The US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, which aimed dozens of receivers over Pakistan to collect a torrent of electronic and signals intelligence as the mission unfolded, according to a top-secret US intelligence document.
The National Security Agency also was able to penetrate guarded communications among al Qaeda operatives by tracking calls from mobile phones identified by specific calling patterns, the document shows. Analysts from the CIA pinpointed the geographic location of one of the phones and linked it to the compound in Abbottabad, where other evidence suggested bin Laden was hiding, a report carried by The Washington Post on Friday said.
The disclosures about the hunt for the elusive founder of al Qaeda are contained in classified documents that detail the fiscal 2013 “black budget” for US intelligence agencies, including the NSA and the CIA. The documents provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, make only brief references to the bin Laden operation. But the mission is portrayed as a singular example of counterterrorism cooperation among the US government’s numerous intelligence agencies.
Eight hours after the raid, according to the documents, a forensic intelligence laboratory run by the Defence Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan had analysed DNA from bin Laden’s corpse and “provided a conclusive match” confirming his identity. The budget further reveals that satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office performed more than 387 “collects” of high-resolution and infrared images of the Abbottabad compound in the month before the raid — intelligence that was “critical to prepare for the mission and contributed to the decision to approve execution”.
Also playing a role in the search for bin Laden was an arm of the NSA known as the Tailored Access Operations group. Among other functions, the group specialises in surreptitiously installing spyware and tracking devices on targeted computers and mobile-phone networks.
Although the budget does not provide detail, it reports that Tailored Access Operations “implants” enabled the NSA to collect intelligence from mobile phones that were used by al Qaeda operatives and other “persons of interest” in the hunt for bin Laden.
Separately, Tailored Access Operations capabilities were used in April 2011, the month before bin Laden was killed, when US forces in Afghanistan relied on signals intelligence from implants to capture 40 low- and mid-level Taliban fighters and other insurgents in that country, according to the documents.
In addition to the satellites, the government flew an advanced stealth drone, the RQ-170, over Pakistan to eavesdrop on electronic transmissions. The CIA also recruited a Pakistani doctor and other public health workers to try to obtain blood samples from people living in the Abbottabad compound as part of a vaccination program to determine whether the residents might be related to bin Laden.
For all their technological prowess, the US spy agencies were unable to identify bin Laden with confidence inside the Abbottabad compound. By the time President Barack Obama ordered a team of Navy SEALs to storm the site in May 2011, US intelligence officials told the president that, according to their best guesses, the odds that bin Laden was present were 40 percent to 60 percent.
Even after bin Laden’s death, the US government kept up its relentless high-tech campaign to unlock his secrets.
Budget documents show that intelligence agencies scraped together $2.5 million in emergency money in September 2011 to sift through a backlog of computer files and other evidence recovered from bin Laden’s hideout. The money went to buy 36 computer workstations and pay overtime to forensic examiners, linguists and “triage personnel” involved in the project.
We should learn something from them…notwithstanding the resource availability, but the way it was executed professionally……this shows that the US govt will go to any length to protect their homeland and their citizen anywhere in the world and all political parties will be found on one platform, even though many personally may have difference of opinion, but on foreign policy.and where country's interest is concern, they are on same page from Repulican to the Democrats…..that is the reason for US being a superpower….and they all pay their taxes deligently and hence, expects their govt to stand by their citizen anywhere in the world….and they have proved it on more than once.
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