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THE mission to kill Osama bin Laden was almost called off at the last minute due to a lack of certainty over whether the terrorist leader was living in a Pakistani compound, a new documentary has revealed.<\/p>\n
In his first detailed interview since the al-Qaeda leader was shot dead by Navy Seals, US president Barack Obama revealed that he took a \u201cgamble\u201d and was advised not to go through with the risky operation.<\/p>\n
Just days before the May 1 attack, the CIA had advised there was a 60-70 per cent certainty that bin Laden was holed up with his family in a fortified compound in a military suburb of Abbottabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n
But on April 28 a special \u201cred team\u201d of security analysts advised the President they were only about 30-40 per cent certain it was the world\u2019s most wanted man, due to a lack of evidence and an unusually large number of visitors to the house.<\/p>\n
A \u201ctense\u201d Whitehouse meeting followed where a number of Mr Obama\u2019s highest advisers told him the \u201cstakes were too damn high\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I thought it was only 50\/50 that bin Laden was there I thought it was worth us taking a shot,\u201d Obama said in Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill<\/p>\n
If the mission was unsuccessful, the President admitted he faced \u201chuge geopolitical ramifications\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the one-hour documentary, America\u2019s top security advisers and the President speak for the first time about the plan to kill bin Laden.<\/p>\n
Using cinematic re-enactments, the documentary also offers an inside look into the White House Situation Room, where Mr Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and other officials watched the attack on a live video link.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a quintessential presidential decision,\u201d National Security Adviser Thomas E. Donilon said of the attack.<\/p>\n
It was also one of Mr Obama\u2019s most challenging moments, eclipsed only by the near-death of his daughter Sasha from meningitis as an infant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the longest 40 minutes of my life, other than when my daughter got sick at the age of 3 months and we were worried about whether she was going to be safe or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The documentary also reveals how an al-Qaida courier known as “The Kuwaiti” led US intelligence sources to bin Laden by traced calls though his mobile.<\/p>\n
CIA surveillance of the house showed a man known as \u201cthe pacer\u201d regularly walking in the garden and US experts tried to use the sun\u2019s shadows to measure if it was the 6ft4 bin Laden.<\/p>\n
The program also detailed the Navy Seal’s elite Team 6’s intense training, including building a replica of bin Laden\u2019s compound in the Nevada desert so that soldiers memorised every step and doorway in the house.<\/p>\n
But when it was finally confirmed that bin Laden had been killed with shots to the head and chest, there was little celebration inside the White House, the documentary revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a big gamble. I think at the time I said something very brief: \u2018We got him\u2019,\u201d Mr Obama said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there was no whooping, no hollering, high-fiving inside the Situation Room.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point all of us were focused on are these guys going to get out safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Data found inside bin Laden’s house revealed he had been planning a terrorism attack in the US on the 10-year anniversary of 9\/11, with Obama as the main target.<\/p>\n
Hours after the attack, Mr Obama, yet to receive DNA confirmation that it was bin Laden, announced to the world that the terrorist mastermind was dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately we were right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE mission to kill Osama bin Laden was almost called off at the last minute due to a lack of certainty over whether the terrorist leader was living in a Pakistani compound, a new documentary has revealed. In his first detailed interview since the al-Qaeda leader was shot dead by Navy Seals, US president Barack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}