really did amazingly well. The terrorist
aircraft didn't bring the buildings down; it was the fire which
followed. It was proven that you could take out two-thirds of the
columns in a tower and the building would still stand."[394] The fires
weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the floors sag. The
sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns causing the exterior
columns to bow inward.
With the damage to the core columns, the
buckling exterior columns could no longer support the buildings, causing
them to collapse. Additionally, the report found the towers' stairwells
were not adequately reinforced to provide adequate emergency escape for
people above the impact zones.[395] NIST concluded that uncontrolled
fires in 7 WTC caused floor beams and girders to heat and subsequently
"caused a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced
progressive collapse that brought the building down".[390]
Alleged Saudi government role
Main article: Alleged Saudi government role in the September 11 attacks
See also: Saudi Arabia–United States relations, Saudi Arabia and state-sponsored terrorism, and The 28 pages
In
July 2016, the Obama administration released a document compiled by US
investigators Dana Lesemann and Michael Jacobson, known as "File
17",[396] which contains a list naming three dozen people, including the
suspected Saudi intelligence officers attached to Saudi Arabia's
embassy in Washington, D.C.,[397] which connects Saudi Arabia to the
hijackers.[398][399]
In September 2016, Congress passed the
Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.[400][401] The practical
effect of the legislation was to allow the continuation of a
longstanding civil lawsuit brought by families of victims of the
September 11 attacks against Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged
role in the attacks.[402] In March 2018, a U.S. judge formally allowed a
suit to move forward against the government of Saudi Arabia brought by
9/11 survivors and victims' families.[400]
In 2022, the families
of some 9/11 victims obtained two videos and a notepad seized from Saudi
national Omar al-Bayoumi by the British courts. The first video showed
him hosting a party in San Diego for Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid
al-Mihdhar, the first two hijackers to arrive in the U.S. The other
video showed al-Bayoumi greeting the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was
blamed for radicalizing Americans and later killed in a CIA drone
strike. The notepad depicted a hand-drawn airplane and some mathematical
equations that, according to a pilot's court statement, might have been
used to calculate the rate of descent to get to a target. According to a
2017 FBI memo, from the late 1990s up until the 9/11 attack, al-Bayoumi
was a paid cooptee of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency. As of
April 2022 he is believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, which has denied
any involvement in 9/11.[403]
Rebuilding
Main articles: Construction of One World Trade Center and World Trade Center site
Further information: World Trade Center (2001–present)
Rebuilt One World Trade Center nearing completion in July 2013
On
the day of the attacks, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani stated: "We
will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before,
politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made
whole again."[404]
The damaged section of the Pentagon was
rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks.[405] The temporary
World Trade Center PATH station opened in late 2003 and construction of
the new 7 World Trade Center was completed in 2006. Work on rebuilding
the main World Trade Center site was delayed until late 2006 when
leaseholder Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey agreed on financing.[406] The construction of One World Trade
Center began on April 27, 2006, and reached its full height on May 20,
2013. The spire was installed atop the building at that date, putting 1
WTC's height at 1,776 feet (541 m) and thus claiming the title of the
tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.[407] One WTC finished
construction and opened on November 3, 2014.[8][408]
On the World
Trade Center site, three more office towers were to be built one block
east of where the original towers stood.[409] 4 WTC, meanwhile, opened
in November 2013, making it the second tower on the site to open behind 7
World Trade Center, as well as the first building on the Port Authority
property.[410] 3 WTC opened on June 11, 2018, becoming the fourth
skyscraper at the site to be completed.[411] On the 16th anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks, a writer for Curbed New York said that although "there
is a World Trade Center again", it was not finished, as 2 and 5 WTC did
not have definite completion dates, among other things.[412]
Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director from 2008–2011,
Christopher O. Ward, is a survivor of the attacks and is credited with
getting the construction of the 9/11 site back on track.[413]
Memorials
Main article: Memorials and services for the September 11 attacks
The United States flag flying at half-staff in New York City on September 11, 2014, the thirteenth anniversary of the attacks.
The Tribute in Light on September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the attacks
Fritz Koenig’s monumental sculpture The Sphere in its final location in Liberty Park
In
the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils
were held around the world, and photographs of the dead and missing were
posted around Ground Zero. A witness described being unable to "get
away from faces of innocent victims who were killed. Their pictures are
everywhere, on phone booths, street lights, walls of subway stations.
Everything reminded me of a huge funeral, people quiet and sad, but also
very nice. Before, New York gave me a cold feeling; now people were
reaching out to help each other."[414]
One of the first memorials
was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the
footprints of the World Trade Center towers.[415] In New York City, the
World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to design an
appropriate memorial on the site.[416] The winning design, Reflecting
Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of
reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list
of the victims' names in an underground memorial space.[417] The
memorial was completed on September 11, 2011;[418] a museum also opened
on site on May 21, 2014.[419]
The Sphere by the German sculptor
Fritz Koenig is the world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times,
and stood between the Twin Towers on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza of the
World Trade Center in New York City from 1971 until the terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001. The sculpture, weighing more than 20
tons, was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely intact
from the ruins of the collapsed Twin Towers after the attacks. Since
then, the work of art, known in the US as The Sphere, has been
transformed into an important symbolic monument of 9/11 commemoration.
After being dismantled and stored near a hangar at John F. Kennedy
International Airport, the sculpture was the subject of the 2001
documentary Koenig's Sphere by filmmaker Percy Adlon. On August 16,
2017, the work was reinstated, installed at the Liberty Park close to
the new World Trade Center arial and the 9/11 Memorial.[420]
In
Arlington County, the Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the
public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks in 2008.[421][422] It
consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon.[423]
When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and
indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77
crashed into the building.[424]
In Shanksville, a
concrete-and-glass visitor center was opened on September 10, 2015,[425]
situated on a hill overlooking the crash site and the white marble Wall
of Names.[426] An observation platform at the visitor center and the
white marble wall are both aligned beneath the path of Flight
93.[426][427] A temporary memorial is located 500 yards (457 m) from the
crash site.[428] New York City firefighters donated a cross made of
steel from the World Trade Center and mounted on top of a platform
shaped like the Pentagon.[429] It was installed outside the firehouse on
August 25, 2008.[430] Many other permanent memorials are elsewhere.
Scholarships and charities have been established by the victims'
families and by many other organizations and private figures.[431]
On
every anniversary in New York City, the names of the victims who died
there are read out against a background of somber music. The President
of the United States attends a memorial service at the Pentagon,[432]
and asks Americans to observe Patriot Day with a moment of silence.
Smaller services are held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which are
usually attended by the First Lady.
See also
Delta 1989
& Korean 085, two other flights that were falsely suspected of being
hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks
Air France Flight 8969
Bojinka plot
Federal Express Flight 705
Khobar Towers bombing
List of attacks on U.S. territory
List of aviation incidents involving terrorism
List of deadliest terrorist attacks in the United States
List of Islamist terrorist attacks
List of major terrorist incidents
List of terrorist incidents in New York City
List of terrorist incidents in 2001
Outline of the September 11 attacks
Timeline of al-Qaeda attacks
Timeline of the September 11 attacks
USS Cole bombing
1993 World Trade Center bombing
1998 United States embassy bombing
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot
2009 Bronx terrorism plot
2010 transatlantic aircraft bomb plot
References
Notes
The
hijackers began their first attack at 8:14 a.m., when a group of five
took control of American Flight 11. They then crashed that plane into
the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., which was the
first crash of the attacks.
The fourth and final hijacked plane of
the attacks was crashed in a Pennsylvania field at 10:03 a.m. which
concluded the attacks, as all of the attackers were now dead and all of
the hijacked planes destroyed. However, the attackers’ damage continued
as the North Tower kept burning for an additional 25 minutes, until it
ultimately collapsed by 10:28 a.m.
The expression 9/11 is typically
pronounced "nine eleven" in English, even in places that use the
opposite numerical dating convention; the slash is not pronounced.
It was determined the planned target would have been either the U.S. Capitol or the White House
Citations
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Moghadam, Assaf (2008). The Globalization of
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"So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall
tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken,
for you to consider"
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See also the 1998 Al-Qaeda fatwā: "The ruling to kill
the Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an
individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which
it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the
holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to
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Summers and Swan (2011), pp. 211, 506n.
Lawrence (2005), p. 239.
"Full
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In his taped broadcast from January 2010, Bin Laden said "Our
attacks against you [the United States] will continue as long as U.S.
support for Israel continues. ... The message sent to you with the
attempt by the hero Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a confirmation
of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of September 11". Quoted
from "Bin Laden: Attacks on U.S. to go on as long as it supports
Israel" Archived December 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, in
Haaretz.com
Bernard Lewis, 2004. In Bernard Lewis's 2004 book The
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toward the West is best understood with the decline of the once powerful
Ottoman empire, compounded by the import of western ideas – Arab
socialism, Arab liberalism and Arab secularism
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terrorism", Jean Baudrillard described 9/11 as the first global event
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"Somebody Else's Civil War", Michael Scott Doran argues the attacks are
best understood as part of a religious conflict within the Muslim world
and that Bin Laden's followers "consider themselves an island of true
believers surrounded by a sea of iniquity". Hoping that U.S. retaliation
would unite the faithful against the West, bin Laden sought to spark
revolutions in Arab nations and elsewhere. Doran argues the Osama bin
Laden videos attempt to provoke a visceral reaction in the Middle East
and ensure that Muslim citizens would react as violently as possible to
an increase in U.S. involvement in their region. (Doran, Michael Scott.
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In The Osama bin Laden I Know, Peter Bergen
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increase its military and cultural presence in the Middle East, thereby
forcing Muslims to confront the idea of a non-Muslim government and to
eventually establish conservative Islamic governments in the
region.(Bergen (2006), p. 229)
Lahoud, Nelly (2022). The Bin Laden
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Further reading
The 9/11 Commission
Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks.
Cosimo, Inc. July 30, 2010. ISBN 978-1-61640-219-8.
Atkins, Stephen E (2011). The 9/11 Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-921-9.
Bolton, M. Kent (2006). U.S. National Security and Foreign Policymaking
After 9/11: Present at the Re-creation. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN
978-0-7425-5900-4.
Caraley, Demetrios (2002). September 11,
terrorist attacks, and U.S. foreign policy. Academy of Political
Science. ISBN 978-1-884853-01-2.
Chernick, Howard (2005). Resilient city: the economic impact of 9/11. Russell Sage Foundation. ISBN 978-0-87154-170-3.
Damico, Amy M; Quay, Sara E. (2010). September 11 in Popular Culture: A Guide. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-35505-9.
Hampton, Wilborn (2003). September 11, 2001: attack on New York City. Candlewick Press. ISBN 978-0-7636-1949-7.
Langley, Andrew (2006). September 11: Attack on America. Compass Point Books. ISBN 978-0-7565-1620-8.
Neria, Yuval; Gross, Raz; Marshall, Randall D.; Susser, Ezra S. (2006).
9/11: mental health in the wake of terrorist attacks. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83191-8.
Ryan, Allan A. (2015).
The 9/11 Terror Cases: Constitutional Challenges in the War against Al
Qaeda. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-2132-3.
Strasser, Steven; Whitney, Craig R; United States. Congress. Senate.
Select Committee on Intelligence, National Commission on Terrorist
Attacks upon the United States (2004). The 9/11 investigations: staff
reports of the 9/11 Commission: excerpts from the House–Senate joint
inquiry report on 9/11: testimony from fourteen key witnesses, including
Richard Clarke, George Tenet, and Condoleezza Rice. PublicAffairs. ISBN
978-1-58648-279-4.
External links
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National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States official commission website
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September 11, 2001, Documentary Project from the U.S. Library of Congress, Memory.loc.gov
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September 11 Digital Archive: Saving the Histories of September 11,
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DoD: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10024, from Wikisource
The 9/11 Legacies Project, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
9/11 at 20: A Week of Reflection, Responsible Statecraft, The Quincy Institute
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See also
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Al-Qaeda
Leadership
Saif al-Adel Khalid Batarfi Ahmad Umar Iyad Ag Ghaly Ezedin Abdel Aziz
Khalil Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi Ali Sayyid Muhamed Mustafa al-Bakri
Ibrahim al-Banna Ibrahim al Qosi Mokhtar Belmokhtar Abu Walid al-Masri
Amin al-Haq Mohammed Showqi Al-Islambouli
Former
leadership
Killed
Osama bin Laden (killing) Ayman al-Zawahiri (killing) Mohammed Atef Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi Haitham al-Badri Abu Yaqub al-Masri Abu Talha
al-Sudani Abu Sulayman Al-Jazairi Midhat Mursi Mohamed Moumou Khalid
Habib Abu Ghadiya Abu Zubair al-Masri Rashid Rauf Mohammad Hasan Khalil
al-Hakim Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan Saad bin
Laden Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan Abdullah Said al Libi Saleh al-Somali Abu
Ayyub al-Masri Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Saeed al-Masri Hamza al-Jawfi Ahmed
Mohammed Hamed Ali Mohamed Abul-Khair Abu Suleiman al-Naser Huthaifa
al-Batawi Ilyas Kashmiri Fazul Abdullah Mohammed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman
Anwar al-Awlaki Samir Khan Tariq al-Dahab Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan Fahd
al-Quso Said Ali al-Shihri Farman Ali Shinwari Qaed Salim Sinan
al-Harethi Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil Haitham al-Yemeni Abu Hamza Rabia
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah Hassan Ghul Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Said Bahaji
Omar al-Faruq Abu Laith al-Libi Abu Yahya al-Libi Abdelhamid Abou Zeid
Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki Abu Khalid al-Suri Ahmed
Abdi Godane Abu Yusuf Al-Turki Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah Adam
Yahiye Gadahn Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad
al-Rubaysh Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi Nasir al-Wuhayshi Othman Ahmad Othman
al-Ghamdi Muhsin al-Fadhli Abu Firas al-Suri Ahmed Refai Taha Abu Khayr
al-Masri Ibrahim al-Asiri Abu Khalil al-Madani Hamza bin Laden Sari
Shihab Asim Umar Qasim al-Raymi Abdelmalek Droukdel Khalid al-Aruri
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah Abu Muhsin al-Masri
Captured
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Osama bin Laden's compound
Operation Neptune Spear map of locations.svg
Map
of Operation Neptune Spear showing the locations of U.S. bases in
Afghanistan and the approximate flight path to and from the compound in
Pakistan
Date May 2, 2011
Location Osama bin Laden's compound in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Also known as Operation Neptune Spear
Participants
Central Intelligence Agency Special Activities Division
U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 4
Outcome Osama bin Laden's body buried in the North Arabian Sea
Deaths
Osama bin Laden (54)
Khalid bin Laden (23)
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (33)
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar (30)
Bushra, Abrar's wife (age unknown)
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Osama
bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group
al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 a.m.
PKT[1][2] (20:00 UTC, May 1) by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S.
Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL
Team Six).[3] The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was
carried out in a CIA-led operation with Joint Special Operations
Command, commonly known as JSOC, coordinating the Special Mission Units
involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units
under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
(Airborne)—also known as "Night Stalkers"—and operators from the CIA's
Special Activities Division, which recruits heavily from former JSOC
Special Mission Units.[4][5] The operation's success ended a nearly
decade-long manhunt for bin Laden, who was wanted for masterminding the
September 11 attacks on the United States.
The raid on bin
Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was launched from Afghanistan,
where U.S. forces were based,[6] about 120 miles (190 km) away.[7] The
raid at the compound was 40 minutes long.[8] U.S. military officials
said that after the raid was completed, U.S. forces returned to
Afghanistan with the body of bin Laden for identification; they then
flew over 850 miles (1,370 km) to the Arabian Sea, where his body was
buried in accordance with Islamic tradition, within 24 hours of his
death.[9]
Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May 6 with posts made
on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing.[10] Other Pakistani
militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, vowed
retaliation against the U.S. and against Pakistan for not preventing the
operation.[11] The raid was supported by over 90% of the American
public,[12][13] was welcomed by the United Nations, NATO, the European
Union and a large number of governments,[14] but was condemned by
others, including two-thirds of the Pakistani public.[15] Legal and
ethical aspects of the killing, such as the failure to capture him alive
despite him being unarmed, were questioned by others, including Amnesty
International.[16] Also controversial was the decision not to publish
any photographic or DNA evidence of bin Laden's death.[17] There was
also controversy in Pakistan as to how the country's defence was
breached and the Air Force failed to pick up the American aircraft.[18]
After
the killing, Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani formed a
commission under Senior Justice Javed Iqbal to investigate the
circumstances of the attack.[19] The resulting Abbottabad Commission
Report, which revealed Pakistani state military and intelligence
authorities' "collective failure" that enabled bin Laden to hide in
Pakistan for nine years, was leaked to Al Jazeera on July 8, 2013.[20]
Search for bin Laden
Main article: Manhunt for Osama bin Laden
Further information: Killing of Osama bin Laden § Hillhouse and Hersh reports
Accounts
of how bin Laden was located by U.S. intelligence differ. The White
House and CIA director John Brennan stated that the process began with a
fragment of information unearthed in 2002, resulting in years of
investigation. This account states that by September 2010, these leads
followed a courier to the Abbottabad compound, where the U.S. began
intensive multiplatform surveillance. According to journalist Seymour
Hersh and NBC News, the U.S. was tipped off about bin Laden's location
by a Pakistani intelligence officer who offered details of where the
Pakistani Intelligence Service held him in detention in exchange for a
bounty.
Identity of courier
According to the earlier official
version of his identification from a U.S. official, identification of
al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black
sites and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, because bin Laden was
believed to communicate through such couriers while concealing his
whereabouts from al-Qaeda foot soldiers and top commanders.[21] Bin
Laden was known not to use phones after 1998, when the U.S. had launched
missile strikes against his bases in Afghanistan in August by tracking
an associate's satellite phone.[22]
The U.S. official had stated
that by 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an
al-Qaeda courier with the kunya Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred
to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait).[21] One of those claims came from
Mohammed al-Qahtani, a detainee interrogated for 48 days more or less
continuously between November 23, 2002, and January 11, 2003. At some
point during this period, al-Qahtani told interrogators about a man
known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti who was part of the inner circle of
al-Qaeda.[23] Later in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged
operational chief of al-Qaeda, said he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti
but that the man was not active in al-Qaeda, according to a U.S.
official.[24]
According to a U.S. official, in 2004 a prisoner
named Hassan Ghul revealed that bin Laden relied on a trusted courier
known as al-Kuwaiti.[24][25] Ghul said al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden
as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj
al-Libbi. Ghul revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time,
which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with bin Laden.
When confronted with Ghul's account, Mohammed maintained his original
story.[24] Abu Faraj al-Libbi was captured in 2005 and transferred to
Guantánamo in September 2006.[26] He told CIA interrogators that bin
Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied
knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libbi had minimized
al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin
Laden's inner circle.[24]
In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaiti's
real name,[27] though they said they would disclose neither the name
nor how they learned it.[24] Pakistani officials in 2011 stated the
courier's name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, from Pakistan's Swat Valley. He
and his brother Abrar and their families were living at bin Laden's
compound, the officials said.[28]
The name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq
Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libbi
released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011,[29] but the CIA never found
anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded that the name was an invention of
al-Libbi.[24]
A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a
conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA paramilitary operatives located
al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to the Abbottabad
compound, which led them to speculate it was bin Laden's location.[21]
The
courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were
killed in the May 2, 2011, raid.[24] Afterward, some locals identified
the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan.[30] Arshad Khan was
carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identification card, which
identified him as from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in
northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an
Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false
identities.[31]
Bin Laden's compound
Main article: Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad
The
CIA used surveillance photos and intelligence reports to determine the
identities of the inhabitants of the Abbottabad compound to which the
courier was traveling. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the
compound was custom-built to hide someone of significance, very likely
bin Laden.[32][33] Officials surmised that he was living there with his
youngest wife and family.[33]
Built in 2004, the three-story[34]
compound was at the end of a narrow dirt road.[35] Google Earth maps
made from satellite photographs show that the compound was not present
in 2001 but had been built by the time that new images were taken in
2005.[36] It is located 4.0 kilometres (2+1⁄2 miles) northeast of the
city center of Abbottabad.[32] Abbottabad is about 160 km (100 mi) from
the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about 30 km
or 20 mi from India). The compound is 1.3 km (3⁄4 mi) southwest of the
Pakistan Military Academy.[4] Located on a plot of land eight times
larger than those of nearby houses, the compound was surrounded by a
3.7-to-5.5-metre (12 to 18 ft)[33] concrete wall topped with barbed
wire.[32] It had two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a
2.1-metre-high (7 ft) privacy wall, tall enough to hide the 1.93 m (6 ft
4 in) bin Laden.
The compound had no Internet or landline
telephone service. Its residents burned their refuse, unlike their
neighbors, who set their garbage out for collection.[34] Local residents
called the building the Waziristan Haveli, because they believed the
owner was from Waziristan.[37] Following the American raid and killing
of bin Laden, the Pakistani government demolished the compound in
February 2012.[38]
Intelligence gathering
CIA aerial photo of the compound
The
CIA led the effort to surveil and gather intelligence on the compound;
other critical roles in the operation were played by other United States
agencies, including the National Security Agency, National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI), and U.S. Defense Department.[39] U.S. officials
told The Washington Post that the intelligence-gathering effort "was so
extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December [2010] to
secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within
assorted agency budgets to fund it."[1]
The CIA rented a home in
Abbottabad from which a team staked out and observed the compound over a
number of months. The CIA team used informants and other
techniques—including a widely criticized fake polio vaccination
program—[40][41] to gather intelligence on the compound. The safe house
was abandoned immediately after bin Laden's death.[1] The U.S. National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency helped the Joint Special Operations
Command create mission simulators for the pilots, and analyzed data from
an RQ-170[42] drone before, during and after the raid on the compound.
The NGA created three-dimensional renderings of the house, created
schedules describing residential traffic patterns, and assessed the
number, height and gender of the residents of the compound.[43] Also
involved in the intelligence gathering measures were an arm of the
National Security Agency known as the Tailored Access Operations
group[44] which, among other things, is specialized in surreptitiously
installing spyware and tracking devices on targeted computers and
mobile-phone networks. Because of the work of the Tailored Access
Operations group, the NSA could collect intelligence from mobile phones
that were used by al-Qaeda operatives and other "persons of interest" in
the hunt for bin Laden.[45]
The design of bin Laden's compound
may have ultimately contributed to his discovery. A former CIA official
involved in the manhunt told The Washington Post: "The place was three
stories high, and you could watch it from a variety of angles."[1]
The
CIA used a process called "red teaming" on the collected intelligence
to independently review the circumstantial evidence and available facts
of their case that bin Laden was living at the Abbottabad compound.[46]
An administration official said, "We conducted red-team exercises and
other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other
candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did."[47]
Despite
what officials described as an extraordinarily concentrated collection
effort leading up to the operation, no U.S. spy agency was ever able to
capture a photograph of bin Laden at the compound before the raid or a
recording of the voice of the mysterious male figure whose family
occupied the structure's top two floors.[1]
Operation Neptune Spear
Operation Neptune Spear
Part of the Global War on Terrorism, the War in Afghanistan, and the Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Killing of Osama bin Laden is located in Pakistan
Abbottabad
Abbottabad
Islamabad
Islamabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Bagram
Bagram
North Arabian Sea
North Arabian Sea
Map
of Pakistan. Abbottabad is 55 km (34 mi) from the capital Islamabad,
269 km (167 mi) from Jalalabad Airfield and 373 km (232 mi) from Bagram
Airfield. Bagram is about 1,370 km (850 mi) from the North Arabian Sea
(straight line distances, as travel distances significantly more).
Date May 1–2, 2011
Location
Osama bin Laden's compound
Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
34°10′9″N 73°14′33″ECoordinates: 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E
Result
American victory
Osama bin Laden killed
Belligerents
United States United States al-Qaeda
Commanders and leaders
Barack Obama
William H. McRaven Osama bin Laden †
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti †
Strength
79 JSOC and CIA operators
5 helicopters
1 Belgian Malinois (military working dog) 4 adult male residents
5 women
13 children
Casualties and losses
1 helicopter crash-landed (no casualties) 5 killed
17 captured (1 injured)
vte
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(North-West Pakistan)
The
official mission code name was Operation Neptune Spear.[4] Neptune's
spear is the trident, which appears on the U.S. Navy's Special Warfare
insignia, with the three prongs of the trident representing the
operational capacity of SEALs on sea, air and land.
Objective
The
Associated Press reported at the time two U.S. officials as stating the
operation was "a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill
unarmed people trying to surrender", but that "it was clear from the
beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of
surrendering".[48] White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan
said after the raid: "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive,
if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and
prepared to do that."[49] CIA Director Leon Panetta said on PBS
NewsHour: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden. ... Obviously under
the rules of engagement, if he in fact had thrown up his hands,
surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat,
then they were to capture him. But, they had full authority to kill
him."[50]
A U.S. national security official, who was not named,
told Reuters that "This was a kill operation".[51] Another official said
that when the SEALS were told "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and
your job is to kill him," they started to cheer.[52]
An article
published in Political Science Quarterly in 2016 surveyed various
published accounts and interpretations of the objective of the mission
and concluded that "the capture option was mainly there for appearance's
sake and to fulfill requirements of international law and that everyone
involved considered it for all practical purposes a mission to
kill."[53]
Planning and final decision
The CIA briefed Vice
Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special
Operations Command (JSOC), about the compound in January 2011. The
admiral was both a student and practitioner of special operations,
having published a thesis on the subject during the 1990s. His theory
held that special operations had the potential to be very effective in
achieving their goal if they were organized and commanded by special
operations professionals rather than being subsumed into larger military
units or operations. He believed that such actions required that
"relative superiority" be gained during the operation in question via
characteristics such as simplicity, security, rehearsals, surprise,
speed, and a clearly-but-narrowly defined purpose.[54]
In this
case, McRaven said a commando raid would be fairly straightforward but
he was concerned about the Pakistani response. He assigned a captain
from the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) to work
with a CIA team at their campus in Langley, Virginia. The captain, named
"Brian", set up an office in the printing plant in the CIA's Langley
compound and, with six other JSOC officers, began to plan the raid.[55]
Administration attorneys considered legal implications and options
before the raid.[56]
In addition to a helicopter raid, planners
considered attacking the compound with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. They
also considered a joint operation with Pakistani forces. Obama decided
that the Pakistani government and military could not be trusted to
maintain operational security for the operation against bin Laden.
"There was a real lack of confidence that the Pakistanis could keep this
secret for more than a nanosecond," a senior adviser to the President
told The New Yorker.[55]
Obama met with the National Security
Council on March 14 to review the options; he was concerned that the
mission would be exposed and wanted to proceed quickly. For that reason
he ruled out involving the Pakistanis. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
and other military officials expressed doubts as to whether bin Laden
was in the compound, and whether a commando raid was worth the risk. At
the end of the meeting, the president seemed to be leaning toward a
bombing mission. Two U.S. Air Force officers were tasked with exploring
that option further.[57]
The CIA was unable to rule out the
existence of an underground bunker below the compound. Presuming that
one existed, 32 2,000-pound (910 kg) bombs fitted with JDAM guidance
systems would be required to destroy it.[58] With that amount of
ordnance, at least one other house was in the blast radius. Estimates
were that up to a dozen civilians would be killed in addition to those
in the compound. Furthermore, it was unlikely there would be enough
evidence remaining to prove that bin Laden was dead. Presented with this
information at the next Security Council meeting on March 29, Obama put
the bombing plan on hold. Instead he directed Admiral McRaven to
develop the plan for a helicopter raid. The U.S. intelligence community
also studied an option of hitting bin Laden with a drone-fired small
tactical munition as he paced in his compound's vegetable garden.[59]
McRaven
hand-picked a team drawing from the most experienced and senior
operators from Red Squadron,[60] one of four that make up DEVGRU. Red
Squadron was coming home from Afghanistan and could be redirected
without attracting attention. The team had language skills and
experience with cross-border operations into Pakistan.[57] Almost all
the Red Squadron operators had ten or more deployments to
Afghanistan.[61]
Without being told the exact nature of their
mission, the team performed rehearsals of the raid in two locations in
the U.S.—around April 10 at Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity
facility in North Carolina where a 1:1 version of bin Laden's compound
was built (36°05′57.9″N 76°20′55.7″W),[62][63] and April 18 in
Nevada.[55][58] The location in Nevada was at 1,200 m (4,000 ft)
elevation—chosen to test the effects the altitude would have on the
raiders' helicopters. The Nevada mock-up used chain-link fences to
simulate the compound walls, which left the U.S. participants unaware of
the potential effects of the high compound walls on the helicopters'
lift capabilities.[59]
Planners believed the SEALs could get to
Abbottabad and back without being challenged by the Pakistani military.
The helicopters (modified Black Hawk helicopters) to be used in the raid
had been designed to be quiet and to have low radar visibility. Since
the U.S. had helped equip and train the Pakistanis, their defensive
capabilities were known. The U.S. had supplied F-16 Fighting Falcons to
Pakistan on the condition they were kept at a Pakistani military base
under 24-hour U.S. surveillance.[64]
If bin Laden surrendered, he
would be held near Bagram Air Base. If the SEALs were discovered by the
Pakistanis in the middle of the raid, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral
Mike Mullen would call Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani and try to negotiate their release.[65]
When the National
Security Council (NSC) met again on April 19, Obama gave provisional
approval for the helicopter raid. Worried that the plan for dealing with
the Pakistanis was too uncertain, Obama asked Admiral McRaven to equip
the team to fight its way out if necessary.[57]
McRaven and the
SEALs left for Afghanistan to practice at a one-acre, full-scale replica
of the compound built on a restricted area of Bagram known as Camp
Alpha.[66][67] The team departed the U.S. from Naval Air Station Oceana
on April 26 in a C-17 aircraft, refueled on the ground at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany, landed at Bagram Air Base, then moved to Jalalabad on
April 27.[55]
On April 28, Admiral Mullen explained the final
plan to the NSC. As a measure to bolster the "fight your way out"
scenario, Chinook helicopters were to be positioned nearby with
additional troops. The greater part of the advisers in the meeting
supported going forward with the raid. Vice President Joe Biden laid out
the risk of it going wrong and the potential for confrontation with the
Pakistanis. According to NSA Advisor Ben Rhodes, "I don't remember it
as being firmly against as much as it being about like, 'I'm going to
point out the downsides that you need to consider from the perspective
of Pakistan'...Biden was just trying to make sure that Obama had a bunch
of room for his decision-making."[68] Gates advocated using the drone
missile option but changed his support the next day to the helicopter
raid plan. Obama said he wanted to speak directly to Admiral McRaven
before he gave the order to proceed. The president asked if McRaven had
learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to lose
confidence in the mission. McRaven told him the team was ready and that
the next few nights would have little moonlight over Abbottabad, good
conditions for a raid.[55][59]
On April 29 at 8:20 a.m. EDT,[65]
Obama conferred with his advisers and gave the final go-ahead. The raid
would take place the following day. That evening the president was
informed that the operation would be delayed one day due to cloudy
weather.
On April 30, Obama called McRaven one more time to wish
the SEALs well and to thank them for their service.[55] That evening,
the President attended the annual White House Correspondent's
Association dinner, which was hosted by comedian and television actor
Seth Meyers. At one point, Meyers joked: "People think bin Laden is
hiding in the Hindu Kush, but did you know that every day from four to
five he hosts a show on C-SPAN?" Obama laughed, despite his knowledge of
the operation to come.[69]
On May 1 at 1:22 p.m., Panetta,
acting on the president's orders, directed McRaven to move forward with
the operation. Shortly after 3 p.m., the president joined national
security officials in the Situation Room to monitor the raid. They
watched night-vision images taken from a Sentinel drone while Panetta,
appearing in the corner of the screen from CIA headquarters, narrated
what was happening.[59][65] Video links with Panetta at CIA headquarters
and McRaven in Afghanistan were set up in the Situation Room. In an
adjoining office was the live drone feed presented on a laptop computer
operated by Brigadier General Marshall Webb, assistant commander of
JSOC. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was one of those in the
Situation Room, and described it like this: "Contrary to some news
reports and what you see in the movies, we had no means to see what was
happening inside the building itself. All we could do was wait for an
update from the team on the ground. I looked at the President. He was
calm. Rarely have I been prouder to serve by his side as I was that
day."[70] Two other command centers monitored the raid from the Pentagon
and the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.[55]
Execution of the operation
Approach and entry
Diagram of Osama bin Laden's hideout, showing the high concrete walls that surround the compound
The
raid was carried out by approximately two dozen heliborne U.S. Navy
SEALs from DEVGRU's Red Squadron. For legal reasons (namely that the
U.S. was not at war with Pakistan), the military personnel assigned to
the mission were temporarily transferred to the control of the civilian
Central Intelligence Agency.[71][72]
The SEALs operated in teams
and used weapons including the HK416[73] assault rifle (their primary
weapon), the Mark 48 machine gun for fire support, and the MP7[55]
personal defense weapon used by some SEALs for close quarters and
greater silence.
According to The New York Times, a total of "79
commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid.[35] The military working
dog[74] was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo.[75][76] According to one
report, the dog was tasked with tracking "anyone who tried to escape and
to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces".[77] The
dog was to be used to help deter any Pakistani ground response to the
raid and to help look for any hidden rooms or hidden doors in the
compound.[55] Additional personnel on the mission included a language
interpreter,[77] the dog handler, helicopter pilots, plus intelligence
collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers
to view the operation.[67]
The SEALs flew into Pakistan from a
staging base in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after
originating at Bagram Air Base in northeastern Afghanistan.[78] The
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), a U.S. Army Special
Operations Command unit known as the "Night Stalkers", provided the two
modified Black Hawk helicopters[79] that were used for the raid itself,
as well as the much larger Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that were
employed as backups.[52][67][77]
The Black Hawks were previously
unseen "stealth" versions that flew more quietly and were harder to
detect on radar than conventional models;[80][81] due to the extra
weight of the stealth equipment, their cargo was "calculated to the
ounce, with the weather factored in."[77]
The Chinooks kept on
standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the
way" from Jalalabad to Abbottabad, with two additional SEAL teams
consisting of approximately 24 DEVGRU operators[77] for a "quick
reaction force" (QRF). The Chinooks were equipped with 7.62mm GAU-17/A
miniguns and GAU-21/B .50-caliber machine guns and extra fuel for the
Black Hawks. Their mission was to interdict any Pakistani military
attempts to interfere with the raid. Other Chinooks, holding 25 more
SEALs from DEVGRU, were stationed just across the border in Afghanistan
in case reinforcements were needed during the operation.[55]
The
160th SOAR helicopters were supported by an array of other aircraft, to
include fixed-wing fighter jets and drones.[82] According to CNN, "the
Air Force had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters
available".[82]
The raid was scheduled for a time with little
moonlight so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and
undetected".[83] The helicopters used hilly terrain and
nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on
radar and alerting the Pakistani military. The flight from Jalalabad to
Abbottabad took about 90 minutes.[55]
According to the mission
plan, the first helicopter would hover over the compound's yard while
its full team of SEALs fast-roped to the ground. At the same time, the
second helicopter would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and
deploy the interpreter, the dog and handler, and four SEALs to secure
the perimeter. The team in the courtyard was to enter the house from the
ground floor.[55][84]
As they hovered above the target the first
helicopter experienced a hazardous airflow condition known as a vortex
ring state. This was aggravated by higher than expected air
temperature[55][76] and the high compound walls, which stopped the rotor
downwash from diffusing.[76][85][86] The helicopter's tail grazed one
of the compound's walls,[87] damaging its tail rotor,[88] and the
helicopter rolled onto its side.[21] The pilot quickly buried the
helicopter's nose to keep it from tipping over.[77] None of the SEALs,
crew, or pilots on the helicopter were seriously injured in the soft
crash landing, which ended with it pitched at a 45-degree angle resting
against the wall.[55] The other helicopter landed outside the compound
and the SEALs scaled the walls to get inside.[89] The SEALs advanced
into the house, breaching walls and doors with explosives.[77]
Entry into the house
The
U.S. national security team with President Barack Obama, Vice President
Joe Biden (left) and Hillary Clinton gathered in the White House
Situation Room to monitor the progress of Operation Neptune Spear
The
SEALs encountered the residents in the compound's guest house, in its
main building on the first floor where two adult males lived, and on the
second and third floors where bin Laden lived with his family. The
second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be
cleared.[90] There were reportedly "small knots of children ... on every
level, including the balcony of bin Laden's room".[77]
Osama bin
Laden was killed in the raid[91] and initial versions said three other
men and a woman were killed as well: bin Laden's adult son
Khalid,[92][93] bin Laden's courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, al-Kuwaiti's
brother Abrar, and Abrar's wife Bushra.[55]
Conflicting reports
of an initial firefight exist. Mark Owen's book states that the team
were in a "short firefight" before reaching bin Laden.[94] An
intelligence official told Seymour Hersh in 2015 that no firefight took
place. In the earlier versions, Al-Kuwaiti is said to have opened fire
on the first team of SEALs with an AK-47 from behind the guesthouse
door, lightly injuring a SEAL with bullet fragments. A short firefight
took place between al-Kuwaiti and the SEALs, in which al-Kuwaiti was
killed.[4][95] His wife Mariam was allegedly shot and wounded in the
right shoulder.[96][97] The courier's male relative Abrar was then said
to have been shot and killed by the SEALs' second team on the first
floor of the main house as shots had already been fired and the SEALs
thought that he was armed with a loaded AK-47 (this was later confirmed
to be true in the official report).[98] A woman near him, later
identified as Abrar's wife Bushra, was in this version also shot and
killed. Bin Laden's young adult son is said to have encountered the
SEALs on the staircase of the main house, and to have been shot and
killed by the second team.[4][87][93][95][99] An unnamed U.S. senior
defense official said only one of the five people killed, Abu Ahmed
al-Kuwaiti, was armed.[100] The interior of the house was pitch dark,
because CIA operatives had cut the power to the neighborhood.[59] The
SEALs wore night vision goggles.
Killing of bin Laden
The
SEALs encountered bin Laden on the third floor of the main
building.[87][101] Bin Laden was unarmed, "wearing the local
loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a kurta paijama", which were
later found to have €500 and two phone numbers sewn into the
fabric.[58][88][95][102]
Bin Laden peered through his bedroom
door at the Americans advancing up the stairs, and the lead SEAL fired
at him. Reports differ, though agree eventually he was hit by shots to
the body and head. The initial shots either missed, hit him in the
chest, the side, or in the head.[103][102] A number of bin Laden's
female relatives were near him.[102] According to journalist Nicholas
Schmidle, one of bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, motioned as
if she were about to charge; the lead SEAL shot her in the leg, then
grabbed both women and shoved them aside.[55]
Robert J. O'Neill,
who later publicly identified himself as one of the SEALs who shot bin
Laden,[104][105] states that he pushed past the lead SEAL, entered
through the door and confronted bin Laden inside the bedroom. O'Neill
states that bin Laden was standing behind a woman with his hands on her
shoulders, pushing her forward. O'Neill immediately shot bin Laden twice
in the forehead, then once more as bin Laden crumpled to the
floor.[106]
Matt Bissonnette gives a conflicting account of the
situation, writing that bin Laden had already been mortally wounded by
the lead SEAL's shots from the staircase. The lead SEAL then pushed bin
Laden's wives aside, attempting to shield the SEALs behind him in the
case that either woman had an explosive device. After bin Laden
staggered back or fell into the bedroom, Bissonnette and O'Neill entered
the room, saw the wounded bin Laden on the ground, fired multiple
rounds, and killed him.[107] Journalist Peter Bergen investigated the
conflicting claims and found that most of the SEALs present during the
raid favored Bissonnette's account of the events. According to Bergen's
sources, O'Neill did not mention firing the shots that killed bin Laden
in the after action report following the operations.[108]
The
weapon used to kill bin Laden was an HK416 using 5.56mm NATO 77-grain
OTM (open-tip match) rounds.[59][109] The SEAL team leader radioed, "For
God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo" and then, after being
prompted by McRaven for confirmation, "Geronimo EKIA" (enemy killed in
action). Watching the operation in the White House Situation Room, Obama
simply said, "We got him."[4][55][59]
Various authors have
written that there were two weapons in bin Laden's room: an AKS-74U
carbine and a Russian-made Makarov pistol.[110] According to his wife
Amal, bin Laden was shot before he could reach the AKS-74U.[110][111]
According to the Associated Press, the guns were on a shelf next to the
door and the SEALs did not see them until they were photographing the
body.[77] According to journalist Matthew Cole, the guns were not loaded
and only found later during a search of the third floor.[102]
As
the SEALs encountered women and children during the raid, they
restrained them with plastic handcuffs or zip ties.[87] After the raid
was over, U.S. forces moved the surviving residents outside[49] "for
Pakistani forces to discover".[87] The injured Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah
continued to harangue the raiders in Arabic.[55] Bin Laden's 12-year-old
daughter Safia was allegedly struck in her foot or ankle by a piece of
flying debris.[4][112][113]
While bin Laden's body was taken by
U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left
behind at the compound and later taken into Pakistani custody.[31][114]
Conclusion
USS Carl Vinson conducting flight operations in the Persian Gulf (April 4, 2011)
The
raid was intended to take 40 minutes. The time between the team's entry
in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes.[52] According to the
Associated Press, the assault was completed in the first 15 minutes.[77]
Time
in the compound was spent killing defenders,[90] "moving carefully
through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women
and children, clearing "weapons stashes and barricades"[87] including a
false door,[115] and searching the compound for information.[27] U.S.
personnel recovered three Kalashnikov rifles and two pistols, ten
computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a
dozen cell phones, and "electronic equipment" for later
analysis.[52][116][117][a] The SEALs also discovered a large amount of
opium stored in the house.[119]
Since the helicopter that had
made the emergency landing was damaged and unable to fly the team out,
it was destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment, including an
apparent stealth capability.[81] The pilot smashed the instrument panel,
radio, and the other classified fixtures and the SEALs demolished the
helicopter with explosives. Since the SEAL team was reduced to one
operational helicopter, one of the two Chinooks held in reserve was
dispatched to carry part of the team and bin Laden's body out of
Pakistan.[33][55][58][120]
While the American force gathered
intelligence and destroyed the helicopter, a crowd of locals gathered
outside the compound, curious about the noise and activity. An
Urdu-speaking American officer, through a megaphone, told those gathered
that it was a Pakistani military operation, and to remain at a
distance.[121]
While the official Department of Defense narrative
did not mention the airbases used in the operation,[122] later accounts
indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Airfield.[77] The
body of Osama bin Laden was flown from Bagram to the aircraft carrier
Carl Vinson in a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft escorted by two U.S.
Navy F/A-18 fighter jets.[123][124]
Burial of bin Laden
According
to U.S. officials, bin Laden was buried at sea because no country would
accept his remains.[125] Before disposing of the body, the U.S. called
the Saudi Arabian government, who approved of burying the body in the
ocean.[55] Muslim religious rites were performed aboard Carl Vinson in
the North Arabian Sea within 24 hours of bin Laden's death. Preparations
began at 10:10 a.m. local time and at-sea burial was completed at 11
a.m. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a
weighted plastic bag. An officer read prepared religious remarks which
were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. Afterward, bin Laden's
body was placed onto a flat board. The board was tilted upward on one
side and the body slid off into the sea.[126][127]
In Worthy
Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace,[128] Leon Panetta wrote
that bin Laden's body was draped in a white shroud, given final prayers
in Arabic and placed inside a black bag loaded with 140 kg (300 lb) of
iron chains, apparently to ensure that it would sink and never float.
The body bag was placed on a white table at the rail of the ship, and
the table was tipped to let the body bag slide into the sea, but the
body bag did not slide and took the table with it. The table bobbed on
the surface while the weighted body sank.[128]
Pakistan–U.S. communication
According
to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share
information about the raid with the government of Pakistan until it was
over.[9][129] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen
called Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at about 3 am local
time to inform him of the operation.[130]
According to the
Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the
U.S. forces.[131] Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials
said they were present at what they called a joint operation;[132]
President Asif Ali Zardari flatly denied this.[133] Pakistan's foreign
secretary Salman Bashir later confirmed that Pakistani military had
scrambled F-16s after they became aware of the attack but that they
reached the compound after the U.S. helicopters had left.[134]
Identification of the body
U.S. forces used multiple methods to positively identify the body of Osama bin Laden:
Measurement of the body: Both the corpse and bin Laden were 1.93 m (6
ft 4 in); SEALs on the scene did not have a tape measure to measure the
corpse, so a SEAL of known height lay down next to the body and the
height was so approximated by comparison.[88] Obama quipped: "You just
blew up a $65 million helicopter and you don't have enough money to buy a
tape measure?"[135]
Facial recognition software: A photograph
transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for
facial recognition analysis yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely
match.[136]
In-person identification: One or two women from the
compound, including one of bin Laden's wives,[137] identified bin
Laden's body.[136] A wife of bin Laden called him by name during the
raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. military
forces on the ground.[138]
DNA testing: The Associated Press and
The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by
DNA testing[35][139] using tissue and blood samples taken from his
sister who had died of brain cancer.[140] ABC News stated, "Two samples
were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and
information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from
Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a
sample."[136] A military medic took bone marrow and swabs from the body
to use for the DNA testing.[55] According to a senior U.S. Department of
Defense official:
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) analysis
conducted separately by Department of Defense and CIA labs has
positively identified Osama bin Laden. DNA samples collected from his
body were compared to a comprehensive DNA profile derived from bin
Laden's large extended family. Based on that analysis, the DNA is
unquestionably his. The probability of a mistaken identity on the basis
of this analysis is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion.[141]
Inference: Per the same DoD official, from the initial review of the
materials removed from the Abbottabad compound the Department "assessed
that much of this information, including personal correspondence between
Osama bin Laden and others, as well as some of the video footage ...
would only have been in his possession."[141]
Local accounts
Beginning
at 12:58 a.m. local time (19:58 UTC), Abbottabad resident Sohaib Athar
sent a series of tweets starting with "Helicopter hovering above
Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)." By 1:44 a.m. all was quiet until a
plane flew over the city at 3:39 a.m.[142] Neighbors took to their
roofs and watched as U.S. special operations forces stormed the
compound. One neighbor said, "I saw soldiers emerging from the
helicopters and advancing towards the house. Some of them instructed us
in chaste Pashto to turn off the lights and stay inside."[143] Another
man said he heard shooting and screams, then an explosion as a grounded
helicopter was destroyed. The blast broke his bedroom window and left
charred debris over a nearby field.[144] A local security officer said
he entered the compound shortly after the Americans left, before it was
sealed off by the army. "There were four dead bodies, three male and one
female and one female was injured", he said. "There was a lot of blood
on the floor and one could easily see the marks like a dead body had
been dragged out of the compound." Numerous witnesses reported that
power, and possibly cellphone service,[145] went out around the time of
the raid and apparently included the military academy.[146][147]
Accounts differed as to the exact time of the blackout. One journalist
concluded after interviewing several residents that it was a routine
rolling blackout.[148]
ISI reported after questioning survivors
of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time
of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive,
possibly a bin Laden son. The ISI said that survivors included a wife, a
daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently bin Laden's.
An unnamed Pakistani security official was quoted as saying one of bin
Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden had been
captured alive, then in front of family members was shot dead by U.S.
forces and dragged to a helicopter.[149][150]
Compound residents
U.S.
officials said there were 22 people in the compound. Five were killed,
including Osama bin Laden.[67] Pakistani officials gave conflicting
reports suggesting between 12 and 17 survivors.[151] The Sunday Times
subsequently published excerpts from a pocket guide, presumably dropped
by the SEALs during the raid, containing pictures and descriptions of
likely compound residents.[152] The guide listed several adult children
of bin Laden and their families who were not ultimately found in the
compound.[citation needed] Because of a lack of accurate information,
some of what follows cannot be verified as true.[151]
Five
adults dead: Osama bin Laden, 54;[153] Khalid, his son by Siham
(identified as Hamza in early accounts), 23;[151] Arshad Khan, a.k.a.
Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier, described as the "flabby" one by The
Sunday Times, 33;[151][152] Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, 30;
and Bushra, Abrar's wife, age unknown.[154][155][156]
Four
surviving women: Khairiah, bin Laden's third, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um
Hamza, 62;[151][152] Siham, bin Laden's fourth, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um
Khalid, 54;[151][152] Amal, bin Laden's fifth, Yemeni wife, a.k.a. Amal
Ahmed Abdul Fatah, 29 (injured);[4][151] and Mariam, Arshad Khan's
Pakistani wife.[96][151]
Five minor children of Osama and Amal:
Safia, a daughter, 12; a son, 5; another son, age unknown; and infant
twin daughters.[4][152][157][158][159]
Four bin Laden
grandchildren from an unidentified daughter who had been killed in an
airstrike in Waziristan. Two may be the boys, around 10, who spoke to
Pakistani investigators.[151][160]
Four children of Arshad Khan:
Two sons, Abdur Rahman and Khalid, 6 or 7; a daughter, age unknown; and
another child, age unknown.[155][161]
Aftermath
An ABC News digital board in Times Square after Bin Laden's death
Leaks of the news
Around
9:45 p.m. EDT, the White House announced that the president would be
addressing the nation later in the evening.[162] At 10:24:05 p.m.
EDT[163] the first public leak was made by Navy Reserve intel officer
Keith Urbahn and 47 seconds later by actor and professional wrestler
Dwayne Johnson on Twitter.[164] Anonymous government officials confirmed
details to the media, and by 11 p.m. numerous major news sources were
reporting that bin Laden was dead;[162][165] the number of leaks were
characterized as "voluminous" by David E. Sanger.[166]
U.S. presidential address
President
Obama's address (9:28) Also available: Audio only, full text Wikisource
has information on "Remarks by the President on Osama bin Laden"
At 11:35 p.m., President Obama appeared on major television networks:[162]
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 ... (cont'd) Wikisource has information on "Remarks by the
President on Osama bin Laden"
President Obama recalled the
victims of the September 11 attacks. He praised the nearly ten-year-old
war against al-Qaeda, which he said had disrupted terrorist plots,
strengthened homeland defenses, removed the Taliban government, and
captured or killed scores of al-Qaeda operatives. Obama said that when
he took office he made finding bin Laden the top priority of the war.
Bin Laden's death was the most significant blow to al-Qaeda so far but
the war would continue. He reaffirmed that the U.S. was not at war
against Islam and defended his decision to conduct an operation within
Pakistan. He said Americans understood the cost of war but would not
stand by while their security was threatened. "To those families who
have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda's terror," he said, "justice has been
done." This remark book-ended President Bush's statement to a joint
session of Congress following the September 11 attacks that "justice
will be done."
Reactions
Main article: Reactions to the killing of Osama bin Laden
Americans in front of The White House celebrating Osama bin Laden's death
Woman in Times Square celebrating bin Laden's death
Before
the official announcement, large crowds spontaneously gathered outside
the White House, Ground Zero, The Pentagon, and in New York's Times
Square to celebrate. In Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a large
Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd gathered outside the City Hall
in celebration, many of them of Middle Eastern descent.[167] From the
beginning to the end of Obama's speech, 5,000 tweets per second were
posted on Twitter.[168] As news of bin Laden's death filtered through
the crowd at a nationally televised Major League Baseball game in
Philadelphia between rivals Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets,
"U-S-A!" cheers began.[169][170] In Tampa, Florida, at the conclusion
of a professional wrestling event which was occurring at the time, WWE
Champion John Cena announced to the audience that bin Laden had been
"caught and compromised to a permanent end", prompting chants while he
exited the arena to the march "The Stars and Stripes Forever".[171]
The
deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that, with bin Laden
dead, Western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan;
authorities in Iran made similar comments.[172] Palestinian Authority
leaders had contrasting reactions. Mahmoud Abbas welcomed bin Laden's
death, while Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration in the
Gaza Strip, condemned what he saw as the assassination of an "Arab holy
warrior".[173]
The 14th Dalai Lama was quoted by the Los Angeles
Times as saying, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. ... If
something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you
have to take counter-measures." This was widely reported as an
endorsement of bin Laden's killing and was criticized in Buddhist
circles, but another journalist cited a video of the discussion to argue
that the comment was taken out of context and the Dalai Lama supports
killing only in self-defense.[174]
A CBS/The New York Times poll
taken after bin Laden's death showed that 16% of Americans feel safer as
the result of his death while 60% of Americans of those polled believe
killing bin Laden would likely increase the threat of terrorism against
the U.S. in the short term.[175]
In India, Minister for Home
Affairs P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan
was a matter of grave concern for India and showed that "many of the
perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and
the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack,
continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He also called on Pakistan to
arrest them,[176] amidst calls for similar strikes being conducted by
India against Hafiz Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim.[177]
Freedom of Information Act requests and denials
Although
the Abbottabad raid has been described in great detail by U.S.
officials, no physical evidence constituting "proof of death" has been
offered to the public, neither to journalists nor to independent third
parties who have requested this information through the Freedom of
Information Act.[178] Numerous organizations filed FOIA requests seeking
at least a partial release of photographs, videos, and/or DNA test
results, including The Associated Press, Reuters, CBS News, Judicial
Watch, Politico, Fox News, Citizens United, and NPR.[179] On April 26,
2012, Judge James E. Boasberg held that the Department of Defense was
not required to release any evidence to the public.[180]
According
to a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, Admiral William
McRaven, the top special operations commander, ordered the Department of
Defense to purge from its computer systems all files on the bin Laden
raid after first sending them to the CIA.[181][182][183][184] Any
mention of this decision was expunged from the final version of the
inspector general's report.[182] According to the Pentagon, this was
done to protect the identities of the Navy SEALs involved in the
raid.[182] The legal justification for the records transfer is that the
SEALs were effectively working for the CIA at the time of the raid,
which ostensibly means that any records of the raid belong to the
CIA.[181][182] "Documents related to the raid were handled in a manner
consistent with the fact that the operation was conducted under the
direction of the CIA director", CIA agency spokesman Preston Golson said
in an emailed statement. "Records of a CIA operation such as the (bin
Laden) raid, which were created during the conduct of the operation by
persons acting under the authority of the CIA Director, are CIA
records."[185] Golson said it is absolutely false that records were
moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act.[185] The National Security Archive has criticized this
maneuver, saying that the records have now gone into a "FOIA black
hole":
What the transfer really did was ensure that the files
would be placed in the CIA's operational records, a records system
that—due to the 1986 CIA Operational Files exemption—is not subject to
the FOIA and is a black hole for anyone trying to access the files
within. The move prevents the public from accessing the official record
about the raid, and bypasses several important federal records keeping
procedures in the process.[182]
The United States Defense
Department can prevent the release of its own military files citing
risks to national security, but that can be contested in court, and a
judge can compel the Pentagon to turn over non-sensitive portions of
records. The CIA has special authority to prevent the release of
operational files in ways that cannot be challenged in federal
court.[185] Richard Lardner, reporting for the Associated Press, wrote
that the maneuver "could represent a new strategy for the U.S.
government to shield even its most sensitive activities from public
scrutiny."[186]
The inspector general's draft report also
described how former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta disclosed
classified information to the makers of Zero Dark Thirty, including the
unit that conducted the raid and the ground commander's name.[187]
Legality
Under U.S. law
Following
the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which
authorized the President to use "necessary and appropriate force against
those nations, organizations, or persons" he determines were involved
in the attacks.[188] The Obama administration justified its use of force
by relying on that resolution, as well as international law set forth
in treaties and customary laws of war.[189]
Website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation listing bin Laden as deceased on the Most Wanted List on May 3, 2011
John
Bellinger III, who served as the U.S. State Department's senior lawyer
during President George W. Bush's second term, said the strike was a
legitimate military action and did not run counter to the U.S.'
self-imposed prohibition on assassinations:
The killing is
not prohibited by the long-standing assassination prohibition in
executive order 12333 [signed in 1981], because the action was a
military action in the ongoing U.S. armed conflict with al-Qaeda, and it
is not prohibited to kill specific leaders of an opposing force. The
assassination prohibition does not apply to killings in
self-defense.[190]
Similarly, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser of
the U.S. State Department, said in 2010 that "under domestic law, the
use of lawful weapons systems—consistent with the applicable laws of
war—for precision targeting of specific high-level belligerent leaders
when acting in self-defense or during an armed conflict is not unlawful,
and hence does not constitute 'assassination'."[190]
David
Scheffer, director of the Northwestern University School of Law Center
for International Human Rights, said the fact that bin Laden had
previously been indicted in 1998 in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York for conspiracy to attack U.S. defense
installations was a complicating factor. "Normally when an individual is
under indictment the purpose is to capture that person in order to
bring him to court to try him ... The object is not to literally
summarily execute him if he's under indictment."[191] Scheffer and
another expert stated that it was important to determine whether the
mission was to capture bin Laden or to kill him. If the Navy SEALs were
instructed to kill bin Laden without trying first to capture him, it
"may have violated American ideals if not international law."[191]
Under international law
In
an address to the Pakistani parliament, Pakistan's Prime Minister
Yousaf Raza Gillani said, "Our people are rightly incensed on the issue
of violation of sovereignty as typified by the covert U.S. air and
ground assault on the Osama hideout in Abbottabad. ... The Security
Council, while exhorting UN member states to join their efforts against
terrorism, has repeatedly emphasized that this be done in accordance
with international law, human rights and humanitarian law."[192] Former
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf denied a report in The
Guardian that his government made a secret agreement permitting U.S.
forces to conduct unilateral raids in search of the top three al-Qaeda
leaders.[193]
In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The operation against bin
Laden was justified as an act of national self-defense. It's lawful to
target an enemy commander in the field." He called the killing of bin
Laden "a tremendous step forward in attaining justice for the nearly
3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on September 11, 2001."[194]
Commenting on the legality under international law, University of
Michigan Law Professor Steven Ratner said, "A lot of it depends on
whether you believe Osama bin Laden is a combatant in a war or a suspect
in a mass murder." In the latter case, "you would ... be able to kill a
suspect [only] if they represented an immediate threat".[191]
Holder
testified that bin Laden made no attempt to surrender, and "even if he
had there would be a good basis on the part of those very brave Navy
SEAL team members to do what they did in order to protect themselves and
the other people who were in that building."[194] According to Anthony
Dworkin, an international law expert at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, if bin Laden was hors de combat (as his daughter is said to
have alleged)[150] that would have been a violation of Protocol I of the
Geneva Conventions.[195]
Former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B.
Ferencz said it was unclear if bin Laden's killing was justified
self-defense or premeditated illegal assassination,[196] and that
"killing a captive who poses no immediate threat is a crime under
military law as well as all other law,"[197] a view also held by legal
scholar Philippe Sands.[196]
The UN Security Council released a
statement applauding the news of bin Laden's death, and UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "very much relieved."[198] Two
United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement seeking
more information regarding the circumstances in which bin Laden was
killed and cautioning that "actions taken by States in combating
terrorism, especially in high profile cases, set precedents for the way
in which the right to life will be treated in future instances."[199]
Handling of the body
Under
Islamic tradition, burial at sea is considered inappropriate when
other, preferred forms of burial are available, and several prominent
Islamic clerics criticized the decision.[137][200][201] Mohamed Ahmed
el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar University, Egypt's seat of Sunni Muslim
learning, said the disposal of the body at sea was an affront to
religious and human values.[202] Scholars like el-Tayeb hold that sea
burials can be allowed only in special cases where the death occurred
aboard a ship, and that the regular practice should have occurred in
this case—the body buried in the ground with the head pointing to
Islam's holy city of Mecca.[203]
A stated advantage of a burial
at sea is that the site is not readily identified or accessed, thus
preventing it from becoming a focus of attention or "terrorist
shrine".[203] The Guardian questioned whether bin Laden's grave would
have become a shrine, as this is strongly discouraged in Wahhabism.
Addressing the same concern, Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer
Montasser el-Zayat said that if the Americans wished to avoid making a
shrine to bin Laden, an unmarked grave on land would have accomplished
the same goal.[200]
The Guardian also quoted a U.S. official
explaining the anticipated difficulty of finding a country that would
accept the burial of bin Laden in its soil.[204] A professor of Islamic
Law at the University of Jordan stated burying at sea was permitted if
there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial,[205]
but that "it's neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody
in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden's body".[200] On a
similar note, Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, stated: "They
can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it
according to Islam. If the family does not want him, it's really simple
in Islam: you dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say
the prayers and that's it. Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in
extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them."[200] Khalid
Latif, an imam who serves as a chaplain and the director of the Islamic
Center of New York University, argued that the sea burial was
respectful.[206]
Leor Halevi, a professor at Vanderbilt
University and the author of Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the
Making of Islamic Society, explained that Islamic law does not prescribe
ordinary funerals for those killed in battle, and pointed to
controversy within the Muslim world over whether bin Laden was, as a
"mass murderer of Muslims", entitled to the same respect as mainstream
Muslims. At the same time, he suggested that the burial could have been
handled with more cultural sensitivity.[207]
Omar bin Laden, son
of Osama bin Laden, published a complaint on May 10, 2011, that the
burial at sea deprived the family of a proper burial.[208]
Bin Laden's will
After
bin Laden's death, it was reported he had left a will written a short
time after the September 11 attacks[209] in which he urged his children
not to join al-Qaeda and not to continue the Jihad.[210]
Release of photographs
CNN
cited a senior U.S. official as saying three sets of photographs of bin
Laden's body exist: photos taken at an aircraft hangar in Afghanistan,
described as the most recognizable and gruesome; photos taken from the
burial at sea on USS Carl Vinson before a shroud was placed around his
body; and photos from the raid itself, which include shots of the
interior of the compound as well as three of the others who died in the
raid.[211]
CBS Evening News reported that the photo shows that
the bullet which hit above bin Laden's left eye blew out his left
eyeball and blew away a large portion of his frontal skull, exposing his
brain.[212] CNN stated that the pictures from the Afghanistan hangar
depict "a massive open head wound across both eyes. It's very bloody and
gory."[211] U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe said the photos taken of the body
on the Carl Vinson, which showed bin Laden's face after much of the
blood and material had been washed away, should be released to the
public.[213]
A debate on whether the military photos should be
released to the public took place.[214] Those supporting the release
argued that the photos should be considered public records,[215][216]
that they are necessary to complete the journalistic record,[217] and
that they would prove bin Laden's death and therefore prevent conspiracy
theories. Those in opposition expressed concern that the photos would
inflame anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.[218]
Obama
decided not to release the photos.[219] In an interview aired on May 4
on 60 Minutes, he said: "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies. We
don't need to spike the football." Obama said that he was concerned with
ensuring that "very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head
are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, or as a
propaganda tool. That's not who we are."[220] Among Republican members
of Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham criticized the decision and said he
wanted to see the photos released, while Senator John McCain and
Representative Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Intelligence
Committee, supported the decision.[221][222]
On May 11, selected
members of Congress (the congressional leadership and those who serve on
the House and Senate intelligence, homeland security, judiciary,
foreign relations, and armed forces committees) were shown 15 bin Laden
photos. In an interview with Eliot Spitzer, Senator Jim Inhofe said that
three of the photos were of bin Laden alive for identification
reference. Three other photos were of the burial-at-sea ceremony.[223]
The
group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request to
obtain access to the photos in May 2011, soon after the raid.[224][225]
On May 9, the Department of Defense declined to process Judicial Watch's
FOIA request, prompting Judicial Watch to file a federal lawsuit.[226]
In 2012, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia issued a ruling denying release of the
photographs.[227] In May 2013, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit consisting of Chief Judge
Merrick Garland, Senior Judge Harry T. Edwards, and Judge Judith Rogers
affirmed the ruling, holding that 52 post-mortem images were properly
classified as "top secret" and exempt from disclosure.[228] Judicial
Watch filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in August 2013, seeking
U.S. Supreme Court review, but in January 2014 the Supreme Court
declined to hear the case.[229][230][231]
The Associated Press
filed a FOIA request for photographs and videos taken during the
Abbottabad raid less than one day after bin Laden was killed.[232][233]
The AP also requested "contingency plans for bin Laden's capture,
reports on the performance of equipment during the mission and copies of
DNA tests" confirming bin Laden's identity.[233] The Defense Department
rejected the AP's request for expedited processing, a legal provision
to shorten the amount of time to process FOIA requests. The Defense
Department rejected the request, and the AP administratively
appealed.[233]
Alternative accounts
Seal Target Geronimo
A
book published in November 2011, Seal Target Geronimo, by Chuck Pfarrer,
a former SEAL, contradicted the account as given by U.S. government
sources. According to Pfarrer, neither helicopter crashed at the
beginning of the raid. Instead, the SEALs jumped onto the roof from the
hovering Razor 1 helicopter and entered a third-floor hallway from the
roof terrace. Osama's third wife, Khairah, was in the hallway, headed
towards the SEALs. She was blinded by a strobe light and pushed to the
floor as the SEALs went past her. Osama bin Laden stuck his head out of a
bedroom door, saw the SEALs, and slammed the door closed. At the same
time, Osama's son Khalid bin Laden ran up the stairs to the third floor
and was killed with two shots.[234][235]
Two SEALs broke through
the bedroom door. Bin Laden's wife Amal was on the edge of the bed
shouting in Arabic at the SEALs, and Osama bin Laden dived across the
bed, shoving Amal at the same time, for an AKS-74U kept by the
headboard. The SEALs fired four shots at bin Laden; the first missed,
the second grazed Amal in the calf also missing bin Laden, and the final
two hit bin Laden in the chest and head, killing him instantly. In
Pfarrer's account, the total time elapsed from jumping on the roof to
Osama bin Laden's death was between 30 and 90 seconds.[234][235]
Around
the same time, snipers in the hovering Razor 2 helicopter shot and
killed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti when he came to the door of the guest house
firing an AK-47. One SEAL sniper fired two shots at al-Kuwaiti and the
other fired two three-round bursts. Two of the snipers' bullets went
through al-Kuwaiti and killed his wife who was standing behind him. The
Razor 2 team cleared the guest house and then breached their way into
the main house with explosives. As the Razor 2 team entered the main
house, al-Qaeda courier Arshad Khan pointed his AK-47 gun and was killed
with two shots. The SEAL team fired a total of 16 shots, killing Osama
bin Laden, Khalid bin Laden, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and al-Kuwaiti's
wife, Arshad Khan, and wounding Osama bin Laden's wife Amal
al-Sadah.[234][235]
Twenty minutes into the operation, Razor 1
took off from the roof of the main house to reposition to a landing spot
outside the compound. As Razor 1 was crossing over the courtyard, both
"green unit" flight deck control systems went off line. The helicopter
settled slowly, bounced off the ground, and then broke apart as it hit
the ground a second time. Both failed green units were removed for later
examination.[234][235]
Media accounts had reported that the plan
had been to fast rope to the inner courtyard and to clear the main
house from the ground floor up. The helicopter crashed in the outer
courtyard with the SEAL team still on board. The SEAL team exited and
needed to breach two walls and then into the house. As a result, Osama
bin Laden was killed several minutes into the operation.[55] Pfarrer's
account differs in that he wrote that a SEAL team was inserted onto the
roof of the main house, that Osama bin Laden was killed seconds into the
operation, and that the main house was cleared from the top down.[235]
The
Pentagon disputed Pfarrer's account of the raid, calling it
"incorrect".[236] The U.S. Special Operations Command also disputed
Pfarrer's account, saying, "It's just not true. It's not how it
happened."[237][238]
No Easy Day
Main article: No Easy Day
Matt Bissonnette in March 2001
Matt
Bissonnette, a SEAL who participated in the raid, wrote an account of
the mission in the book No Easy Day (2012), which significantly
contradicts Pfarrer's account. Bissonnette wrote that the helicopter
approach and landing matched the official version. According to
Bissonnette, when bin Laden peered out at the Americans advancing on his
third-floor room, the SEAL who fired upon him hit him on the right side
of the head. Bin Laden stumbled into his bedroom, where the SEALs found
him crumpled and twitching on the floor in a pool of body matter, with
two women crying over his body. The other SEALs allegedly grabbed the
women, moved them away, and shot several rounds into bin Laden's chest
until he was motionless. According to Bissonnette, the weapons in the
room—an AK-47 rifle and a Makarov pistol—were unloaded.[239]
Unlike
the official account, Bissonnette's version alleges that bin Laden's
wife Mariam was uninjured in the raid.[page needed] In addition,
Bissonnette states that the report of bin Laden's daughter Safia having
splintered wood striking her foot is false, as he explains that it was
rather his wife Amal who was injured by such fragments.[239]
The
author also asserted that one SEAL sat on bin Laden's chest in a cramped
helicopter as his body was flown back to
Afghanistan.[240][241][242][243][244][245][excessive citations]
Bissonnette stated that a search of bin Laden's room after his death uncovered a bottle of Just for Men hair dye.[246]
Esquire interview
In
February 2013, Esquire conducted an interview with an anonymous
individual called "the shooter" who said that bin Laden placed one of
his wives between himself and the commandos, pushing her towards them.
"Shooter" then claimed bin Laden stood up and had a gun "within reach"
and it was only then that he fired two shots into bin Laden's forehead,
killing him.[119] Another member of SEAL Team Six said the story as
presented in Esquire was false and "complete BS".[247] Then, in November
2014, former SEAL Robert O'Neill disclosed his identity as the shooter
in a series of interviews with The Washington Post.[104][105]
Hillhouse and Hersh reports
Main article: Seymour Hersh § Death of Osama bin Laden
In
2011 American intelligence analyst Raelynn Hillhouse wrote that
according to U.S. intelligence sources, the U.S. had been tipped-off to
bin Laden's location by an unnamed Pakistani intelligence insider
collecting the $25 million reward. According to the sources, Pakistan
purposely stood-down its armed forces to allow the U.S. raid, and the
original plan was to kill—not capture—bin Laden. Hillhouse's sources
stated that the Pakistanis had been keeping bin Laden under house arrest
near their military headquarters in Abbottabad with money provided by
the Saudis.[248] According to The Telegraph, Hillhouse's account might
explain why U.S. forces encountered no resistance on their way to and in
Abbottabad, and why some residents in Abbottabad were warned to stay in
their houses the day before the raid.[248] Hillhouse later also said
bin Laden's body had been thrown out of a helicopter over the Hindu
Kush. Hillhouse's account was picked up and published
internationally.[249]
In May 2015, a detailed article in the
London Review of Books by journalist Seymour Hersh said that the
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had kept bin Laden under
house arrest at Abbottabad since 2006, and that Pakistani Army chief
Pervez Kayani and ISI director Ahmad Shuja Pasha aided the U.S. mission
to kill, not capture bin Laden.[250][251] According to Hersh, Pakistani
officials were always aware of bin Laden's location and were guarding
the compound with their own soldiers. Pakistan decided to give up bin
Laden's location to the U.S. because American aid was declining.
Pakistani officials were aware of the raid, and assisted the U.S. in
carrying it out. According to Hersh, bin Laden was basically an
invalid.[252]
Hersh's U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources
stated that the U.S. had learned of bin Laden's location through a
Pakistani walk-in seeking the $25 million reward, and not through
tracking a courier.[250][253] NBC News and Agence France-Presse
subsequently reported that their sources indicated a walk-in was an
extremely valuable asset, though the sources disputed that the walk-in
knew the location of bin Laden.[254][255] Pakistan-based journalist Amir
Mir in the News International reported the walk-in's identity to be
Usman Khalid, though that allegation was denied by Khalid's family.[256]
Although
similar in claims, both Hillhouse's and Hersh's accounts of the bin
Laden death appeared to be based on different sources which The
Intercept concluded might corroborate the claims if their identities
were known. After the Hersh story broke, NBC News also independently
reported that a Pakistani intelligence officer was the source of the
original bin Laden location report, and not the courier.[249]
The
White House denied Hersh's report.[257][258] A former intelligence
official who had direct knowledge of the operation speculated that the
Pakistanis, who were furious that the operation took place without being
detected by them, were behind the false story as a way to save
face.[259] Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid in The New York Review of
Books finds the cooperation between the CIA and ISI that Hersh describes
"inconceivable", in part because 2011 was "the worst year in
U.S.-Pakistan relations since the late 1980s" and "hatred and mistrust"
between the CIA and ISI was "acute"—something Hersh does not mention.
Among the incidents that occurred in Pakistan in the months before the
killing of bin Laden were the killing of two Pakistanis by CIA
contractor Raymond Davis, numerous death threats against the Islamabad
CIA station chief after his name was leaked (purportedly by the ISI),
the cessation of the issuing of visas for U.S. officials (following
which the U.S. consulate in Lahore was moved to Islamabad over concerns
about security), increased U.S. anger over the refusal of Pakistan to
exert pressure on the Taliban, the death of 40 Pakistanis including many
civilians and later 24 Pakistani soldiers from U.S. drone strikes; and
the cut-off of U.S. supplies to Afghanistan by Pakistan.[260]
Indian airspace controversy
In
the publication No Easy Day, a map of the operation show the U.S. SEALs
briefly crossed into Indian territory before its loop approaching
Abbottabad in Pakistan, raising questions in India whether the U.S.
violated Indian airspace, and if India had advance knowledge about the
mission. The Indian Air Force dismissed claims that the U.S. crossed
into Indian airspace.[261][262][263]
Conspiracy theories
Main article: Osama bin Laden death conspiracy theories
The
reports of bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011, are not universally
accepted[264] despite unreleased DNA testing confirming his
identity,[35][139] bin Laden's twelve-year-old daughter witnessing his
death,[113][265] and a May 6, 2011, al-Qaeda statement confirming his
death.[10] The swift burial of bin Laden's body at sea, the speed of the
DNA results, and the decision not to release pictures of the dead body
have led to the rise of conspiracy theories that bin Laden had not died
in the raid.[266] Some blogs suggested that the U.S. government feigned
the raid, and some forums hosted debates over the alleged hoax.[267]
Role of Pakistan
See also: Allegations of support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden
Pakistan
came under intense international scrutiny after the raid. The Pakistani
government denied that it had sheltered bin Laden, and said it had
shared information with the CIA and other intelligence agencies about
the compound since 2009.[268]
Carlotta Gall, in her 2014 book The
Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014, accuses the ISI,
Pakistan's clandestine intelligence service, of hiding and protecting
Osama bin Laden and his family after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She
claims that she learned from a Pakistani official (with whom she later
clarified that she did not speak, the information coming through a
friend)[269] that a senior U.S. official had told him that the United
States had direct evidence that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief,
Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, knew of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad,
but ISI, Pasha and officials in Washington all deny this:[270] "C.I.A.
and other Obama administration officials have said they possess no
evidence—no intercepts, no unreleased documents from Abbottabad—that
Kayani or Pasha or any other I.S.I. officer knew where bin Laden was
hiding."[271]
After the raid, there was an unconfirmed report
that Pakistan allowed Chinese military officials to examine the wreckage
of the crashed helicopter.[272]
Connections with Abbottabad
View of Abbottabad, Pakistan (2011)
Abbottabad
attracted refugees from fighting in the tribal areas and Swat Valley,
as well as Afghanistan. "People don't really care now to ask who's
there", said Gohar Ayub Khan, a former foreign minister and resident of
the city. "That's one of the reasons why, possibly, he came in
there."[273]
The city was home to at least one al-Qaeda leader
before bin Laden. Operational chief Abu Faraj al-Libi reportedly moved
his family to Abbottabad in mid-2003.[274] Pakistan Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) raided the house in December 2003 but did not find
him.[275] This account was contradicted by American officials who said
that satellite photos show that in 2004 the site was an empty
field.[276] A courier told interrogators that al-Libi used three houses
in Abbottabad. Pakistani officials say they informed their American
counterparts at the time that the city could be a hiding place for
al-Qaeda leaders.[277] In 2009 officials began providing the U.S. with
intelligence about bin Laden's compound without knowing who lived
there.[275]
On January 25, 2011,[278] ISI arrested Umar Patek, an
Indonesian wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings,
while he was staying with a family in Abbottabad. Tahir Shehzad, a clerk
at the post office, was arrested on suspicion of facilitating travel
for al-Qaeda militants.[274]
Allegations against Pakistan
Numerous
allegations were made that the government of Pakistan had shielded bin
Laden.[132][279][280] Critics cited the proximity of bin Laden's heavily
fortified compound to the Pakistan Military Academy, that the U.S.
chose to not notify Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the
double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008
Mumbai attacks.[280][281][282] U.S. government files, leaked by
WikiLeaks, disclosed that American diplomats had been told that
Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time U.S.
forces approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), also
helped smuggle al-Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops.
According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of
Tajikistan had also told U.S. officials that many in Pakistan were aware
of bin Laden's whereabouts.[283]
CIA chief Leon Panetta said the
CIA had ruled out involving Pakistan in the operation, because it
feared that "any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the
mission. They might alert the targets."[284] Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin
Laden and the compound in which he was hiding".[285] Obama echoed her
sentiments.[286] John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism
advisor, said that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have
support from within Pakistan. He said: "People have been referring to
this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide
out there for so long."[287]
The Indian Minister for Home
Affairs, P. Chidambaram, said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside"
Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many
of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the
controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out
the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He called on Pakistan
to arrest them.[288]
Pakistani-born British member of parliament
Khalid Mahmood said he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned
that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops,
reviving questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in
Pakistan's security forces.[289]
On August 7, 2011, Raelynn
Hillhouse, an American spy novelist and security analyst, posted "The
Spy Who Billed Me" on her national security blog,[290] suggesting that
Pakistan's ISI had sheltered bin Laden in return for a $25 million
bounty; ISI and government officials have denied her allegations.[291]
Former
Pakistani Army Chief, General Ziauddin Butt has said that, according to
his knowledge, Osama bin Laden was kept in an Intelligence Bureau safe
house in Abbottabad by the then Director-General of the Intelligence
Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah. This had occurred
with the "full knowledge" of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf
and possibly that of current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq
Parvez Kayani.[292] Emails from the private American security firm,
Stratfor, published by WikiLeaks on February 27, 2012, indicate that up
to 12 officials in Pakistan's ISI knew of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad
safe house. Stratfor had been given access to the papers collected by
American forces from bin Laden's Abbottabad house. The emails reveal
that these Pakistani officers included "Mid to senior level ISI and Pak
Mil with one retired Pak Mil General".[293] In 2014, British journalist
Carlotta Gall revealed that she had been told by an undisclosed ISI
source that the ISI "ran a special desk assigned to handle bin Laden".
The desk was "led by an officer who made his own decisions and did not
report to a superior [...] but the top military bosses knew about it, I
was told".[270]
According to Steve Coll, as of 2019 there is no
direct evidence showing Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's presence in
Abbottabad, even by a rogue or compartmented faction within the
government, other than the circumstantial fact of bin Laden's compound
being located near (albeit not directly visible from) the Pakistan
Military Academy. Documents captured from the Abbottabad compound
generally show that bin Laden was wary of contact with Pakistani
intelligence and police, especially in light of Pakistan's role in the
arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; it has also been suggested that the
$25 million U.S. reward for information leading to bin Laden would have
been enticing to Pakistani officers given their reputation for
corruption. The compound itself, although unusually tall, was less
conspicuous than sometimes envisaged by Americans, given the common
local habit of walling off homes for protection against violence or to
ensure the privacy of female family members. Coll notes that a Pakistani
Taliban cell had previously surveilled the army's General Headquarters
in Rawalpindi out of a nearby house for two months prior to a deadly
October 2009 attack on the facility—without detection.[294]
Pakistani response
External video
video icon Pakistan After bin Laden- Vice.
According
to a Pakistani intelligence official, raw phone-tap data had been
transferred to the U.S. without being analyzed by Pakistan. While the
U.S. "was concentrating on this" information since September 2010,
information regarding bin Laden and the compound's inhabitants had
"slipped from" Pakistan's "radar" over the months. Bin Laden left "an
invisible footprint" and he had not been contacting other militant
networks. It was noted that much focus had been placed on a courier
entering and leaving the compound. The transfer of intelligence to the
U.S. was a regular occurrence according to the official, who also stated
regarding the raid that "I think they came in undetected and went out
the same day", and Pakistan did not believe that U.S. personnel were
present in the area before the special operation occurred.[286]
According
to the Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul
Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge that an operation would happen.
Pakistan was "in the know of certain things" and "what happened,
happened with our consent. Americans got to know him—where he was
first—and that's why they struck it and struck it precisely." Husain
Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., had said that Pakistan would
have pursued bin Laden had the intelligence of his location existed with
them and Pakistan was "very glad that our American partners did. They
had superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to
them."[286]
Another Pakistani official stated that Pakistan
"assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in
our airspace" and the operation was conducted by the United States. He
also said that "in any event, we did not want anything to do with such
an operation in case something went wrong."[286]
In June, the ISI
arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Osama
bin Laden's compound and five CIA informants.[295]
Mark Kelton,
then the CIA station chief for Pakistan, alleges that he was poisoned by
the ISI in retaliation for the raid, forcing him to leave the
country.[296][297]
Code name
See also: Code name Geronimo controversy
Several
officials who were present in the Situation Room, including the
president,[220] told reporters that the code name for bin Laden was
"Geronimo". They had watched Leon Panetta, speaking from CIA
headquarters, while he narrated the action in Abbottabad. Panetta said,
"We have a visual on Geronimo", and later, "Geronimo EKIA"—enemy killed
in action.[58] The words of the commander on the ground were, "For God
and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo."[298] Officials subsequently
explained that each step of the mission was labelled alphabetically in
an "Execution Checklist", which is used to ensure all participants in a
large operation are kept synchronized with a minimum of radio traffic.
"Geronimo" indicated the raiders had reached step "G", the capture or
killing of bin Laden.[77] Osama bin Laden was identified as "Jackpot",
the general code name for the target of an operation.[298] ABC News
reported that otherwise his regular code name was "Cakebread".[65] The
New Yorker reported that bin Laden's code name was "Crankshaft".[55]
Many
Native Americans were offended that Geronimo, the renowned 19th-century
Apache leader, was irrevocably linked with bin Laden. The chairman of
the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the successor to Geronimo's tribe, wrote a
letter to Obama asking him to "right this wrong."[299] The president of
the Navajo Nation requested that the U.S. government change the code
name retroactively.[300] Officials from the National Congress of
American Indians said the focus should be on honoring the
disproportionately high number of Native Americans who serve in the
military, and they had been assured that "Geronimo" was not a code name
for bin Laden.[301] The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard
testimony on the issue from tribal leaders, while the Defense Department
had no comment except to say that no disrespect was intended.[300]
Derivation of intelligence
After
the death of bin Laden, some officials from the Bush administration,
such as former Bush Office of Legal Counsel attorney John Yoo[302][303]
and former attorney general Michael Mukasey,[304][305] wrote op-eds
stating that the enhanced interrogation techniques they authorized
(since legally clarified as torture) yielded the intelligence that later
led to locating bin Laden's hideout.[306][307] Mukasey said that the
waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed caused him to reveal the
nickname of bin Laden's courier.[308]
U.S. officials[309] and
legislators, including Republican John McCain[310] and Democrat Dianne
Feinstein, chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, countered that those statements were false. They noted
that a report by CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that the first mention
of the courier's nickname did not come from Mohammed, but rather from
another government's interrogation of a suspect whom they said they
"believe was not tortured."[311]
McCain called on Mukasey to retract his statements:[311]
I have sought further information from the staff of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, and they confirm for me that, in fact, the best
intelligence gained from a CIA detainee—information describing Abu Ahmed
al-Kuwaiti's real role in Al-Qaeda and his true relationship to Osama
bin Laden—was obtained through standard, non-coercive means, not through
any 'enhanced interrogation technique'.[310]
— John McCain
Panetta
had written a letter to McCain on the issue, saying: "Some of the
detainees who provided useful information about the
facilitator/courier's role had been subjected to enhanced interrogation
techniques. Whether those techniques were the 'only timely and effective
way' to obtain such information is a matter of debate and cannot be
established definitively."[311][312] Although some information may have
been obtained from detainees who were subjected to torture, Panetta
wrote to McCain that:
We first learned about the
facilitator/courier's nom de guerre from a detainee not in CIA custody
in 2002. It is also important to note that some detainees who were
subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques attempted to provide
false or misleading information about the facilitator/courier. These
attempts to falsify the facilitator/courier's role were alerting. In the
end, no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier's full
true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered
through other intelligence means.[313]
In addition, other U.S.
officials state that shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, detainees in CIA secret prisons told interrogators about the
courier's pseudonym "al-Kuwaiti" and that when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
was later captured, he only confirmed the courier's pseudonym. After Abu
Faraj al-Libbi was captured, he provided false or misleading
information: he denied that he knew al-Kuwaiti and he made up another
name instead.[21] Also, a group of interrogators asserted that the
courier's nickname was not divulged "during torture, but rather several
months later, when [detainees] were questioned by interrogators who did
not use abusive techniques."[314]
Intelligence postmortem
Evidence
seized from the compound is said to include ten cell phones, five to
ten computers, twelve hard drives, at least 100 computer disks
(including thumb drives and DVDs), handwritten notes, documents,
weapons, and an assortment of personal items.[315][316] It was described
by a senior Pentagon intelligence official as "the single largest
collection of senior terrorist materials ever."[317] On November 1,
2017, the CIA released to the public approximately 470,000 files and a
copy of bin Laden's diary.[318][319]
Intelligence analysts also
studied call detail records from two phone numbers that were found to be
sewn into bin Laden's clothing.[315] They helped over the course of
several months to apprehend several al-Qaeda members in several
countries and to kill several of bin Laden's closest associates by CIA
drone attacks in Pakistan.[316]
The material gathered at the
compound was stored at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, where
forensic experts analyzed fingerprints, DNA, and other trace evidence
left on the material.[315] Copies of the material were provided to other
agencies; officials want to preserve a chain of custody in case any of
the information is needed as evidence in a future trial.
A
special CIA team has been given the responsibility of combing through
the digital material and documents removed from the bin Laden
compound.[320] The CIA team is working in collaboration with other U.S.
government agencies "to triage, catalog and analyze this
intelligence."[141]
Bin Laden's youngest wife told Pakistani
investigators that the family lived in the feudal village of Chak Shah
Muhammad, in the nearby district of Haripur, Pakistan, for two and a
half years before moving to Abbottabad in late 2005.[159]
The
material seized from the compound contained al-Qaeda's strategy for
Afghanistan after America's withdrawal from the country in 2014,[321] as
well as thousands of electronic memos and missives that captured
conversations between bin Laden and his deputies around the world.[322]
It showed that bin Laden stayed in touch with al-Qaeda's established
affiliates and sought new alliances with groups such as Boko Haram from
Nigeria.[321] According to the material, he sought to reassert control
over factions of loosely affiliated jihadists from Yemen to Somalia, as
well as independent actors whom he believed had sullied al-Qaeda's
reputation and muddied its central message.[322] Bin Laden was worried
at times about his personal security and was annoyed that his
organization had not utilized the Arab Spring to improve its image.[322]
He acted, according to The Washington Post, on the one hand as "chief
executive fully engaged in the group's myriad crises, grappling with
financial problems, recruitment, rebellious field managers, and sudden
staff vacancies resulting from the unrelenting U.S. drone
campaign",[322] and on the other hand as "a hands-on manager who
participated in the terrorist group's operational planning and strategic
thinking while also giving orders and advice to field operatives
scattered worldwide."[322] The material also described Osama bin Laden's
relation with Ayman al-Zawahiri and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman.[322]
Seventeen
documents seized during the Abbottabad raid, consisting of electronic
letters or draft letters dating from September 2006 to April 2011, were
released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point one year and
one day after bin Laden's death.[316] and made available at The
Washington Post homepage.[323] The documents covered subjects such as
the news media in America, affiliate organization, targets, America,
security, and the Arab Spring.[324] In the documents, bin Laden said
al-Qaeda's strength was limited and therefore suggested that the best
way to attack the U.S., which he compared to a tree, "is to concentrate
on sawing the trunk".[316] He refused the promotion of Anwar al-Awlaki
when this was requested by Nasir al-Wuhayshi, leader of al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula. "We here become reassured of the people when they go
to the line and get examined there",[316] bin Laden said. He told
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to expand operations in the U.S. in
the wake of the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot by writing "We need to
extend and develop our operations in America and not keep it limited to
blowing up airplanes."[316]
The seized material shed light on
al-Qaeda's relationship with Iran, which detained jihadis and their
relatives in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, including
members of bin Laden's family. Al-Qaeda's relationship with Iran was,
according to the Combating Terrorism Center, an "unpleasant byproduct of
necessity, fueled by mutual distrust and antagonism."[316] An explicit
reference to any institutional support from Pakistan for al-Qaeda wasn't
mentioned in the documents; instead, bin Laden instructed his family
members how to avoid detection so that members of Pakistani intelligence
couldn't track them to find him.[325] According to the seized material,
former commander of the international forces in Afghanistan David
Petraeus and US President Barack Obama should be assassinated during any
of their visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan, if there was an
opportunity to do so. Bin Laden opined that U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden should not be a target because "Biden is totally unprepared for
that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis."[325]
Bin Laden was also against one-person suicide attacks and was of the
opinion that at least two persons should undertake these attacks
instead.[325] He planned to reform in a way so that al-Qaeda's central
leadership would have a greater say in the naming of the al-Qaeda branch
leaders and their deputies. He expressed his opinion that killing
Muslims has weakened his organization and not helped al-Qaeda, writing
that it "cost the mujahedeen no small amount of sympathy among Muslims.
The enemy has exploited the mistakes of the mujahedeen to mar their
image among the masses."[326]
The United States Department of
Justice released a further eleven documents in March 2015.[327] The
documents were part of the trial against Abid Naseer, who was convicted
of plotting to bomb a Manchester shopping mall in 2009.[328] They
included letters to and from Osama bin Laden in the year before his
death, and showed the extent of the damage the CIA drone program had
done to Al-Qaeda.[329]
In addition to information and data
recovered that were of intelligence interest, the documents and computer
items also contained personal files, including family correspondence
and a large stash of pornography. US officials have refused to
characterize the type of pornography found other than to say that it was
"modern" in nature.[330][331][332] The most likely explanation for the
pornography on bin Laden's hard drive is that he bought a poorly
refurbished computer since bin Laden did not have internet access and
the computer was also infected with viruses.[333]
Helicopter stealth technology revelations
The
tail section of the secret helicopter survived demolition and lay just
outside the compound wall.[334] Pakistani security forces put up a cloth
barrier at first light to hide the wreckage.[335] Later, a tractor
hauled it away hidden under a tarp.[336] Journalists obtained
photographs that revealed the previously undisclosed stealth technology.
Aviation Week said the helicopter appeared to be a significantly
modified MH-60 Black Hawk. Serial numbers found at the scene were
consistent with an MH-60 built in 2009.[337] Its performance during the
operation confirmed that a stealth helicopter could evade detection in a
militarily sensitive, densely populated area. Photos showed that the
Black Hawk's tail had stealth-configured shapes on the boom and the
fairings, swept stabilizers and a "hubcap" over the noise-reducing five-
or six-blade tail rotor. It appeared to have a silver-loaded infrared
suppression finish similar to some V-22 Ospreys.[334] The crash of the
Blackhawk may have been, at least in part, caused by the aerodynamic
deficiencies introduced to the airframe by the stealth technology
add-ons[338] (an unrelated possible cause of the crash was that the
rehearsal mock-ups of the compound had used a chain-link fence rather
than a solid wall for the perimeter and thus had not reproduced the
airflows that the helicopter would face).[54]
The U.S. requested
return of the wreckage and the Chinese government also expressed
interest, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan had custody of the
wreckage for over two weeks before its return was secured by U.S.
Senator John Kerry.[339][340] Experts disagreed as to how much
information could have been gleaned from the tail fragment. Stealth
technology was already operational on several fixed-wing aircraft and
the cancelled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter; the modified Black Hawk was
the first confirmed operational "stealth helicopter". It is likely that
the most valuable information obtainable from the wreckage was the
composition of the radar-absorbing paint used on the tail
section.[334][341] Local children were seen picking up pieces of the
wreckage and selling them as souvenirs.[155] In August 2011, Fox News
reported that Pakistan had allowed Chinese scientists to examine the
helicopter's tail section and were especially interested in its
radar-absorbing paint.[342] Pakistan and the PRC denied these
claims.[343]
Previous attempts to capture or kill bin Laden
See also: Battle of Tora Bora and Location of Osama bin Laden
Air strikes on Tora Bora in 2001
February 1994: A team of Libyans attacked bin Laden's home in Sudan.
The CIA investigated and reported that they had been hired by Saudi
Arabia, but Saudi Arabia accused them of lying to make bin Laden more
amenable to Sudanese interests.[344][345]
August 20, 1998: In
Operation Infinite Reach, the U.S. Navy launched 66 cruise missiles at a
suspected al-Qaeda training camp outside Khost, Afghanistan, where bin
Laden was expected to be. Reports said that 30 people may have been
killed.[346]
2000: Foreign operatives working on behalf of the
CIA fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which
bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting
one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding.[347]
December 2001: During the opening stages of the war in Afghanistan
launched following the September 11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies
believed that bin Laden was hiding in the rugged mountains at Tora Bora.
Despite overrunning the Taliban and al-Qaeda positions, they failed to
capture or kill him.[348]
See also
flagPakistan portal iconAsia portal War portal
Abbottabad commission
Barisha raid, similar raid that targeted Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, 2022 U.S. drone strike on bin Laden's successor
2013 raid on Barawe
Coup de main
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
High-value target
Robert J. O'Neill (U.S. Navy SEAL)
Shakil Afridi, a doctor who supposedly assisted the U.S. in locating bin Laden.
Special Activities Division
Notes
A National Geographic documentary in September 2020, titled "Bin
Laden's Hard Drive", mentioned that Osama bin Laden may have
communicated with his associates through secret messages encoded in porn
videos.[118]
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Nelly (2022). The Bin Laden Papers: How the Abbottabad Raid Revealed
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Riedel, Bruce. The Search for al-Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future, 2008
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"Lost at Tora Bora", The New York Times Magazine, September 11, 2005.
Further reading
Bergen, Peter (2012). Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden – from
9/11 to Abbottabad. Crown. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-307-95557-9.
Bowden, Mark (2012). The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-2034-2.
Hersh, Seymour M. (2016). The Killing of Osama Bin Laden. Verso. ISBN 978-1-78478-439-3.
Porter, Gareth (May 3, 2012). "Exclusive Investigation: The Truth
Behind the Official Story of Finding Bin Laden". Truthout. Retrieved May
5, 2012.
Schmindle, Nicholas (August 8, 2011). "Getting Bin Laden". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
External links
Killing of Osama bin Laden
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Media from Commons
Texts from Wikisource
Reuters Photo Gallery: Inside bin Laden's Compound, photos by Pak security official
Inside the Situation Room: Obama on making OBL raid decision, a
documentary behind the raid interviewing the important persons in the
Situation Room (archived)
Death of Bin Laden collected news and commentary at BBC News Online
Osama bin Laden collected news and commentary at The New York Times
"Closing in on bin Laden", The Washington Post collection of maps, diagrams, and other images
Phillips, Macon. "Osama Bin Laden Dead." The White House Blog. May 2, 2011.
"Photo Gallery May 1, 2011." The White House
Garamone, Jim. "Obama Declares 'Justice Has Been Done'." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
Garamone, Jim. "Intelligence, Operations Team Up for bin Laden Kill."
American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
"Office of the Spokesperson Press Release Death of Osama bin Ladin." Embassy of Pakistan in Washington. May 2, 2011.
"Message from the Director: Justice Done." (Archive). Central Intelligence Agency. May 2, 2011.
"Osama bin Laden killed". The Big Picture. The Boston Globe. May 2, 2011.
Osama Bin Laden's death: How it happened, written by Adrian Brown from BBC News on September 10, 2012.
Osama Bin Laden: The long hunt for the al-Qaeda leader, written by David Gritten from BBC News on May 2, 2011.
The Killing of Osama bin Laden, written by Seymour M. Hersh from London
Review of Books on May 21, 2015. Hersh challenges the official U.S.
account of the death of bin Laden.
vte
Osama bin Laden
Background
Childhood, education, and personal life Militant activity Beliefs and
ideology Search Khartoum compound Abbottabad compound Death
reactions code name controversy conspiracy theories
Family
Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (father) Hamida al-Attas (mother) Najwa
Ghanhem (first wife) Abdallah bin Laden (son) Hamza bin Laden (son) Saad
bin Laden (son) Omar bin Laden (son)
Work
al-Qaeda Wadi al Aqiq Messages to the World Fatawā 2004 video 19 January
2006 tape 7 September 2007 video 11 September 2007 video 20 September
2007 tape (more)
In media
In popular culture
Growing Up bin Laden Holy War, Inc. The Looming Tower No Easy Day Where
in the World Is Osama bin Laden? Zero Dark Thirty Interviews
Related
Soviet–Afghan War Allegations of support system in Pakistan for Osama
bin Laden Bodyguard Issue Station Relationship with Saddam Hussein
Timeline September 11 attacks Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden False sightings Gary Brooks Faulkner
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Barack Obama
44th President of the United States (2009–2017) U.S. Senator from
Illinois (2005–2008) Illinois Senator from the 13th district (1997–2004)
Life and
politics
Early life and career Illinois Senate career 2004 Democratic National Convention U.S. Senate career Political positions
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Union" (2008) "Change Has Come to America" (2008) "A New Birth of
Freedom" (2009) Joint session of Congress (2009) "A New Beginning"
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the Union Address
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grandmother) Auma Obama (paternal half-sister) Malik Obama (paternal
half-brother) Marian Shields Robinson (mother-in-law) Craig Robinson
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Category
vte
Al-Qaeda
Leadership
Saif al-Adel Khalid Batarfi Ahmad Umar Iyad Ag Ghaly Ezedin Abdel Aziz
Khalil Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi Ali Sayyid Muhamed Mustafa al-Bakri
Ibrahim al-Banna Ibrahim al Qosi Mokhtar Belmokhtar Abu Walid al-Masri
Amin al-Haq Mohammed Showqi Al-Islambouli
Former
leadership
Killed
Osama bin Laden (killing) Ayman al-Zawahiri (killing) Mohammed Atef Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi Haitham al-Badri Abu Yaqub al-Masri Abu Talha
al-Sudani Abu Sulayman Al-Jazairi Midhat Mursi Mohamed Moumou Khalid
Habib Abu Ghadiya Abu Zubair al-Masri Rashid Rauf Mohammad Hasan Khalil
al-Hakim Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan Saad bin
Laden Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan Abdullah Said al Libi Saleh al-Somali Abu
Ayyub al-Masri Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Saeed al-Masri Hamza al-Jawfi Ahmed
Mohammed Hamed Ali Mohamed Abul-Khair Abu Suleiman al-Naser Huthaifa
al-Batawi Ilyas Kashmiri Fazul Abdullah Mohammed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman
Anwar al-Awlaki Samir Khan Tariq al-Dahab Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan Fahd
al-Quso Said Ali al-Shihri Farman Ali Shinwari Qaed Salim Sinan
al-Harethi Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil Haitham al-Yemeni Abu Hamza Rabia
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah Hassan Ghul Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Said Bahaji
Omar al-Faruq Abu Laith al-Libi Abu Yahya al-Libi Abdelhamid Abou Zeid
Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki Abu Khalid al-Suri Ahmed
Abdi Godane Abu Yusuf Al-Turki Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah Adam
Yahiye Gadahn Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad
al-Rubaysh Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi Nasir al-Wuhayshi Othman Ahmad Othman
al-Ghamdi Muhsin al-Fadhli Abu Firas al-Suri Ahmed Refai Taha Abu Khayr
al-Masri Ibrahim al-Asiri Abu Khalil al-Madani Hamza bin Laden Sari
Shihab Asim Umar Qasim al-Raymi Abdelmalek Droukdel Khalid al-Aruri
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah Abu Muhsin al-Masri
Captured
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim Wadih el-Hage Khalid al-Fawwaz Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Walid bin Attash Riduan Isamuddin Ali
al-Bahlul Ahmed Ghailani Abu Faraj al-Libbi Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
Abdul Hadi al Iraqi Muhammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani Mohamed Atiq Awayd
Al Harbi Younis al-Mauritani Sulaiman Abu Ghaith Abu Anas al-Libi
Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh Mukhtar Robow
Other
Abu
Ubaidah al-Banshiri (died) Abu Ubaidah al-Masri (died) Mahfouz Ould
al-Walid (left) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (expelled) Abu Mohammad al-Julani
(left, disputed) Abu Maria al-Qahtani (left, disputed) Ahmad Salama
Mabruk (left, disputed) Abu Omar al-Turkistani (left, disputed)
Timeline
of attacks
1998 United States embassy bombings 2000 USS Cole bombing 2001
September 11 attacks 2002 Bali bombings 2004 Madrid train bombings 2005
London bombings 2007 Algiers bombings 2008 Islamabad Danish embassy
bombing 2008 Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing 2013 In Amenas hostage
crisis 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting
2015 Garissa University College attack 2015 Bamako hotel attack 2016
Ouagadougou attacks 2016 Grand-Bassam shootings 2016 Bamako attack 2019
Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting
Wars
Soviet–Afghan War Afghan Civil War (1989–1992) Afghan Civil War
(1992–1996) First Chechen War Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) Second
Chechen War War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Iraq War Somali Civil War War
in North-West Pakistan (drone strikes) Insurgency in the Maghreb
(2002–present) Syrian civil war Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen Houthi insurgency in Yemen
Affiliates
al-Shabaab (Somalia) al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa) Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Egypt)
al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (Indian Subcontinent) Jama'at Nasr
al-Islam wal Muslimin (Mali)
Charity organizations
Benevolence International Foundation al-Haramain Foundation
Media
Al Qaeda Handbook Al Neda As-Sahab Fatawā of Osama bin Laden Inspire
Al-Khansaa Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit Management of Savagery Voice of
Jihad Qaedat al-Jihad Global Islamic Media Front
Video and audio
Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden Videos and audio recordings of Ayman al-Zawahiri USS Cole bombing
Related
Safe houses Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein
Timeline
Category:Al-Qaeda
vte
War on terror
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Iraq War (2003–2011) Symbolism of terrorism
Participants
Operational
ISAF Operation Enduring Freedom participants Afghanistan Northern
Alliance Iraq (Iraqi Armed Forces) NATO Pakistan United Kingdom United
States European Union Philippines Ethiopia
Targets
Individuals
Osama bin Laden Hamza bin Laden Anwar al-Awlaki Sirajuddin Haqqani
Jalaluddin Haqqani Anas Haqqani Khalil Haqqani Hafiz Saeed Mahmoud
Mohamed Ahmed Bahaziq Abu Bakr al Baghdadi
Factions
al-Qaeda al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Abu Sayyaf Al-Shabaab Boko
Haram Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Hizbul Mujahideen Islamic Courts Union
Jaish-e-Mohammed Jemaah Islamiyah Lashkar-e-Taiba Taliban Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan Islamic State
Conflicts
Operation
Enduring Freedom
War in Afghanistan OEF – Philippines Georgia Train and Equip Program
Georgia Sustainment and Stability OEF – Horn of Africa OEF – Trans
Sahara Drone strikes in Pakistan
Other
Operation
Active Endeavour Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present) Insurgency in
the North Caucasus Moro conflict in the Philippines Iraq War Iraqi
insurgency Operation Linda Nchi Terrorism in Saudi Arabia Insurgency in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa War in Somalia (2006–2009) 2007 Lebanon conflict
al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
See also
Abu Ghraib
torture and prisoner abuse Axis of evil Bush Doctrine Clash of
Civilizations Cold War Combatant Status Review Tribunal Criticism of the
war on terror CIA black sites Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri Killing of
Osama bin Laden Enhanced interrogation techniques Torture Memos
Extrajudicial prisoners Extraordinary rendition Guantanamo Bay detention
camp Iranian Revolution Islamic terrorism Islamism Military Commissions
Act of 2006 Military Commissions Act of 2009 North Korea and weapons of
mass destruction Terrorist Surveillance Program Operation Noble Eagle
Operation Eagle Assist Pakistan's role Patriot Act President's
Surveillance Program Protect America Act of 2007 September 11 attacks
State Sponsors of Terrorism Targeted killing Targeted Killing in
International Law Targeted Killings: Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical
World Unitary executive theory Unlawful combatant Withdrawal of United
States troops from Afghanistan (2011–2016) Withdrawal of United States
troops from Iraq (2007–2011) CAGE
Category Commons
vte
Abbottabad topics
History
Major James Abbott Silk Road First Anglo-Sikh War 2005 Kashmir earthquake Death of Osama bin Laden
Localities
Cantonment Dhamtour Jhangi Kakul Malikpura Mandian Mirpur Nawansher Salhad Sheikh-ul-Bandi
Government
Nazims Towns
Education
Abbottabad Public School Al-Imtiaz Academy Army Burn Hall College Ayub
Medical College COMSATS Abbottabad Hazara University Pakistan Military
Academy UET Abbottabad
Tourism
Ayubia National Park Bara Gali Nathia Gali Dunga Gali Khaira Gali Thandiani
Culture and sports
Abbottabad Falcons Abbottabad Hockey Stadium Abbottabad Cricket Stadium Hindko Abbottabad Poem
vte
Pakistan Pakistan–United States relations United States
Diplomatic posts
Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, D.C. Ambassadors of Pakistan to the
United States Embassy of the United States, Islamabad Ambassadors of the
United States to Pakistan Consulate General of the United States,
Karachi Consulate General of the United States, Lahore Consulate General
of the United States, Peshawar Embassy of Iran, Washington, D.C.
Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
Diplomacy
State visit by Liaquat Ali Khan to the United States Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009
Incidents
1960 U-2 incident Sino-Pakistan Agreement 1979 U.S. embassy burning in
Islamabad Project Sabre II Death and state funeral of Muhammad
Zia-ul-Haq Bojinka plot Aafia Siddiqui D.C. Five April 2010 U.S
consulate and ANP attack Gary Brooks Faulkner United States diplomatic
cables leak Raymond Allen Davis incident Killing of Osama bin Laden
Abbottabad Commission Commission Report Memogate Shakil Afridi Syed
Ghulam Nabi Fai 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan Lettergate Pakistani
Guantanamo Bay detainees
Military relations
AfPak CIA activities in Pakistan Drone strikes in Pakistan
Damadola airstrike Chenagai airstrike Gora Prai airstrike Miramshah
airstrike 2009 Makin airstrike Datta Khel airstrike Haqqani network
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-Services Intelligence activities
in the United States Major non-NATO ally Operation Cyclone Pakistan's
role in the War on Terror Skirmishes
Datta Khel incident
Kurram incident Lowara Madi incident Tanai incident Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization Task Force 74 War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Kunduz airlift NATO logistics Operation Cannonball
Related
1953 American Karakoram expedition Anti-American sentiment in Pakistan
Bashir Ahmad Pakistani lobby in the United States Pakistan and
state-sponsored terrorism American International School System American
Lycetuff International School of Islamabad Karachi American School
Lahore American School Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of
the Largest Covert Operation in History' The Duel: Pakistan on the
Flight Path of American Power
Category:Pakistan–United States relations
vte
ESPN Major League Baseball
Related
programs
Baseball Tonight (1990–present) Sunday Night Baseball (1990–present)
Monday Night Baseball (2002–2021) Wednesday Night Baseball (1990–2021)
Thursday Night Baseball (2003–2006) Tuesday Night Baseball (1990–1993)
Radio
Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio (1998–present) The Baseball Show (2005–present)
Non-ESPN
programming
Major League Baseball on ABC (broadcasters) Major League Baseball on
ABC Family (2002) Major League Baseball on TSN (1984–present)
Non-MLB
programming
College World Series on ESPN Little League World Series (broadcasters)
Related
articles
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1990s 2000s 2010s Home Run Derby (1993–present)
Commentators
Prime time Radio Baseball Tonight Wild Card Game ALDS NLDS
Play-by-play
announcers
Dave Barnett Jason Benetti Chris Berman Bob Carpenter Dave Flemming Jim
Hughson Sean McDonough Tom Mees Joel Meyers Jon Miller Melanie Newman
Dave O'Brien Paul Olden Steve Physioc Karl Ravech John Sanders Jon
Sciambi Dan Shulman Dave Sims Dewayne Staats Charley Steiner Gary Thorne
Matt Vasgersian Steve Zabriskie
Color
commentators
Aaron Boone Jim Bowden Dallas Braden Jeff Brantley Dave Campbell David
Cone Rob Dibble Terry Francona Nomar Garciaparra Doug Glanville Tony
Gwynn Orel Hershiser Norm Hitzges Tommy Hutton Reggie Jackson Chipper
Jones David Justice Eric Karros Kevin Kennedy Ray Knight John Kruk Barry
Larkin Mike Lupica Fred Lynn Buck Martinez Steve McCatty Jessica
Mendoza Joe Morgan Mark Mulder Jim Palmer Eduardo Pérez Steve Phillips
Kirby Puckett Jerry Reuss Bill Robinson Alex Rodriguez Jim Rooker David
Ross Billy Sample Curt Schilling Chris Singleton Lary Sorensen John
Stearns Steve Stone Rick Sutcliffe Bobby Valentine
Field reporters
Erin Andrews Bonnie Bernstein Duke Castiglione Peter Gammons Pedro
Gomez Tim Kurkjian Gary Miller Wendi Nix Buster Olney Sam Ryan
Lore
2,131 (1995) Chasing Maris (1998) Civil Rights Game (2007) Wild Card
Wednesday (2011) Fort Bragg Game (2016) London Series (2019)
Tie-breaker games
1995 AL West 1998 NL Wild Card 1999 NL Wild Card 2018 NL Central 2018 NL West
New York Yankees
Final game at Yankee Stadium (2008) Yankees–Red Sox rivalry Curse of the Bambino
Postseason
Baseball's longest postseason game (2005)
AL Division Series
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002dagger 2003 2004 2005 2006
NL Division Series
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002dagger 2003 2004 2005 2006
AL Wild Card Game
2015 2017 2019 2020 2021
NL Wild Card Game
2014 2016 2018 2020
Little League Classic
2017 2018 2019 2021
dagger 2002 ALDS and NLDS coverage aired on ABC Family.
vte
Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio
Play-by-play
Charley Steiner (1998–2001) Jon Miller (1998–2010) Dan Shulman
(2002–present) Gary Thorne (2008–2009) Jon Sciambi (2010–present)
Analysts
Kevin Kennedy (1998) Dave Campbell (1999–2010) Chris Singleton (2011–present)
Studio hosts
Joe D'Ambrosio (1998–2007) Marc Kestecher (2008–present)
AL Championship Series
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
NL Championship Series
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
AL Division Series
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
NL Division Series
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
AL Wild Card Game
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
NL Wild Card Game
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
All-Star Game
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
World Series
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Little League Classic
2017 2018 2019 2021
Related programs
ESPN Major League Baseball Major League Baseball Game of the Week Sunday Night Baseball
Commentators
All-Star Game Wild Card Game ALCS ALDS NLCS NLDS World Series Game of the Week
Lore
1998 MLB home run record chase Grand Slam Single (1999) Death of Osama
bin Laden (2011) Fort Bragg Game (2016) 2019 MLB London Series MLB at
Field of Dreams (2021)
Tie-breaker games
1998 NL
Wild Card 1999 NL Wild Card 2007 NL Wild Card 2008 AL Central 2009 AL
Central 2013 AL Wild Card 2018 NL Central 2018 NL West
Divisional Series games
The Flip Play "The Bug Game" Roy Halladay's postseason no-hitter "The Illegal Slide Game" "The 53-Minute 7th Inning"
José Bautista's bat flip
World Series games
The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty Game 6 of the 2011 World Series
Walk-off Obstruction End of the Curse of the Billy Goat Houston Astros
sign stealing scandal
Chicago Cubs
Steve Bartman (2003) Curse of the Billy Goat
New York Yankees
Yankees–Red Sox rivalry Curse of the Bambino Final game at Yankee Stadium (2008)
Related articles
Major League Baseball on the radio Home Run Derby
Categories:
Killing of Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden2011 in military history2011
in Khyber PakhtunkhwaMay 2011 events in PakistanAbbottabad DistrictCIA
activities in PakistanDeaths by firearm in PakistanDeaths by person in
PakistanFilmed executions in PakistanGovernment of Yousaf Raza
GillaniOperations involving American special forcesPakistan military
scandalsPakistan–United States relationsPakistani commissions and
inquiriesUnited States Naval Special Warfare CommandWar on
terrorPresidency of Barack Obama