Inside the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: “Crankshaft,” DEVGRU and a dog named Cairo

The world most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden was killed in a lightining raid by the US Navy Seal on May 2nd, 2011 in his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
















While the whole world knows about the U.S. Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2nd 2011, many of the details of the mission have been shrouded in operational secrecy--until now.

In an astonishingly detailed reconstruction published on Monday 1st August 2011 by the New Yorker, reporter Nicholas Schmidle goes deep inside the planning and execution of the May 1st, 2011 raid.

(As just a sampler, see these few lines: "… Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden's life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, 'For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.' After a pause, he added, 'Geronimo E.K.I.A.'—'enemy killed in action.'"…)

While the whole piece is worth your attention, here are five things we learned from the New Yorker's reconstruction of the raid:

The team: 25 SEALs, a Pakistani-American translator, and a dog named Cairo (why Cairo and not Lassie or Joe??)

According to Schmidle, there were 25 Navy SEALS aboard the two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that raided bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. The SEALs were from Team Six, "which is officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU," he writes.

They were accompanied by a Pakistani-American translator (Schmidle gives him the pseudonym "Ahmed"), and a Belgian Malinois dog named Cairo.

"Outside the compound's walls, Ahmed, the translator, patrolled the dirt road in front of bin Laden's house, as if he were a plainclothes Pakistani police officer.

He looked the part, wearing a shalwar kameez atop a flak jacket. He, the dog Cairo, and four SEALs were responsible for closing off the perimeter of the house while James and six other SEALs—the contingent that was supposed to have dropped onto the roof—moved inside."

Bin Laden's code name was 'Crankshaft'

The Abbottabad raid "represented the team's first serious attempt since late 2001 at killing 'Crankshaft'—the target name that the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, had given bin Laden," Schmidle reports.

It was previously reported that "Geronimo" was the code name for bin Laden. But Schmidle adds new details: "Before the mission commenced, the SEALs had created a checklist of code words that had a Native American theme. Each code word represented a different stage of the mission: leaving Jalalabad, entering Pakistan, approaching the compound, and so on. 'Geronimo' was to signify that bin Laden had been found."

Who pulled the trigger on bin Laden.?

On May 6, 2011 "President Obama travelled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where the 160th is based, to meet the DEVGRU unit and the pilots who pulled off the raid," Schmidle writes.

Using a 3-D model of bin Laden's compound, the SEALs reconstructed the operation for the president and presented him with an American flag that had been on the mission, that they had signed and which read: "From the Joint Task Force Operation Neptune's Spear, 01 May 2011: 'For God and country. Geronimo,'" Schmidle reports.

"Before the President returned to Washington, he posed for photographs with each team member and spoke with many of them, but he left one thing unsaid," Schmidle wrote: "He never asked who fired the kill shot, and the SEALs never volunteered to tell him."

There were multiple previous stealth raids in Pakistan.

According to Schmidle, the unit conducted as many as a dozen previous excursions into the country.

"The Abbottabad raid was not DEVGRU's maiden venture into Pakistan, either," he writes. "The team had surreptitiously entered the country on ten to twelve previous occasions, according to a special-operations officer who is deeply familiar with the bin Laden raid. Most of those missions were forays into North and South Waziristan, where many military and intelligence analysts had thought that bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders were hiding."

Indeed, the raid that killed bin Laden itself was described as so ordinary by the special operations team's standards, Schmidle recounts, that a Defense Department officer described the nighttime raid to Schmidle as "mowing the lawn."

Cairo the dog got to meet Obama.

After the Navy SEAL team leader 'James' mentioned the dog's role in the raid, Obama interrupted:

"There was a dog?" ... James nodded and said that Cairo was in an adjoining room, muzzled, at the request of the Secret Service.

"I want to meet that dog," Obama said.

"If you want to meet the dog, Mr. President, I advise you to bring treats," James joked. Obama went over to pet Cairo, but the dog's muzzle was left on.

Rest in Peace Osama.

The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden was revealed first on Twitter.

The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden on the night of May 2nd, 2011 was revealed first on Twitter, the BBC reports on Monday 2nd May 2011.

An Information Technology consultant, living in Abbottabad, Pakistan unknowingly tweeted details of the US-led operation as it happened.

Sohaib Athar, who did not know that the world most wanted terrorist was living nearby in his neighbourhood, wrote that a helicopter was hovering overhead shortly before the assault began and said that it might not be a Pakistani aircraft.

He only became aware of the significance of his tweets after President Obama announced details of Bin Laden's death.

Mr Athar's first posting on the subject came at around 1am local time (9pm BST).

He wrote: "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)."

Soon after, he reported the sound of an explosion, now known to have been US forces blowing-up their damaged helicopter.

"A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S"

Throughout the raid, Mr Athar was drawing on information from friends in the local area who were also online.

"The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani..."

"People are saying it was not a technical fault and it was shot down. I heard it CIRCLE 3-4 times above, sounded purposeful."

US officials stated that the raid took less than 40 minutes, but Mr Athar said there was still a military presence in the area two hours later.

"And now, a plane flying over Abbottabad..."

In his Twitter biography, Sohaib Athar describes himself as: "An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops."

However, his postings during and after the raid reveal a frustration that world events had caught-up with him.

"I guess Abbottabad is going to get as crowded as the Lahore that I left behind for some peace and quiet. *sigh*"

Mr Athar told the BBC's Nosheen Abbas in Pakistan that his tweets has led to a deluge of interview requests from media organisations around the world.

He also said that he was not surprised to be the only person writing about events as they happened.

"I've been tweeting for about 5, 6 years, and been tweeting about Abbottabad because no one really talks about it,

"In fact, not many people use Twitter here. Everyone uses Facebook," he said.

Twitter confirmation

Political aide and tweeter @keithurbahn worked out what was happening before the announcement Even before President Obama confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden, informed tweeters were speculating online about the reason for a hastily-organised White House press conference.

Keith Urbahn, chief of staff to former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote: "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden."

Already this is being described as another huge day for the micro-blogging service.

"Twitter just had its CNN moment", as one American website put it, comparing this event with the first Gulf War in 1991, where millions suddenly woke up to the fact that cable news was the place to observe a war unfold in real-time.

Such is the power of this network that it has become the key resource for older media trying to stay ahead of events.

A journalist who does not use Twitter is now like one who abjures the mobile phone.

And maybe it's like a husband with no balls or Elton John without David Furnish or Rod Stewart without a blonde bombshell!!! hahaaa.. Thanks for reading.