Kasia Madera is a British journalist and television news presenter, currently fronting the overnight bulletins on the BBC News and BBC World News, presenting the Newsday strand Thursday-Sunday from London with Rico Hizon in Singapore.^[1]

Born in London of Polish-immigrant parents, she graduated from Queen Mary & Westfield, University of London, with a 2:1 in French & Politics. She then completed a Broadcast Journalism Postgraduate Diploma from City University, London.^[2]

After joining the BBC graduate programme in 2002, she initially presented BBC Three's youth orientated news bulletin 60 Seconds. She then presented the roundup of the day's entertainment and celebrity news in E24.

Formally joining the BBC News channel as a news presenter, she presented as a regular stand in. She presently shares the overnight presenting slot on the BBC News Channel with Babita Sharma, simulcast on BBC World.

Madera is bilingual in Polish language, and resultantly reported for the BBC News Channel on the Polish parliamentary election, 2007; and the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash in Russia, which killed 96 people including Polish President Lech Kaczyński.

In October 2011, she gave birth to a son, George.^[3]

References[link]

v t e BBC News BBC TV channels BBC Arabic Television BBC News BBC Parliament BBC Persian Television BBC World News Programmes Current 60 Seconds Asia Business Report BBC Breakfast BBC News at One BBC News at Six BBC News at Ten BBC News: 8pm Summary BBC News at Five BBC News Special BBC Weekend News BBC World News BBC World News America The Andrew Marr Show The Bottom Line Click Daily Politics Dateline London E24 Fast Track Film 24 GMT HARDtalk The Health Show The Hub Impact Newsbeat Newsday Newsnight NewsWatch Oddbox Sport Today Talking Movies This Week World Business Report World Have Your Say World News Today Question Time Show Me the Money Defunct The 7 O'Clock News BBC Nine O'Clock News Breakfast with Frost Politics Show Television Newsreel Tonight Working Lunch People Presenters George Alagiah Matthew Amroliwala Zeinab Badawi Ben Brown Fiona Bruce Ellie Crisell Martine Dennis Peter Dobbie Komla Dumor David Eades Chris Eakin Huw Edwards Mike Embley Gavin Esler Lyse Doucet Joanna Gosling Nik Gowing Carrie Gracie Geeta Guru-Murthy Karin Giannone Jane Hill Rico Hizon Lucy Hockings Mishal Husain Katty Kay Kirsty Lang Riz Lateef Sharanjit Leyl Deborah Mackenzie Kasia Madera Emily Maitlis Maxine Mawhinney Simon McCoy Annita McVeigh Louise Minchin Naga Munchetty Clive Myrie Nicholas Owen Sophie Raworth Susanna Reid Stephen Sackur Rachel Schofield Babita Sharma Kate Silverton Jon Sopel Charlie Stayt Bill Turnbull Tim Willcox Sian Williams Julian Worricker Declan Curry Other Helen Boaden Other BBC News Online BBC World Service Category

This biographical article related to BBC Television is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This biographical article related to television journalism in the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

BBC News

BBC News logo
Type	Department of the BBC
Industry	Media
Headquarters	BBC Television Centre, White City, London, United Kingdom
Area served	Specific services for United Kingdom and rest of world
Key people	Helen Boaden (Director)
Services	Radio and television broadcasts
Owner(s)	BBC
Employees	3,500 (2,000 are journalists)
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/news

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage.^[1][2] The service maintains 44 foreign news bureaux and has correspondents in almost all of the world's 240 countries. Since 2004, the Director of BBC News has been Helen Boaden.

The department's annual budget is £350 million; it has 3,500 staff, 2,000 of whom are journalists.^[1] Through the BBC English Regions, BBC News has regional centres across England as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. All regions and nations produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes.

Radio and television operations are broadcast from BBC Television Centre in West London, though are due to move to the newly refurbished Broadcasting House in central London by 2013. Television Centre houses all domestic, global, and online news divisions within one main newsroom. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London.^[3]

The BBC is a quasi-autonomous corporation authorised by Royal Charter, making it formally independent of government, and required to report impartially. It has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. Internationally, the BBC has been banned from reporting from within some countries which accuse the corporation of working to destabilise their governments.

In 2004, the BBC celebrated 50 years of television news broadcasts. BBC News journalists, cameramen, and programmes have won awards over the years for reporting, particularly from the Royal Television Society. The BBC founded the BBC College of Journalism in 2005 as a part of the BBC Academy, following recommendations made after the Hutton Report.^[4]

History[link]

The early years[link]

The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922.^[5] Televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London.^[6] However, Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936 - with the BBC producing its own equivalent Television Newsreel programme from January 1948. A weekly Children's Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers.^[7]

The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people^[8] viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time.^[9] Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event.^[10] That year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year and four and a half million by 1955.

1950s[link]

Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still firmly under its control– correspondents provided reports for both outlets–and that first bulletin, shown on 5 July 1954 on the then BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown.^[11] This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a recorded commentary by John Snagge (and on other occasions by Andrew Timothy).

It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall (the first to appear in vision), Robert Dougall, and Richard Baker–three weeks before ITN's launch on 21 September 1955.

Mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950^[12] to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs (then known as Talks Department) with it, and it was from here that the first Panorama, a new documentary programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953, with Richard Dimbleby taking over as anchor in 1955.^[13] On 18 February 1957, the topical early-evening programme Tonight hosted by Cliff Michelmore and designed to fill the airtime provided by the abolition of the Toddlers' Truce, was broadcast from Marconi's Viking Studio in St Mary Abbott's Place, Kensington – with the programme moving into a Lime Grove studio in 1960, where it already maintained its production office.

On 28 October 1957, the Today programme a morning radio programme was launched in central London on the Home Service.^[14]

In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs. He set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole. The report proposed that the head of television news should take control (away from radio), and that the television service should have a proper newsroom of its own, with an editor-of-the-day.^[15]

1960s[link]

David Frost, pictured in 2005, presented That Was The Week That Was (TW3) which launched on 24 November 1962

On 1 January 1960, Greene became Director General and under him big changes were afoot not only for BBC Television, but also for BBC Television News – a separate news department, formed in 1955 as a response to the founding of ITN–the aim was to make BBC reporting a little more like ITN, which had been praised by Greene's study group.

A newsroom was created at Alexandra Palace, television reporters were recruited and given the opportunity to write and voice their own scripts–without the "impossible burden" of having to cover stories for radio too.^[16]

In 1987, almost thirty years later, John Birt, Baron Birt, resurrected the practice of correspondents working for both TV and radio with the introduction of bi-media journalism,^[17] and 2008 saw tri-media introduced across TV, radio, and online.

On 20 June 1960, Nan Winton, the first female BBC network newsreader, appeared in vision.^[18] 19 September saw the start of the radio news and current affairs programme The Ten O'clock News.^[19]

Greene was a great innovator and asked Ned Sherrin, the then producer of Tonight to "prick the pomposity of public figures"^[20] with a weekly television show. So on 24 November 1962, That Was The Week That Was, a satirical programme hosted by David Frost, was born at Lime Grove Studios, a product of the Current Affairs department rather than Light Entertainment.

BBC 2 started transmission on 20 April 1964, and with it came a new news programme for that channel, Newsroom.

The World at One, a lunchtime news programme, began on 4 October 1965 on the then Home Service, and the year before News Review had started on television. News Review was a summary of the week's news, first broadcast on Sunday, 26 April 1964^[21] on BBC 2 and harking back to the weekly Newsreel Review of the Week, produced from 1951, to open programming on Sunday evenings–the difference being that this incarnation had subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. As this was the decade before electronic caption generation, each superimposition ("super") had to be produced on paper or card, synchronised manually to studio and news footage, committed to tape during the afternoon, and broadcast early evening. Thus Sundays were no longer a quiet day for news at Alexandra Palace. The programme ran until the 1980s^[22] – by then using electronic captions, known as Anchor – to be superseded by Ceefax subtitling (a similar format), and the signing of such programmes as See Hear (from 1981).

On Sunday 17 September 1967 The World This Weekend, a weekly news and current affairs programme, launched on what was then Home Service, but soon-to-be Radio 4.

Preparations for colour began in the autumn of 1967 and on Thursday 7 March 1968 Newsroom on BBC 2 moved to an early evening slot, becoming the first UK news programme to be transmitted in colour^[23] – from Studio A at Alexandra Palace. News Review and Westminster (the latter a weekly review of Parliamentary happenings) were "colourised" shortly after.

However, much of the insert material was still in black and white, as initially only a part of the film coverage shot in and around London was on colour reversal film stock, and all regional and many international contributions were still in black and white. Colour facilities at Alexandra Palace were technically very limited for the next eighteen months, as it had only one RCA colour videotape machine and, eventually two Pye plumbicon colour telecines–although the news colour service started with just one.

Black and white national bulletins on BBC 1 continued to originate from Studio B on weekdays, along with Town and Around, the London regional "opt out" programme broadcast throughout the 1960s (and the BBC's first regional news programme for the South East), until it started to be replaced by Nationwide on Tuesday to Thursday from Lime Grove Studios early in September 1969. Town and Around was never to make the move to Television Centre – instead it became London This Week which transmitted on Mondays and Fridays only from the new TVC studios.^[24]

Television News moves to Television Centre[link]

Television News moved to BBC Television Centre in September 1969

The final news programme to come from Alexandra Palace was a late night news on BBC 2 on Friday 19 September 1969 in colour. It was said that over this September weekend, sixty-five removal vans were needed to transfer the contents of Alexandra Palace across London.^[25] BBC Television News resumed operations the next day with a lunchtime bulletin on BBC 1 – in black and white – from Television Centre, where it has remained ever since.

This move to better technical facilities, but much smaller studios, allowed Newsroom and News Review to replace back projection with Colour-separation overlay. It also allowed all news output to be produced in PAL colour, ahead of the development in all of BBC 1 from 15 November 1969 – and, like Alexandra Palace Studio A, these studios too were capable of operating in NTSC for the US, Canada, and Japan as the BBC occasionally provided facilities for overseas broadcasters. During the 1960s satellite communication had become not only possible, but popular,^[26] however colour field-store standards converters were still in their infancy in 1968^[27] and we would have to wait until the 1970s for digital line-store conversion to do the job seamlessly.^[28]

1970s[link]

Angela Rippon, pictured in 1983, became the first female news presenter in 1975

On 14 September 1970 the first Nine O'Clock News was broadcast on television. Robert Dougall presented the first week from studio N1^[29] – described by The Guardian^[30] as "a sort of polystyrene padded cell"^[31]--the bulletin having been moved from the earlier time of 2045 as a response to the ratings achieved by ITV News at Ten, introduced three years earlier. Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall presented subsequent weeks, thus echoing those first television bulletins of the mid 1950s.

The Nine appointed Angela Rippon as its first female news presenter in 1975. Her work outside the news was controversial for the time, appearing on the Morecambe and Wise show singing and dancing.^[29]

The early evening news on BBC 1 remained at its regular time of 1750–it would be another fourteen years before it got a similar makeover to become the Six O'Clock News.

The first edition of John Craven's Newsround, initially intended only as a short series and later renamed just Newsround, came from studio N3 on 4 April 1972.

Afternoon television news bulletins during the mid to late 1970s were broadcast from the BBC newsroom itself, rather than one of the three news studios. The newsreader would present to camera while sitting on the edge of a desk; behind him staff would be seen working busily at their desks. This period corresponded with when the Nine O'Clock News got its next makeover, and would use a CSO background of the newsroom from that very same camera each weekday evening.

Also in the mid seventies, the late night news on BBC 2 was briefly renamed Newsnight,^[32] but this was not to last, or be the same programme as we know today – that would be launched in 1980 – and it soon reverted to being just a news summary with the early evening BBC 2 news expanded to become Newsday.

News on radio was to change in the 1970s, and on Radio 4 in particular, brought about by the arrival of new editor Peter Woon from television news and the implementation of the Broadcasting in the Seventies report. These included the introduction of correspondents into news bulletins where previously only a newsreader would present, as well as the inclusion of content gathered in the preparation process. New programmes were also added to the daily schedule, PM and The World Tonight as part of the plan for the station to become a "wholly speech network".^[30] Newsbeat launched as the news service on Radio 1 on 10 September 1973.^[33]

On 23 September 1974, a teletext system which was developed to bring news content on television screens using text only was launched. Engineers originally began developing such a system to bring news to deaf viewers, but the system was expanded. The Ceefax service is now much more diverse: it not only has subtitling for all channels, it also gives information such as weather, flight times and film reviews.

The decline in shooting film for news broadcasts became more prevalent, as ENG equipment became less cumbersome – the BBC's first attempts had been using a Philips colour camera with backpack base station and separate portable Sony U-matic recorder in the latter half of the decade.

1980s[link]

By 1982 ENG technology had become stable enough that an Ikegami camera was used by Bernard Hesketh to cover the Falklands War; for which he won the "Royal Television Society Cameraman of the Year"^[34] and a BAFTA nomination for his film^[35] – the first time that the electronic camera had been relied upon in a conflict zone by BBC News, rather than film. BBC News won the BAFTA for its actuality coverage,^[36] however the event has become remembered in television terms for Brian Hanrahan's reporting where he coined the phrase "I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out and I counted them all back"^[37] to circumvent restrictions, and which has become cited as an example of good reporting under pressure.^[38]

Two years prior to this the Iranian Embassy Siege had been shot electronically by the BBC Television News Outside broadcasting team, and Kate Adie reported live from Prince's Gate, reporting which was nominated for BAFTA actuality coverage, but this time beaten by ITN for the 1980 award.^[39]

Newsnight, the news and current affairs programme, was due to go on air on 23 January 1980, although trade union disagreements meant that its launch from Lime Grove was postponed by a week.^[17]

On 27 August 1981 Moira Stuart became the first Afro-Caribbean female newsreader to appear on British television.

The first BBC breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time also launched during the 1980s, on 17 January 1983 from Lime Grove Studio E and two weeks before its ITV rival TV-am. Frank Bough, Selina Scott, and Nick Ross helped to wake viewers with a relaxed style of presenting.^[40]

The Six O'Clock News first aired on 3 September 1984, eventually becoming the most watched news programme in the UK (however, since 2006 it has been overtaken by the BBC News at Ten).

Starting in 1981, the BBC gave a common theme to its main news bulletins with new electronic titles–a set of animated computerised "stripes" forming a circle^[41] on a red background with a "BBC News" typescript appearing below the circle graphics, and a theme tune consisting of brass and keyboards. The Nine used a similar (striped) number 9. The red background was replaced by a blue from 1985 until 1987.

By 1987, the BBC had decided to re-brand its bulletins and established individual styles again for each one with differing titles and music, the weekend and holiday bulletins branded in a similar style to the Nine, although the "stripes" introduction continued to be used until 1989 on occasions where a news bulletin was screened out of the running order of the schedule.^[42]

1990s[link]

During the 1990s, a wider range of services began to be offered by BBC News, with the split of BBC World Service Television to become BBC World (news and current affairs), and BBC Prime (light entertainment). Content for a 24-hour news channel was thus required, followed in 1997 with the launch of domestic equivalent BBC News 24. Rather than set bulletins, ongoing reports and coverage was needed to keep both channels functioning and meant a greater emphasis in budgeting for both was necessary. In 1998, after 66 years at Broadcasting House, the BBC Radio News operation moved to BBC Television Centre.^[43]

New "Silicon Graphics" technology came into use in 1993 for a re-launch of the main BBC One bulletins, creating a virtual set which appeared to be much larger than it was physically. The relaunch also brought all bulletins into the same style of set with only small changes in colouring, titles, and music to differentiate each. A computer generated glass sculpture of the BBC coat of arms was the centrepiece of the programme titles until the large scale corporate rebranding of news services in 1999.

In 1999, the biggest relaunch occurred, with BBC One bulletins, BBC World, BBC News 24, and BBC News Online all adopting a common style. One of the most significant changes was the gradual adoption of the corporate image by the BBC regional news programmes, giving a common style across local, national and international BBC television news. This also included Newyddion, the main news programme of Welsh language channel S4C, produced by BBC News Wales. The introduction of regional headlines at the start of bulletins followed in 2000 though the English regions lost five minutes at the end of bulletins, due to a new headline round-up at 18:55.

It was also in 2000 that the Nine O'Clock News moved to the later time of 22:00. This was in response to ITN who had just moved their popular News at Ten programme to 23:00. ITN briefly returned News at Ten but following poor ratings when head to head against the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, the ITN bulletin was moved to 22.30, where it remained until 14 January 2008.

2000s[link]

The BBC Newsroom is currently based within BBC Television Centre in West London

The retirement of Peter Sissons and departure of Michael Buerk from the Ten O'Clock News led to changes in the BBC One bulletin presenting team on 20 January 2003. The Six O'Clock News became double headed with George Alagiah and Sophie Raworth after Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce moved to present the Ten. At the time of the changes, a new set design featuring a projected background image of a fictional newsroom was introduced. New programme titles were introduced on 16 February 2004 to match those of BBC News 24.

BBC News 24 and BBC World introduced a new style of presentation in December 2003, that was slightly altered on 5 July 2004 to mark 50 years of BBC Television News.^[44]

The individual positions of editor of the One and Six O'Clock News were replaced by a new daytime position in November 2005. Kevin Bakhurst became the first Controller of BBC News 24, replacing the position of editor. Amanda Farnsworth became daytime editor while Craig Oliver was later named editor of the Ten O'Clock News. The bulletins also began to be simulcast with News 24, as a way of pooling resources.

Bulletins received new titles and a new set design in May 2006, to allow for Breakfast to move into the main studio for the first time since 1997. The new set featured Barco videowall screens with a background of the London skyline used for main bulletins and originally an image of cirrus clouds against a blue sky for Breakfast. This was later replaced following viewer criticism.^[45] The studio bore similarities with the ITN-produced ITV News in 2004, though ITN uses a CSO Virtual studio rather than the actual screens at BBC News.

A new graphics and video playout system was introduced for production of television bulletins in January 2007. This coincided with a new structure to BBC World News bulletins, editors favouring a section devoted to analysing the news stories reported on.

The first new BBC News bulletin since the Six O'Clock News was announced in July 2007 following a successful trial in the Midlands.^[46] The summary, lasting 90 seconds, has been broadcast at 20:00 on weekdays since December 2007 and bears similarities with 60 Seconds on BBC Three, but also includes headlines from the various BBC regions and a weather summary.

As part of a long-term cost cutting programme, bulletins were renamed the BBC News at One, Six and Ten respectively in April 2008 while BBC News 24 was renamed BBC News and moved into the same studio as the bulletins at BBC Television Centre.^[47][48] BBC World was renamed BBC World News and regional news programmes were also updated with the new presentation style, designed by Lambie-Nairn.^[49]

The studio moves also meant that Studio N9, previously used for BBC World, was closed, and operations moved to the previous studio of BBC News 24. Studio N9 was later refitted to match the new branding, and was used for the BBC's UK Local Elections and European Elections coverage in early June 2009.

Organisational changes[link]

BBC News is due to move to premises at the refurbished Broadcasting House in 2012

BBC News became part of the new BBC Journalism group in November 2006 as part of a major restructuring of the BBC. Helen Boaden remains Director of BBC News, reporting to Mark Byford, head of the new group and Deputy Director-General.

It was announced on 18 October 2007 as part of Mark Thompson's new six year plan, Delivering Creative Future, that the television current affairs department would be merged into a new "News Programmes" department.^[50][51] The Director General's announcement, in response to a £2billion shortfall in funding, would deliver "a smaller, but fitter, BBC" in the digital age, partially by reducing employees and selling the Television Centre in 2013.^[52]

The various newsrooms of the BBC, television, radio, and online, were merged into a multimedia newsroom and programme making within the newsrooms was brought together to form the multimedia programme making departments. Peter Horrocks stated that the changes would bring about a greater efficiency at a time of cost-cutting at the BBC. He highlighted the dilemma faced with such a change in his blog: that by using the same resources across the various broadcasting mediums means fewer stories can be covered, or by following more stories, there would be fewer ways to broadcast them.^[53]

The entire news operation is due to move from Television Centre to new facilities in Broadcasting House, Portland Place, central London. Refurbishment and extension work was scheduled for completion in 2008, though delays have seen the deadline extended until 2010, with news expecting to move in by 2013.^[54] The new building will also become home to the BBC World Service once the lease on Bush House expires.^[55]

A strategy review of the BBC in March 2010 confirmed that having "the best journalism in the world" would form one of five key editorial policies, as part of changes subject to public consultation and BBC Trust approval.^[56]

Broadcasting media[link]

Television[link]

BBC News helicopter in use over London

BBC News is responsible for the main newscasts on BBC One as well as other programmes on BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, and the provision of 22 hours of programming for BBC World News. Coverage for BBC Parliament is carried out on behalf on the BBC at Millbank Studios though BBC News provides editorial and journalistic content. BBC News content is also output onto the BBC's digital interactive television services under the BBC Red Button brand, and the legacy analogue Ceefax teletext system.

The distinctive music on all BBC television news programmes was introduced in 1999 and composed by David Lowe. It was part of the extensive re-branding which commenced in 1999 and features the classic 'BBC Pips' The general theme was used not only on bulletins on BBC One but News 24, BBC World and local news programmes in the BBC's Nations and Regions. Lowe was also responsible for the music on Radio One's Newsbeat. The theme has had several changes since 1999.

The BBC Arabic Television news channel launched on 11 March 2008, a Persian-language channel followed on 14 January 2009, broadcasting from the Egton wing of Broadcasting House; both include news, analysis, interviews, sports and highly cultural programmes and are run by the BBC World Service and funded from a grant-in-aid from the British Foreign Office (and not the television licence).^[57]

Radio[link]

BBC Radio News produces bulletins for the BBC's national radio stations and provides content for local BBC radio stations via the General News Service (GNS). BBC News does not produce the BBC's regional news bulletins, which are produced individually by the BBC nations and regions themselves. The BBC World Service broadcasts to some 150 million people in English as well as 32 languages across the globe.^[58] BBC Radio News is a patron of The Radio Academy.^[59]

Online[link]

BBC News Online is the BBC's news website. Launched in November 1997, it is one of the most popular news websites in the UK, reaching over a quarter of the UK's internet users, and worldwide, with around 14 million global readers every month.^[60] The website contains comprehensive international news coverage as well as entertainment, sport, science, and political news.^[61]

Many television and radio programmes are also available to view on the BBC iPlayer service. The BBC News channel is also available to view 24 hours a day, while video and radio clips are also available within online news articles.^[62]

Opinions[link]

Political and commercial independence[link]

The BBC is required by its charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners. This political objectivity is sometimes questioned. For instance, The Daily Telegraph (3 August 2005) carried a letter from the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, referring to it as "The Red Service". Books have been written on the subject, including anti-BBC works like Truth Betrayed by W J West and The Truth Twisters by Richard Deacon.

The BBC's Editorial Guidelines on Politics and Public Policy state that whilst "the voices and opinions of opposition parties must be routinely aired and challenged", "the government of the day will often be the primary source of news".^[63]

The BBC is regularly accused by the government of the day of bias in favour of the opposition and, by the opposition, of bias in favour of the government. Similarly, during times of war, the BBC is often accused by the UK government, or by strong supporters of British military campaigns, of being overly sympathetic to the view of the enemy. An edition of Newsnight at the start of the Falklands War in 1982 was described as "almost treasonable" by John Page, MP, who objected to Peter Snow saying "if we believe the British".^[64]

During the first Gulf War, critics of the BBC took to using the satirical name "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation".^[65] During the Kosovo War, the BBC were labelled the "Belgrade Broadcasting Corporation" (suggesting favouritism towards the FR Yugoslavia government over ethnic Albanian rebels) by British ministers,^[65] although Slobodan Milosević (then FRY president) claimed that the BBC's coverage had been biased against his nation.^[66]

Conversely, some of those who style themselves anti-establishment in the United Kingdom or who oppose foreign wars have accused the BBC of pro-establishment bias or of refusing to give an outlet to "anti-war" voices. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq a study, by the Cardiff University School of Journalism, of the reporting of the war, found that nine out of 10 references to weapons of mass destruction during the war assumed that Iraq possessed them, and only one in 10 questioned this assumption. It also found that out of the main British broadcasters covering the war the BBC was the most likely to use the British government and military as its source. It was also the least likely to use independent sources, like the Red Cross, who were more critical of the war. When it came to reporting Iraqi casualties the study found fewer reports on the BBC than on the other three main channels. The report's author, Justin Lewis, wrote "Far from revealing an anti-war BBC, our findings tend to give credence to those who criticised the BBC for being too sympathetic to the government in its war coverage. Either way, it is clear that the accusation of BBC anti-war bias fails to stand up to any serious or sustained analysis".^{[citation needed]}

Prominent BBC appointments are constantly assessed by the British media and political establishment for signs of political bias. The appointment of Greg Dyke as Director-General was highlighted by press sources because Dyke was a Labour Party member and former activist, as well as a friend of Tony Blair. The BBC's current Political Editor, Nick Robinson, was some years ago a chairman of the Young Conservatives and did, as a result, attract informal criticism from the former Labour government, but his predecessor Andrew Marr faced similar claims from the right because he was editor of The Independent, liberal leaning newspaper before his appointment in 2000.

Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, admitted the organisation has been biased "towards the left". He said, "In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left".^[67]

India[link]

In 2008, the BBC was criticised by some for referring to the terrorists who carried out the November 2008 Mumbai attacks as "gunmen".^[68][69] This follows from India that the BBC has an Indophobic bias, the result of a culturally ingrained racism against Indians arising from the British Raj. Hindu groups in the United Kingdom have accused the BBC of anti-Hindu bigotry and favouring Islamist groups that demonise the British Indian minority.^[70]

In protest against the claimed biased coverage of the BBC, M. J. Akbar, a journalist, boycotted the BBC to speak about the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Stephen Pound MP has supported these claims, referring to the BBC's reporting of the terror attacks as "the worst sort of mealy mouthed posturing. It is desperation to avoid causing offence which ultimately causes more offence to everyone."^[71]

Writing for The Hindu Business Line, Premen Addy criticised the BBC's reportage on South Asia as consistently anti-India and pro-Islamist, and that they underreport India's economic and social achievements, as well as political and diplomatic efforts, and disproportionately highlight and exaggerate problems in the country.^[72] In addition, Addy alludes to discrimination against Indian anchors and reporters in favour of Pakistani and Bangladeshi ones who are hostile to India.^{[citation needed]}

Writing for the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Alasdair Pinkerton analysed the coverage of India by the BBC since India's independence from British rule in 1947 until 2008. Pinkerton observes a tumultuous history involving allegations of anti-India bias in the BBC's reportage, particularly during the cold war, and concludes that the BBC's coverage of South Asian geopolitics and economics shows a pervasive and hostile anti-India bias due to the BBC's alleged imperialist and neo-colonialist stance.^[73]

Writing on western media bias regarding South Asia in the journal of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, media analyst Ajai K. Rai strongly criticised the BBC for anti-India bias. He claims that there is a total lack of depth or fairness in the BBC's reportage on conflict zones in South Asia, and that the BBC has, on one occasion, fabricated photographs while reporting on the Kashmir conflict in order to make India look bad. He also writes that the BBC made false allegations that the Indian Army stormed a sacred Muslim shrine, the tomb of Hazrat Sheikh Noor-u-din Noorani in Charari Sharief, and only retracted the claim after strong criticism from the media in India for several weeks.^[74]

Hutton Inquiry[link]

BBC News was at the centre of one the largest political controversies in recent years. Three BBC News reports (Andrew Gilligan's on Today, Gavin Hewitt's on The Ten O'Clock News and another on Newsnight) quoted an anonymous source that stated the British government (particularly the Prime Minister's office) had embellished the September Dossier with misleading exaggerations of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities. The government denounced the reports and accused the corporation of poor journalism.

In subsequent weeks the corporation stood by the report, saying that it had a reliable source. Following intense media speculation, David Kelly was named in the press as the source for Gilligan's story on 9 July 2003. Kelly was found dead, by suicide, in a field close to his home early on 18 July. An inquiry led by Lord Hutton was announced by the British government the following day to investigate the circumstances leading to Kelly's death, concluding that "Dr. Kelly took his own life."

In his report on 28 January 2004, Lord Hutton concluded that Gilligan's original accusation was "unfounded" and the BBC's editorial and management processes were "defective". In particular, it specifically criticised the chain of management that caused the BBC to defend its story. The BBC Director of News, Richard Sambrook, the report said, had accepted Gilligan's word that his story was accurate in spite of his notes being incomplete. Davies had then told the BBC Board of Governors that he was happy with the story and told the Prime Minister that a satisfactory internal inquiry had taken place. The Board of Governors, under the Chairman's, Gavyn Davies, guidance, accepted that further investigation of the Government's complaints were unnecessary.

Because of the criticism in the Hutton report, Davies resigned on the day of publication. BBC News faced an important test, reporting on itself with the publication of the report, but by common consent (of the Board of Governors) managed this "independently, impartially and honestly".^[75] Davies' resignation was followed by the resignation of Director General, Greg Dyke, the following day, and the resignation of Gilligan on 30 January. While undoubtedly a traumatic experience for the corporation, an ICM poll in April 2003 indicated that it had sustained its position as the best and most trusted provider of news.^[76]

Israeli-Palestinian conflict[link]

The BBC has faced accusations of holding both anti-Arab and anti-Israel biases.

Douglas Davis, the London correspondent of The Jerusalem Post, has described the BBC's coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict as "a relentless, one-dimensional portrayal of Israel as a demonic, criminal state and Israelis as brutal oppressors [which] bears all the hallmarks of a concerted campaign of vilification that, wittingly or not, has the effect of delegitimising the Jewish state and pumping oxygen into a dark old European hatred that dared not speak its name for the past half-century.".^[77] However two large independent studies, one conducted by Loughborough University and the other by Glasgow University's Media Group concluded that Israeli perspectives are given greater coverage.^[78][79]

Critics of the BBC argue that the Balen Report proves systematic bias against Israel in headline news programming. Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph criticised the BBC for spending hundreds of thousands of British tax payers' pounds from preventing the report being released to the public.^[80][81][82]

Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East Editor for BBC world news, was singled out specifically for bias by the BBC Trust which concluded that he violated "BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality."^[83]

Noam Chomsky, and David Edwards of Medialens.org tend to criticise the BBC through differences in terminology sometimes used to describe Israeli and Palestinian actions. Israeli shootings are usually described as "security sweeps" or "incursions", while Palestinian shootings are described as "terrorist killings" committed by "gunmen".^[84]

An independent panel appointed by the BBC Trust was set up in 2006 to review the impartiality of the BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[85] The panel's assessment was that "apart from individual lapses, there was little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias." While noting a "commitment to be fair accurate and impartial" and praising much of the BBC's coverage the independent panel concluded "that BBC output does not consistently give a full and fair account of the conflict. In some ways the picture is incomplete and, in that sense, misleading." It notes that, "the failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, [reflects] the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation".

Writing in the FT, Philip Stephens, one of the panellists, later accused the BBC's director-general, Mark Thompson, of misrepresenting the panel's conclusions. He further opined "My sense is that BBC news reporting has also lost a once iron-clad commitment to objectivity and a necessary respect for the democratic process. If I am right, the BBC, too, is lost".^[86] Mark Thompson published a rebuttal in the FT the next day.^[87]

The description by one BBC correspondent reporting on the funeral of Yassir Arafat that she had been left with tears in her eyes led to other questions of impartiality, particularly from Martin Walker^[88] in a guest opinion piece in The Times, who picked out the apparent case of Fayad Abu Shamala, the BBC Arabic Service correspondent, who told a Hamas rally on 6 May 2001, that journalists in Gaza were "waging the campaign shoulder to shoulder together with the Palestinian people."^[88]

Walker argues that the independent inquiry was flawed for two reasons. Firstly, because the time period over which it was conducted (August 2005 to January 2006) surrounded the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Ariel Sharon's stroke, which produced more positive coverage than usual. Furthermore, he wrote, the inquiry only looked at the BBC's domestic coverage, and excluded output on the BBC World Service and BBC World.^[88]

Tom Gross accused the BBC of glorifying Hamas suicide bombers, and condemned its policy of inviting guests such as Jenny Tonge and Tom Paulin who have compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis. Writing for the BBC, Paulin said Israeli soldiers should be "shot dead" like Hitler's S.S, and said he could "understand how suicide bombers feel."^{[citation needed]} According to Gross, Paulin and Tonge continue to be invited as regular guests, and they are among the most frequent contributors to their most widely-screened arts program.^[89]

The BBC also faced criticism for not airing a Disasters Emergency Committee aid appeal for Palestinians who suffered in Gaza during 22-day war there in late 2008/early 2009. Most other major UK broadcasters did air this appeal, but rival Sky News did not.^{[citation needed]}

British lawyer and journalist Julie Burchill has accused BBC of creating a "climate of fear" for British Jews over its "excessive coverage" of Israel compared to other nations.^[90]

In a sixty-eight page study published by BBC watch examining BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between January–June 2005, it concluded that "journalists have a predilection to denigrate Israel and to evoke sympathy for Palestinians." The researchers claimed that BBC is "fascinated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" based on a pictorial analysis: 15.80% of all pictures published on BBC world news are on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to 0.51% for the Darfur conflict.^[91]

The view of foreign governments[link]

BBC News reporters and broadcasts are now and have in the past been banned in several countries primarily for reporting which has been unfavourable to the ruling government. For example, correspondents were banned by the former apartheid régime of South Africa. The BBC was banned in Zimbabwe under Mugabe^[92] for eight years as a terrorist organisation until being allowed to operate again over a year after the 2008 elections.^[93] The BBC was banned in Burma (officially Myanmar) after BBC's coverage and commentary on anti-government protests there in September 2007. The ban was lifted 4 years later on September 2011. Other cases have included Uzbekistan,^[94] China,^[95] and Pakistan.^[96] The BBC online news site's Persian version was recently blocked from the Iranian internet.^[97] The BBC News website was made available in China again in March 2008.^[98]

See also[link]

	BBC portal
	Journalism portal

• BBC News Special
• BBC newsreaders and journalists
• BBC television news programmes
• List of BBC newsreaders and reporters
• List of former BBC newsreaders and journalists
• Toddlers' Truce

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC News at BBC Online
• BBC Newswatch – The history of BBC News at BBC Online
• BBC News – Fifty years of TV news at BBC Online
• BBC News Styleguide
• BBC News in focus: Photos from the past six decades The Guardian

v t e BBC News BBC TV channels BBC Arabic Television BBC News BBC Parliament BBC Persian Television BBC World News Programmes Current 60 Seconds Asia Business Report BBC Breakfast BBC News at One BBC News at Six BBC News at Ten BBC News: 8pm Summary BBC News at Five BBC News Special BBC Weekend News BBC World News BBC World News America The Andrew Marr Show The Bottom Line Click Daily Politics Dateline London E24 Fast Track Film 24 GMT HARDtalk The Health Show The Hub Impact Newsbeat Newsday Newsnight NewsWatch Oddbox Sport Today Talking Movies This Week World Business Report World Have Your Say World News Today Question Time Show Me the Money Defunct The 7 O'Clock News BBC Nine O'Clock News Breakfast with Frost Politics Show Television Newsreel Tonight Working Lunch People Presenters George Alagiah Matthew Amroliwala Zeinab Badawi Ben Brown Fiona Bruce Ellie Crisell Martine Dennis Peter Dobbie Komla Dumor David Eades Chris Eakin Huw Edwards Mike Embley Gavin Esler Lyse Doucet Joanna Gosling Nik Gowing Carrie Gracie Geeta Guru-Murthy Karin Giannone Jane Hill Rico Hizon Lucy Hockings Mishal Husain Katty Kay Kirsty Lang Riz Lateef Sharanjit Leyl Deborah Mackenzie Kasia Madera Emily Maitlis Maxine Mawhinney Simon McCoy Annita McVeigh Louise Minchin Naga Munchetty Clive Myrie Nicholas Owen Sophie Raworth Susanna Reid Stephen Sackur Rachel Schofield Babita Sharma Kate Silverton Jon Sopel Charlie Stayt Bill Turnbull Tim Willcox Sian Williams Julian Worricker Declan Curry Other Helen Boaden Other BBC News Online BBC World Service Category

v t e The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Services Television (station list) Radio (station list) BBC Online BBC Red Button (Ceefax) BBC iPlayer Management BBC Trust Lord Patten (Chairman) Mark Thompson (Director-General) Departments Television Radio News Sport Weather Children's CBeebies CBBC Natural History Monitoring BBC Films BBC Archives BBC Academy Nations and regions England East East Midlands London North East and Cumbria North West South South East South West West West Midlands Yorkshire Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Northern Ireland Scotland Gàidhlig Wales Commercial subsidiaries BBC Worldwide BBC Records BBC Studios and Post Production History Timeline British Broadcasting Company Logo of the BBC Coat of Arms Board of Governors BBC controversies Key properties London (Broadcasting House London Bush House Television Centre London White City London Media Village London Maida Vale Studios) Belfast (Broadcasting House, Belfast) Birmingham (The Mailbox Drama Village Birmingham) Bristol (Broadcasting House, Bristol) Cardiff (Broadcasting House Cardiff Drama Village Cardiff Bay Upper Boat Studios) Glasgow (Pacific Quay Glasgow) Manchester (New Broadcasting House Manchester) Newcastle (Broadcasting Centre, Newcastle) Salford (MediaCityUK) Southampton (Broadcasting House, Southampton) (Full List) Finance Television licence (history) Projects Dirac The Box backstage.bbc.co.uk Domesday YouView Freesat (channel list) Redux Category  Commons Portal WikiProject

Peter Morici

Nationality	United States
Institution	University of Maryland
Field	Macroeconomics
Alma mater	State University of New York at Albany (PhD) (1984)

Peter Morici is an American macroeconomist and Professor of International Business at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a graduate of SUNY Albany in New York State where he received his Ph.D in Economics in 1974.^[1][2]

Career[link]

From 1974 to 1976, Morici taught at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. In 1976, he joined the Federal Energy Administration. In 1978 he moved to the National Planning Association in Washington where he was elected a Vice President in 1983. He joined the University of Maine as a Professor of Economics in 1988 and was Director of its Canadian-American Center from 1990 to 1993. He also served as chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Morici is the author of 18 books.

Morici signed to serve as a pitchman for Kyocera.^[3]

Personal Life[link]

Morici is noted for wearing bow ties.

Selected publications[link]

• Reconciling Trade and the Environment in the World Trade Organization
• Labor Standards in the Global Trading System
• Antitrust in the Global Trading System: Reconciling U.S., Japanese and EU Approaches
• Setting U.S. Goals for WTO Negotiations
• The Trade Deficit: Where Does It Come from and What Does It Do
• Free Trade in the Americas: An Architecture for Hemispheric Integration
• Trade Talks with Mexico: A Time for Realism
• Making Free Trade Work: The Canada-U.S. Agreement
• Reassessing American Competitiveness

References[link]

External links[link]

• University of Maryland Profile
• Peter Morici at TheStreet.com
• USCC Profile

Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden in 2010
Participants	Osama bin Laden Central Intelligence Agency United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
Location	Osama bin Laden's compound in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Pakistan
Date	May 2, 2011 (2011-05-02)
Deaths	Osama bin Laden a.k.a. Abu Hamza, 54; Khalid bin Laden, 23; Arshad Khan, a.k.a. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, 33; Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, 30; Bushra, Abrar's wife, age unknown.
Result	Osama bin Laden's body buried in North Arabian Sea

Osama bin Laden, the former head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda known for the September 11 attacks, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 am local time^[1][2] by Navy SEALs of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was ordered by United States President Barack Obama and carried out in a Central Intelligence Agency-led operation. Participating units included the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six), the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), and CIA operatives.^[3][4] The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan.^[5] After the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried it at sea within 24 hours of his death.^[6]

Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May 6 with posts made on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing.^[7] Other Pakistani militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also vowed retaliation against the U.S. and against Pakistan for not preventing the operation.^[8] Bin Laden's killing was generally favorably received by U.S. public opinion;^[9][10] was welcomed by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, and a large number of governments;^[11] but was condemned by some, including Fidel Castro of Cuba^[12] and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.^[13] Legal and ethical aspects of the killing, such as his not being taken alive despite being unarmed, were questioned by others, including Amnesty International.^[14] Also controversial was the decision to not release any photographic or DNA evidence of bin Laden's death to the public.^[15]

Locating bin Laden[link]

The U.S. intelligence community effort to determine the current location of Osama bin Laden, which eventually resulted in the Abbottabad operation, began with a fragment of information unearthed in 2002, resulting in years of consequent investigation, followed by intensive multiplatform surveillance on the compound beginning in September 2010.

Identity of his courier[link]

Identification of al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay detention camp, because bin Laden was believed to communicate through such couriers while concealing his whereabouts from al-Qaeda foot soldiers and top commanders.^[16] Bin Laden was known not to use phones, as the U.S. launched missile strikes against his bases in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 (Operation Infinite Reach) after tracking an associate's satellite phone.^[17]

By 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an al-Qaeda courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait).^[16] In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational chief of al-Qaeda, revealed under interrogation that he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti but that he was not active in al-Qaeda.^[18]

In 2004, a prisoner named Hassan Ghul told interrogators that al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Ghul further revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with bin Laden. When confronted with Ghul's account, Khalid Sheik Mohammed maintained his original story.^[18] Abu Faraj al-Libi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006.^[19] He told CIA interrogators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libi had minimized al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin Laden's inner circle.^[18]

In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaiti's real name,^[20] though they will not disclose the name nor how they learned it.^[18] Since the name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libi released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011,^[21] there was speculation that the U.S. assault on the Abbottabad compound was expedited as a precaution.^[22] The CIA never found anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded that the name was an invention of al-Libi.^[18]

A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA paramilitary operatives located al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.^[16] The courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were killed in the May 2, 2011 raid.^[18] Afterward, some locals identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan.^[23] Arshad Khan was carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identification card which said he was from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false identities.^[24]

In June 2011, Pakistani officials revealed the courier's name as Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed from Pakistan's Swat Valley. He and his brother Abrar and their families were living at bin Laden's compound.^[25]

Bin Laden's compound[link]

View of the compound

The CIA used surveillance photos and intelligence reports to determine the identities of the inhabitants of the Abbottabad compound to which the courier was traveling. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was custom-built to hide someone of significance, very likely bin Laden.^[26][27] Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.^[27]

Built in 2004, the three-story^[28] compound was located at the end of a narrow dirt road.^[29] Google Earth maps made from satellite photographs show that the compound was not present in 2001 but did exist on images taken in 2005.^[30] It is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of the city center of Abbottabad.^[26] Abbottabad is about 100 miles (160 km) from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about 20 miles (32 km) from India). The compound is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), a prominent military academy that has been compared with West Point in the United States and Sandhurst in Britain.^[3] Located on a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, it was surrounded by a 12-to-18-foot (3.7–5.5 m)^[27] concrete wall topped with barbed wire.^[26] There were two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall, tall enough to hide the 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) bin Laden.

There was no Internet or landline telephone service to the compound, and its residents burned their refuse, unlike their neighbors who set their garbage out for collection.^[28] Local residents called the building the Waziristan Haveli, because they believed the owner was from Waziristan.^[31] The compound was demolished in February 2012.^[32]

Intelligence gathering[link]

CIA aerial photo of the compound.

The CIA led the effort to surveil and gather intelligence on the compound; other critical roles in the operation were played by other American government agencies, including the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and US Defense Department.^[33] According to The Washington Post, "The [intelligence-gathering] effort was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December [2010] to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it," U.S. officials said.^[1]

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency rented a home in Abbottabad from which a team staked out and observed the compound over a number of months. The CIA team used informants and other techniques to gather intelligence on the compound. The safe house was abandoned immediately after bin Laden's death.^[1] The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency helped the Joint Special Operations Command create mission simulators for the pilots and analyzed data from an RQ-170 drone before, during and after the raid on the compound. The NGA created three-dimensional renderings of the house, created schedules describing residential traffic patterns, and assessed the number, height and gender of the residents of the compound.^[34]

The design of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad may have ultimately contributed to his discovery. A former CIA official involved in the manhunt told The Washington Post, "The place was three stories high, and you could watch it from a variety of angles."^[1]

The CIA used a process called "red teaming" on the collected intelligence to independently review the circumstantial evidence and available facts of their case that bin Laden was living at the Abbottabad compound.^[35] An administration official stated, "We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did."^[36] This duplicate analysis was necessary because "Despite what officials described as an extraordinarily concentrated collection effort leading up to the operation, no U.S. spy agency was ever able to capture a photograph of bin Laden at the compound before the raid or a recording of the voice of the mysterious male figure whose family occupied the structure's top two floors."^[1]

Operation Neptune Spear[link]

Operation Neptune Spear
Part of the War on Terror
Abbottabad Islamabad Jalalabad Bagram North Arabian Sea Map of Pakistan. Abbottabad is 34 miles (55 km) from the capital Islamabad, 167 miles (269 km) from Jalalabad Airfield, and 232 miles (373 km) from Bagram Airfield. Bagram is about 850 miles (1,370 km) from the North Arabian Sea. (Straight line distances. Travel distances significantly more.)
Date May 1–2, 2011 Location Osama bin Laden's hideout compound, Abbottabad, Pakistan 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E / 34.16917°N 73.2425°E / 34.16917; 73.2425 Result Osama bin Laden killed
Belligerents
United States	al-Qaeda
Commanders and leaders
Barack Obama William H. McRaven	Osama bin Laden (†) Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (†)
Strength
79 6 helicopters 1 Belgian Malinois (military working dog)	22 (number of residents, including children)
Casualties and losses
1 helicopter lost to malfunction	5 killed 17 captured (3 injured) 1 escaped

The official mission code name was Operation Neptune Spear.^[3] Neptune's spear is the trident, which appears on Navy Special Warfare insignia, with the three prongs of the trident representing the operational capacity of SEALs on sea, air and land.

Objective[link]

The Associated Press cited two U.S. officials as stating the operation was "a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender", but that "it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering".^[37] White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan stated after the raid: "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that."^[38] CIA Director Leon Panetta stated on PBS NewsHour: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden...Obviously under the rules of engagement, if he in fact had thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But, they had full authority to kill him."^[39]

However, a U.S. national security official, who was not named, told Reuters that "'this was a kill operation', making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan".^[40] Another source referencing a kill (rather than capture) order states, "Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the mission. 'They were told, "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him",' an official recalled. The SEALs started to cheer."^[41]

Planning[link]

The CIA briefed Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), about the compound in January 2011. McRaven said a commando raid would be fairly straightforward but he was concerned about the Pakistani response. He assigned a captain from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) to work with a CIA team at their campus in Langley, Virginia. The captain, named "Brian", set up an office in the printing plant in the CIA's Langley compound and, with six other JSOC officers, began to plan the raid.^[42]

In addition to a helicopter raid, planners considered attacking the compound with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. They considered a joint operation with Pakistani forces. President Obama, however, decided that the Pakistani government and military could not be trusted to maintain operational security for the operation against bin Laden. "There was a real lack of confidence that the Pakistanis could keep this secret for more than a nanosecond," a senior adviser to the President told The New Yorker.^[42]

President Obama met with the National Security Council on March 14 to review the options. The president was concerned that the mission would be exposed and wanted to proceed quickly. For that reason he ruled out involving the Pakistanis. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military officials expressed doubts as to whether bin Laden was actually in the compound, and whether a commando raid was worth the risk. At the end of the meeting the president seemed to be leaning toward a bombing mission. Two US Air Force officers were tasked with exploring that option further.^[43]

The CIA was unable to rule out the existence of an underground bunker below the compound. Presuming that one existed, 32 2,000-pound (910 kg) bombs fitted with JDAM guidance systems would be required to destroy it.^[44] With that amount of ordnance, at least one other house was in the blast radius. Estimates were that up to a dozen civilians would be killed in addition to those in the compound. Furthermore it was unlikely there would be enough evidence remaining to prove that bin Laden was dead. Presented with this information at the next Security Council meeting on March 29, President Obama put the bombing plan on hold. Instead he directed Admiral McRaven to develop the idea of a helicopter raid.

McRaven assembled a team drawing from Red Squadron, one of four that make up DEVGRU. Red Squadron was coming home from Afghanistan and could be redirected without attracting attention. The team had language skills and experience with cross-border operations into Pakistan.^[43] Without being told the exact nature of their mission, the team performed two rehearsals in the U.S. on April 10 in North Carolina and April 18 in Nevada.^[42][44]

Planners believed the SEALs could get to Abbottabad and back without being challenged by the Pakistani military. The helicopters to be used in the raid had been designed to be quiet and to have low radar visibility. Since the U.S. had helped equip and train the Pakistanis, their defensive capabilities were known. Furthermore the U.S. had supplied F-16 Fighting Falcons to Pakistan on the condition they were kept at a Pakistani military base under 24-hour U.S. surveillance.^[45] The U.S. would know immediately if the Pakistanis scrambled their jets.

If bin Laden surrendered he would be held near Bagram Air Base. If the SEALs were discovered by the Pakistanis in the middle of the raid, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen would call Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and try to negotiate their release.^[46]

When the Security Council met again on April 19, President Obama gave provisional approval for the helicopter raid. But he worried that the plan for dealing with the Pakistanis was too uncertain. Obama asked Adm. McRaven to equip the team to fight its way out if necessary.^[43]

McRaven and the SEALs left for Afghanistan to practice at a one acre full-scale replica of the compound built on a restricted area of Bagram known as Camp Alpha.^[47][48] The team departed the U.S. from Naval Air Station Oceana on April 26 in a C-17 aircraft, refueled on the ground at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, landed at Bagram Air Base, then moved to Jalalabad on April 27.^[42]

On April 28 Admiral Mullen explained the final plan to the Security Council. To bolster the "fight your way out" scenario, Chinook helicopters with additional troops would be positioned nearby. Obama said he wanted to speak directly to Admiral McRaven before he gave the order to proceed. The president asked if McRaven had learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to lose confidence in the mission. McRaven told him the team was ready and that the next few nights would have little moonlight over Abbottabad, good conditions for a raid.^[42]

On April 29 at 8:20 a.m., Obama conferred with his advisers and gave the final go-ahead. The raid would take place the following day. That evening the president was informed that the operation would be delayed one day due to cloudy weather. On April 30 Obama called McRaven one more time to wish the SEALs well and to thank them for their service.^[42]

On May 1 at 1:22 p.m., Panetta, acting on the president's orders, directed McRaven to move forward with the operation. Shortly after 3 p.m., the president joined national security officials in the Situation Room to monitor the raid. They watched night-vision images taken from a drone while Panetta, appearing in a corner of the screen from CIA headquarters, narrated what was happening.^[46] Video links with Panetta at CIA headquarters and McRaven in Afghanistan were set up in the Situation Room. In an adjoining office was the live drone feed presented on a laptop computer operated by Brigadier General Marshall Webb, assistant commander of JSOC. Two other command centers monitored the raid from the Pentagon and the American embassy in Islamabad.^[42]

Execution of the operation[link]

Approach and entry[link]

Diagram of Osama bin Laden's hideout, showing the high concrete walls that surround the compound

The raid was carried out by approximately two dozen heliborne United States Navy SEALs from the Red Squadron^[43] of the Joint Special Operations Command's United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU). For legal reasons (namely that the U.S. was not at war with Pakistan), the military personnel assigned to the mission were temporarily transferred to the control of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency.^[49][50][51] The DEVGRU SEALs operated in two teams^[52] and were reportedly equipped with Heckler & Koch 416 carbine^[53] military assault rifles (with attached suppressors^[54]), night-vision goggles, body armor and handguns.^[55]

According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid.^[29] The military working dog^[56] was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo.^[57][58] According to one report, the dog was tasked with tracking "anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces".^[54] The dog was to be used to help deter any Pakistani ground response to the raid and to help look for any hidden rooms or hidden doors in the compound.^[42] Additional personnel on the mission included a language translator,^[54] the dog handler, helicopter pilots, "tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers".^[48]

The SEALs flew into Pakistan from a staging base in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after originating at Bagram Air Base in northeastern Afghanistan.^[59] The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), a US Army Special Operations Command unit known as the "Night Stalkers", provided the two modified Black Hawk helicopters^[60] that were used for the raid itself, as well as the much larger Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that were employed as backups.^[41][48][54]

The Black Hawks appear to have been never-before-publicly-seen "stealth" versions of the helicopter that fly more quietly while being harder to detect on radar than conventional models;^[61][62] due to the weight of the extra stealth equipment on the Black Hawks, cargo was "calculated to the ounce, with the weather factored in."^[54]

The Chinooks kept on standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" between Jalalabad and Abbottabad, with two additional SEAL teams consisting of approximately 24 DEVGRU operators^[54] and Army Rangers for a "quick reaction force" (QRF). The Chinooks were equipped with M134 Miniguns and extra fuel for the Black Hawks. Their mission was to interdict any Pakistani military attempts to interfere with the raid. Other Chinooks, holding 25 more SEALs from DEVGRU, were stationed just across the border in Afghanistan in case reinforcements were needed during the raid.^[42]

The 160th SOAR helicopters were supported by multiple other aircraft, including fixed-wing fighter jets and drones.^[63] According to CNN, "the Air Force had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available".^[63]

The raid was scheduled for a time with little moonlight so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected".^[64] The helicopters used hilly terrain and nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military. The flight from Jalalabad to Abbottabad took about 90 minutes.^[42]

According to the mission plan, the first helicopter would hover over the compound's yard while its full team of SEALs fast-roped to the ground. At the same time, the second helicopter would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and deploy the translator, the dog, and four SEALs to secure the perimeter. The second helicopter would then hover over the house and the team leader and six SEALs would fast-rope onto the roof. The team in the courtyard was to enter the house from the ground floor.^[42][65]

As they hovered above the target, however, the first helicopter experienced a hazardous airflow condition known as a vortex ring state. This was aggravated by higher than expected air temperature ("a so-called 'hot and high' environment"^[42][58]) and the high compound walls, which stopped the rotor downwash from diffusing.^[58][66][67] The helicopter's tail grazed one of the compound's walls,^[52] damaging its tail rotor,^[68] and the helicopter rolled onto its side.^[16] The pilot quickly buried the aircraft's nose to keep it from tipping over.^[54] None of the SEALs, crew and pilots on the helicopter were seriously injured in the soft crash landing, which ended with it pitched at a forty-five-degree angle resting against the wall.^[42] The other helicopter then landed outside the compound and the SEALs scaled the walls to get inside.^[69] The SEALs advanced into the house, breaching walls and doors with explosives.^[54]

Killing[link]

The U.S. national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to monitor the progress of Operation Neptune Spear. See also: The Situation Room (photograph)

The SEALs encountered the residents in the compound's guest house, in the main building on the first floor where two adult males lived, and on the second and third floors where bin Laden lived with his family. The second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be cleared.^[70] There were reportedly "small knots of children...on every level, including the balcony of bin Laden's room".^[54]

In addition to Osama bin Laden, three other men and a woman were killed in the operation. The individuals killed were bin Laden's adult son (likely Khalid,^[71][72] possibly Hamza^[44][73]), bin Laden's courier (Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti), al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, and Abrar's wife Bushra.^[42]

Al-Kuwaiti opened fire on the first team of SEALs with an AK-47 from behind the guesthouse door, and a firefight took place between him and the SEALs, in which al-Kuwaiti was killed.^[3][74] The courier's male relative Abrar was shot and killed, before he could reach a weapon found lying nearby, by the SEALs' second team on the first floor of the main house. A woman near him, later identified as the Abrar's wife Bushra was also shot and killed. Bin Laden's young adult son rushed towards the SEALs on the staircase of the main house, and was shot and killed by the second team.^{[3][52][72][74][75]} An unnamed U.S. senior defense official stated that only one of the five people killed was armed.^[76]

The SEALs encountered bin Laden on the second or third floor of the main building.^[52][77] Bin Laden was "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a kurta paijama", which were later found to have €500 and two phone numbers sewn into the fabric.^[44][68][74]

Bin Laden peered over the third floor ledge at the Americans advancing up the stairs, and then retreated into his room as a SEAL fired a shot at him, but missed.^[78] The SEALs quickly followed him into his room.^[1]

Inside the bedroom, two of bin Laden's wives stood in front of him, shielding him. One of them, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, screamed at the SEALs in Arabic and motioned as if she were about to charge. One of the SEALs shot her in the leg, then grabbed both women and shoved them aside. A second SEAL entered the room and shot bin Laden in the chest, and then in the head with his H&K 416 with Navy M855, 5.56 mm rounds.^[79] The SEAL radioed, "For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo," and then, "Geronimo E.K.I.A." (enemy killed in action). Watching the operation in the White House Situation Room, President Obama said, "We got him."^[3][42]

There were two weapons near bin Laden in his room, including an AKSU rifle and a Russian-made Makarov pistol, but according to his wife Amal, he was shot before he could reach his AKSU.^[80][81] According to the Associated Press the guns were on a shelf next to the door and the SEALs did not see them until they were photographing the body.^[54]

Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter Safia was struck in her foot or ankle by a piece of flying debris.^[3][82][83]

As the SEALs encountered women and children during the raid, they restrained them with plastic handcuffs or zip ties.^[52] After the raid was over, U.S. forces moved the surviving residents outside^[38] "for Pakistani forces to discover".^[52] The injured Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah continued to harangue the raiders in Arabic.^[42]

While bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound and later taken into Pakistani custody.^[24][84]

Wrap-up[link]

USS Carl Vinson conducting flight operations in Persian Gulf (April 4, 2011)

The raid was intended to take 40 minutes. All told, the time between the team's entry in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes.^[41] According to the Associated Press, the military offensive aspect of the raid was completed in the first 15 minutes.^[54]

Time in the compound was spent killing defenders;^[70] "moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women and children; clearing "weapons stashes and barricades",^[52] including a false door;^[85] and searching the compound for information.^[20] U.S. personnel recovered three AK-47s and two pistols, computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, thumb drives, and "electronic equipment" for later analysis.^[41][86]

Since the helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged and unable to fly the team out, it was destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment, including an apparent stealth capability.^[62] The pilot smashed "the instrument panel, the radio, and the other classified fixtures inside the cockpit," and the SEALs "[packed] the helicopter with explosives and [blew] it up". Since the SEAL team now had only one helicopter, one of the two Chinook held in reserve was dispatched to carry part of the team and bin Laden's body out of Pakistan.^{[27][42][44][87]}

While the official Department of Defense narrative did not mention the airbases used in the operation,^[88] later accounts indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Airfield.^[54] The body of Osama bin Laden was then flown from Bagram to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in a V-22 Osprey escorted by two U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jets.^[89][90]

According to U.S. officials, bin Laden was buried at sea because no country would accept his remains.^[91] Before disposing of the body, the U.S. called the Saudi government, who approved of dumping the body in the ocean.^[42] Muslim religious rites were performed aboard the Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea within 24 hours of bin Laden's death. Preparations began at 10:10 am local time and at-sea burial was completed at 11 am. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted plastic bag. An officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. Afterward, bin Laden's body was placed onto a flat board. The board was tilted upward on one side and the body slid off into the sea.^[92]

Pakistan-U.S. communication[link]

According to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share information about the raid with the government of Pakistan until it was over.^[6][93] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen called Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at about 3 am local time to inform him of the Abbottabad Operation.^[94]

According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the U.S. forces.^[95] Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials said they were present at what they called a joint operation;^[96] President Asif Ali Zardari flatly denied this.^[97] Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir later confirmed that Pakistani military had scrambled F-16s after they became aware of the attack but that they reached the compound after American helicopters had left.^[98]

Identification of the body[link]

U.S. forces used multiple methods to positively identify the body of Osama bin Laden:

• Measurement of the body: Both the corpse and bin Laden were 6 ft 4 in (193 cm); SEALs on the scene did not have a tape measure to measure the corpse, so a SEAL of known height lay down next to the body and the height was approximated by comparison.^[68]
• Facial recognition software: A photograph transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for facial recognition analysis yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely match.^[99]
• In-person identification: One or two women from the compound, including one of bin Laden's wives,^[100] identified bin Laden's body.^[99] A wife of bin Laden called him by name during the raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. armed forces on the ground.^[101]
• DNA testing: The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing^[29][102] using tissue and blood samples taken from his sister who had died of brain cancer.^[103] ABC News stated, "Two samples were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a sample."^[99] A military medic took bone marrow and swabs (probably buccal swabs) from the body to use for the DNA testing.^[42] According to a senior US Defense Department official:

• Inference: Per the same Defense official, from the initial review of the materials removed from the Abbottabad compound the Department "assessed that much of this information, including personal correspondence between Osama bin Laden and others, as well as some of the video footage...would only have been in his possession."^[104]

Local accounts[link]

Beginning at 12:58 a.m. local time, Abbottabad resident Sohaib Athar sent a series of tweets describing the noise of helicopters hovering overhead—"a rare occurrence"—and several window-rattling blasts. By 1:44 a.m. all was quiet until a plane flew over the city at 3:39 a.m.^[105] Neighbors took to their roofs and watched as American special forces stormed the compound. One neighbor said, "I saw soldiers emerging from the helicopters and advancing towards the house. Some of them instructed us in chaste Pashto to turn off the lights and stay inside."^[106] Another man said he heard shooting and screams, then an explosion as a grounded helicopter was destroyed. The blast broke his bedroom window and left charred debris over a nearby field.^[107] A local security officer said he entered the compound shortly after the Americans left, before it was sealed off by the army. "There were four dead bodies, three male and one female and one female was injured," he said. "There was a lot of blood on the floor and one could easily see the marks like a dead body had been dragged out of the compound." Numerous witnesses reported that power, and possibly cellphone service,^[108] went out around the time of the raid and apparently included the military academy.^[109][110] Accounts differed as to the exact time of the blackout. One journalist concluded after interviewing several residents that it was a routine rolling blackout.^[111]

ISI reported after questioning survivors of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a bin Laden son. The ISI said that survivors included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently bin Laden's. An unnamed Pakistani security official was quoted as saying one of bin Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden had been captured alive, then in front of family members was shot dead by American forces and dragged to a helicopter.^{[112][113][114]}

Compound residents[link]

U.S. officials said there were 22 people in the compound. Five were killed, including Osama bin Laden.^[48] Pakistani officials gave conflicting reports suggesting between 12 and 17 survivors.^[115] The Sunday Times subsequently published excerpts from a pocket guide, presumably dropped by the SEALs during the raid, containing pictures and descriptions of likely compound residents.^[116] The guide listed several adult children of bin Laden and their families who were not ultimately found in the compound.^[117] Because of a lack of verifiable information, some of what follows is thinly sourced.^[115]

• 5 adults dead: Osama bin Laden, 54;^[118] Khalid, his son by Siham (identified as Hamza in early accounts), 23;^[115][117] Arshad Khan, a.k.a. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier, described as the "flabby" one by The Sunday Times, 33;^[115][116] Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, 30; and Bushra, Abrar's wife, age unknown.^{[119][120][121]}
• 4 surviving women: Khairiah, bin Laden's third, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um Hamza, 62;^[115][116] Siham, bin Laden's fourth, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um Khalid, 54;^[115][116] Amal, bin Laden's fifth, Yemeni wife, a.k.a. Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, 29 (injured);^[3][115] and an unidentified woman, either Arshad Khan's second, Pakistani wife,^[115] or Khalid's wife and coincidentally the Khan brothers' sister, age unknown (injured).^[121]
• 5 minor children of Osama and Amal: Safia, a daughter, 9 (injured); a son, 5; another son, age unknown; and infant twin daughters.^{[3][116][122][123][124]}
• 4 bin Laden grandchildren from an unidentified daughter who had been killed in an airstrike in Waziristan. Two may be the boys, around 10, who spoke to Pakistani investigators.^[115][125]
• 4 children of Arshad Khan: Two sons, Abdur Rahman and Khalid, 6 or 7; a daughter, age unknown; and another child, age unknown.^[120][126]

Alternate account[link]

A book published in November 2011, Seal Target Geronimo, by Chuck Pfarrer, contradicted the account as given by US Government sources. According to Pfarrer, neither helicopter crashed at the beginning of the raid. Instead, the SEALs jumped into the roof from the hovering Razor 1 helicopter and entered a third floor hallway from the roof terrace. Osama's third wife, Khairah, was in the hallway headed towards the SEALs. She was blinded by a strobe light and pushed to the floor as the SEALs went past her. Osama bin Laden stuck his head out of a bedroom door, saw the SEALs, and slammed the door closed. At the same time, Osama's son Khalid bin Laden ran up the stairs to the third floor and was killed with two shots.^[127][128]

Two SEALs broke through the bedroom door. Bin Laden's wife Amal was on the edge of the bed shouting in Arabic at the SEALs and Osama bin Laden dived across the bed, shoving Amal at the same time, for an AKSU machine pistol kept by the headboard. The SEALs fired four shots at bin Laden, the first missed, the second grazed Amal in the calf also missing bin Laden, and the final two hit bin Laden in the chest and head, killing him instantly. In Pfarrer's account, the total time elapsed from jumping on the roof to Osama bin Laden's death was between 30 and 90 seconds.^[127][128]

Around the same time, snipers in the hovering Razor 2 helicopter shot and killed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti when he came to the door of the guesthouse firing an AK-47. One SEAL sniper fired two shots at al-Kuwaiti and the other fired two three-round bursts. Two of the snipers' bullets went through al-Kuwaiti and killed his wife who was standing behind him. The Razor 2 team cleared the guest house and then breached their way into the main house with explosives. As the Razor 2 team entered the main house al-Qaeda courier Arshad Khan pointed his AK-47 gun and was killed with two shots. The SEAL team fired a total a sixteen shots killing Osama bin Laden, Khalid bin Laden, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti plus al-Kuwaiti's wife, Arshad Khan, and wounding Osama bin Laden's wife Amal al-Sadah.

Twenty minutes into the operation Razor 1 took off from the roof of the main house to reposition to a landing spot outside the compound. As Razor 1 was crossing over the courtyard both "green unit" flight deck control systems went off line. The helicopter settled slowly, bounced off the ground, and then broke apart as it hit the ground a second time. Both failed green units were removed for later examination.^{[127][128][128]}

Media accounts had reported that the plan had been to fast rope to the inner courtyard and to clear the main house from the ground floor up. The helicopter crashed in the outer courtyard with the SEAL team still on board. The SEAL exited and needed to breach two walls and then into the house. As a result Osama bin Laden was killed several minutes into the operation.^[42] Pfarrer's account differs in that a SEAL team was inserted onto the roof of the main house, that Osama bin Laden was killed seconds into the operation, and the main house was cleared from the top down. The Pentagon disputed Pfarrer's account of the raid, calling it "incorrect."^[129] The US Special Operations Command also disputed Pfarrer's account, saying, "It's just not true. It's not how it happened."^[130][131]

Aftermath[link]

Leaks of the news[link]

At around 9:45 p.m. EDT, the White House announced that the president would be addressing the nation later in the evening.^[132] At 10:24 p.m., the first public leaks were made simultaneously and separately by Navy Reserve intel officer Keith Urbahn and actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on Twitter.^[133] Anonymous government officials confirmed details to the media, and by 11 p.m. numerous major news sources were reporting that bin Laden was dead.^[132][134]

U.S. presidential address[link]

President Obama's address (9:28)
Also available: Audio only; Full text 

At 11:35 p.m., President Obama appeared on major television networks:^[132]

Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children... (cont'd) 

President Obama remembered the victims of the September 11 attacks. He praised the nearly ten-year-old war against al-Qaeda, which he said had disrupted terrorist plots, strengthened homeland defenses, removed the Taliban government, and captured or killed scores of al-Qaeda operatives. Obama said that when he took office he made finding bin Laden the top priority of the war. Bin Laden's death was the most significant blow to al-Qaeda so far but the war would continue. He reaffirmed that the United States was not at war against Islam. He defended his decision to conduct an operation within Pakistan. He said Americans understood the cost of war but would not stand by while their security was threatened. "To those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda's terror," he said, "justice has been done." This remark book-ended President Bush's statement to a joint session of Congress following the September 11 attacks that "justice will be done."

Reactions[link]

Americans celebrating after the death of Osama bin Laden in front of the White House

Before the official announcement, large crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House, Ground Zero, the Pentagon and in New York's Times Square to celebrate. In Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a large Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd gathered outside the City Hall in celebration, many of them being of Middle Eastern descent.^[135] From the beginning to the end of Obama's speech, 5,000 tweets per second were sent on microblogging platform Twitter.^[136] As news of bin Laden's death filtered through the crowd at a nationally-televised Major League Baseball game, "U-S-A!" cheers began.^[137][138] In Tampa, Florida, at the conclusion of a professional wrestling event which was occurring at the time, WWE Champion John Cena announced to the audience that bin Laden had been "caught and compromised to a permanent end," prompting chants while he exited the arena to the song Stars and Stripes Forever.^[139]

The deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that, with bin Laden dead, Western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan; authorities in Iran made similar comments.^[140] Palestinian Authority leaders had contrasting reactions. Mahmoud Abbas welcomed bin Laden's death, while Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, condemned what he saw as the assassination of an "Arab holy warrior".^[13]

The 14th Dalai Lama was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. ... If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures." This was widely reported as an endorsement of bin Laden's killing and was criticized in Buddhist circles, but another journalist cited a video of the discussion to argue that the comment was taken out of context and the Dalai Lama only supports killing in self-defense.^[141]

A The New York Times/CBS poll taken after bin Laden's death showed that 16% of Americans feel safer as the result of his death while 60% of Americans of those polled believe killing bin Laden likely would increase the threat of terrorism against the United States in the short term.^[142]

In India, Minister for Home Affairs P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He also called on Pakistan to arrest them,^[143] amidst calls for similar strikes being conducted by India against Hafeez Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim.^[144]

Freedom of Information Act requests and denials[link]

Though the Abbottabad raid has been described in great detail by U.S. officials, no physical evidence constituting actual "proof of death" has been offered to the public, neither to journalists nor to independent third parties who have requested this information through the Freedom of Information Act.^[145] Numerous organizations filed FOIA requests seeking at least a partial release of photographs, videos, and/or DNA test results, including The Associated Press, Reuters, CBS News, Judicial Watch, Politico, Fox News, Citizens United, and NPR.^[146] At the time of filing their FOIA request, the Associated Press said:

This information is important for the historical record. That's our view.

—Michael Oreskes, Senior Managing Editor, Associated Press^[145]

On April 26, 2012, a US federal judge decided in the case Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense, et al. that the DoD did not need to release any evidence to the public. Judicial Watch's president responded to the ruling by saying:

The court got it terribly wrong. There is no provision under the Freedom of Information Act that allows documents to be kept secret because their release might offend our terrorist enemies. We will appeal.

—Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch^[147]

Conspiracy theories[link]

The reports of bin Laden's death on May 1, 2011 are not universally accepted^[148] despite unreleased DNA testing confirming his identity,^[29][102] Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter witnessing his death,^[83][149] and a May 6, 2011 al-Qaeda statement confirming his death.^[7] The swift burial of bin Laden's body at sea, speed of the DNA results, and the decision not to release pictures of the dead body formed the basis of conspiracy theories that bin Laden had not died in the raid.^[150] Some Internet blogs suggested that the U.S. government feigned the raid, and some Internet forums hosted debates over the alleged hoax.^[151]

Legality[link]

Under U.S. law[link]

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which authorized the President to use "necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons" he determines were involved in the September 11 attacks."^[152] The Obama administration justified its use of force by relying on that resolution, as well as international law set forth in treaties and customary laws of war.^[153]

John Bellinger III, who served as the U.S. State Department's senior lawyer during President George W. Bush's second term, said the strike was a legitimate military action and did not run counter to the U.S.' self-imposed prohibition on assassinations:

The killing is not prohibited by the long-standing assassination prohibition in executive order 12333 [signed in 1981], because the action was a military action in the ongoing U.S. armed conflict with al-Qaeda, and it is not prohibited to kill specific leaders of an opposing force. The assassination prohibition does not apply to killings in self-defense.^[154]

Similarly, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser of the U.S. State Department, said in 2010 that "under domestic law, the use of lawful weapons systems—consistent with the applicable laws of war—for precision targeting of specific high-level belligerent leaders when acting in self-defense or during an armed conflict is not unlawful, and hence does not constitute 'assassination'."^[154]

David Scheffer, director of the Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights, said the fact that bin Laden had previously been indicted in 1998 in a US District Court for conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations was a complicating factor. "Normally when an individual is under indictment the purpose is to capture that person in order to bring him to court to try him... The object is not to literally summarily execute him if he's under indictment."^[155] Scheffer and another expert opined that it was important to determine whether the mission was to capture bin Laden or to kill him. If the Navy SEALs were instructed to kill bin Laden without trying first to capture him, it "may have violated American ideals if not international law."^[155]

Under international law[link]

In an address to the Pakistani parliament, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said, "Our people are rightly incensed on the issue of violation of sovereignty as typified by the covert U.S. air and ground assault on the Osama hideout in Abbottabad. ... The Security Council, while exhorting UN member states to join their efforts against terrorism, has repeatedly emphasized that this be done in accordance with international law, human rights and humanitarian law."^[156] Former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf denied a report in The Guardian that his government made a secret agreement permitting U.S. forces to conduct unilateral raids in search of the top three al-Qaeda leaders.^[157]

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The operation against bin Laden was justified as an act of national self-defense. It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field." He called the killing of bin Laden "a tremendous step forward in attaining justice for the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on September 11, 2001."^[158] Commenting on the legality under international law, University of Michigan Law Professor Steven Ratner said, "A lot of it depends on whether you believe Osama bin Laden is a combatant in a war or a suspect in a mass murder." In the latter case, "you would only be able to kill a suspect if they represented an immediate threat".^[155]

Holder testified that bin Laden made no attempt to surrender, and "even if he had there would be a good basis on the part of those very brave Navy SEAL team members to do what they did in order to protect themselves and the other people who were in that building."^[158] According to Anthony Dworkin, an international law expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, if bin Laden was hors de combat (as his daughter is said to have alleged)^[114] that would have been a violation of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.^[159]

The UN Security Council released a statement applauding the news of bin Laden's death, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "very much relieved".^[160] Two United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement cautioning that, "actions taken by States in combating terrorism, especially in high profile cases, set precedents for the way in which the right to life will be treated in future instances."^[161]

Handling of the body[link]

Under Islamic tradition, burial at sea is considered inappropriate when other, preferred forms of burial are available, and several prominent Islamic clerics criticized the decision.^{[100][162][163]} Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar University, Egypt's seat of Sunni Muslim learning, said the disposal of the body at sea was an affront to religious and human values.^[164] Scholars like el-Tayeb hold that sea burials can only be allowed in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship, and that the regular practice should have occurred in this case—the body buried in the ground with the head pointing to Islam's holy city of Mecca.

A stated advantage of a burial at sea is that the site is not readily identified or accessed, thus preventing it from becoming a focus of attention or "terrorist shrine".^[165] The Guardian questioned whether bin Laden's grave would have become a shrine, as this is strongly discouraged in Wahhabism. Addressing the same concern, Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said that if the Americans wished to avoid making a shrine to bin Laden, an unmarked grave on land would have accomplished the same goal.^[162]

The Guardian also quoted a U.S. official explaining the anticipated difficulty of finding a country that would accept the burial of bin Laden in its soil.^[166] A professor of Islamic Law at the University of Jordan stated burying at sea was permitted if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial,^[167] and that "it's neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden's body".^[162] On a similar note, Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, stated: "They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam. If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: you dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it. Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them."^[162] Khalid Latif, an imam who serves as a chaplain and the director of the Islamic Center of New York University, argued that the sea burial was respectful.^[168]

Leor Halevi, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, explained that Islamic law does not prescribe ordinary funerals for those killed in battle, and pointed to controversy within the Muslim world over whether bin Laden was, as a "mass murderer of Muslims", entitled to the same respect as mainstream Muslims. At the same time, he suggested that the burial could have been handled with more cultural sensitivity.^[169]

Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, published a complaint on May 10, 2011, that the burial at sea deprived the family of a proper burial.^[170]

Bin Laden's will[link]

After bin Laden's death, it was reported he had left a will written a short time after 9/11^[171] in which he urged his children not to join al-Qaeda and not to continue the Jihad.^[172]

Release of photographs[link]

CNN cited a senior U.S. official as saying three sets of photographs of bin Laden's body exist: Photos taken at a hangar in Afghanistan, described as the most recognizable and gruesome; photos taken from the burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson before a shroud was placed around his body; and photos from the raid itself, which include shots of the interior of the compound as well as three of the others who died in the raid.^[173]

A source told ABC News that the photos taken by the military servicemen on the scene depict the physical damage done by a "high-caliber bullet".^[68] CBS Evening News reported that the photo shows that the bullet which hit above bin Laden's left eye blew out his left eyeball and blew away a large portion of his frontal skull, exposing his brain.^[174] CNN stated that the pictures from the Afghanistan hangar depict "a massive open head wound across both eyes. It's very bloody and gory."^[173] Senator Jim Inhofe, who viewed the photos, stated that the photos taken of the body on the Carl Vinson, which showed bin Laden's face after much of the blood and material had been washed away, should be released to the public.^[175]

A debate on whether the military photos should or should not be released to the public has taken place.^[176] Those supporting the release argued that the photos should be considered public records,^[177][178] that the photos are necessary to complete the journalistic record,^[179] and that the photos would prove bin Laden's death and therefore prevent conspiracy theories that bin Laden is still alive. Those in opposition to a release of the photos expressed concern that the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.^[180]

President Obama ultimately decided not to release the photos.^[181] In an interview that aired on May 4 on 60 Minutes, Obama stated that "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies. We don't need to spike the football", and that he was concerned with ensuring that "very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, or as a propaganda tool. That's not who we are."^[182] Among Republican members of Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham criticized the decision and stated that he wanted to see the photos released, while Senator John McCain and Representative Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, supported the decision not to release the photos.^[183][184]

On May 11, select members of Congress (the congressional leadership and those who serve in a committee of intelligence, homeland security, judiciary, foreign relations, and military) were shown 15 bin Laden photos. In an interview with Eliot Spitzer, Senator Jim Inhofe said that three of the photos were of bin Laden alive for identification reference. Three other photos were of the sea burial ceremony.^[185]

The group Judicial Watch announced that they have filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain access to the photos.^[186][187] On May 9, the Department of Defense declined to process Judicial Watch's FOIA request, prompting a lawsuit.^[188] Federal judge James Boasberg ruled on this lawsuit on April 26, 2012, denying release of the photographs.^[189] A FOIA request from the Associated Press was also declined.^[190]

Role of Pakistan[link]

Pakistan came under intense international scrutiny after the raid. The Pakistani government denied that it had sheltered bin Laden, and said it had shared information with the CIA and other intelligence agencies about the compound since 2009.^[191] After the raid, there was an unconfirmed report that Pakistan allowed Chinese military officials to examine the wreckage of the crashed helicopter.^[192]

Connections with Abbottabad[link]

View of Abbottabad, Pakistan (2011)

Abbottabad attracted refugees from fighting in the tribal areas and Swat Valley, as well as Afghanistan. "People don't really care now to ask who's there," said Gohar Ayub Khan, a former foreign minister and resident of the city. "That's one of the reasons why, possibly, he came in there."^[193]

The city was home to at least one al-Qaeda leader before bin Laden. Operational chief Abu Faraj al-Libi reportedly moved his family to Abbottabad in mid-2003.^[194] Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) raided the house in December 2003 but did not find him.^[195] A courier told interrogators that al-Libi used three houses in Abbottabad. Pakistani officials say they informed their American counterparts at the time that the city could be a hiding place for al-Qaeda leaders.^[196] In 2009 officials began providing the U.S. with intelligence about bin Laden's compound without knowing who lived there.^[195]

On January 25, 2011,^[197] ISI arrested Umar Patek, an Indonesian wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, while he was staying with a family in Abbottabad. Tahir Shehzad, a clerk at the post office, was arrested on suspicion of facilitating travel for al-Qaeda militants.^[194]

Allegations against Pakistan[link]

Numerous allegations were made that the government of Pakistan had shielded bin Laden.^{[96][198][199]} Critics cited the very close proximity of bin Laden's heavily fortified compound to the Pakistan Military Academy, that the U.S. chose to not notify Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^{[199][199][200][201]} U.S. government files, leaked by Wikileaks, disclosed that American diplomats had been told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time U.S. forces approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), also helped smuggle al-Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had also told U.S. officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.^[202]

CIA chief Leon Panetta said the CIA had ruled out involving Pakistan in the operation, because it feared that "any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets."^[203] However, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding".^[204] Obama echoed her sentiments.^[205] John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, said that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support from within Pakistan. He further stated: "People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide out there for so long."^[206]

Abbottabad, Pakistan, at night, showing the lights of the city

Indian Minister for Home Affairs P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He called on Pakistan to arrest them.^[207]

Pakistani-born British MP Khalid Mahmood stated that he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops, reviving questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's security forces.^[208]

On August 7, 2011, the American spy novelist and security analyst Raelynn Hillhouse published an account on her national security blog "The Spy Who Billed Me"^[209] that suggested Pakistan's ISI had been sheltering bin Laden in return for a $25 million bounty, however ISI and government officials have denied the allegations.^[210] Former Pakistani Army Chief, General Ziauddin Butt has said that, according to his knowledge, Osama bin Laden was kept in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad by the then Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah. This had occurred with the "full knowledge" of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly that of current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.^[211] Emails from the private US security firm, Stratfor, published by WikiLeaks on February 27, 2012, indicate that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's ISI knew of Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad safe house. Stratfor had been given access to the papers collected by US forces from Bin Laden's Abbottabad house. The emails reveal that these Pakistani officers included "Mid to senior level ISI and Pak Mil with one retired Pak Mil General".^[212]

Pakistani response[link]

According to a Pakistani intelligence official, raw phone-tap data had been transferred to the United States without being analyzed by Pakistan. While the U.S. "was concentrating on this" information since September 2010, information regarding bin Laden and the compound's inhabitants had "slipped from" Pakistan's "radar" over the months. Bin Laden left "an invisible footprint" and he had not been contacting other militant networks. It was noted that much focus had been placed on a courier entering and leaving the compound. The transfer of intelligence to the U.S. was a regular occurrence according to the official, who also stated regarding the raid that "I think they came in undetected and went out the same day", and Pakistan did not believe that U.S. personnel were present in the area before the special operation occurred.^[205]

According to the Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge that an operation would happen. Pakistan was "in the know of certain things" and "what happened, happened with our consent. Americans got to know him—where he was first—and that's why they struck it and struck it precisely." Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., had said that Pakistan would have pursued bin Laden had the intelligence of his location existed with them and Pakistan was "very glad that our American partners did. They had superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to them."^[205]

Another Pakistani official stated that Pakistan "assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and the operation was conducted by the United States. He also said that "in any event, we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong."^[205]

In June the ISI arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Osama bin Laden's compound and five CIA informants.^[213]

Code name[link]

Several officials who were present in the Situation Room, including the president,^[182] told reporters that the code name for bin Laden was "Geronimo." They had watched Leon Panetta, speaking from CIA headquarters, while he narrated the action in Abbottabad. Panetta said, "We have a visual on Geronimo," and later, "Geronimo EKIA"--enemy killed in action.^[44] The actual words of the commander on the ground were, "For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo."^[214] Officials subsequently explained that each step of the mission was labelled alphabetically in an "Execution Checklist," which is used to ensure all participants in a large operation are kept synchronized with a minimum of radio traffic. "Geronimo" indicated the raiders had reached step "G," the capture or killing of bin Laden.^[54] Osama bin Laden himself was identified as "Jackpot," the general code name for the target of an operation.^[214] ABC News reported that otherwise his regular code name was "Cakebread."^[46] The New Yorker reported that bin Laden's codename was "Crankshaft."^[42]

Many Native Americans were offended that Geronimo, the legendary 19th century Apache, was irrevocably linked with bin Laden. The chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the successor to Geronimo's tribe, wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to "right this wrong."^[215] The president of the Navajo Nation requested that the U.S. government change the code name retroactively.^[216] Officials from the National Congress of American Indians said the focus should be on honoring the disproportionately high number of Native Americans serving in the military, and they had been assured that "Geronimo" was not a code name for bin Laden.^[217] The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony on the issue from tribal leaders, while the Defense Department had no comment except to say that no disrespect was intended.^[216]