# OPERATION NEPTUNE'S SPEAR - The misson to get Osama Bin Laden



## dapaterson (1 Aug 2011)

Excellent article in the New Yorker about the raid on Abbottabad.



> Brian, James, and Mark selected a team of two dozen SEALs from Red Squadron and told them to report to a densely forested site in North Carolina for a training exercise on April 10th. ... None of the SEALs, besides James and Mark, were aware of the C.I.A. intelligence on bin Laden’s compound until a lieutenant commander walked into an office at the site. He found a two-star Army general from JSOC headquarters seated at a conference table with Brian, James, Mark, and several analysts from the C.I.A. This obviously wasn’t a training exercise. The lieutenant commander was promptly “read in.” A replica of the compound had been built at the site, with walls and chain-link fencing marking the layout of the compound.



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all


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## brihard (1 Aug 2011)

Great article, thanks.


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## The Bread Guy (4 Aug 2011)

Apparently, the writer never spoke to any of the SEALS involved in the raid - he/the mag _should_ have been clear on that, but lookit the commentariat pounce....



> .... The article was in fact so detailed that it left the unmistakable impression that Mr. Schmidle had interviewed at least a few of the SEALs involved in the raid. During an NPR interview, Steve Inskeep explains that indeed Schmidle had spent time with the SEALs who were on the mission to get Bin Laden. NPR subsequently issued a correction for reasons noted below .... All of this makes for a gripping read. Too gripping I thought to myself.  As it turned out, there is one very serious problem with Mr. Schmidle’s account: Schmidle never met any of the SEALs involved, as reported (with great tact and restraint) by Paul Farhi on August 3 ....


Source:  Registan blog, 4 Aug 11



> .... I was critical of those involved in the raid to kill Osama bin Laden–Operation Neptune’s Spear–for talking about operational details with Nicholas Schmidle, a freelance writer whose article on the raid appears in the current New Yorker. I noted this would make it harder to preserve secrecy on future missions.
> 
> Now it turns out the 23 SEALs on the mission didn’t actually talk to Schmidle. Or so reports the Washington Post. I am not sure if this makes the situation better or worse.
> 
> ...


Source:  Max Boot, Commentary magazine, 3 Aug 11



> .... Is that what really happened? Even after we hear the accounts directly from the SEALS themselves, we may never actually know what truly happened that fateful night in Abbottabad.


Source:  Anthony Clark Arend blog, 3 Aug 11



> Nicholas Schmidle’s utterly compelling tale in The New Yorker -- on the takedown of Osama bin Laden by an elite Navy commando team -- was revealing in numerous ways.  Alas, one was quite troubling -- in that it suggests Team Obama has elevated politics above US security interests.  That’s no exaggeration: Schmidle’s 8,400-word account, for starters, contained numerous operational details that may well prove valuable to America’s enemies in similar missions down the road.  More worrisome, though, is that the piece itself -- produced with the help (and, most likely, encouragement) of top administration officials -- amounts to yet another instance of imprudent Team Obama bravado.  And another unnecessary humiliation of Pakistan: It tells in precise detail how a team of Navy SEALs effortlessly penetrated that nation’s space, proceeded undetected to bin Laden’s lair, easily took him out and escaped unharmed -- without Pakistani officials ever even knowing about it, until it was over.  Boo hoo for Pakistan, you say? Agreed. But it’s more complicated than that.  Yes, the raid was a remarkable undertaking -- and a huge success for America. Pulling off a mission of such complexity, and risk, was no easy feat.  The upshot: a monumental blow to the terrorists, a boost to those fighting them and some exquisite payback for 9/11.  As Schmidle notes, the outcome was never certain: Some analysts and officials vetting the mission’s plans had as little as 40 percent confidence in the intelligence underpinning it. No one was sure if bin Laden was even there.  Meanwhile, the potential downside -- a failure, such as when special forces went to rescue US hostages in Iran in 1980 -- would have been devastating.  Bottom line: President Obama deserves tremendous credit.  For taking the risk -- and succeeding.  But a more mature administration would have let the deed speak for itself. This one’s been rubbing Pakistan’s nose in its humiliation almost since bin Laden’s body hit the bottom of the North Arabian Sea ....


Source:  _New York Post_, 4 Aug 11


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