9781422277164

SPECIAL FORCES: STORIES Take Out Bin Laden!

Navy SEALs Hit the Most Wanted Man

SPECIAL FORCES: STORIES

Captured! Bringing in 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Going After Sparky! Pararescue Jumpers Bring Vietnam War Pilot Home Rescue from an ISIS Prison! Delta Force in Iraq During the War on Terror Saving Private Lynch! A Rescue Story from Operation Iraqi Freedom Storming the Somali Pirates! Navy SEALs Save Hostages Take Out Bin Laden! Navy SEALs Hit the Most Wanted Man A Terrorist Goes Down! Delta Forces in Syria Take Out an ISIS Leader World War II Prison Breakout! Army Rangers Make Their Mark

Take Out Bin Laden! Navy SEALs Hit the Most Wanted Man

By John Perritano

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2019 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-4077-9

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-4083-0 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7716-4 First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Bill Madrid Production: Sandy Gordon

www.shorelinepublishing.com Cover photograph by US Army. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Perritano, John, author.

Title: Take out Bin Laden! : Navy SEALs hit the most wanted man / by John Perritano. Description: Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, [2018] | Series: Special forces stories | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017053433| ISBN 9781422240830 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422277164 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011--Assassination. | United States. Navy. SEALs. | Special operations (Military science)--United States. |Special operations (Military science)--Pakistan. Classification: LCC HV6430.B55 P42 2018 | DDC 958.104/6092 [B] --dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053433 You may gain access to certain third party content (“Third-Party Sites”) by scanning and using the QR Codes that appear in this publication (the “QR Codes”). We do not operate or control in any respect any information, products, or services on such Third-Party Sites linked to by us via the QR Codes included in this publication, and we assume no responsibility for any materi- als you may access using the QR Codes. Your use of the QR Codes may be subject to terms, limitations, or restrictions set forth in the applicable terms of use or otherwise established by the owners of the Third-Party Sites. Our linking to such Third-Party Sites via the QR Codes does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of such Third-Party Sites, or the information, products, or services offered on or through the Third-Party Sites, nor does it imply an endorsement or spon- sorship of this publication by the owners of such Third-Party Sites.

QR Codes disclaimer:

C ontents

Introduction: Mission Briefing…….…….…….…….…….…….……. 6 1. Mission Report: Background …….…….…….……. 14 2. Getting Ready …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….20 3. Mission Report: Making The Decision …….…….28 4. The Action Begins …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….……34 5. Mission Report: Gear Up … .…….…….…….…….……40 6. Go! Go! Go! …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….……42 7. Mission Accomplished …….…….…….…….…….…….…….……54 Text-Dependent Questions …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….60 Research Projects …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….… 61 Find Out More …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….62 Series Glossary of Key Terms …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…63 Index… .…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….64 Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic mo- ments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains ter- minology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field. Key Icons to Look For

T he Central Intelligence Agency couldn’t believe its good fortune as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti walked through the door of a white house at the end of a dirt road in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The house was located about an hour and a half north of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. al-Kuwaiti wasn’t hard to miss. On the back of his SUV’s spare tire cover was an image of a white rhinoceros. The CIA, the spy agency of the United States, had been tracking the SUV and al-Kuwaiti for months. Agents knew al-Kuwaiti was an important member of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the 9/11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 3,000 people in 2001. He was a top courier who carried messages between the I ntroduction : M ission B riefing

Words To Understand circumstantial based on an assumption impregnable too strong to be captured operative someone who performs a task oftentimes behind the scenes terrorist person who uses violence for political purposes

6 6

This peaceful shot of Abbottabad, Pakistan, belies the action that the city saw in 2010.

organization’s leaders. If al-Kuwaiti was visiting the house in Abbottabad, CIA agents surmised, someone important must be living there. Who could it be? It was hard for the CIA and its operatives to see inside the three-sto- ry white house—the largest in the neighborhood. The building sat on a very large, triangular plot ringed by a cinder-block wall that towered 18 feet (5.5 m) in some places. Intelligence officials used spies on the ground and satellites in space to get more information. Those living in the house seemed mysterious. They burned their garbage instead of having it picked up. No one ever visited and no one answered the door. The house had no phone line or Internet connection.

7 7

Besides al-Kuwaiti and his brother, agents saw one other male on a regular basis. He was dressed in a Muslim prayer cap and took daily walks inside the compound’s walls. Although the intelligence experts could not get a good look at the man’s face, they calculated how tall he was and how much he weighed. The more agents studied the strange figure, the more they came to believe that al-Kuwaiti had led them to Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks. Day of Terror The sky over New York City that day was a deep blue, the kind of crisp sky in the Northeast that only a late summer day can bring. As the city woke up and

Smokes rises from the Twin Towers after two airplanes were crashed into them. Both towers would soon collapse.

8 8

The Pentagon was another target on 9/11. One of the planes was smashed into the side of the massive building.

went about its business, 19 terrorists—most from Saudi Arabia—boarded four planes in three cities: Boston, Washington, and Newark, New Jersey. Acting under orders from al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, including bin Laden, the men used box cutters to take over the planes. The terrorists eventually steered two of the planes into the World Trade Center’s twin towers, and aimed one at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after a group of passengers stormed the cockpit and wrested control from the hijackers. All those aboard the four airliners were killed, as were nearly 3,000 people on the ground. More than 6,000 were injured. Although there had been terror attacks in the United States before, 9/11 shook the country to its core.

9 9

President George W. Bush called the attacks an “act of war” and vowed to hunt the terrorists down. Within hours, US intelligence officials had identified all the hijackers along with the architect of the attack—Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian millionaire who ran the al-Qaeda terrorist organization from a secret camp in Afghanistan. The attacks spurred the United States and its allies into action. The US,

along with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Or- ganization (NATO), invaded Afghanistan weeks later in an effort to destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the country’s fanatical rulers who provided bin Laden and his followers with safe haven. Weeks after arriving in Afghanistan, US troops tracked bin Laden to remote Tora Bora, a valley

Report on Tora Bora

wedged between snow-covered mountains and separated by deep streams southeast of Kabul, the Afghan capital. Dimpled with caves, Tora Bora was a virtually impregnable hideout that covered an area of roughly six square miles. Although they believed bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora, US forces did not direct the assault to flush him out. Instead, the US relied on their Afghan allies to lead the attack. By the time the battle was over, however, bin Laden was gone, escaping on horseback into the desert. Efforts during the next 10 years to find the terrorist leader proved futile. Now, in a white house in a little-known Pakistani town, the CIA believed they finally had their man.

10 10

The “Pacer” Every day the mysterious stranger walked in circles around a vegetable gar- den, seemingly in meditation or prayer. Sometimes a woman or a child walked with him. It was hard for overhead cameras to get a good look because part of the garden was covered by a large tarp, an effort, the CIA believed, to shield the man’s face. Still, experts measured the length of the man’s shadow and the width of his stride. The numbers added up to bin Laden.

American forces were quickly sent to Afghanistan in an attempt to root out the 9/11 plotters.

11 11

CIA Director Leon Panetta became President Obama’s point man in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

12 12 Agents called the man “Pacer” because of the daily jaunts. When intel- ligence officials told President Barack Obama of their suspicions, the com- mander-in-chief ordered the CIA to continue its surveillance and come up with some hard evidence. It was an impossible task. Still, agents kept a watchful eye, eventually determining that three females, a group of young men, and at least 10 children lived inside the walled compound with Pacer. Bin Laden al- ways kept his family close, and agents suspected the women were his wives and the children were his sons and daughters.

On December 14, 2010, Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, visited Obama at the White House. Panetta, a former congressman who later served in Presi- dent Bill Clinton’s administration, laid out the evidence for Obama. The president sat and listened, weighing every scrap of information he heard. It was all circumstantial . “For all we know, this could be some sheik hiding from his wife,” the president told Panetta, according to an account of the conversation that appears in Mark Bowden’s book The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden . Be cautious, the president urged, and above all, be right. In the meantime, the president ordered Panetta to prepare a list of options for a possible attack on the compound. One of those options? Calling on an elite US Navy Special Forces unit— the SEALs. Hide and Seek Where had Osama bin Laden been hiding for nearly a decade? That question burned everyday in the minds of US military and intelligence officials. A psychic kept sending letters claiming she had “visions” of bin Laden staying at a swanky London hotel. Others thought the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks was dead, murdered by the Pakistani military, who kept his death secret so the country could still rake in Western money for the fight on terror. The cold, hard fact, however, was that for nearly a decade, no one knew whether bin Laden was dead or alive. They certainly did not know where he might be hiding.

13 13

BACKGROUND 1.: MISSION REPORT : I n 1959, the Soviet Union was knocking on America’s front door. Revo- lutionary leader Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba, overthrow- ing the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Two years later, Castro declared himself a Communist . The Soviets, more than eager to gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere, immediately embraced Castro. The Soviet Union provided his regime with tanks, planes, military advisers, and economic help. The idea of a Soviet-backed Communist state 90 miles (145 km) from Florida was unacceptable to the United States. In April 1961, the CIA gath- ered a group of Cuban exiles and launched an ill-fated amphibious inva- sion of the island at the Bay of Pigs. The assault was a disaster as Castro’s forces slaughtered the invasion force. The situation increased already frayed tensions between the Americans, Soviets, and Cubans. A year later, President John F. Kennedy, reeling from the botched invasion, encouraged American war planners to “expand rapidly and sub- stantially, in cooperation with our allies, the orientation of existing forces for

Words To Understand Communist person who believes in a planned, state-run economy exiles those who have been forced to live away from their own country paramilitary modeled on the military but not necessarily belonging to it

14