SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden by Chuck Pfarrer

Author:Chuck Pfarrer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Military, Terrorism, History, Middle East, Special Forces
ISBN: 9781429960250
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2011-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Zawahiri had become Osama’s puppet master. The doctor encouraged Osama to expand the base at the Lion’s Den, and dig increasingly intricate tunnels, bunkers, and air raid shelters. There was no tactical or strategic point to this useless feat of engineering. How the activity of bulldozers, road graders, and tunneling equipment failed to attract the attention of Russian helicopter gunships is anyone’s guess. The base expanded, and the Russians were either blithely ignorant or unwilling to leave the security of their own bunkers.

As the base expanded, Osama’s would-be commandos were anxious to kill Russians. Osama was content to build his base and wait. In March 1987, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia for another round of fund-raising and consultations with Prince Turki, the head of Saudi intelligence. They would discuss, among other things, what was to happen in Afghanistan after the Soviet departure, which was now foreseen as inevitable.

In Osama’s absence, a subordinate launched an ill-conceived attack on the nearby Russian base. It would have stirred a hornet’s nest. Osama returned to the Lion’s Den just as the attack was nearing fruition—he called it back and chastised the instigators.

The attack was canceled, but there was grumbling in the camp—his men wanted action and Osama was not secure enough as a military leader to tell them that the time was not yet right to bring on a general engagement.

The complaining got worse, with Zawahiri’s henchmen agitating for another move against the nearby Russians. Osama was goaded into action. On April 17, 1987, Osama put himself in the point element of one hundred fighters chosen to hit an Afghan Army outpost near the city of Khost. One can imagine Zawahiri waiting for the result.

The operation was the worst-kept secret of the Soviet-Afghan war. Zawahiri made certain that news of the attack was spread all over Peshawar. Bored Jihadis took it upon themselves to take buses up to the base camp at Jaji and insert themselves into the attacking column. One intrepid American-born Jihadi, Abu Rida, drove his own car from the city and found the gathering column by asking a mule driver where to find Osama bin Laden.

The staging area was a chaos of shouting troops, braying mules, crackling radios. Orders and counterorders were shouted down the valley. First, the cars carrying ammunition were delayed and the attacking troops were without rifle bullets. Rocket launchers and mortars had to be manhandled into positions to cover the attack—something that could have been done days in advance. No provision had been made for food or water, and some men wandered back to base camp for something to eat. The electrical devices and wires necessary to fire the artillery rockets got left back at base. A rider was sent galloping and hallowing back up the mountain to retrieve them.

Osama’s collegial leadership style did not seem to empower officers to give orders. There was a lot of standing around. By twos and threes, some fighters went back to their bunkers and went to sleep. No one seemed to have thought to stop them.

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