WASHINGTON -- A Navy SEAL's firsthand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden pulls back the veil on the secret operations conducted almost nightly by elite American forces against terrorist suspects.
Former SEAL Matt Bissonnette's account contradicted in key details the account of the raid presented by administration officials in the days after the May 2011 raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan, that killed the al-Qaida leader, and raised questions about whether the SEALs followed to the letter the order to only use deadly force if they deemed him a threat.
Bissonnette wrote that the SEALs spotted bin Laden at the top of a darkened hallway and shot him in the head even though they could not tell whether he was armed. Administration officials have described the SEALs shooting bin Laden only after he ducked back into a bedroom because they assumed he might be reaching for a weapon.
Military experts said Wednesday that if Bissonnette's recollection is accurate, the SEALS made the right call to open fire on the terrorist mastermind who had plenty of time to reach for a weapon or explosives as they made their way up to the third level of the house where he hid.
Bissonnette wrote the book, "No Easy Day," under the pseudonym Mark Owen as one of the men in the room when they killed bin Laden. The book is to be published next week by Penguin Group (USA)'s Dutton imprint. The Associated Press purchased a copy Tuesday.
For years, the primary weapon in the war on terror has been unmanned drones firing missiles from the sky. But the Bissonnette book reveals a more bloody war waged by special operators, one the public almost never gets to see close up.
The book offers intimate details of a special operations mission. The most memorable scenes are also the most human moments. Bissonnette describes one of the SEALs dressing the wounds of a woman who was shot when she lunged toward the SEALs. In another scene, a terrified mother clutches her child and a young girl identifies the dead man as Osama bin Laden, seemingly unaware of the significance of those words.
In that regard, the bin Laden raid seems destined to become an anachronism. Nearly every top al-Qaida figure killed by the United States since the 9/11 attacks has died in a remote-controlled strike by unmanned drone aircraft - their deaths seen back in Washington via high-definition video. An estimated 80 top terrorist leaders have been killed in places like Pakistan and Yemen, according to The Long War Journal.com, which tracks such airborne strikes.
Special operations troops often conduct raids similar to the bin Laden strike a dozen times a night in Afghanistan, and previously in Iraq, killing thousands of mostly mid- and lower-level terrorists. It's all part of a war on terror that is winding down and giving way to the drone war outside traditional war zones, given the scheduled drawdown of most U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
"No Easy Day" shows how routine such operations have become. But the public rarely hears about them unless the target is as historic as bin Laden.
The SEALS, according to Bissonnette's description, were prepared as they had been in other raids for a gunfight in close quarters, which likely would last only a few seconds, with no margin for error. By the time the SEALs reached the top floor of bin Laden's compound, roughly 15 minutes had passed, giving the terror leader adequate time to strap on a suicide vest or get a gun, he said.
Bissonnette says he was directly behind a point man going up the stairs in the pitch black hallway. Near the top, he said, he heard two silenced shots fired by the first SEAL into the hallway. He wrote that the point man had seen a man peeking out of a door on the right side of the hallway, but Bissonnette could not tell from his vantage point whether the bullets hit the target.
The author writes that the man ducked back into his bedroom and the SEALs followed, only to find him crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body. Once they wiped the blood off his face, they were convinced it was bin Laden.
Bissonnette says the point man pulled the two women out of the way and shoved them into a corner. He and the other SEALs trained their guns' laser sights on bin Laden's still-twitching body, shooting him several times until he lay motionless.
The SEALs later found two weapons stored by the doorway, untouched, the author said.
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor late Tuesday would not comment on the apparent contradiction between the administration's account and the book's version.
Bissonnette writes that during a pre-raid briefing, an administration lawyer told them that they were not on an assassination mission. According to Bissonnette, the lawyer said if bin Laden did not pose a threat, they should detain him.
"If they didn't feel like there was a threat, they would have captured him," co-author Kevin Maurer told the AP on Wednesday. "But from when they first hit the ground, all the way until they got to the third deck, they had encountered armed men, which made the use of force essential," said Maurer, a former AP reporter.
A former deputy judge advocate general for the Air Force defended the decision to shoot the man the SEALs saw in the hallway.
"In a confined space like that where it is clear that there are hostiles, the SEALs need to take reasonable steps to ensure their safety and accomplish the mission," said the former JAG, ret. Maj. Gen. Charlie Dunlap, who now teaches at Duke University law school.
The Pentagon and the CIA, which commanded the mission, are examining the manuscript for possible disclosure of classified information, and could take legal action against Bissonnette.
In a statement provided to the AP, the SEAL author says he did "not disclose confidential or sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way."
The book does include information not previously reported about specific CIA officers' involvement in the raid.
Bissonnette's real name was first revealed by Fox News and confirmed to the AP.
Jihadists on al-Qaida websites have posted purported photos of the author, calling for his murder.
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Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
RAID BOOK SHOWS BIN LADEN RAID UP CLOSE
Vial of Pope John Paul II's blood stolen, then found
Published: Aug. 29, 2012 at 2:44 PM
The Rev. Augusto Baldini said the thieves may have believed he was carrying something easier to fence, like a laptop, in his backpack, The Daily Telegraph of London reported.
Baldini was taking the relic to a sanctuary near Civitavecchia where it was to be on display.
"One of the thieves distracted me, telling me I was on the wrong train," Baldini said. "I turned round to look, and it was then that his accomplices stole my backpack."
The three men jumped off the train at Marina di Cerveteri.
The blood was drawn from John Paul after a 1981 assassination attempt. The pope, who died in 2005, was beatified last year, a step to becoming a saint.
Railway police searched around the Marina di Cerveteri station for several hours before they found the relic in a stand of cane grass. Investigators say the thieves might have ditched it, planning to pick it up later, or might not have realized its value.
Baldini said he prayed for the relic's recovery.
Black CNN staffer taunted with nuts at RNC
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The delegations celebrate the official vote tally nominating Mitt Romney as the Republican party presidential candidate at the 2012 Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa on August 28, 2012. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
License photo
Published: Aug. 29, 2012 at 12:32 PM
"Multiple witnesses observed the exchange" at Florida's Tampa Bay Times Forum, the news network reported. Convention security and police immediately removed the two people from the arena, CNN said.
The convention released a statement about the Tuesday incident, saying: "Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."
The camerawoman and the two convention attendees were not immediately identified.
The network said it would have no further comment.
Hurricane Isaac drenches U.S. Gulf coast, tests New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS |
Floodwater from Hurricane Isaac jumped a levee on the outskirts of New Orleans on Wednesday, but the multibillion-dollar barriers built to protect the city itself after the 2005 Katrina disaster were not breached, officials said.
The lumbering Category 1 hurricane was lashing the Gulf Coast, threatening to flood towns in Mississippi and Louisiana with a deluge of rain, storm surges of up to 12 feet and top sustained winds up to 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour).
With the storm nearly stalled, rainfall accumulations totaling as much as 20 inches in some areas were expected.
"The federal levee system ... is fine," New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu told local radio.
"There are no risks. It is holding exactly as we expected it to and is performing exactly as it should. There are no people on rooftops from flooding that even approximates what happened during Katrina," Landrieu said.
Police and National Guard units, many wielding automatic assault rifles, patrolled the virtually empty downtown quarter of the port city, which normally hums with tourists drawn to its jazz bars, Creole cuisine and French colonial architecture.
Tree limbs and street signs littered the streets and power was cut intermittently throughout the city, but authorities reported no security problems.
"Thus far it's been pretty easy," said Captain Jeremy Falanga of the Louisiana National Guard, who was stationed with troopers in front of the city's convention center. "Not many people are outside, it's pretty buttoned up."
In low-lying Plaquemines Parish, which stretches southeast from New Orleans, emergency officials reported the overtopping of an 8-foot (2.4-meter) high levee between the Braithwaite and White Ditch districts.
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said about 2,000 residents of the area had been ordered to evacuate but only about half were confirmed to have gotten out before Isaac made landfall late on Tuesday.
Isaac was wobbling northwestward near six mph, a slow pace that increases the threat of rain-induced flooding.
"On the east bank right now, we have reports of people on their roofs and attics and 12 to 14 foot of water," Nungesser told CNN.
"This storm has delivered more of a punch than people thought," he added.
Plaquemines Parish is cut in two lengthwise by the Mississippi River as it flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Much of it lies outside the greater New Orleans levee system, and construction projects to bolster protection are not complete.
It was not immediately clear how many people may have been stranded in the area, as driving rain and hurricane-force winds prevented a full-scale search.
But Plaquemines Parish public information officer Caitlin Campbell said there were no reports of injuries or deaths.
"The back levee along that area has been overflowing with water since earlier today. Up to 12 feet of water has filled that community from the back levee to the Mississippi River," Campbell said in an email statement.
"Rescue efforts are now in progress. Local residents are rescuing other residents at this time," she said.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who helped restore calm to New Orleans after Katrina, credited the "Cajun Navy" for conducting initial search-and-rescue operations in Plaquemines Parish.
He was referring to local boatmen on the coastal peninsula, plucking neighbors from flooded homes to safety.
BLACKOUTS
Isaac was the first test for the $14.5 billion flood defense system of walls, floodgates, levees and pumps built after Katrina's storm surge. Katrina left large parts of New Orleans swamped and killed 1,800 people in the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Hundreds in and around New Orleans drowned in 2005 and many survivors waited for days to be plucked from their rooftops by helicopters. New Orleans endured days of deadly disorder and widespread looting.
While not nearly as strong as Katrina -- a Category 3 hurricane when it slammed into New Orleans on August 29, 2005 -- Isaac was a threat that authorities had warned repeatedly about underestimating.
Timothy Doody, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority, said the storm surge from Isaac had seen the Mississippi River rise eight feet in New Orleans between early Tuesday and Wednesday.
"The water coming up into the Mississippi River appears to be more than forecast," he said.
The river, which had been extremely low due to the extended Midwest drought was at three feet (0.9 meter) before the storm and the level rose to 11 feet (3.3 meter), Doody said.
Some 409,000 Louisiana customers of utility Entergy Corp were without power as of Wednesday morning, the company reported. It warned that it would be unable to begin restoring power until winds drop below 30 mph.
Areas affected by power outages included about 60 percent of New Orleans.
While most city residents had opted to weather Isaac in their homes, that was no option for the homeless.
"It was wet last night," said Stanley Lancaster, 50, who spent the night under an overhang by the city's convention center. "I'm just going to sit and wait till it stops."
At 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), Isaac's top sustained winds had weakened slightly to 75 mph and the storm was centered about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It said hurricane force winds extended outward for 60 miles from the storm's center.
Isaac killed at least 23 people and caused significant flooding and damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before skirting the southern tip of Florida on Sunday and heading across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
It spared Tampa, Florida, where the Republican National Convention is being held. But it forced party leaders to reshuffle the schedule and tone down what some might have seen as excess celebration about Mitt Romney's presidential nomination as Gulf Coast residents faced danger.
Oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico nearly ground to a halt and ports and coastal refineries curtailed operations.
Energy companies along the Gulf Coast refining center braced for the storm's impact by shuttering some plants and running others at reduced rates ahead of Isaac's landfall.
Intense hurricanes such as Katrina -- which took out 4.5 million barrels per day of refining capacity at one point -- have flooded refineries, keeping them closed for extended periods and reducing fuel supplies.
This time, though, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that only 12 percent of the Gulf Coast's refining capacity had gone offline. Louisiana usually processes more than 3 million barrels per day of crude into products like gasoline.
Perceptions that the area's oil facilities would not sustain major damage left international benchmark Brent crude little changed in Wednesday afternoon trading at about $112.40 a barrel.
David Zelinsky, a meteorologist at the Miami-based Hurricane Center, cautioned that Isaac was not going away anytime soon.
"We expect it generally to continue moving very slowly through Louisiana today, even into tomorrow. Beyond that, as it begins to weaken we expect it to move into northern Louisiana late Thursday into Friday and then north into Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, that region after that," Zelinksy said.
"We want to stress to everyone that a lot of the effects can be felt well removed from the center," he said.
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