What happened to bin Laden: all versions of the elimination of “terrorist number one.” The death of Bin Laden: what doubts exist Where was Bin Laden killed?

American authorities claim that Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the terrorist attack in New York, was killed on May 2, 2011 during the special operation “Neptune Spear” in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. However, many doubt the truth of these words. And there are good reasons for this.

Strange murder

US President Barack Obama was the first to publicly announce the killing of “terrorist number one” by American special forces. He knew this for sure, since together with his administration he watched the liquidation of bin Laden live. It took the Americans a whole decade to reach, as they believe, the culprit who killed 3,000 people in the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in Manhattan.

Soon after the fact of bin Laden's death was made public, Al-Qaeda* confirmed the death of its leader, promising to avenge the murder. The elimination of a dangerous terrorist was greeted with approval in the West. The only exception was the reaction of the non-governmental organization Amnesty International, which condemned a number of legal and ethical aspects of the murder, regretting that bin Laden was not captured alive, despite his unarmed state.

Why were the US military sure that they killed bin Laden? After all, many assumed that a figure of such scale had many doubles. Several identification methods were used to identify bin Laden's body.

First of all, it was necessary to establish the height of the dead man. Since the special forces did not have a tape measure, one of them, with a height approximately matching bin Laden’s height (193 cm), lay down next to the corpse. By eye the growth seemed to match.

Several people from the shelter, which was stormed by special forces, according to the military, seemed to confirm the identity of bin Laden. True, later one of the participants in the operation, hiding his name, admitted that the woman who was in the room with the dead man even before the Americans opened fire assured that it was not bin Laden.

Finally, the body of the alleged al-Qaeda leader was identified by DNA analysis using tissue and blood samples from his deceased sister. DNA testing conducted independently by Department of Defense and CIA laboratories positively identified Osama bin Laden, a senior Pentagon official said. The chance of misidentification based on this analysis is approximately 1 in 11.8 quadrillion, the official said.

Bin Laden was later buried in the Arabian Sea after performing Muslim rites directly from the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. Washington explained such measures by saying that the absence of a specific burial site would prevent pilgrimages to the “terrorist shrine.”

Do not publish evidence

Shortly after the Abbottabad raid, CNN quoted a senior US administration official as saying that there were three sets of photographs of bin Laden's body: photographs taken immediately after the assault; images taken in a hangar in Afghanistan (described as the most "recognizable and gruesome"); and photographs taken of bin Laden's burial on an aircraft carrier before his body was shrouded.

A debate has flared up in the United States about the need to publish photographs of the killed bin Laden so that the public can be sure that the “number one terrorist” no longer exists. In addition, supporters of the release of the images were convinced that this would prevent all kinds of speculation and conspiracy theories. However, opponents of the publication defended their truth: that open access to the disgusting photographs would only increase anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

CIA Director Leon Panetta assured NBC Nightly News that images of the dead bin Laden would eventually be released, but the White House immediately issued a denial. According to the presidential administration, Obama decided not to publish the photographs, citing the fact that some of the photographs showed a damaged part of bin Laden's skull, which was “terrible.”

However, the pictures were leaked to the media. And then supporters of conspiracy theories became more active. He compared photographs of the “dead” bin Laden and photographs of the living one taken two years ago. The verdict is this: in the photo of the real head of al-Qaeda* we see a significantly older man with a graying beard, while in the post-mortem photo he is youthful and black-haired.

Doubt gnaws

The hasty decision to bury bin Laden's body, the refusal to publish photographs, suspicious DNA analysis, discrepancies in eyewitness accounts - all this gives reason to say that the head of al-Qaeda* was not killed on May 2, 2011. In particular, experts say that even preliminary DNA results are not detected within a matter of hours. Some researchers suggest that the attack on bin Laden's hideout itself was a well-executed staging. Bin Laden's death was reported 6 times between 2001 and 2010. Why not admit that this was just another hoax?

France Press experts believe that the world media showed fake photographs of the liquidated militant. Thus, the editor of the France Press photo service, Mladen Antonov, noted that experts subjected the photographs to a thorough analysis and determined that this was an obvious photomontage. “A beard and the lower part of the face from old photographs of bin Laden were attached to the bloody and disfigured face,” Antonov summarized.

The head of Iranian intelligence, Heidar Moslehi, a week after the operation of the American intelligence services, denied the elimination of bin Laden, saying that he had at his disposal confirmed information that Osama died of illness “some time ago.”

Turkish politician (Chechen by nationality), former CIA agent Berkan Yeshar says the same thing. Through the Chechens who were guarding Osama bin Laden, he learned that the leader of Al-Qaeda* was very ill, and in his last days only “skin and bones” remained of him. Bin Laden was buried in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Yeshar believes that the American intelligence services learned the location of the grave from the captured Chechen guard, opened the burial and showed the world “the just killed terrorist.”

Reputable American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hirsh claims that since 2006, “bin Laden has been under the hood of the Pakistani intelligence services, virtually in captivity.” The operation was a simple murder of a prisoner and was “smartly coordinated in time with the start of President Obama’s re-election campaign.”

It is known that all materials about Operation Neptune’s Spear, classified as “top secret,” were transferred by the military to the CIA archives for 25 years of storage. Perhaps in 2036 we will find out what happened on May 2, 2011 in the suburbs of Abbottabad.

*Al-Qaeda is a banned organization on the territory of the Russian Federation

The United States declared a world “war on terrorism”, and Osama Bin Laden (the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda) was identified as the main “terrorist”.

For 10 years they chased him throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, and only in 2011 they reported that the criminal was caught and killed as a result of a successful special operation by the US armed forces. US President Barack Obama gave a speech on this occasion, and crowds of citizens gathered in front of the White House in Washington, in city centers, rejoicing and hugging.

Justice, finally. triumphed! America's main enemy is dead...

or not?

As always, let's look at 3 simple questions that should answer the question: was the murder of Bin Laden true or another lie from the US government?

1. The official version of how the operation took place.
2. Evidence: photos, videos.

Now you will see how you can suck a great victory out of nothing. Let's start with the first question: the official version, or what was shown to ordinary citizens.

Official version:

« Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan May 2, 2011 at two o'clock in the morning local time by US special forces. Operation codenamed " Spear of Neptune was authorized by US President Barack Obama and carried out by SEAL Team 6 (known as seals"), part of the US Armed Forces. The location of the special operation is a suburb of Abbottabad (Pakistan). After the attack was completed, the US military delivered body bin Laden to Afghanistan for identification, and then buried him at sea on the same day.«

Okay, let's agree that the operation took place. Or rather, there was “something” in the suburbs of Abbottabad, because we have the following photographs. A modern helicopter crashed in Pakistan, and there were clearly non-Western military personnel nearby, who could not have had such technology. Consequently, the technology is Western, and quite possibly American.

Where did it all happen? Here.

This is Pakistan, 1200 km away from the seashore. where the aircraft carrier “Carl Vinson” stood, from which the body was then hastily “buried.”

Black The location of the helicopter crash has been identified.

Helicopter bowl site— the place where the helicopter crashed.

This estate is the site of a “special operation.”

The house was destroyed less than 1 year later, in February 2012.

Fine. A crashed helicopter, a destroyed house. We can agree with this. Burial on the same day... at sea? How so? They searched for 10 years, frightened the Americans with terrorist attacks, ran after him through the mountains and deserts, and quickly buried him at sea? Was it bin Laden, or the first “corpse” that came along? How was its “truth” established?

Want a dose of fun?

The US military used several methods to accurately identify Osama bin Laden's body.

Body Measurement: both the corpse and bin Laden were 1.93 m tall; The SEALs did not have a tape measure on site to measure the body, so the SEAL lay down next to the body and the height was determined by comparison. No comments.
Facial recognition software: photo, ( which no one has ever seen) submitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley for facial recognition was a 90-95% match. You will see the photo below.
Human identification: one or two women from the hideout, including one of bin Laden's wives, identified bin Laden's body after death. Bin Laden's wife also apparently called him by name during the attack, shouting "Osama bin Laden, Osama."
DNA analysis: The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing using tissue and blood samples from his sister, who died of a brain tumor. ABC News reported that "two samples were taken from bin Laden's body: one of those DNA samples was analyzed. That is, just so you understand, they took a tissue sample... converted it into digital form... (?)... and sent the digital file to the USA for analysis... Cool, yes!

Now Americans are confident
that YOU are sure
that they killed Bin Laden.

On the same day, the funeral took place. On May 12, 2011, Carl Vincent found himself on the American aircraft carrier Muslim priest, who recited a religious prayer before burying the body at sea. It looked something like this... The body was gone...

The ends are in the water.

2. Factual evidence: photos, videos.

Now it gets more interesting because the Americans haven't given anything. Can you imagine? — NOTHING.

There is a photo that Pakistani television published when announcing the murder. Here it is, by the way, marked “not for the faint of heart.” And from there, all of them have already been replicated around the world, including Western media. Upon inspection it turned out to be a cheap fake.

Looks like bin Laden's broken face, right? Right. Remember what he looked like? If you are interested in politics, you should know. But literally an hour later, the British news agency The Guardian announced that the photograph was a fake, and of very low quality, and showed everyone the original picture. Photo from 1998, where the lower part, open mouth and beard were taken.

Amazing coincidence, isn't it? Even the color of the hairs on the beard matches, as do the open lips.

About the top? The special forces (military) said that bin Laden was shot in the head, the bullet went through the eye, so one eye should look like that in the picture. They confirmed that he was killed there, as shown in the picture. But the upper part of the photograph was also found, where it was taken from, a broken eye, blood, hair, etc.

A photograph of a murdered Arab from Iraq, the top part was taken from it.

It is not surprising that soon the photograph began to be removed from everywhere, but it was copied faster than it was possible to stop the spread of “Photoshop” in the media and on websites.

White House reaction to the revelation?

How is it possible that there was a special operation? An expensive helicopter was crashed, they spent money, and the photo came out with a puncture? Is it possible to get a normal photo so that people don’t have doubts and questions?

To which came the official response from the White House:

« We will not publish anything so as not to provoke Muslims«.

“We won’t publish anything, because we have nothing, and the operation is a fake for Barack Obama’s rating, a guarantee of his election for a second term.”

Do you think where such a dramatic photo urgently appeared, where Obama is sitting with the Secretary of State, along with the Commanders of the Headquarters, as well as the Vice President of the United States in a bunker on May 1, 2011, and looking tensely at the wall? Hilary Clinton even experiences some emotions by covering her mouth with her hand.

Total:

1. No video.

2. No photo.

3. There is no body.

4. There is no evidence.

5. Special forces?

Died!
Every single one of them.

After 3 months (22 people) and 1 year (1 person).

How convenient, right?

3. The fate of those special forces: which special forces?

What about the brave Navy SEALs who eliminated bin Laden. And they were all killed.

In operation May 1, 2011 year in Pakistan took part 23 fighters, which were in two helicopters, you saw one of them in the pictures above. http://lenta.ru/articles/2011/08/05/killbinladem/

August 6, 2011 died 22 special forces, when their transport helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. Even NATO Secretary General Rasmussen expressed his condolences to the families, praising them for their dedication during the famous “special operation.” http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=530720

December 10, 2012 died last participant"special operations" Nicholas Check, shot in the head during the battle. http://lenta.ru/news/2012/12/11/seal/

As you can see, there are no witnesses, no photos, no video, no body.

Bin Laden was not killed!

But this doesn’t stop THESE people from thinking that they are the coolest in the world, because to do this you just need to watch TV and refuse to think.

Leaders of countries, presidents, and sometimes terrorists are removed from office and often done so with pomp. Remember video with the hanging of Saddam Hassein? It's online - look it up. Remember video with the last minutes of Gaddafi's life? It also exists. Remember photo with the execution of Ceausescu and his wife? It is there too, you can find it!

But, when it comes to US politics, there are secrets upon secrets and complete coincidences. As well as the fact that it was published April 27, 2011, and on the Internet catastrophically fast Rumors began to spread that it was fake and fake. We discussed this fact in the previous article. And after 4 days, May 1, 2011- a “special operation” happens and the entire Internet is filled with “official news”, what Obama is a cool president, how he famously dealt with terrorism, or even better, forget about the evidence and don’t look there.

No wonder that Osama bin Laden learned that he had been killed, watching American television. Do you think this is a joke? The Americans posted this online too! The video was found ( naturally) in that house, which they destroyed and demolished a year later. A bearded grandfather (apparently the same one) in a hat, from the side, looks at himself, and then at the speech of President Obama. This is so interesting. Doubt the authenticity? Copy the link to your browser https://youtu.be/vVMV1uUJQ60?t=1m22s

This is how big politics is done nowadays. Here's the "war on terrorism." It started with a lie about the year, and ended with a lie about the elimination of the main terrorist. Any methods, for the sake of a goal.

“The gullible are controlled only to the extent that they allow themselves to be controlled.”

How bin Laden was killed

Terrorist No. 1 was not found in the caves of the Tora Bora mountains on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where American special forces tried to catch him for many years.

Bin Laden was hiding in the elite Pakistani resort village of Abbottabad, an hour's drive from Islamabad, that is, literally under the nose of the Pakistani authorities.

Representatives of the Pakistani military elite live in the village itself. The leader of international terrorism lived in one of the three-story houses, which, according to the description, was more like a real fortress. The cottage, which was built just six years ago, as it now turns out, specifically as the residence of the head, was approximately eight times larger in size than the average house in this village, and its two-meter fence was crowned with circles of barbed wire. The internal territory was divided into zones separated by blank walls. A fortified bunker was hidden inside, where bin Laden spent most of his time.

The measures of closure amazed even the inhabitants of Abbottabad: garbage was never thrown out of the cottage (it was burned right on the premises), and neither a telephone nor an Internet network was connected to the house.

To determine the real location of the al-Qaeda leader, US intelligence agencies tracked one of the al-Qaeda couriers for more than four years. This courier became known from those arrested for helping organize the September 11 terrorist attacks. However, at first it was not even clear that he was connected specifically with bin Laden. Only in August last year did the intelligence services realize that they had probably found the leadership of a terrorist network. Formally, it was this courier and his brother who owned the mysterious fortress house, but it was not clear where they found several million dollars to build a real fortress.

Only after the information that bin Laden was here was finally confirmed, did the American president personally give the go-ahead for the special operation. Several helicopters appeared in the skies over Abbottabad on Sunday.

The American Marines who disembarked from them quickly stormed the house and, after a 40-minute firefight, killed the people in the bunker.

One of them turned out to be bin Laden himself (he was killed by a bullet in the head); one of his sons was killed, as well as, presumably, one of his wives, a courier and brother.

According to some reports, drones struck the house before the assault, which caused a fire in the building. Pakistani television later showed footage of the smoke. Pakistani units were also involved in the operation itself. It is known that one of the helicopters involved crashed on approach due to technical reasons, two crew members were killed.

Justice has been done

After the liquidation took place, this was immediately reported to American President Barack Obama. American television channels announced Obama's emergency speech with an unprecedented statement, but its essence was not known at first. A variety of speculations emerged among bloggers and Twitter users around the world, the most popular of which, however, at first was death.

“Good evening,” the American leader greeted. - Today I can tell the people of America and the whole world: the United States carried out an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, a terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children... Justice has been done."
8

Ten years ago, on September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda-trained terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers in Manhattan in what Obama recalled was the “worst attack on the people of America in its history,” killing three thousand people. Since then, the main task of the US intelligence services has been to eliminate the world's main terrorist, the president noted. Obama thanked Pakistani intelligence agencies who took part in the elimination of the al-Qaeda leader.

After bin Laden

Although the killing of bin Laden was officially announced, his body was never shown to the public, and footage of the mutilated corpse that appeared on Pakistani television was later declared a fake. The final scientific confirmation of bin Laden's death should be provided by DNA testing, the results of which will be published by the American authorities in the coming days.

The body of terrorist No. 1, according to sources of American television channels, has already been buried in accordance with Islamic traditions, which require burial to take place before sunset on the day of death.

At the same time, it is argued that it was buried in the Arabian Sea so as not to create an object of worship from its grave.

In the Muslim world, bin Laden's death raises doubts. The Indian television channel Jio TV refers to a representative of the Pakistani Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan movement, who claims that “bin Laden is alive” and reports of his death are “fake.”

One way or another, al-Qaeda is unlikely to remain without leadership. According to Georgy Mirsky, an expert at the Institute of International Relations and Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in recent years Osama bin Laden has exercised less and less practical leadership over al-Qaeda. “The real administrator of the terrorist network was No. 2 - Egyptian Ayman Az-Zawahiri, who was the one who killed the Egyptian president in 1981,” the expert told Gazeta.Ru. “He served time in prison and showed himself to be a completely unrepentant Islamic fanatic, after which he moved to Afghanistan.”

According to Mirsky, now Az-Zawahiri under bin Laden is like Stalin under Lenin. It was Zawahiri who took control of all the threads of communication of this decentralized terrorist network, which included cells in Iraq, the Maghreb countries, Yemen and Europe, the political scientist notes. “Fundamentally nothing will change in al-Qaeda,” Mirsky is sure.

On Islamist forums, in turn, they promise to take revenge for the murder of terrorist No. 1. “Oh, Allah, please make sure this news is not true... Allah has cursed you, Obama,” a message from one of the Arabic-language forums reports to Reuters .

US authorities fear possible new terrorist attacks. urged US citizens to be extremely careful abroad. “If the leadership does not react to the killing of bin Laden, ordinary militants will not understand this, and therefore in many places - in the United States, European countries, the Middle East - one should be prepared for autonomous large-scale attacks by terrorists,” warns Mirsky.
9

Nevertheless, in the fight against terrorism, the death of bin Laden, according to the vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies Boris Makarenko, is of great importance because he was a symbol, and a new symbol of the same magnitude is unlikely to appear in the near future. “Al-Qaeda is a network organization, the death of the leader is not so important here,” argues the head of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, “besides, terrorism can turn out to be a hydra: if you cut off one head, three new ones will grow.”

The greatest success of the American authorities came at a time when the ratings of the current American president dropped significantly. Now the situation may change, experts predict. The elimination of the symbol of terrorism, the main threat to the United States, will be both Obama's main victory as president and his main trump card in the upcoming 2012 presidential elections. The first debates within the internal party primaries will start in the United States this week.

Having defeated bin Laden, Obama did what his two predecessors could have done before him: after all, the hunt for bin Laden began even before September 11, recalls Russian political scientist Alexander Konovalov. “Of course, the president’s rating will increase, but it is still premature to say that Obama’s chances for a second term are guaranteed: it is unclear who his Republican rival will be,” the expert told Gazeta.Ru.

At one time, they managed to show the Americans the detention of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Bush then won. It’s too early to say whether Obama will be able to win, the political scientist is sure, because at one time he managed to defeat Hussein in the war for Kuwait, but then he still lost the elections.

Find at any cost

Back in the summer of 2010, a person who provided valuable information about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden could receive $25 million. CIA officers and American agents in Pakistan worked to capture one of the most dangerous terrorists. As a result, no one received the promised 25 million - success was achieved by a small group of analysts from Langley, who, through painstaking analysis, tracked down the courier who regularly transmitted information from bin Laden.

CIA headquarters in Langley

“In December 2010, Panneta came to see me and, making sure that we were alone, said that his analysts were confident that they had found Bin Laden,” recalls former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Just a couple of months later, CIA Director Leon Panetta invited Vice Admiral Bill McRaven, head of the Joint Special Operations Command, and senior leaders of the national security team to the headquarters of the intelligence agency.

Bin Laden's whereabouts emerged in 2010

“Our little group,” says then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “met several times. Leon presented the case in such a way that Bin Laden lives in a mansion in a Pakistani city, not far from the Pakistan Military Academy. Some intelligence analysts were confident that we were on target. Others, especially those who survived failed intelligence operations, still had their doubts.”

Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad

At that time, American intelligence agencies had little doubt: the house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, surrounded by high concrete walls and barbed wire, was specially built to “hide someone important.” However, doubts about “someone important” still remained: there was not a single really hard evidence that bin Laden was hiding there. CIA analysts bet “fifty-fifty” that the government led by President Barack Obama decided to take a risk.

All-in game

The headquarters to eliminate bin Laden planned to launch an airstrike on his house

A massive air strike on the outskirts of a Pakistani city was ruled out immediately following the previous option - this method practically excluded the possibility of carrying out an operation without civilian casualties. Using a drone that could hit pinpoint targets seemed more feasible, but U.S. intelligence agencies needed to obtain critical intelligence from bin Laden's home and ensure that the al-Qaeda leader was killed, if not captured.

The organizers of the operation had no choice but to opt for the riskiest option - a ground operation using a special forces detachment. Such decisive actions, according to the Secretary of State, could, in the worst case, result in a direct military clash between the American Navy SEALs and the Pakistani army. However, the decision was made - Vice Admiral McRaven, in an atmosphere of extreme secrecy, began to train the special forces team. The SEAL and Night Stalkers teams prepared for the special operation at an accelerated pace: the exercises took place on full-scale mock-ups of bin Laden's house in secret areas of the United States.

Feast during a special operation

One of the annual Washington rituals is the official “journalistic” dinner at the White House. According to Robert Gates, this is a case of "the press, politicians and bureaucrats putting on their ceremonial clothes, meeting and pretending to like each other." The day of the “journalistic” dinner coincided with the day of the special operation. If the president were to cancel the planned event, it would raise suspicions.

Hillary Clinton - US Secretary of State until 2013

Hillary Clinton described the meeting about this dinner as follows: “I took part in many absurd conversations, but this was already too much. We talked about the most important challenge to US national security that the President had to take on. The mission was already difficult and dangerous. I don't remember exactly what I said, but someone in the media quoted me using a four-letter word in relation to this correspondents' dinner. I didn’t even demand a refutation.” Based on the results of the discussion, the special operation headquarters came to the conclusion that, if necessary, the president could leave the meeting earlier, citing abdominal pain.

Day X

But this was not required. Meteorologists predicted dense fog over Abbottabad on Saturday evening. In such weather, obviously, landing was extremely risky. The operation was rescheduled for the next day.

Helicopter "Black Hawk", or "Black Hawk"

On May 1 at 2:30 p.m. Washington time, two Black Hawk helicopters carrying SEALs took off from a base in Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan. As soon as they crossed the border into Pakistan, three Chinook transport helicopters with reinforcements followed them and were ready to deploy if necessary. The noise of the black hawks' rotors cut through the silence of the night in Abbottabad for only a few minutes. Soon, helicopters hovered over bin Laden's hideout.

During a special operation, a Navy SEAL helicopter almost crashed

“The sound of the engines has changed. The helicopter slowed down and began to descend. I waited until we were above the landing site to throw out the cables. However, the helicopter was drifting from side to side, and it was obvious that the pilot could only keep it in place with great difficulty. The machine clearly did not obey him. “I turned my eyes to the crew commander, who was also waiting for the helicopter to hover motionlessly over the landing point,” recalls a direct participant in the special operation, special forces veteran Matt Bissonnette (he is listed as Mark Owen on the cover of the book) in his acclaimed book “A Difficult Day.” By the way, he may soon be charged with storing secret photographs taken during this mission on the hard drive of his computer.

The helicopter had to hover in the air so that the SEAL team could climb down the ropes, as required by the plan. However, one of the Black Hawks began to rapidly lose altitude. The pilot roughly landed the helicopter on the ground and with its tail crashed through the wall near the house of “terrorist number one.” The military subsequently figured out the problem: the full-scale training model of the barracks had a chain-link fence, not a stone one like bin Laden's. This changed the dynamics of the air flow and affected the control of the helicopter. The noise was enough to wake up everyone in the area. The second helicopter, which according to the plan was supposed to land and drop off the fighters on the roof of the house, was forced to improvise and flew past the roof without stopping, instead landing on the ground outside the house.

The US President and his team watched the operation via video link

The President and his entourage watched the special operation from the White House via video link. Clinton later claimed that it was the most tense moment she could remember: “I was thinking about the people who were risking their lives there in the middle of the night, on the other side of the world. Then I held my breath. There's a famous photo from that day where I have my hand over my mouth while we're all looking at the screen."

The same photo of Hillary Clinton

About half an hour of reckoning

This is exactly how long it took American intelligence services to deal with one of the most famous terrorists in the world and leave his home. Bin Laden, according to special operation participant Matt Bissonnette, guessed that the SEALs had appeared as soon as he heard the noise of helicopters. He had a lot of time to prepare, but, according to Matt himself, he did nothing. Vice Admiral McRaven's team, highly trained in training, cleared the area around bin Laden's house for about 15 minutes, eliminating all possible pockets of resistance. After this, the SEALs were able to get inside the house.

“We saw a man,” Bissonnette reports in his book, “lying on the floor by the bed. He was wearing a white T-shirt, loose beige pants and some kind of cape of the same color. The bullet hit him on the right side of his head. Blood and brains were leaking from the wound. The body was still convulsing. We aimed our rifles at him and fired several shots into his chest until he froze motionless.” Eyewitness accounts of the special operation indicate that bin Laden was already writhing in his death throes at the moment when the military entered his room. The official version says that bin Laden was armed and had no intention of surrendering.

According to the official version, bin Laden was armed and did not want to surrender

“It seemed like an eternity had passed, but in reality it was only 15 minutes. McRaven said the team had found bin Laden. Then he said that he was killed during the operation. Osama bin Laden was dead,” Hillary Clinton would write later. By the way, during the negotiations, no one uttered the name Osama bin Laden; the founder of Al-Qaeda was referred to by the code name “Geronimo”.

Scandal surrounding the special operation

Osama bin Laden was killed. No one asked for champagne then; no one had any thoughts of celebrating this event. At that moment in the White House, all the organizers of the special operation had only a feeling of deep satisfaction. However, everyone understood that the work was not finished yet. Having collected the data carriers and papers available there from bin Laden’s house and taken the body, the SEALs decided to blow up the failed helicopter, since there was no longer any possibility of taking it out. This explosion certainly woke up the entire area, but nevertheless, the special forces group managed to evacuate.

Robert Gates clarifies that after the special operation, every person involved in organizing the mission promised not to talk about its details. This was due to special forces tactics that were used in many other cases and had to remain secret. The commitment lasted for about five hours, after which various messages and details began to leak to the press. The main complaint voiced by journalists was the lack of direct evidence of bin Laden's murder. Press workers urgently demanded to show a photograph of the dead leader of the terrorist movement. However, the government refused all this, guided by considerations that the Muslim world might react ambiguously to these images.

Until now, not a single photograph of the killed bin Laden has seen the light of day. When the body of terrorist No. 1 was delivered to Jalalabad, McRaven decided to measure his height in order to obtain further evidence that it was bin Laden. It was known that he was about six feet tall, but there was no tape measure at hand. Then one of the seals, exactly six feet tall, simply lay down next to the body of the dead man. Later, the president would say: “It’s nothing for McRaven to blow up a helicopter worth 60 million dollars, but apparently he can’t afford to buy a tape measure...” Soon after, Obama still gave him a tape measure with a commemorative inscription. Another issue that has generated fierce debate is whether bin Laden was legally buried by lowering his body to the bottom of the sea. In this case, the position of the American government is obvious, which in this way tried to avoid the creation of a shrine around bin Laden’s grave. However, Islamic spiritual leaders have suggested on several occasions that other forms of burial would be more appropriate.

Strange murder

Why were the US military sure that they killed bin Laden? After all, many assumed that a figure of such scale had many doubles. Several identification methods were used to identify bin Laden's body.

Do not publish evidence

Doubt gnaws

*Al-Qaeda - Prohibited organization of the Russian Federation