Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--From 9/11 to Abbottabad (47 page)

    
1
“Go downstairs and go back to bed”:
Author interview with Pakistani official familiar with the interrogation of bin Laden’s wives.

    
2
“Don’t turn on the light”:
Ibid.

    
3
taken the sensible precaution of turning off the electricity:
Ihsan Mohammad Khan, interview by author, Abbottabad, Pakistan, July 21, 2011.

    
4
staffers had begun arriving at the White House:
Author interview with senior administration officials.

    
5
McDonough had gone to his friend Mike Leiter’s wedding:
Michael Leiter interview.

    
6
“It was my wedding” … “I might not be back”:
Ibid.

    
7
attended Sunday mass:
Marc Ambinder in
Targeting bin Laden
.

    
8
“deputies” meeting began … each had thick briefing books:
Author interview with senior administration official.

    
9
“branches” and “sequels”:
Author interview with Pentagon official.

  
10
the armor-plated limos:
Marc Ambinder in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
11
canceled all tours … the movie
The Hangover:
Ben Rhodes interview.

  
12
secure communications in the Situation Room:
Ben Rhodes in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
13
team of some thirty officers:
James Cartwright interview.

  
14
Cartwright’s team … biggest concern was:
Ibid.

  
15
sit tight in the compound:
Author interview with senior administration official.

  
16
could fight their way out:
Ibid.

  
17
Obama’s war cabinet began to gather in the Sit Room:
Mike Leiter interview.

  
18
room had been transformed into a command center:
Calabresi, “CIA Chief: Pakistan Would Have Jeopardized Operation.”

  
19
“What do you think?” Panetta asked:
Author interview with senior intelligence official.

  
20
Observing the operation at the CIA:
Eric Olson interview by Martha Raddatz, Aspen, Colorado, July 27, 2011,
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/300735-1
.

  
21
Panetta was in nominal control of the operation:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
22
At 1:22 p.m., Panetta ordered McRaven to perform the raid:
Ibid.

  
23
At 2:05 p.m., Panetta began one more overview of the operation:
Mazzetti, Cooper, and Baker, “Behind the Hunt for bin Laden.”

  
24
twenty-three “operators” and an interpreter:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
25
small cards filled with photos and descriptions:
Lamb, “Revealed: The SEALs’ Secret Guide.”

  
26
combat dog named Cairo, wearing body armor:
Ben Forer, “Osama Bin Laden Raid: Navy SEALs Brought Highly Trained Dog with Them into Compound,” ABC News, May 5, 2011,
abcnews.go.com/US/osama-bin-laden-raid-navy-seals-military-dog/story?id=13535070#.TtaMrF1AIj8
.

  
27
at about 11:00 p.m. local time, the two Black Hawks took off:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
28
in “peacetime” mode:
Irfan Ghauri, “Abbottabad Incursion: US Took Advantage of ‘Peacetime Mode,’ ”
Express Tribune
, July 12, 2011,
tribune.com.pk/story/207808/abbottabad-incursion-us-took-advantage-of-peacetime-mode/
.

  
29
gave off a low heat “signature” … flew “nap-of-the-earth”:
Chris Marvin, former Black Hawk pilot, interview for
The Last Days of Osama bin Laden
, National Geographic Channel, November 9, 2011.

  
30
flight time to the target was about an hour and a half:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
31
Petraeus, who had received a heads-up three days earlier:
Paula Broadwell and Vernon Loeb,
All In: The Education of General David Petraeus
(New York: Penguin Press, 2012), pp. 255–59.

  
32
dozen Special Forces operations:
Ibid.

  
33
Petraeus strolled into the ops center:
Ibid; David Petraeus, interview by Tresha Mabile, Washington, DC, August 2011.

  
34
three bus-size Chinook helicopters:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
35
Flew on to Kala Dhaka:
“OBL Operation: Helicopters Landed in Kala Dhaka Before Proceeding to Abbottabad,”
Express Tribune
, May 14, 2011,
tribune.com.pk/story/168573/osama-bin-laden-operation-helicopters-landed-in-kala-dhaka-before-proceeding-to-abbottabad/
.

  
36
more than a dozen senior officials:
Author observations.

  
37
bat-shaped RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone:
Greg Miller, “CIA Flew Stealth Drones into Pakistan to Monitor bin Laden House,”
Washington Post
, May 17, 2011,
www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-flew-stealth-drones-into-pakistan-to-monitor-bin-laden-house/2011/05/13/AF5dW55G_story.html
.

  
38
“The White House, as only the White House can”:
Michael Leiter interview.

  
39
“Slowly, onesies and twosies”:
Ibid.

  
40
“I need to watch this”:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
41
Dozens of other officials:
James Cartwright interview.

  
42
“The only thing I can compare it to”:
Michael Leiter interview.

  
43
“Why is that helo there?”:
Ibid.

  
44
weight … and the higher-than-expected temperatures:
Author interview with former JSOC officer, Washington, DC.

  
45
“settling with power”:
Former Black Hawk pilot Chris Marvin in
The Last Days of Osama bin Laden
.

  
46
outer walls had been represented by chain-link fencing:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
47
he avoided a potentially catastrophic crash:
Ibid.

  
48
hope was that any curious locals would assume:
“Sources: Raiders Knew Mission a One-Shot Deal,” Associated Press, May 17, 2011,
www.navytimes.com/news/2011/05/ap-raiders-knew-mission-a-one-shot-deal-051711/
.

  
49
“We could see that there were problems”:
Barack Obama in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
50
“And when our helicopter tail didn’t get over the wall”:
Hillary Clinton, interview by author, Washington, DC, January 23, 2012.

  
51
Gates, who was ashen:
Author interview with senior administration official.

  
52
“I know his heart was in his throat then”:
James Clapper interview.

  
53
nervously piped up, “Is that good?”:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
54
“Director, as you can see, we have a helicopter down”:
Ibid.

  
55
“I’m pushing the QRF to the objective”:
Ibid.

  
56
deadliest battle in the history of the SEALs:
Laura Blumenfeld, “The Sole Survivor,”
Washington Post
, June 11, 2007,
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001492_pf.html
.

  
57
three SEALs from the downed chopper:
Christina Lamb and Nicola Smith, “Geronimo! EKIA 38 Minutes to Mission Success,”
The Australian
, May 9, 2011,
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/geronimoekia-38-minutes-to-mission-success/story-e6frg6so-1226052094513
; Philip Sherwell, “Osama bin Laden Killed: Behind the Scenes of the Deadly Raid,”
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8500431/Osama-bin-Laden-killed-Behind-the-scenes-of-the-deadly-raid.html
.

  
58
settling the bird down just outside the compound walls:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden”; author interview with Pakistani official by author.

  
59
secure the outside perimeter:
Author interview with NSC officials; author interviews with U.S. intelligence officials.

  
60
track any “squirters” … hunt for any hidden chambers:
Gardiner Harris, “A bin Laden Hunter on Four Legs,”
New York Times
, May 4, 2011,
www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/science/05dog.html
.

  
61
The remaining eight SEALs:
Author interview with Pakistani official.

  
62
for about fifteen minutes:
Author interviews with senior Department of Defense officials.

  
63
Sewn into his clothing:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence official.

  
64
shot Abrar, the Kuwaiti’s brother, and his wife, Bushra:
Author interview with Pakistani officials.

  
65
“We were really in a blackout”:
Barack Obama in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
66
no idea what the layout of the floors:
Author interview with U.S. intelligence officials.

  
67
“I kept waiting for some big explosion”:
Michael Leiter interview.

  
68
“Might there be a quick reaction force”:
John Brennan in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
69
Knots of children:
Dozier, “Bin Laden Trove of Documents Sharpen US Aim.”

  
70
the AK-47 and Makarov machine pistol:
The AK-47 and the Russian-made Makarov pistol will be installed at the CIA Museum, in Langley, VA.

  
71
unless bin Laden walked out of his bedroom:
Author interview with senior U.S. intelligence official.

  
72
screamed something in Arabic:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
73
shoved her aside:
Ibid.

  
74
brains spattered:
Author observations at bin Laden compound in Abbottabad.

  
75
expected some kind of warning:
Interview with Leon Panetta,
Charlie Rose
, PBS, September 6, 2011,
www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4872
.

  
76
G
meant that bin Laden was “secured”:
Author interview with Pentagon official, February 10, 2012.

  
77
There were gasps in the Situation Room:
Ben Rhodes in
Targeting bin Laden
.

  
78
no whoops:
Michael Leiter interview.

  
79
blow up the downed helicopter crammed with secret avionics:
Author interview with Pentagon official.

  
80
“We were just amazed”:
Michael Leiter interview.

  
81
blood oozing from their noses, ears, and mouths:
Reuters released photographs of three of the corpses.

  
82
interpreter waved off curious neighbors:
CNN, May 12, 2011, Local Young Man: “We tried to go there and they pointed the laser guns on us, and said, ‘No you can’t go.’ They were speaking Pashto so we thought they were from Afghanistan, not America.”

  
83
placed them in vials for DNA analysis:
Schmidle, “Getting bin Laden.”

  
84
the material seized from the compound:
Robert Windrem and Alex Johnson, “Bin Laden Aides Were Using Cell Phones, Officials Tell NBC,” NBC News,
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42881728/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/t/bin-laden-aides-were-using-cell-phones-officials-tell-nbc/#.TyBX1l1AIj8
.

  
85
high fives all around and fist bumping:
Author interview with counterterrorism officials involved in the hunt for bin Laden.