THE MANHUNT FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN

 Yesterday, Ukraine pulled off a spectacular drone attack on Russia that changed modern warfare:

• Outgunned, outmanned, outspent and out-USA'd, Ukraine $400 drones have changed the war with Russia.

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  By early this year, drones were accounting for 60% of 70% of the destruction to Russian equipment.
• Yesterday, in one swooping military operation, Operation Spider Web, 18 months in the planning, drones took out 30% of Russia's strategic bombers, maybe 41 of them.

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  Watch this Rachel Maddow reportage of this supreme embarrassment to Putin.
• The humiliating blow to the Kremlin was filmed by Ukraine to confirm the success.
• This attack in many ways compares to the Japan's strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
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  This did not only occur near the Ukraine-Russia border.
• One strike was Olenya on the Arctic Kola Peninsula.
• Another attack occurred at the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region in Eastern Siberia, where Tu-22m bombers were destroyed.
• Mostly hit were:

The Tupolev Tu-95, which was code named Bear by NATO, is a four-engine turboprop plane designed in the 1950s to rival the U.S. B-52 bomber. The aircraft has an intercontinental range and carries eight long-range cruise missiles that can be equipped with conventional or nuclear warheads.  Russia lost a significant part of its heavy bomber fleet in the attack “with no immediate ability to replace it,” said Douglas Barrie of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, noting that Moscow’s announced plan to develop the next generation strategic bomber is still in its early phase.

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  These strategic bombers were supposed to carry Russia into 2040.
• Russian defensive strategy was embarrassed, for photos showed that the Tu-95s were being protected only with rubber tires.  Obviously, this did not work.

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  Meanwhile, peace talks are continuing in Istanbul, where, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange prisoners but not to end the fighting.

Now on to my nostalgic topic of the day.  I just watched a new Netflix documentary:  American Manhunt:  Osama bin Laden.  Rotten Tomatoes scores of 100 by reviewers and 53 by audiences  When there is this kind of discrepancy, I usually side with the audience.  Not this time.  This documentary almost passes for a regular film, with an edge-of-your-seat edginess that keeps you transfixed.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden (ObL) was epic, beginning actually in 1999, two years before 9/11/2001, the most calamitous terrorist attack on the USA ever.

• Was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to the aristocratic bi Laden family, his father, Muhammed bin Laden being a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi Royal family  His mother was the tenth wife Hamida of Muhammed, who divorced him soon after Osama was born.  His father recommended Hamida thereafter marry an associate, and they had four other children.  Osama later inherited around $25-30 million.

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  Was a devout Sunni Muslim.
• Attended the elite Al Thager Model School and took English courses in Oxford, England.  Then earned a civil engineering degree from King Abdulaziz University.
• At 17 in 1974 married Najwa Ghanem at Latakia, Syria.  Also married five others.  Had 20-26 children. 
• ObL's bodyguard in his personal memoir described ObL as a frugal man and strict father, who enjoyed taking his large family on shooting trips and picnics in the desert.  Known to be soft-spoken and mild-mannered.

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  ObL's father  (right) died in 1967, and his eldest half-brother in 1988 both in plane crashes.
• Grew to be just over 6'4" tall and 160 pounds.
• Said to hate Americans what they did, not who they are.  Dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the U.S.  Described the formation of Israel as a crime that must be erased.
• Worked with the U.S. from 1979 to 1992 against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

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  With others, founded al-Qaeda in 1988.
• Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero of jihad.
• The Iraqi invasion under Saddam Hussein of Kuwait in 1990 put the Saudi kingdom at risk.  King Fahd accepted U.S. military assistance , a decision opposed by ObL for dealing with unbelievers. 

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  Later in 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of El Sayyid Nosair, who was linked to al-Qaeda, discovered terrorist plots to blow up New York City skyscrapers. 
• ObL was forced to leave the Saudi Arabia in 1991, going to Afghanistan, then Sudan.
• His terroristic attacks and bombings began in 1992.
• In 1993 was close to assassinating President Bill Clinton, and succeeded in the basement bombing of the World Trade Center.

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  He continued to criticize King Fahd in 1994, who stripped bin Laden of Saudi citizenship and persuaded his family to cut off his $7 million/year stipend.
• In 1995, attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but failed.
• Sudan expelled him in 1996.  That year issued a fatwā, declaring war against the U.S.
• Another fatwā  against the U.S. came in 1998 to attack the country, citing that North America was an easy target.

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  Funded the Luxor massacre of 1997.
• In 1998 came U.S. embassy bombings, with the CIA reporting that al-Qaeda was preparing attacks in the U.S., citing the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.  So we knew what was coming.

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  Was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list in 1999.
• The USS Cole was damaged in 2000.
• Bin Laden's overall strategy for achieving his goals against much larger enemies such as the Soviet Union and U.S. was to lure them into a long war of attrition in Muslim countries, attracting large numbers of jihadists who would never surrender. He believed this would lead to economic collapse of the enemy countries, by "bleeding" them dry.^[70]He also believed climate change to be a serious threat and penned a letter urging Americans to work with U.S. President Barack Obama to make a rational decision to "save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny".^[81][82]
• On 6August2001, President George W. Bush received an intelligence report titled, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.

• 
  Then came that catastrophic attack on 11September2011.
• I remember my wife and I having one of our finest dinners at Cellar in the Sky, located in the middle of Windows on the World restaurant located on the top of  the North Tower of  the World Trade Center.  To the right, before the attack.

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  Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes as missiles against four targets:  the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, but the United Airlines 93 was re-attacked by passengers, and crashed in Pennsylvania.  This fourth most probably was headed for the U.S. Capitol.
• 2750 were killed.
• ObL initially denied involvement.  However in 2004, he said he had personally directed the 19 hijackers.

I personally remember this event well.  

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  My wife was somehow watching CNN and saw what was happening.  She woke me up.
• At 8:46 AM EDT, (2:46 Hawaii time) American Airlines 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower.  I was still asleep.

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  I was awakened at around 3 AM Hawaii time and saw United Airlines 175 crashing into the South Tower at 9:03AM EDT.
• President George W. Bush was at 9:05 AM EDT in an elementary school classroom in Florida.
• At 9:37 AM EDT, American Airlines 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
• The U.S. airspace was shut down at 9:45AM EDT.
• Air Force One with President Bush takes of from Florida at 9:55AM.
• 9:57    Passengers on United Airlines 93 run up toward the cockpit.

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  9:59    The South Tower of the WTC collapses.  Took 1 hour and 13 minutes.  Watch this frightening video.
• 10:02  UA93 plows into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

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  10:28  The North Tower of the WTC collapses, 1 hour and 25 minute after crash.  Another video of the collapses.  The complete physics.
• 12:15  Airspace in the U.S. completely free of all flights.
• 1500    Air Force 1 lands in Nebraska and President Bush taken to a secure bunker capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.
• 1800    We were in bed still watching TV at noon in Hawaii.

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  1830    Building 7 of the WTC collapses.  I actually did not remember of this happening until              now.  Three collapses.
• 2030    President Bush addresses nation.

Osama bin Laden became the head of the snake, and all efforts were made to eliminate him.

• The documentary indicated what the CIA and other searchers did to catch him.

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  This was a film of total frustration until the end.
• The Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2002 and office of the Director of National Intelligence was created in 2005 to coordinate the intelligence community.
• There are no concrete details, but it is known that ObL attempted to secure nuclear weapons for his next attack on the USA.
• Nearly a decade after 9/11/2001, Osama bin Laden was finally killed in a Abbottabad, Pakistan compound.  

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  Remember that President Jimmy Carter had his Operation Eagle Claw in April of 1980 when he tried to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Iran.  But everything failed because there was a collision between a helicopter and a plane, killing 8 American soldiers.

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  Much of the documentary focused on that ten-year period, and the actual raid using real footage I had never seen.  As in Operation Eagle Claw, Obama's Operation Neptune Spear lost a helicopter, adding particular intrigue to the effort.  Unlike Carter, Obama won re-election, heavily influenced by the success of this attempt.

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