The Washington Post obtained more than 900 photographs taken by official White House photographers during the 2011 raid on the compound where al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was being held and sent a formal Freedom of Information Act request to the Obama Presidential Library.
“Tonight I can announce to Americans and the world that the United States led the operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, the terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.” With these words, Barack Obama delivered his extraordinary speech to the American people from the White House on May 1st. “Justice has been served,” the American president stressed in connection with the death of the number one wanted person in the United States after the September 11 attacks.
On April 29, 2011, two days earlier, Obama authorized a raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. According to intelligence reports, Pakistan was the likely location of bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda who led the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.
Timeline of the operation against Osama bin Laden
Back in 2007, intelligence agencies managed to establish the name of one of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted informants. It will take them two years to establish that the whistleblower and his brother live in Pakistan.
As of August 2010, investigations were concentrated in Abbottabad, a Hazara town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 115 kilometers northeast of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. In September of that year, the CIA informs then US President Barack Obama of the possibility that bin Laden is hiding in a Pakistani city.
As of early 2011, American intelligence forces were so heavily reinforced in Abbottabad that an operation against Osama bin Laden’s hideout could be ordered at any moment. Since March 2011, for a month and a half, President Obama has attended five consecutive meetings of the National Security Council on the operation against al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Barack Obama orders the operation
On April 29, 2011 at 08:20 (local time), US President Barack Obama orders an American operation against Osama bin Laden’s hideout.
A team of 25 Marines storm the hideout in just 40 minutes. Osama bin Laden falls dead on the night of May 1-2, 2011 after being shot in the head. The other will find the Al-Qaeda leader in the chest.
On the same day, the body of Osama bin Laden was washed into the sea by the American aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. US military officials said bin Laden’s body was washed according to custom and an Arab imam recited prayers as required by Islamic law before the body was “released” into the water.
“It was the final decision,” President Obama will answer a few days later when asked if he made the decision. “We thought we should also think in advance what we would do with the body of Osama bin Laden if he was killed,” he added.
According to CNN, Washington Post.
Source: Kathimerini
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