Still On Bin Laden

The enterprising Nicholas Jackson of The Atlantic finds Osama's complex on Google Maps.

Comments

[L!ink U!nder N!ame.]

Check Watts Up, LUN.
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[anduril]

The only thing that interests me much in all this is: how much in aid has Pakistan received since 2001? Yes, I recall going round on this topic with the nutters here who kept referring to Pakistan as our "ally."

[Janet]

For the geographically challenged.
Abbottabad, Pakistan about 80 miles north of Islamabad.

[Ooh, snark.]

The 'broadcast booth' at the Atlantic still hasn't looked out through their bellybutton. It's a good thing Tom's not a Seal.
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[anduril]

Hugh Hewitt has a nice pic.

[Don't launch any drones. A giant swatter will get 'em.]

Heh, Tom, Antnee corrected 'The Atlantic' seven hours ago, and they've not corrected their story.
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[anduril]

Steve Sailer asks the right question:

War with Pakistan?

How will Pakistan be punished for putting Osama bin Laden up in the heart of their Deep State right next to the Pakistan Military Academy?

Going to war with a nuclear-armed country is probably not a good idea, no matter how much they've scammed us.

Still, there is another question:

How should Pakistan be punished?

[Janet]

good link anduril...thanks.

[Danube of Thought]

Appears the two guys who ratted out the courier were KSM and another guy, both of whom were hardy pioneers in the enhanced interrogation experiment.

[Hey, wattsup got de real place.]

It would be nice irony if waterboarding revealed the nickname.
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[Paki got de Bom.]

It's by a junior military academy.
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[Sue]

One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face.

Marc Ambinder

Wow. I like that. Double tap. Boom. Boom. All he left out was taste my nightstick. Gawd, I love SEALs.

[Danube of Thought]

This was SEAL Team Six--the true creme de la creme.

[anduril]

Osama bin Laden's body was identified by US authorities by matching a DNA sample to one taken from his late sister's brain, according to reports.

2:36PM BST 02 May 2011

When his sister, who has not been named, died from brain cancer several years ago in Boston the FBI immediately subpoenaed her body so that it could later be used to identify the al-Qaeda leader if he was caught, it was claimed.

The brain was preserved and tissue and blood samples taken from it were used to compile a DNA profile, ABC News reported.

The tissue sample was reportedly then matched to the DNA of the man shot dead by US troops in a raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...

[The Atlantic, and worse, Tom, are wrong about the location.]

A Tommy Miles over at the Atlantic, commenting, backs up Anthony.

I'm a little curious why the Google map image is only from 2001. Our intellligence apparently viewed sat pix of the construction of the house.
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[Captain Hate]

O/T A nice victory over the Kelo nightmare: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703778104576287142139307816.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop#articleTabs%3Darticle

[Threadkiller]

--"The brain was preserved and tissue and blood samples taken from it were used to compile a DNA profile"--

In keeping with Muslim traditions, I am sure.

[Appalled]

"He never mixed much, kept a low profile" say Obama's neighbors, in the standard "I never knew I lived next to the epitome of absolute evil" article. LUN

[Bobby G]

This is perfect timing. It gives Hollywood 18 months to create a movie starring Denzel Washington as Obama in "The Osama Hunter". Slated for release just prior to the election.

[Sue]

Appalled,

Freudian slip?

[Jane]

According to David Price Jones, the fact that Obama announced that Pakistan was informed after the fact is a strong indication that we have let them know that we don't trust them. It's a humiliation of them confirmed by their own statement confirming the notice after the fact.

Bing West appears to have been in on this and having " what if" discussions with thr joint chiefs as recently as yesterday. AT lease I think that is what he is saying.

French talk radio this morning was about how by burying he body a sea the US was making sure that OBL couldn't confirm that the truthers were right.

[Danube of Thought]

I hope the flick recreates the waterboarding of KSM where he gives up the name of the courier. Sure.

[Appalled]

Sue:

I thnk a lot of that slip is going on today. Obviously, a mistake.

[Got him and lost the narrative. Look, who here's even seen the right map?]

Yeah, France is a big Truther haven.

But, where's the proof? I think we got him, but what I think only matters little.
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[Sue]

Appalled,

I know. Several reporters have said Obama is dead. How much would it suck to have a name similar to the enemies? Even Ted Kennedy had a problem with it.

[narciso]

Ah yes, Thierry Meysan, Voltaire weeps at how they seem to have missed the point, about reason.

[Sue]

So, which is worse? Water boarding or being dumped in the water? Will Holder look for ways to bring charges?

[narciso]

Meanwhile, Haniyeh, like Dr. Strangelove, can't help himself, calls Osama, 'a holy warrior'

[Rob Crawford]

One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face.

Gamers should hereby abandon the phrase "boom, headshot" out of respect for the fellow who really did it.

Over at WattsUp, a Ronulan is telling everyone there really never was an Osama, it was all a US government plot. But he and his lunatic brethren are truly patriots, dontchaknow.

[Porchlight]

How does the left celebrate Obama's "victory" when it was made possible by methods they excoriated Bush for using, and Obama campaigned on ending? How does Obama possibly take credit? It would never have gotten to the point where Obama could have signed off on the mission absent the programs Bush put in place which Obama would never have implemented had he been in charge.

I don't expect the Obama cheerleaders to spend any time thinking about this.

[boris]

Let us count the ways GWB would have been reviled for an identical operation in 2008.

[DebinNC]

"I never knew I lived next to the epitome of absolute evil"

Yeah, 6'5" Middle Eastern guys all look alike.

[Sue]

Porch,

The left has the ability to forget what they said yesterday, let alone 2-1/2 years ago. They won't even question why they are celebrating today what they would have reviled 2-1/2 years ago.

[Sandy Daze]

2 May 2011
Baghdad

Go Navy ~> beat Army.

SEALS --> Navy
Commander JSOC --> Navy SEAL Admiral
Commander SOCOM --> Navy SEAL Admiral (Most senior SEAL ever)
C, JCS --> Navy Admiral (alright, even if he is a loser on many other issues, Mullen is a graduate of the famous--if not infamous--USNA Class of 1968, the last on active duty).

Yep, Brand X will not be pleased that Navy has done this well. heh-heh-heh

All Americans, Brand X included, will celebrate the successful op. Many around the world celebrate with us.

But as highly competitive service professionals, you gotta know that Brand X will be clamoring for the al Zawaheri op.

Tremendous news.

BRAVO ZULU to all involved !

Take good care,
Sandy

[MayBee]

boris- yeah, I remember how reviled Bush was for Zarqawi's killing. Even Talk Left was writing "Not in my name" posts. Rumors went out that he'd been dropped off a stretcher by a military man, and that was the worst thing ever.

They were so incredibly hateful.

[Cecil Turner]

Abbottabad, Pakistan about 80 miles north of Islamabad.

I measured it using Google Maps Distance Calculator and came up with ~35 miles from Islamabad, and ~120 miles to various AF border towns. Looking forward to a more detailed overview of the mission.

[MayBee]

My leftie facebook friends are going crazy because Rumsfeld said the information came from Gitmo detainees.

[MayBee]

I also remember the sympathy that went out to Saddam because he was a pathetic old man in a hidey hole. Also the outrage that took place the day he was hanged.

[narciso]

It's more like the 'Kill Pablo' mission, then anything else in recent memory,

[Janet]

Sorry Cecil. I got the "80 miles north..." from the Atlantic article & just linked a map. I for sure don't know.

[MarkO]

So many talking about how this will help Obama's reelection. To this I say, not so fast, my friend.

Consider Churchill after he helped win WW II and GHWB, who had nearly 90% approval rating following Iraq I.

It likely will be the economy, stupid.

Further, Obama makes it sound like it was his special idea to kill OBL. But, what could I expect from him.

[Danube of Thought]

Obama deserves credit for several things:

(1) Apparently he ruled out a drone strike a few months ago, preferring to get the ultimate proof of death face-to-face.

(2) He acted unilaterally, and was willing to commit an act of war against Pakistan to get this done.

(3) The orders--which had to have been approved by him--were to kill, not capture, the son of a bitch.

[MayBee]

I wonder who got to break the news to KSM.

[Extraneus]

That puts a smile on my face, MayBee.

[Cecil Turner]

I got the "80 miles north..."

No sweat. I had just looked the stuff up and found it interesting because 1) it's a pretty long flight for loaded helos (normally we consider ~75 miles to be the limit for launching an amphibious vertical envelopment . . . though that's quite a bit different from a raid); and 2) it's much closer to PK's military power centers, which implies either their cooperation or ironclad intelligence on how to avoid 'em.

[Extraneus]

(The facebook thing.) Has Cheney made a statement yet?

[Danube of Thought]

I hope there is a CMOH on the horizon for the guy who led this mission, with Navy Crosses and Silver Stars in profusion.

[Captain Hate]

So many talking about how this will help Obama's reelection. To this I say, not so fast, my friend.

Assembling a multinational force to get Iraq out of Kuwait didn't work out well against an economy not as poorly performing as the current one for Poppy Bush.

[Rob Crawford]

it's much closer to PK's military power centers, which implies either their cooperation or ironclad intelligence on how to avoid 'em.

Or suppression of them.

[Extraneus]

Consider Churchill after he helped win WW II and GHWB, who had nearly 90% approval rating following Iraq I.

True, but there's no telling how this kind of thing plays out for commies.

[Ignatz]

--Further, Obama makes it sound like it was his special idea to kill OBL. But, what could I expect from him.--

Yeah, I stopped listening to a replay of his statement last night when he claimed that after he took office he directed Panetta to make it a CIA priority to find Osama, as though they weren't trying before and it started with him. A statement that looks even stupider this morning since evidently the intelligence was developed over several years spanning both administrations.
Kudos to him for green lighting the operation especially if this Tapper report is accurate that he nixed a bombing raid to ensure we had his body to ID.
However I hope he has the sense or someone around him does to know that decapitations are not a replacement for a strategy.

[Cecil Turner]

The orders--which had to have been approved by him--were to kill, not capture, the son of a bitch.

A real man (e.g., FDR) would've captured him and had him strapped to a lethal injection gurney within days. But I admit that might be problematic today.

IMO Obama's biggest credit is for not interfering excessively with the mission. (An assumption, but most probable based on its apparently unqualified success.) The temptation to try to run those things from the Situation Room is almost overwhelming . . . and nearly always results in serious mission degradation or failure.

[Ignatz]

--Obama deserves credit for several things:

(1) Apparently he ruled out a drone strike a few months ago, preferring to get the ultimate proof of death face-to-face.--

According to the Tapper link the plan was two B-2s in March saturating the joint with 2000 pounders.

[MarkO]

Did I mention that Andrea Mitchell shoulc be in jail?

[Danube of Thought]

FDR would have considered lethal injection a slap on the wrist. He'd have sent him to the gallows.

[clarice]

Come now, Iggy, How would Panetta have known we wanted to get OBL if BO hadn't so directed him?

[Extraneus]

Did you see that Obama watched the raid from the situation room, Cecil? Link at Drudge.

[Rob Crawford]

Did I mention that Andrea Mitchell shoulc be in jail?

That truly goes without saying.

[MarkO]

I swear am hearing this about someone with the initial "O":

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

[Sue]

According to Tapper, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets to intercept the helicopters but were late in arriving to the party.

Another white-knuckle moment – at the end of the operation, Pakistan’s military scrambled fighter jets looking for the US helicopters. Who knows what could have happened if the Pakistani planes had reached the US helicopters -- but they didn’t.

Source

[Janet]

yeah MarkO. I find her uber sickening.

[Danube of Thought]

I fervently hope that we will soon see indisputable photographic evidence of the corpse.

[clarice]

The OBL hideout was a real dump.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/photos-inside-osama-bin-laden-kill-zone-13508190

[Extraneus]

Can US Offer Final Proof Of Osama's Death?

Sky News:

US personnel have so far said they identified him by facial recognition, but have declined to say whether they used DNA analysis.

[Thomas Collins]

Let's keep rolling. You're next, Dr. Zawahiri.

Just to show you that there are no hard feelings, Dr. Zawahiri, I dedicate the LUNed song to you and all the other Islamic terrorists still out there.

[Extraneus]

Well let's face it, polygamy is sure to involve a fair number of pillows.

[Rob Crawford]

The OBL hideout was a real dump.

Hard to tell, really. Even Martha Stewart's home would look rough after a firefight.

[narciso]

Lol, 'and here is the breakfast nook'

[fdcol63]

I'll even admit that it turns out I've been wrong for some time, because I thought OBL had been killed several years ago when we saw that Predator photo of a large group of AQ/Taliban gathered at someone's funeral.

[Danube of Thought]

WH says it has a suitable photo.

[Army of Davids]

I think it's fine for the president to get credit on this. He deserves it. Carter would have screwed it up.

I also think it's important to remember especially the sacrifice to get to this point from our military and their families.

I also think the intelligence community deserves credit.

It was a team effort...top to bottom...administration to administration. Great news for the country. Badly needed.

[DebinNC]

Muslim burial practices

[Threadkiller]

What in the world was Obama doing in August, when they discovered his hiding spot, that he could not “take out” Bin laden?

After a little research, this is all I could come up with:

Obama supports Ground Zero Mosque (Aug, 2010)

I think even Denzel would turn down this script.

Ha! HaHa! Hahahahahahahaha…!!!

[Danube of Thought]

Interesting that his death was announced 66 years to the day after the same announcement for Hitler, a day I remember well.

[JM Hanes]

TK:

"In keeping with Muslim traditions, I am sure."

Not to worry, they kept the jar facing toward MECCA.

[Threadkiller]

I can't stop laughing! Clarice, I would love to see that connection highlighted somewhere. Good greif.

[clarice]

Here's a sampling of Pakistani reaction.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/02/pakistan-taliban-threatens-retaliation-against-government/

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Pervez doesn't sound like he's pleased the ISI lost its biggest chip in foreign policy.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm hearing that the burial was done from USS Carl Vinson. My next door neighbor is the air boss on the Vinson, and he gets home next month. I will get every possible detail.

[clarice]

The dump looks like a college dorm at exam time.

[DebinNC]

I guess we'll now be treated to "deathers".

[Rob Crawford]

I'm hearing that the burial was done from USS Carl Vinson.

Let's hope Osama caught some time in the ship's props.

The dump looks like a college dorm at exam time.

A bit more blood than the dorms I remember.

[clarice]

Apparently that's the tack on Paki talk radio, Deb.

[Rob Crawford]

Apparently that's the tack on Paki talk radio, Deb.

Sounds like a job for some of the wonderfully named HARMs.

[clarice]

Pretend that's wine or beer or coffee, Rob.

[MarkO]

"My next door neighbor is the air boss on the Vinson, and he gets home next month. I will get every possible detail."

I'll be down for that. Get the screen rights.

[DebinNC]

Imagine what the "burial" video would be worth? Now that everyone has a cellphone, I wonder how the body was dispatched without it being caught by ship folks?

[JM Hanes]

"I'm a little curious why the Google map image is only from 2001. Our intellligence apparently viewed sat pix of the construction of the house."

I don't think the CIA/DoD share their "work product," and I believe their pix are shot at much higher resolutions.

"It's by a junior military academy"

I think it was even closer to the local police station, and I heard/read somewhere that Abbottabad was something of a military town, in general. There's absolutely no way the Paks didn't know he was there, although it's certainly conceivable that the ISI did not, in fact, share its work product with the civilian government in.

[narciso]

The Pakistani Second Army, that would be like Ft. Leavenworth for us, there is an irony that
the police station is so near by

[Danube of Thought]

Abbottabad was named for its founder, a British Major named James Abbott.

Just thought you'd like to know.

[peter]

Was just listening to Dennis Miller in the car. He thinks Zero rocked on Saturday night, and is to be saluted for the OBL kill. A rare instance where I disagree. I thought Zero came across as petty and unpresidential on Saturday, and now we know why he was feeling so smug.
Stock market only so so reaction. I take that as an omen for reelection of stupid.

[clarice]

It was across the street from the police station; the biggest such compound in a town largely populated by retired military and intelligence officials, is what I read JMH. And there is a military academy there. The ISI can rot in hell,

This is a major embarrassment for the Pakis who like Syria when its nuclear facility was bombed is in no position to claim this invasion was an act of war.

[Rob Crawford]

The usual s**t stirrers -- Muslim "clerics" -- are bitching about the way we disposed of the toxic waste. LUN.

[Sue]

How ironic is it that if Osama had not built a compound and had just moved into a smaller home, we wouldn't have noticed him?

[Thomas Collins]

Looks as if Typepad ate my post LUNing a Michael Yon interview by Dennis & Callahan of WEEI, a Boston area talk radio station that I think does better than the "hard news" stations when it reports on world events.

[Rob Crawford]

Sue, as I understand it, he was located by:

o Gitmo interrogations have multiple people talking about a highly trusted courier and his brother.

o Years of field work to identify that courier.

The compound really isn't that unusual. The more "strife-torn" the country, the more likely people are to have walls around their homes and things like barbed wire on those walls. It wasn't even a particularly large compound.

And since the town was a place where the Pakistani military likes to retire, no one would question where so-and-so got the money to build such a place, since it could have been from pay skimming, helping the ISI, opium running, etc.

[They knew where he was.]

I'm a bit confused now, JMH, but I think the police station is near the wrong location, the one still at the head of this thread, from the Atlantic, which is wrong. The correct one is close to a military academy, apparently a feeder for their premier one.
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[JM Hanes]

Sue:

"Will Holder look for ways to bring charges?"

I think the idea of going after the CIA for overzealous interrogations has just met the ash heap of history, don't you? I'm hoping that Issa et all will be sending Holder, himself, that way soon -- although he might find some potential fodder there for a very gratifying October surprise.

[Janet]

IMO our biggest mistake in the WoT is to pretend that the religion/political system of Islam is worthy of any kind of respect.
OBL's dead body should have been photographed, shown around the world, & then flung off the ship like a piece of garbage.

[Ignatz]

--Abbottabad was named for its founder, a British Major named James Abbott.--

I believe it's located in South Costellostan.