News / International
Osama bin Laden raid guided from space
31 Aug 2013 at 08:29hrs | Views
Navy SEALS who cornered and killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound were guided from SPACE by a fleet of satellites, according to top secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
The files also reveal the existence of a secret US military laboratory which tested DNA from the al-Qaeda leader's corpse and how a covert National Security Agency unit tracked mobile phones to help pinpoint the terror chief's exact location in Abbottabad.
The classified documents, leaked to the Washington Post by whistleblower Snowden, detail the secret 2013 "black budget" covering the expenses of US intelligence agencies including the NSA and CIA.
It reveals how, eight hours after the raid, a forensic intelligence lab run by the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan analysed DNA from bin Laden's body and "provided a conclusive match" confirming his identity.
The leaked information contradicts the Pentagon's claims that it had no records of such tests in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a US news agency the day after President Obama announced bin Laden's death.
A secret arm of the NSA - which previously employed Snowden - and the role it played in the hunt for Bin Laden was also brought to light.
The Tailored Access Operations group made the military raid possible by hacking computers and mobile phones and installing spyware to trace the whereabouts of key al-Qaeda operatives.
The group's skills were also employed in April 2011, a month before the raid, to capture 40 low and mid-level Taliban fighters and other insurgents in Afghanistan using signals intelligence from bugging implants.
Satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office performed more than 387 "collects" of high-resolution and infrared images of the Abbottabad compound in the month before the raid, the documents show.
The secret files say the intelligence was "critical to prepare for the mission and contributed to the decision to approve execution."
In addition to satellites, the US government flew a RQ-170 advanced stealth drone over Pakistan to eavesdrop on electronic transmissions.
It also emerged that the CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor and other public health workers to get blood samples from people living in the Abbottabad compound as part of a vaccination program to determine whether they might be related to bin Laden.
In May last year, the doctor, Shakil Afridi, was convicted by a Pakistani court of "conspiring against the state" and jailed for 33 years.
But, a senior judicial official overturned conviction on Thursday on technical grounds and ordered a retrial.
The leaked documents show nearly $53billion was shared between the 16 intelligence agencies with the biggest share, $14.7bllion, going to the CIA.
The NSA received $10.8billion, of which nearly half was spent on collecting, processing and analysing data.
The files also reveal the existence of a secret US military laboratory which tested DNA from the al-Qaeda leader's corpse and how a covert National Security Agency unit tracked mobile phones to help pinpoint the terror chief's exact location in Abbottabad.
The classified documents, leaked to the Washington Post by whistleblower Snowden, detail the secret 2013 "black budget" covering the expenses of US intelligence agencies including the NSA and CIA.
It reveals how, eight hours after the raid, a forensic intelligence lab run by the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan analysed DNA from bin Laden's body and "provided a conclusive match" confirming his identity.
The leaked information contradicts the Pentagon's claims that it had no records of such tests in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a US news agency the day after President Obama announced bin Laden's death.
A secret arm of the NSA - which previously employed Snowden - and the role it played in the hunt for Bin Laden was also brought to light.
The Tailored Access Operations group made the military raid possible by hacking computers and mobile phones and installing spyware to trace the whereabouts of key al-Qaeda operatives.
The group's skills were also employed in April 2011, a month before the raid, to capture 40 low and mid-level Taliban fighters and other insurgents in Afghanistan using signals intelligence from bugging implants.
The secret files say the intelligence was "critical to prepare for the mission and contributed to the decision to approve execution."
In addition to satellites, the US government flew a RQ-170 advanced stealth drone over Pakistan to eavesdrop on electronic transmissions.
It also emerged that the CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor and other public health workers to get blood samples from people living in the Abbottabad compound as part of a vaccination program to determine whether they might be related to bin Laden.
In May last year, the doctor, Shakil Afridi, was convicted by a Pakistani court of "conspiring against the state" and jailed for 33 years.
But, a senior judicial official overturned conviction on Thursday on technical grounds and ordered a retrial.
The leaked documents show nearly $53billion was shared between the 16 intelligence agencies with the biggest share, $14.7bllion, going to the CIA.
The NSA received $10.8billion, of which nearly half was spent on collecting, processing and analysing data.
Source - Mirror
