How can we be sure osama is dead

The CIA rejects this view, saying that the Pakistani top brass did not know. There is one other possible explanation however - the murky history of rogue elements within Pakistan's military and intelligence service sympathetic to Islamic militants. It is possible someone knew about or helped shelter Bin Laden. And it seemed incredible to me when I went to the Abbottabad compound before it was demolished that he could have lived right under the nose of Pakistan's military elite close to the country's military academy.

Carlotta Gall, who reported for the New York Times from Pakistan, supports Mr Hersh's account of knowledge at the top level of the army and intelligence service.

But some respected security experts dispute that and say it is just not plausible that the top levels knew about Bin Laden. The problem for Mr Hersh is that his account is largely based on one American source, a retired senior intelligence officer in the US government who he does not name.

Mr Morell dismisses that, saying this person was never in the meetings he was in - meetings which were completely different to Mr Hersh's account. Events on the night of the raid to kill Bin Laden still raise questions. He was shot dead within 12 minutes of the first Seals - members of the US Navy's special operations force - landing. But one of the helicopters crashed, there was shooting and blasting of doors and some Seals were on the ground for 40 minutes.

Neighbours alerted the local police but they were told to stand down by the Abbottabad army command. So is it possible the Americans warned the Pakistanis at the last minute about a raid on a high-value target - without saying who, and that local authorities turned a blind eye? Some security analysts in Pakistan favour this theory. One of Mr Hersh's most shocking allegations - that US Navy Seals threw parts of Bin Laden's body out of the helicopter - is not based on speaking to the Seals involved but on access to some of their de-briefings.

Howard Wasdin, a former Seal, knows men who were on the operation. In the London Telegraph , Abbottabad resident Bashir Qureshi dismissed the idea that bin Laden and his family lived in the area.

We've never seen any Arabs around here, he was not here. Newspapers in the country allege the raid was set up so U. Former ISI officials seconded that idea in Western media, noting that someone was killed and removed by the U.

The real bin Laden was already dead, they said, and the U. Another theory promoted by the Iranian regime says that the U. This theory alleges that killing Osama bin Laden was a stunt by the Obama Administration in order to secure an election victory -- even though the presidential election was more than a year away at the time.

He can also be found on Twitter blakestilwell or on Facebook. Whether you're thinking of joining the military, looking for post-military careers or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military. Subscribe to Military. He describes what life Twenty-nine of the forty-four men who have served as our nation's commander-in-chief have military backgrounds themselves Armistice Day remembrances have been observed worldwide after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out ceremonies last year to mark Due to racism and discrimination, many Black WWII veterans received substantially less money toward purchasing a home or At least five service members allegedly were part of the deadly pro-Trump mob that assaulted the U.

What did you learn that surprised even you, a person who has been closely reporting this story for years? You say the book is an attempt to explain the transformation of bin Laden from a devoutly religious, soft-spoken person to a radical leader intent on killing as many Americans as possible. What did you learn from that investigation that might be helpful to us going forward? This book is an attempt to explain how that transformation happened. For bin Laden, his radicalization was a process that played out over decades.

Why was she so important to the story? Just one week out of the University of Virginia, with a degree in economics and foreign policy, Gina Bennett started working at the State Department as a clerk-typist in June Bennett realized that the Afghan Arabs were returning to their home countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, and she noticed that some were joining armed groups.

Bennett started researching the bombings of two hotels in Aden, Yemen, in December that were housing U.