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1980s: US trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion. Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, 2002
11th September 1991: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people. ibid.
Televisions had been banned in Afghanistan but these men were honoured guests. Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda faithful were there to watch the horror of 9/11 unfold. What al Qaeda called the Manhattan Raid. So the West invaded Afghanistan. Afghanistan: War Without End? BBC 2010
Washington rejected a deal with the Taliban. Their Afghan mission was kill or capture, and they made no distinction between Taliban and al Qaeda. ibid.
The Americans had deployed less than a hundred troops in which to seal all routes out of these vast mountains. ibid.
Greeting the fugitives were not only friends and family but also elements of Pakistan’s military intelligence sympathetic to al Qaeda and who had also helped the Taliban win the Afghan civil war in the 1990s. ibid.
I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on it, to be honest with you. George W Bush
I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and don’t really care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority. George W Bush, 13 March 2002, cited fromtheleft online
How has Osama bin Laden become the most wanted man in the world? ... Why wasn’t he stopped before 9/11? ... Why does the US send in such a small team? ... Why is the US recruiting the Northern Alliance? ... Are the local forces reliable allies? ... Have the Taliban and al Qaeda prepared for a US attack? ... How important is it to catch Osama bin Laden? ... How committed are Afghan fighters to America’s search for bin Laden? ... Why doesn’t he [George Bush] send in more US troops? ... Why would Osama bin Laden retreat to Tora Bora? ... Is bin Laden actually at Tora Bora? ... How could Osama bin Laden have escaped? ... Could the US have prevented bin Laden’s escape? The Final Report: Osama’s Escape, 2006
In July 2006 it was announced that the CIA’s bin Laden Unit established in 1996 had been shut down sometime in 2005. ibid.
We are tightening the noose. It’s a matter of time. General Tommy Franks, November 2001
You’ve had eight years, now get us bin Laden, Brown urges Pakistan. The Times online article 30th November 2009
So as you go through it you see the evidence just gets stronger and stronger and more and more accumulative that the fellow is dead and has been dead for a very long time. And therefore, as Israeli Intelligence predicted, if videos start appearing, this means they’re fabrications. David Ray Griffin, interview Guns & Butter 22nd July 2009, author Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?
The hunt for bin Laden has been the major pretext for selling the ongoing war in Afghanistan, which has now expanded into Pakistan, so it’s widely called the Af-Pak War. ibid.
The funeral was reported for December 15th [2002] and in Muslim countries it’s customary to bury the dead very quickly ... This was announced in a Pakistani newspaper; it was picked up by an Egyptian newspaper; it was even of all things picked up by Fox News. ibid.
And yet in this video [November 2001 video] with a pen he writes with his right hand ... This bin Laden has short, heavy hands ... There are all sorts of things bin Laden wouldn’t have said if he was responsible for 9/11. ibid.
Even if he [Osama bin Laden] had a dialysis machine it would have been very difficult to keep him alive in those circumstances. And you know, the kidney failure may well have been so far advanced by then ... You can’t keep people alive indefinitely ... We’ve got a lot – a lot – a lot – of evidence that he is dead. ibid.
All of a sudden in 2007 he’s got a perfectly black beard [6th September 2007 video] ibid.
The only evidence that bin Laden is still alive are these audio and video tapes – none of them can be proven to be authentic, and at least three of them can be shown to be almost certainly fake. David Ray Griffin
Exclusive: CIA Commander: US Let Bin Laden Slip Away. Newsweek 15th August 2005
I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to get him. I’ll get him no matter what, and I know how to do it. John McCain, presidential campaign promise
It’s not cold: it’s frozen over. There isn’t no trail any more. We haven’t had eyes on this target now for over eight years. Bruce Riedel, former CIA officer & presidential adviser
Almost a decade after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces during an early morning raid in Pakistan. But the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist doesn’t mean the end for al Qaeda. The men he inspired are more than ready to step into the void. Inside 9/11: What Happened Next
On December 13th US forces intercept radio transmissions from bin Laden as he says goodbye to his remaining al Qaeda fighters at Tora Bora. ibid.
Al Qaeda comes to rely on its growing legion of web-savvy followers to disseminate videos on the internet. ibid.
Some in Pakistan view the Taliban as an important ally in a turbulent region. ibid.
Now some of its most dangerous recruits are US citizens. ibid.
One of Al Qaeda’s key recruitment tools is the internet. ibid.
On their way out the Seals siege the single largest collection of materials ever taken from a terrorist leader. ibid.
Betrayed? Of course. Pakistan knew his hiding place all along. Robert Fisk, The Independent 3rd May 2011
Operation Neptune Spear ... The world’s most wanted terrorist – Osama bin Laden – was dead. Within hours news of the clandestine black operation, or black op, spread across the world. America’s Book of Secrets s1e10: Black Op, History 2012
Targeting America’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. How did the US find him? And how did they execute the mission? ... May 1st 2011 ... Operation Neptune Spear. Killing Bin Laden s/a Death of bin Laden
As the choppers head deeper into Pakistan territory the SEALS review their mission. ibid.
One of the black hawks clips the compound wall. ibid.
After a few weeks’ of surveillance President Obama is told about the compound and informed it might be hiding a very high value target. ibid.
Phase two: unmanned drones; phase three: on the ground surveillance. ibid.
The evidence is hardly rock solid. The meeting lasted a reported two hours. ibid.
And there’s a specially trained member of the strike team: a dog. ibid.
The strike team is in and out in thirty-eight minutes. With them what is believed to be the body of Osama bin Laden. ibid.
The raid yields what’s being called a treasure trove of intelligence, including ten hard drives, five computers and more than one hundred storage devices. ibid.
Nearly ten years after 9/11 the world’s most wanted man is very much alive ... This is the inside story of the people who confronted that threat. Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill, Channel 4 2011
‘Kuwaiti’ becomes a key target of every American intelligence agency. ibid.
Elite al Qaeda couriers don’t always destroy their Sim cards. ibid.
During the summer of 2010 ... A man in north-west Pakistan is speaking in Arabic to a friend of his from the Gulf States. The friend is a known al Qaeda sympathiser. The listeners are convinced that the Pakistani voice is that of super-courier al Kuwaiti. And what he’s saying astonishes them. ibid.
The CIA finally has a trace on a man who could break al Qaeda’s leadership wide open. ibid.