The New Yorker: Inside The Raid That Killed Bin Laden

newyorker.com:

Shortly after eleven o'clock on the night of May 1st, two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from Jalalabad Air Field, in eastern Afghanistan, and embarked on a covert mission into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. Inside the aircraft were twenty-three Navy SEALs from Team Six, which is officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. A Pakistani-American translator, whom I will call Ahmed, and a dog named Cairo--a Belgian Malinois--were also aboard. It was a moonless evening, and the helicopters' pilots, wearing night-vision goggles, flew without lights over mountains that straddle the border with Pakistan. Radio communications were kept to a minimum, and an eerie calm settled inside the aircraft.

Read the whole story: newyorker.com

Comments

[inonoatama]

01:16 PM on 08/05/2011

Kudos to the soldiers who took down the monstrous OBL. However, these soldiers should not have invoked religion in the process. Saying "for God and country" when killing Bin Laden only puts our nation on the same plane of superstitious, unaccountable belief as OBL and radical Islamists.

America was founded by men wishing to usher in an Age of Reason. They were deists, not devout Christians as is often falsely asserted. The linking of "God and country" would have been repugnant to the Founders. "For God and Country" is, incidentally, the slogan of the American Legion, a veteran's group founded in 1919 that has been hostile to the principle of separation of church and state.

[Sunil Weliwitigoda]

10:11 AM on 08/02/2011

What happened that night in Abbotabad ? Dark and dirty, mysterious things happened that night. A friendly nation of the USA, Pakistan’s sovereignty was violated, there was a helicopter crash, Seals walked on Land, gunfire reverberated in bedrooms and men, including a terrible monster called Osama was killed, women were shot at, blood flowed and Revenge was had, Americans were thrilled at the end of the WTC Killer and Obama fantasized that having done – in Osama at last, he had at least one positive reason to win re – election in 2012. A bloodied, dead Osama gave new hope and new life to a near political fatality called Obama.

[syrius]

08:49 AM on 08/02/2011

Nice article.

[Justice Goodyear]

08:45 AM on 08/02/2011

The killing of Obama represents the single reason why I would vote for Obama in 2012.

[linzybel]

07:52 AM on 08/02/2011

In the AP photo in HuffPost, can anyone verify that the OBL compound is in the extreme lower right corner? Or is it somewhere else, closer to the center?

[jimtpat]

01:53 PM on 08/02/2011

Planning to chopper in, yourself, are you?

Sightseers... sheesh.

[demsrsilly]

05:12 AM on 08/02/2011

What? No condemnation of the SEALS for using the "G" word from the libs here?

[proshot22]

03:59 AM on 08/02/2011

SEALs next objective, for the love of God and country, stop Michael Bay from making this his next movie.

[MayoGalway]

02:41 AM on 08/02/2011

Well done VAdm McRaven, 'James', 'Brian', 'Mark', 'Ahmed', Cairo, the pilots and complete SEAL teams. In and out in 30 min with a hefty bag. Bravo.

[FearlessFreep]

11:53 PM on 08/01/2011

Remember that FAR SIDE cartoon where a hunter shoots a bear drinking at a pond, then stuffs it so that it's rearing ferociously?

[Pembrokelib]

11:17 PM on 08/01/2011

The New Yorker is my favorite magazine and is considered the best by most critics. Also has great cartoons. I hope that everyone who enjoyed reading this will try the magazine. Free at your local library. Parts free on Internet. Really worth paying for.

[speckitis]

01:56 AM on 08/02/2011

The iPad app for The New Yorker is awesome as well... Another good source for noteworthy reading is the Arts And Letters Daily (available online)

[RussT]

10:56 PM on 08/01/2011

I am halfway through the article. Very interesting reading. I could do withou the heavy praise for Obama when it really was our military and intelligence personnel that are the real heroes.

When Obama said he had to "Sleep on it" before giving the go ahead, I about lost it.

[BacSi]

12:48 PM on 08/02/2011

You would have rather liked the Bush approach?

Do not sleep on it. Go in guns ablazing. Declare victory. While the war goes on for many more years. And then you realize that the war should have never been fought in the first place.

Its the careful consideration before you act that I unlike you liked.

Having actually made small team raids similar to this one I like the fact that those in management get it correct. Even if they take an extra day to make sure it is correct.

Because when they do not Operators are needlessly killed. Something that is only a blip in an article to REMF's.

This was a perfect raid. And perfection on something like this is very very tough to do.

BTDT

[Shukr]

10:41 PM on 08/01/2011

My heart was racing for our brave men while reading this beautifully written article. So intense yet the ending was the best part of it all. Salute!

[1differentdrummer]

10:21 PM on 08/01/2011

I hate to be picky, but you don't "shimmy" down a rope. To shimmy is to dance in a sort of provacative way, maybe not far from a belly dance. What you do down a rope is "shinny."

[DungBeetle]

10:13 PM on 08/01/2011

Well written. Excellent propaganda piece.

[Pembrokelib]

11:19 PM on 08/01/2011

It is factual and makes no judgements. That is NOT propaganda. Look up the definition in the dictionary.

[speckitis]

02:01 AM on 08/02/2011

Propaganda is to stand underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner in 2003.

What the article represents is a thorough attempt to understand the timeline of events that lead to the killing of OBL in May of this year. BIG DIFFERENCE.

[BacSi]

12:51 PM on 08/02/2011

Oh man do I miss the good old days of Victory Banners.

I got such a chubby from that one on a carrier

[ge971]

09:33 PM on 08/01/2011

That was a great read. Those guys are awesome, I wanna give that dog a box of Liv-A-Snaps!
Good Doggie