Dirty Wars (129 page)

439
“
On this mission
”:
Ibid., p. 168.

439
“
In terms of difficulty
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, pp. 185–186.

439
“
it helps that he's from central casting
”:
Ibid., p. 185.

439
“
A lawyer from either
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 177.

440
“
What are the odds
”:
Conversation between Bissonnette and “Jen,” ibid., pp. 182–184.

440
8:20 a.m.
:
Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper, “Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden,”
New York Times
, May 2, 2011.

440 “
It's a go
”: Tom Donilon, interview for History Channel special,
Targeting Bin Laden
, broadcast September 6, 2011.

440
“
Try not to shoot
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 192.

440
promoted to SOCOM commander
:
Ibid., p. 275.

440
“
And we'll get Obama reelected
”:
Ibid., p. 193.

441
moonless night
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 192.

441
delay the raid
:
Ibid., p. 208.

441
“
I couldn't have any more confidence
”:
Jake Tapper, “President Obama to National Security Team: ‘It's a Go,'” Political Punch (blog),
ABCNews.go.com
, May 2, 2011.

441
Correspondents' Dinner
:
“2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner,” C-Span video, 1:28:17, coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 30, 2011,
www.c-spanvideo.org/program/299256–1
.

441
“
standing room only
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 194.

441
“
The story was preposterous
”:
Ibid., p. 195.

442
given them the green light
:
Ibid., p. 196.

442
around 8:00 a.m.
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 212.

442
Costco
:
Nicholas Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden: What Happened That Night in Abbottabad,”
New Yorker
, August 8, 2011.

442
Multiple pizzerias
:
Interview with President Barack Obama, “Inside the Situation Room,”
Rock Center
, NBC, May 2, 2012.

442
At around 1:00 p.m.
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 213.

442
round of golf
:
Darlene Superville (AP), “Obama's Golf Shoes a Clue to bin Laden Raid?”
NBCnews.com
, May 3, 2011.

442
could only seat seven people
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 217.

442
RQ-170 stealth drone, secure communications
:
Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden.”

442
told to stay put
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 217.

442
inner circle was arguing
:
Ibid.

442
“
I need to watch this
”:
Schmidle,“ Getting Bin Laden.”

443
“
ended up [on a] folding chair
”:
Interview with President Barack Obama, “Inside the Situation Room.”

443
11:00 p.m. in Abbottabad
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 214.

443
Black Hawks took off
:
Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden.”

443
“
It was nail-biting time
”:
Interview with John Brennan,
Targeting Bin Laden
, History Channel special, broadcast September 6, 2011.

443
rumored to be developing
:
Christopher Drew, “Attack on Bin Laden Used Stealthy Helicopter That Had Been a Secret,”
New York Times
, May 5, 2011.

443
“
nap of the earth
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 215.

443
“
Any time that you've got a mission
”:
Author interview, General Hugh Shelton, March 2011.

443
Three MH-47 Chinooks
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 216.

443
Kala Dhaka
:
Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden.”

443
twenty minutes
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 220.

443
monitored the events
:
Ibid., p. 216.

444
occasional question
:
Peter Bergen,
Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden
—
from 9/11 to Abbottabad
(New York: Crown Publishers, 2012), p. 218.

444
ten minutes
:
Mark Owen, with Kevin Maurer,
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
(New York: Dutton, 2012), p. 210.

444
“
Several of the houses we passed
”:
Ibid., pp. 210–211.

444
“
Looking down thirty feet into the compound
”:
Ibid., p. 6.

444
high temperature, weight of the stealth system
:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 218.

444
“
we're going in
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 8.

445
“
The helicopter shuddered
”:
Ibid., p. 214.

445
“
If any other part of the helicopter
”:
Ibid., p. 215.

445
“
My heart sank
”:
Ibid., p. 7.

445
“
That wasn't in the script
”:
Interview with Barack Obama, History Channel special,
Targeting Bin Laden
, broadcast September 6, 2011.

445
“
Those were really intense moments
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 219.

445
“
everyone went, like, ‘Whoa
'”:
Interview with Joe Biden, “Inside the Situation Room,”
Rock Center
, NBC, May 2, 2012.

445
“
We will now be amending
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 220.

446
“
His demeanor did not change
”:
Interview with Ben Rhodes, History Channel special,
Targeting Bin Laden
, broadcast September 6, 2011.

446
“
a cool customer
”:
Interview with Barack Obama, “Inside the Situation Room,”
Rock Center
, NBC, May 2, 2012.

446
“
We had a sense that
”:
Interview with Barack Obama, History Channel special,
Targeting Bin Laden.

446
“
He is dead
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 222.

446
“
I spotted a pair of feet
”:
Ibid., p. 223.

446
“
The courier's AK-47
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 221.

446
another group of SEALs
:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 226.

446
they fell out of contact
:
Nicholas Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden: What Happened That Night in Abbottabad,”
New Yorker
, August 8, 2011.

446
“
big chunks of time
”:
Transcript, “Obama on bin Laden: The Full ‘60 Minutes' Interview,” by Steve Kroft,
60 Minutes
, CBS, May 4, 2011.

447
“
We were really in a blackout situation
”:
Interview with Barack Obama,
Targeting Bin Laden.

447
“
were set at ninety-degree angles
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 230.

447
“
Khalid
”:
Ibid., p. 231.

447
“
What was Khalid thinking
”:
Transcript, “Killing bin Laden,”
60 Minutes
, CBS, September 9, 2012.

447
fired two suppressed rounds
:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 235.

447
“
In that second
”:
Phil Bronstein, “The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed,”
Esquire
, February 11, 2013,
http://www.esquire.com/features/man-who-shot-osama-bin-laden-0313
. The account of the SEAL who shot bin Laden differs from Bissonnette's in a few key places. “The Shooter,” as he is called in the
Esquire
piece, says that the women were tackled in the hallway, and that bin Laden was alive and standing in the room when the SEAL shot him in the face. He also claims to have been certain of bin Laden's identity on sight. In his book, Bissonnette appears to assume that bin Laden was fatally shot as the SEALs were coming up the stairs. The differences are likely attributable to the men's different positions in the house on the night of bin Laden's death, and readers are encouraged to review both sources.

447
“
We saw the man lying on the floor
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 236.

447
“
A hole in his forehead
”:
Ibid., p. 239.

448
“
the American public doesn't want to know
”:
Bronstein, “The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden.”

448
“
With each swipe
”:
Owen,
No Easy Day.
p. 241.

448
“
This had been carefully planned
”:
Ibid., p. 245.

448
questioned the older woman
:
Ibid., pp. 245–246.

448
“
Geronimo E.K.I.A.
”:
Ibid., p. 247.

448
“
We got him
”:
Interview with Ben Rhodes,
Targeting Bin Laden.

449
“
I've got a Geronimo call
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 225.

449
gather as many of bin Laden's belongings
:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 252.

449
found two guns
:
Ibid., pp. 248–249.

449
“
I saw soldiers emerging
”:
Qaswar Abbas and Sandeep Unnithan, “How Pak Is Trapped in Web of Deceit,”
India Today
, May 16, 2011.

449
“
We never saw their clothes
”:
Transcript,
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
, CNN, May 12, 2011.

449
“
We all knew the risks of running out of gas”
: Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 251.

449
“
We looked like a gypsy camp
”:
Ibid., p. 252.

450
the remaining stealth Black Hawk
:
Ibid., p. 253.

450
$60-million bonfire
:
Bob Woodward, “Death of Osama bin Laden: Phone Call Pointed U.S. to Compound—and to ‘the Pacer,'”
Washington Post
, May 6, 2011. The price tag of the helicopter was revealed when Woodward reported President Obama's retort to the news of a SEAL lying down next to bin Laden's corpse to measure his height: “We donated a $60 million helicopter to this operation. Could we not afford a tape measure?”

450
1:00 a.m., just before the SEALs took off
:
Zahid Hussain, Matthew Rosenberg, and Jeremy Paige, “Slow Dawn After Midnight Raid,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 9, 2011.

450
“
Inform me as soon as our helicopters are out
”:
Bergen,
Manhunt
, p. 228.

450
separate routes
:
Ibid.

450
On the tarmac in Jalalabad
:
Owen,
No Easy Day
, p. 262.

450
choppered out to the Arabian Sea
:
Schmidle, “Getting Bin Laden.”

450
“
Traditional procedures for Islamic burial
”:
Associated Press, “Military Emails Reveal Details of bin Laden Burial,”
CBSNews.com
, November 22, 2012.

451
“
Good evening
”:
Transcript, “Remarks by the President on Osama bin Laden,” May 2, 2011.

451
“
did resist the assault force
”:
Transcript, “Press Briefing by Senior Administration Officials on the Killing of Osama bin Laden,” May 2, 2011.

451
seven of the eleven adults
:
Peter Bergen, “A Visit to Osama bin Laden's Lair,”
CNN.com
, May 3, 2012.

451
According to Pakistani officials
:
Robert Booth, Saeed Shah, and Jason Burke, “Osama bin Laden Death: How Family Scene in Compound Turned to Carnage,”
Guardian
, May 5, 2011.

451
“
The US administration made clear
”:
Amnesty International, Annual Report 2012, “United States of America,” 2012,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/region/usa/report-2012
.