Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.

Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the War on Terror.

After being placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, bin Laden remained in hiding during three U.S. presidential administrations. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs and CIA operatives in a covert operation ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama. Shortly after his death, bin Laden's body was buried at sea. Al-Qaeda acknowledged his death on May 6, 2011, vowing to retaliate.

September 11 attacks

After repeated denials in 2004, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States The attacks involved the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft, the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the deaths of 2,974 people and the nineteen hijackers. In response to the attacks, the United States launched a War on Terror to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's Special Activities Division was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001, attacks, although the government report notes that the evidence presented is not necessarily sufficient for a prosecutable case.

Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.

In a videotape recovered by U.S. forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge. The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."

In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he stated he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers. In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President George W. Bush of negligence on the hijacking of the planes on September 11.

According to the tapes, bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.

In two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announces,

I am the one in charge of the nineteen brothers [...] I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers [...] with the raids [5 minute audiotape broadcast May 23, 2006],

and is seen with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as two of the 9/11 hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks (videotape broadcast September 7, 2006).

Identified motivations of the September 11 attacks include the support of Israel by the United States, presence of the U.S. military in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. enforcement of sanctions against Iraq.

Death

On April 29, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the CIA to conduct a raid, dubbed "Operation Neptune Spear".In the late evening of May 1, 2011, (EDT), the president announced that bin Laden had been killed in the operation. Two teams of 12 U.S. Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (SEAL Team Six), of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the paramilitary operatives, stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. One of the helicopters experienced a vortex ring state upon approach resulting in a grazing of the tail rotor with the compound's wall. The damaged aircraft was "hard-landed" allowing the mission to continue, however it had to be destroyed on-site to protect technology secrets. Back-up forces were immediately available, and another helicopter was brought in to retrieve the commandos and relevant contents. All combined, a total of 79 commandos and a dog (believed to have explosive-detection training) were involved in the raid.

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, bin Laden's courier, opened fire on the SEALs from the guesthouse with an AK-47 assault rifle where he and his wife were killed in the returned fire. A second group of SEALs entered the main house where they were confronted by al-Kuwaiti's brother who had his hands behind his back. He was shot and killed by the SEALs, who feared he might have a weapon, before he could reach a weapon that was found lying nearby. Bin Laden's unarmed 22-year-old son rushed towards the SEALs on the staircase and was also shot and killed.

Bin Laden was shot in his head and chest and killed after he retreated into his room. An official said "he didn't hold up his hands and surrender", and his retreating into the room was considered a hostile act. There were two weapons near him, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9 millimeter semi-automatic Makarov pistol, but he was shot before he could reach his AK-47 according to his wife Amal. News of bin Laden's death was announced from the scene with the code phrase "Geronimo E-KIA" (enemy – killed in action). The White House, top U.S. counter-terrorism official John Brennan, and other U.S. officials said the SEALs were prepared to capture bin Laden if he had surrendered, but one unnamed U.S. official said the SEALs mission was not to take bin Laden alive. In his broadcast announcement Obama said that U.S. forces "took care to avoid civilian casualties". The attack was carried out without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.

The entire raid, including intelligence sweeps of the compound, was completed in less than 40 minutes. His body was taken and biometric facial recognition tests were performed.Subsequent genetic testing supported the preliminary identification. On May 6, 2011, al-Qaeda confirmed that bin Laden was dead. They also vowed that they would continue attacking the U.S. and its allies.

Four years of CIA surveillance of bin Laden's courier led to the intelligence which made the raid possible. The courier owned the compound. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that bin Laden's wife had rushed the invading commandos and was shot in the leg, but was not killed Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter, who witnessed her father being shot, was injured in her leg by a piece of flying debris. The Guardian reported, "She was comforting her father's fifth wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, 29, who was shot in the calf by commandos as they closed in on bin Laden." Amal and eight of bin Laden's children were taken into Pakistani custody following the raid. Bin Laden had cash totaling 500 euro and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed. Amal had told interrogators that she had not left the compound in the five years that she lived there with bin Laden.

Within 24 hours of his death, bin Laden's body was transported to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson for final rites and burial at sea. One U.S. official stated, "Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult." MSNBC reported, "There also was speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.” His death attracted protests from hundreds of people in the city of Quetta, in southwestern Pakistan, who burned U.S. flags and paid homage to the late al-Qaeda leader.

Following bin Laden's death, the U.S. State Department issued a "worldwide caution" for Americans, and U.S diplomatic facilities everywhere were placed on high alert, a senior U.S official said. Crowds gathered outside the White House, in New York City's Times Square, as well as the World Trade Center, the site of the September 11 Attacks, to celebrate bin Laden's death. Chittral News, a Pakistani news site, claimed that some people were dismayed that Pakistan has lost its sovereignty.