Justice Has Been Done

On 11 September 2001, al Qaeda killed 2,977 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. Its leader, Osama bin Laden, escaped into Pakistan. For nearly ten years, CIA officers and analysts worked every lead. One courier led them to a walled compound in Abbottabad. On 1 May 2011, the President sent in the SEALs.

1. 11 September 2001

   The worst day

   Nineteen al Qaeda hijackers seize four airliners. They bring down the Twin Towers, hit the Pentagon and crash in a Pennsylvania field, where the passengers fought back. 2,977 people are killed. Within days the President authorizes the CIA to go after al Qaeda, and its officers are in Afghanistan before the month is out. By December bin Laden is cornered at Tora Bora. He escapes across the border into Pakistan.

2. 2002–2009

   One courier

   Detainees name a courier by his nickname. He is a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, and one of the few men bin Laden trusts. They say he may be living with bin Laden. For years no one knows his real name. Around 2007 the CIA finds it. Two years later analysts narrow his movements to parts of Pakistan, but he and his brother are careful. That only makes the hunters surer.

3. August 2010

   The compound

   Analysts follow the brothers home to Abbottabad, a quiet town 35 miles north of Islamabad. Their compound is eight times larger than the houses around it, with walls 12 to 18 feet high topped with barbed wire. It has no phone or internet line, though it is worth about $1 million. The residents burn their trash. A third family lives there, matching bin Laden’s. A man paces the courtyard, but no one can see his face.

4. 14 March – 28 April 2011

   Five meetings

   The President chairs five National Security Council meetings on the compound. The CIA red-teams its own case and finds no one who fits better than bin Laden, but it cannot prove he is there. A B-2 strike would cause heavy damage around the compound, so the President rules it out. He chooses a raid by Navy SEALs, who rehearse on a full-size replica with movable inside walls. He calls the odds 55/45.

5. 29 April 2011 · Morning

   The order

   On Friday morning the President gives the final order. It goes to the CIA Director as a covert action, and Leon Panetta hands it to Vice Adm. William McRaven, head of Joint Special Operations Command, who will command the raid from Afghanistan. Panetta keeps his instructions short. At 13:25 Washington time on Sunday, 1 May, the President, Panetta and McRaven approve the launch.

   Panetta’s orders to McRaven, as he recalled themGo in, get bin Laden. And if he’s not there, get the hell out.
6. 1 May · 13:51 EDT

   Into Pakistan

   Two Black Hawk helicopters lift off from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, into the dark with about two dozen SEALs aboard. Army pilots of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers, have a flight of about 162 miles ahead of them. Panetta runs the operation from CIA headquarters in Langley, in direct contact with McRaven. At the White House, the President and his national security team gather in the Situation Room.

7. 1 May · 15:30 EDT

   One helicopter down

   It is 00:30 on 2 May in Abbottabad when the helicopters reach the compound. The first one runs into trouble over the courtyard and comes down hard inside the walls. No one is hurt. The second sets down too, and both teams go straight in. The plan has changed in seconds, and the SEALs keep going. They blast through walls, push into the house and fight their way up the stairs.

8. 1 May · 15:39 EDT

   Geronimo

   Nine minutes after the helicopters arrive, the SEALs find bin Laden on the third floor. In Washington there are long minutes of silence. Then McRaven passes the code word to Panetta and the White House. At 15:53 the President has tentative confirmation. The team gathers up documents and computers, destroys the damaged helicopter and is gone by 16:10. The President later calls it the longest 40 minutes of his life.

   The code word, relayed by McRavenGeronimo EKIA.
9. 1 May · 23:35 EDT

   The announcement

   The helicopters land in Afghanistan at 17:53, and McRaven meets the team. By 19:01 the identification is highly probable. The President calls Presidents Bush and Clinton. As word spreads, crowds gather outside the White House, at Ground Zero and in Times Square, chanting “U-S-A” and singing the national anthem. At 23:35 the President speaks from the East Room. Some 56.5 million Americans watch.