Osama Killing Untold Story of The Raid By SEALS

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National Geographic has documented the Untold story of the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s Hideout in Abbotabad, Pakistan.

Story:

The real-time video feed that President Obama and his advisers were watching during the Osama bin Laden raid in Pakistan was filmed by an unmanned RQ-170 Sentinel drone; the drone was flying more than 15,000 feet above Abbottabad while SEAL Team 6 was approaching and entering Bin Laden’s compound.

The CIA’s break in the search for Osama bin Laden came when they intercepted a personal phone call between a man who was known to have worked as Bin Laden’s courier, and a personal friend. When asked what he was doing, the courier responded, “I’m back with the people I was with before.” The analysts then traced the courier to the Abbotabad compound. The net around the Al Qaeda leader was closing in.
- After the initial part of the raid was over, four SEALs collected all the evidence from the compound that they could get their hands on. They took computer hardware, CDs, DVDs, flash drives and other items, a treasure trove full of information about al-Qaeda’s future plans. Bin Laden had a makeshift media room where he kept these belongings; the gold-colored robes he used to wear for his video speeches were also found in that same room.

Ever since military working dog “Cairo,” a Belgian Malinois, helped SEAL Team 6 conduct the bin Laden raid in Abbottabad, adoption requests for retired military dogs are on the rise nationwide. About 300 former war dogs are put up for adoption each year but usually a lot of them have to be euthanized because nobody wants to adopt them. That may change now: In the first three weeks after the raid alone, US military officials said that they’d received more than 400 adoption applications for retired war dogs.

Even though the SEALs were confident that they had identified Osama bin Laden, they needed DNA for proof before burying the body at sea. A SEAL used swabs to collect DNA samples from Bin Laden’s lifeless body. The DNA samples were separated. One kit went into the remaining Black Hawk helicopter, the other into the Chinook along with bin Laden’s body. Too valuable was this DNA; they had to minimize the risk of its being destroyed.

The downed Black Hawk helicopter had to be destroyed before the SEALs could leave the Abbottabad compound so it would not fall into the wrong hands. The pilot carried a hammer with him to use for such occasions. With it, he smashed all the classified fixtures in the specially modified aircraft before a demolition unit blew up the Black Hawk with the help of strategically placed explosives.

The US government released some raw video footage of Osama bin Laden in his office, which was on the second floor of the compound. There was a simple desk and some computer equipment. In the video, bin Laden can be seen wrapped in an old brown wool blanket, watching television. Pakistani officials later explained to the Associated Press that Abbottabad gets freezing temperatures in the winter. But there were no heaters anywhere in the compound. So wrapping himself in a blanket was just how he kept warm. There were no luxuries in the bin Laden household.

Before burying Bin Laden’s body at sea, the US reportedly contacted the Government of Saudi Arabia to ask if they wanted to take the body—after all Osama bin Laden had been a member of a very prominent Saudi family and a citizen of the country. But Saudi Arabia is said to have declined. And so Bin Laden’s body was flown out to the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz class aircraft carrier patrolling the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan. According to White House officials, the corpse was washed and shrouded, strictly following the Muslim code of conduct for burials; then weighted, placed in a bag and finally let go into the deep waters. There has, however, been much speculation that Bin Laden’s burial at sea was a strategic move, to mitigate the problems of a terrestrial grave becoming a shrine for his followers.

On May 6, 2011, President Obama traveled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to personally meet with the Special Ops team who had pulled off the successful raid. They had prepared a three-dimensional model of Bin Laden’s compound; with the help of a laser pointer, they explained about their movements and actions inside the buildings. The president received a detailed briefing and now for the first time learned that a military working dog named Cairo had been part of the raid. Obama even asked to meet the dog, a wish that was fulfilled right away, because Cairo happened to be in Fort Campbell also, at a special request of the Secret Service.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/seal-team-six-the-raid-on-osama-bin-laden/articles/the-final-days-of-osama-bin-laden-facts/

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