SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden (28 page)

The cancelation of fighter cover was accepted but there was grumbling. There were sound reasons to scrub the fighter mission. Intruding in Pakistani airspace to interdict the most famous terrorist in the world was probably excusable. It was quite another matter to do so
and
shoot down the fighters of what was, at least on paper, an ally. The Hornets were left on the carrier, and probably for the best.

TF-160’s Ghost Hawk helicopters had been transported to Jalalabad aboard a pair of C-5A Galaxy transports. Reassembled in locked hangars, the mission aircraft included two of the older model Stealth Hawks, and a pair of newer and more powerful Ghost Hawks. In addition to being quieter, the Ghost Hawks were longer ranged and had a greater payload. The latest Ghost Hawks also had advanced avionics, and carried their own onboard electronic countermeasures. The Ghost Hawks were some of the most highly classified technology that America had ever developed.

The men planning Operation Neptune’s Spear were faced with a dilemma. Now that fighter cover was not available they could not in good conscience send this highly classified technology into harm’s way. If the Pakistani air force detected an airspace violation they would, at the very least, force the intruders to land. It was more likely that they would shoot first and sort it out later.

For decades, a near state of war has existed between Pakistan and India. Both countries have nuclear weapons and stare at each across a contested frontier that is covered by sophisticated radar and early warning systems. SEAL Team Six would have to skirt this border area to enter Pakistani airspace, cross almost one hundred miles of ground, conduct their operation, and then withdraw back into Afghanistan.

The mission had not changed, but the support package had. If the Pakistanis discovered the helicopters, TF-160’s pilots would have two choices: surrender and land, or be blown out of the sky. In either case, America’s most precious technological secrets would be exposed. Very reluctantly, the decision was made to use the older Stealth Hawk models, though they were smaller, had less range, and could carry fewer operators.

To accommodate the reduced range of the Stealth Hawks, it was necessary to plan a forward air refueling point (FARP) midway between Jalalabad and Bin Laden’s compound. No one had to be reminded that an accident at a forward refueling position had doomed the American rescue effort in Iran in 1979. The catastrophic failure of Operation Eagle Claw saw an incumbent president, Jimmy Carter, tossed from office in the 1980 presidential elections.

The Stealth Hawks carried enough fuel to reach Abbottabad, but not enough fuel to return to base. It was decided to fly two CH-47s to a dry riverbed inside Afghanistan to meet the Stealth Hawks when they returned. One of them would carry the fuel bladders and aircrew trained to conduct the refuel operation. It is no small feat to refuel two helicopters with rotors churning on a moonless night in the middle of nowhere. And it required a little luck, too.

Operation Eagle Claw had gone haywire when its refueling spot was stumbled on by a busload of Iranian civilians. In the confusion, a helicopter collided with a C-130 filled with fuel and ammunition. The resulting explosion lit the night sky for miles and forced the rescuers to abandon their plans, three American helicopters, and the bodies of eight dead Americans.

In this operation, two MH-47 helicopters were designated Flashlight 1 and 2. Flashlight 1 was loaded with fuel bladders, and hoses and pumps to gas up the Stealth Hawks when they flew back across the border into Afghanistan. Flashlight 2 would be loaded with twenty SEAL Team Six operators who would secure the forward air refueling position and guard the helicopters from Taliban insurgents. The operators securing the fuel stop were equipped with Stinger antiaircraft missiles in case the Pakistani air force fighters declared hot pursuit and followed the Stealth Hawks back across the border. It would be their lawful right to do so. In the event that an ambush awaited the SEALs at Osama’s compound, the operators aboard Flashlight 2 could be used as a quick reaction force to help the SEALs fight their way off the target and back into friendlier territory.

The decision not to risk the Ghost Hawks added layers of complexity to the mission, but was considered absolutely necessary. It would have been foolish to send the Ghost Hawks into combat without cover. Though the fighters were canceled, an EA-6B “Prowler” electronic warfare aircraft would be launched from the USS
Carl Vinson
to jam Pakistan’s air defenses as the Stealth Hawks penetrated Pakistani airspace. It was a lot better than nothing.

The Navy’s EA-6B Prowlers are complex and highly classified themselves. Prowlers usually fly unarmed. They are not particularly fast or agile, but they have the ability to spoof an enemy’s radar, blinding it to airplanes that are present, and even making would-be interceptors see bogies that are not actually there. A lone Prowler would be used to jam Pakistani radar for the 210 minutes that the Stealth Hawks would be in Pakistan. In order to fly this mission, the Prowler would have to be refueled itself, conducting an in-flight rendezvous over the Indian Ocean, at night, with another Prowler fitted with air-to-air refueling gear. On every level, Operation Neptune’s Spear depended on the consummate skills of air crews.

At 2100 hours, 9:00 p.m. Afghan time, on the evening of May 1, live video of Bin Laden’s compound began to stream into the Joint Operations Center at Jalalabad. The Sentinel’s high-resolution cameras rendered the compound in shades of green. The resolution was so precise that one of Bin Laden’s bodyguards could be seen checking the lock on the front gate and walking between the buildings carrying a flashlight. Invisible to radar, the Sentinel flew in a circular pattern over Abbottabad. At an altitude of twenty thousand feet, no one on the ground could see or hear it. The Sentinel was a tiny speck in a vast, dark night.

Red Squadron’s element commanders joined Admiral McRaven in the operations center and watched the video feed of the compound. Nothing looked different from the hundreds of aerial photographs they had studied. There had been no increase in security, and most important, the overhead imagery revealed that the sliding glass doors of the third floor were open. This would be the SEALs’ main entrance.

On the third floor, where Osama had his bedroom, some of the windows facing the front of the compound had been bricked in. The other windows were closed tight as well. The only source of ventilation for the third floor was three sliding glass doors that adjoined a walled-in back patio.

In most other respects the compound was well fortified. Osama and his bodyguards had planned for almost every eventuality to thwart an attack from the ground. The compound was surrounded with a high wall topped with barbed wire. The gates of the compound wall were metal. The doors of the main building were each secured by iron grillwork, and even inside the house similar metal gates were used to cut off one section of the house from another. The stairway through the center of the main house was locked with an iron gate on the first floor. Osama and his bodyguards had considered attack from every angle—except the sky.

*   *   *

Red Squadron’s leader is a muscular six-footer with a trace of a Tidewater, Virginia, accent and quick, piercing green eyes. There was almost always a pinch of Copenhagen snuff tucked into Frank Leslie’s lower lip. He had been in command of the Red Men for almost two years and was well liked by his shooters. There were two other officers in Red Squadron, and both would play key roles in tonight’s mission.

The element commander of Group Two did not present the picture that the American public probably has of a SEAL Team Six operator. He had the lean build of a cross-country runner and was an expert kayaker. He, too, had a trace of a southern drawl, and like his boss seemed to subsist on Copenhagen and black coffee. Rich Horn was fond of saying that all he needed to run an operation was caffeine, nicotine, and kerosene. The kerosene was to be burned by the helicopter that carried him. Nicotine and caffeine he considered health food. The third officer in Red Squadron was a recent graduate of Green Team. He’d seen a lot of Afghanistan as a platoon commander and later a troop leader for SEAL Teams Four and Eight. Although he was relatively new to Six he was no stranger to indoor gunfights.

The lead Stealth Hawk was designated Razor 1 and would be flown by one of the first pilots ever to take a Stealth helicopter into combat. He was experienced and aggressive. Razor 1 would carry ten assaulters, including members of SEAL Team Six’s sniper cell, and two demolitionists who would carry plastic explosive cutting charges to blow their way through the terrace doors should they find them locked, or even through the roof itself, if necessary, to gain access to the third floor. Razor 1 would be the ground force honcho until the Command Bird and Scott Kerr arrived with reinforcements. Razor 2, the second Stealth Hawk, would be piloted by a second ten-year veteran of TF-160. Razor 2 would deliver another ten-shooter assault element. It also carried a pair of snipers, veterans of the
Maersk Alabama
, and a designated spotter who would also direct cover fire into the doors and windows of the compound as Razor 1 made its approach and landed on the roof.

The entire operation depended on the snipers’ ability to prevent anyone from taking the approaching helicopters under fire. They had to be especially vigilant that no gunmen made it to the roof of any of the buildings, or got a clear shot on Razor 1 as it settled onto the roof of the main building.

The Stealth Hawks were quiet, but they were not silent. It was certain that at some point people inside the compound would notice that a pair of black helicopters was landing on top of them. One determined rifleman could bring down both Stealth Hawks with a single well-placed magazine, and if the men in the compound had time to retrieve their shoulder-fired Strela missiles, they could take down the Stealth Hawks and every other flying thing in sight.

The SEALs were prepared to get through the compound’s massive driveway doors, and even the walls of the compound. The breechers packed heavy—each man carried as much as twenty pounds of high explosives. They were prepared to open truck-size holes through cement walls, and precision-cut the doors of the main building and the guesthouses. Every assaulter aboard Razor 1 and 2 knew both his place in the chain of command and what to do if communications were lost with the operations center. They would seize and hold the compound and flush out the man they came after.

After landing on the roof, Razor 1 would clear downward, floor by floor until the main house was secured. Razor 2 would provide sniper cover until Razor 1 assaulters were in the building. They would then land on the guesthouse roof, jump down, and secure the outbuildings. After that, they would blow the gates and rush the main building. It would also be their job to separate the shooters from the noncombatants.

It was not out of the question to anticipate that the terrorists might turn their weapons deliberately or accidentally on the women and children that filled all three structures. The assault would require surgical shooting, split-second timing all in the first thirty seconds—and a not inconsiderable amount of luck.

Following five minutes behind the Stealth Hawks would be two Chinooks carrying the command element and the balance of Red Squadron. Scott Kerr’s MH-47 was christened the Command Bird. After the Razor 1 came through the roof, the Command Bird would land outside the compound, and Scott Kerr would take charge of a search operation. Another CH-47, armed with three M-134 Gatling guns, would accompany the Command Bird to the compound. The Gun Platform would orbit over the main house and engage any armored vehicles or bodies of troops that attempted to interfere with the operation.

Everyone hoped that no suppressing fire would be needed, that the operation would achieve surprise, and that the raiders would be in and out of the compound before the Pakistanis realized that four American helicopters had come across the border.

A SEAL’s hopes very rarely come true.

As many as thirty people were expected to be inside the buildings, including three of Osama’s wives and dozens of his children. The instant Razor 1 landed on the roof, the SEALs planned for chaos.

Intelligence had placed Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti, the courier, Osama bin Laden’s twenty-something sons Hazma and Khalid, and four other bodyguards scattered between the main building and the guesthouses. The SEALs were prepared to meet heavy resistance. Aboard the Command Bird, SEAL medical corpsmen were prepared to treat the wounded. Additional communicators were also on hand to make certain that the operation and its results were passed along quickly to the Joint Operations Center.

As Red Squadron rehearsed its assault at Camp Pickett and later in the Nevada desert, the CIA pressed JSOC to include some CIA personnel into the assault force. The SEALs were reluctant to conduct dynamic room-clearing operations with anyone they had not trained or operated with. There was an interagency squabble, and Leon Panetta prevailed. Included in the assault force was a Pakistani-American CIA case officer who would serve as an interpreter. He had never before in his life inserted by fast rope and had to be trained to do so. The interpreter would ride aboard Razor 2 as a passenger, sharing the already overstuffed cabin with Red Squadron’s K-9 weapons system, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois named Karo. Karo got his name as a puppy when he somehow found a bottle of the sugary syrup, gnawed off its top, and drank the contents. Both Karo and the interpreter would be set down by Razor 2 outside the compound and would enter after the front gates were blown.

Karo was equipped with his own body armor and a pair of goggles to protect his eyes during the explosive breaching and the firefight that was expected to follow. It was anticipated that sorting combatants from noncombatants would be a complicated process. Karo had the ability to sniff out explosives and would be vital in detecting booby traps or suicide bombs should any be found in the compound.