Osama bin Laden dead: US built replica of bin Laden compound after building complete intelligence pi

[jakeXT]

Source: The Telegraph

Osama bin Laden dead: US built replica of bin Laden compound after building complete intelligence picture

A full scale replica of Osama bin Laden's compound was built at Afghanistan's Bagram airbase as part of meticulous planning for the raid by US special forces.

by Damien McElroy 2:22PM BST 03 May 2011

The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had eight months to prepare for the raid. For much of that time US intelligence agencies were able to keep a "staring eye" continuous satellite monitoring over the fortified compound.

From the wealth of detail that the JSOC had accumulated its targeting and analysis centre used computer modelling to map the compound. Commandos then worked from the modelling to build a replica at Bagram, a massive airbase on the outskirts of Kabul that serves as the nerve centre of American operations in the country.

The facility was used for repeated practice runs for the operation throughout April. The one acre plot on Camp Alpha, a special forces base on Bagram, was yesterday said to be authentic to the last detail for America's most wanted High Value Target.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8490006/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-US-built-replica-of-bin-Laden-compound-after-building-complete-intelligence-picture.html

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Pakistan wasn't involved according to the CIA and they couldn't get one picture of Bin Laden, but rebuild the compound. Makes no sense to me unless....




Obama decided that Panetta’s arguments trumped two other options: striking the compound remotely or waiting until more evidence was available to prove bin Laden was there. “If I thought delaying this could in fact produce better intelligence, that would be one thing,” Panetta says he argued, “but because of the nature of the security at the compound, we’re probably at a point where we’ve got the best intelligence we can get.”

For weeks, Panetta had been pushing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to try to get photographic confirmation of the presence of the bin Laden family. “NGA was terrific at doing analysis on imagery of that compound,” he says, but “I kept struggling to say, ‘Can’t you at least try to get one of the people that looks like (bin Laden)?’ ” NGA produced photographs of the two couriers and their families that McRaven’s Navy Seal team used to identify players in the compound as they made their way toward bin Laden.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/03/cia-chief-breaks-silence-u-s-ruled-out-involving-pakistan-in-bin-laden-raid-early-on/#ixzz1LIxAsliz

[dipsydoodle]

1. Did they practice a helipcopter ceasing to function too ?

:sarcasm:

[Richardo]

2. Actually, yes.

They blew up the crashed one and called in backup. It was obviously a contingency plan.

[Pab Sungenis]

3. Actually, probably.

You always prepare for every eventuality. They also probably had plans for if both copters were disabled.

[KeepItReal]

4. The military learns lessons

Desert One in Iran and losing the Blackhawks in Somalia were tragic, but instructive

[MineralMan]

5. They rehearsed all contingencies. That's why they

succeed. This is not ordinary soldiering, you know. Well, maybe you don't know much about that, either. :shrug:

[NBachers]

6. Fortunately, Ollie North wasn't a member of this strike force

[freshwest]

7. Love the sig and Zappa with a head dress. Screw Ollie, though.