Intel

20 Quotes, Tweets and Passages That Defined the Hunt for Bin Laden

May 3, 2021Matt White
9/11 Bin Laden

The house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Navy SEALs found and killed Usama Bin Laden.

The mission to kill Usama Bin Laden concluded 10 years ago today when a team of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) special operators and aviators from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It ended a nearly 10-year hunt for the terrorist that had begun after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.


Here’s a look back at the words that defined the hunt for and killing of Usama Bin Laden.


9/11


“It kept getting worse.


“The horror arrived in episodic bursts of chilling disbelief, signified first by trembling floors, sharp eruptions, cracked windows. There was the actual unfathomable realization of a gaping, flaming hole in first one of the tall towers, and then the same thing all over again in its twin. There was the merciless sight of bodies helplessly tumbling out, some of them in flames.


“Finally, the mighty towers themselves were reduced to nothing… For those trying to flee the very epicenter of the collapsing World Trade Center towers, the most horrid thought of all finally dawned on them: nowhere was safe.”



“I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”



  • President George W. Bush, Ground Zero, Sept. 14, 2001.



The Hunt


“Start with thousands of small bits of information. Names, lots and lots of names. Sightings. Rumors. Interrogation transcripts. Phone numbers. Phone calls. Dates. Addresses. Geographic coordinates. Aerial photographs. Ground surveillance photos. Videos. Faces. Iris images. Gaits. Maps. Fingerprints. Old diaries. Emails. Websites. Social media. Text messages. Tweets. Old fashioned letters. Blogs. News reports. Broadcasts. Bills. Payment schedules. Traffic tickets. Rent payments. Credit card numbers. Charges. Bank account numbers. Deposits. Withdrawals. Transfers. License numbers. Passport numbers. Police reports. Arrests. Travel itineraries. Everything and anything that can be transformed into data when you are looking for one person in a world of seven billion …


“Viewed backward, from Bin Laden’s hideout to the scraps of intel that led to it, the trail seemed obvious. Tracing it from end to beginning, obscures the level of difficulty: the years of frustration and patient effort, the technological innovation, the lives lost, the mistakes made, the money spent.”



  • Mark Bowden, The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden.


“He sang like a tweetie bird … It was well known that [Usama Bin Laden] was always with Abu Ahmed [al-Kuwaiti].”



  • CIA interrogator, on Hassan Ghul, an al Qaeda operative captured in 2004. Ghul identified Bin Laden’s primary courier, who the CIA eventually traced to Bin Laden’s compound.


“Mr. President, Leon and the guys at Langley think they may have come up with something.”



  • Tom Donilon, then-deputy national security advisor, Summer of 2010. “Leon” is Leon Panetta, then-head of the CIA.


9/11 bin laden
From the Senate Select Committee’s report on CIA enhanced interrogation. A CIA interrogator explains the information gleaned from Hassan Ghul.

The Plan


Look, it’s a compound. This is not hard. It’s a little bit bigger than we’re used to, but we were doing about 10 to 12 missions a night in Afghanistan at the time … Once we got on target, the guys could do their job.”



  • Admiral William McRaven, commander, Joint Special Operations Command.


After months of planning, classified variants of MH-60 Black Hawks from the 160th SOAR were tasked with delivering the raiding team to the home in Abbottabad, while MH-47 Chinooks would be held back as backup aircraft and to refuel the Black Hawks at a remote location.


Just give us gas, bitches.”



  • A 160th Black Hawk pilot, playfully taunting 160th flight commander and Chinook pilot Doug Englen.


May 1, 2011




In Washington, only President Barack Obama and a few national security aides knew of the impending raid. As a result, as the historic mission neared, most people in the White House were focused on a trivial and irritating event held the same night: the president’s joke-filled speech at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. According to an oral history published by Politico, a joke that staffers presented to Obama was meant to make light of the tendency of some Republicans to mock Obama’s middle name, Hussein, by inventing middle names for well-known Republicans.


“One of them was like ‘Tim Bin Laden Pawlenty.’ And [Obama is] like, ‘Why don’t we say his middle name is Hosni, like Hosni Mubarak?’ I remember just being like, ‘That’s not as funny.’ And Obama is like, ‘Trust me on this. I really think Hosni will be much funnier.’”



Meanwhile, in Abbottabad, IT engineer Sohaib Athar was hearing strange noises around 1 a.m. 






 


The Crash


As the helicopters approached the compound, a combination of hot weather and fuel weight caused one of the helicopters — flown by the same pilot who had teased Englen, according to Military Times — to crash, a scene broadcast both to commanders in Afghanistan and to the White House by drones overhead.


“I could feel my butt coming off the floor and for a second I could feel a panic rising in my chest. I could feel [a fellow SEAL’s] grip tighten on my body armor as the helicopter started to drop. I leaned back as far as I could.


“‘Holy fuck, we’re going in,’ I thought.”



  • Matt Bissonnette, Navy SEAL, No Easy Day.


“Mr. Director, as you can see, we have a helicopter down in the courtyard. My men are prepared for this contingency and will deal with it.”



  • McRaven, The Finish, to Panetta, who was briefing the president in real time as they watched the video feed.


“I’m glad no one was hurt in the crash, but, on the other hand, I’m sort of glad we left the helicopter there. It quiets the conspiracy mongers out there and instantly lends credibility. You believe everything else instantly, because there’s a helicopter sitting there.”



 


9/11 black hawk
Part of a damaged helicopter in the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. Picture from Twitter.

Geronimo


“Khalid, come here.”



  • Unidentified SEAL, in Pashtu and Arabic, to Bin Laden’s 23-year-old son, to lure him out of hiding. When Khalid emerged, the SEALs shot him. O’Neill, who recounted the moment in his book, said, “That call-out was one of the best combat moves I’ve ever seen.”


“For God and country — Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.”



  • A SEAL, reporting via radio the code word to indicate that the team had found Bin Laden.


Aftermath


During the return flight, a Pakistani F-16 tried three separate times to lock its missile-firing radar onto the fleeing American Chinook that carried Bin Laden’s body and many of the SEAL Team 6 raiders.


“It was as an electronic fight. A missile never left the rail. So I was able to evade him electronically. That’s all I’ll say. But, he was searching and hunting for me, and three times came very close to actually launching a missile … We pulled every technique and tactic out of the book. And it worked.”



  • Doug Englen, the flight commander of the 160th helicopters on the raid, as told to Military Times.


Word spread quickly. The first source to announce the killing, nearly an hour before Obama addressed the nation, may have been The Rock.








 


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



  • President Obama, 11:35 p.m., May 1, 2011.



 


 


Matt White
Matt White

Matt White is a former senior editor for Coffee or Die Magazine. He was a pararescueman in the Air Force and the Alaska Air National Guard for eight years and has more than a decade of experience in daily and magazine journalism.

More from Coffee or Die Magazine
navy seal training
Navy SEALS Training Plagued by Massive Problems, According To Investigation

Medical oversight and care were “poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led and put candidat...

memorial day arlington
Memorial Day Is a Day of Remembrance, Not Celebration

Memorial Day was created as a remembrance to honor the fallen by decorating graves — a holiday meant...

air force joint chiefs
Air Force Fighter Pilot Tapped As Next Joint Chiefs Chairman Has History of Firsts

The Air Force fighter pilot about to be nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ...

sowf special operations warrior foundation
BRCC Donates $500K to Special Operations Warrior Foundation

In an effort to continue Black Rifle Coffee Company’s mission of supporting the veteran community, B...

Coca Cola 600
BRCC to Honor Fallen Marine During NASCAR’s Legendary Coca-Cola 600

Black Rifle Coffee Company will honor Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa during NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 this Memorial Day. Menusa was killed in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq.

uss gerald r. ford oslo
US Aircraft Carrier Arrives In NATO Member Norway, To Take Part In Drills

The nuclear-powered ship USS Gerald R. Ford entered the Oslo fjord escorted by a rapid dinghy-type boat with armed personnel on board.

adam driver indy 500
Marine Vet, Actor Adam Driver Named Honorary Starter for Indianapolis 500

Two-time Academy Award nominee Adam Driver, who will soon be starring as Enzo Ferrari in a biopic of...

  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Careers
Contact Us
  • Request a Correction
  • Write for Us
  • General Inquiries
© 2023 Coffee or Die Magazine. All Rights Reserved