The Real Bin Laden
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
18 minutes. That's how much extra time the US Navy Seals had during their raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In that time they managed to secure never seen before correspondence from across the Al-Qaeda network giving US intelligence a new insight into their movements and plans.
In this episode, James is joined by Dr Nelly Lahoud, a senior fellow in New America's International Security program, to talk about this vital raid and why this information is so important. Giving us a new perspective on internal relationships, communications, and beliefs within Al-Qaeda - those extra 18 minutes have provided invaluable information.
Nelly's book The Bin Laden Papers is available on Amazon here.
Produced by Aidan Lonergan. Edited by Annie Coloe.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The name Assama bin Laden will live in infamy. |
| 0:04.0 | Born in 1957 in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, he was one of 50 children to self-made millionaire |
| 0:10.6 | construction manager Mohammed bin Laden. He went on to study |
| 0:14.7 | business before becoming obsessed with extreme religious teachings, a path that |
| 0:19.7 | would lead him to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, but only later to turn his attention towards the United States |
| 0:25.4 | and the founding of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. From here he would mastermind attacks |
| 0:30.9 | against US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Durasalam, Tanzania, would mastermind |
| 0:33.7 | attacks against US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Durislam, Tanzania, |
| 0:35.4 | and on the USS Cole in 2000. |
| 0:38.8 | But of course, what he's known for is |
| 0:40.6 | mastermining those attacks on 9-11 2001. It was here that 19 militants |
| 0:46.6 | associated with Al-Qaeda staged attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, |
| 0:52.1 | and on another target which, if successful, we believe |
| 0:56.2 | may have been the White House. |
| 0:58.5 | So we know who bin Laden is or indeed was, but what happened to him after 9-11? We know he was killed in 2001 by US Navy |
| 1:07.2 | SEALs in the famous Abotabad raid, but what did he do in the decade in between? A decade on the run? I'm your host James Rogers. This is the |
| 1:16.4 | warfare podcast and today I'm joined by Dr Nellie LeHood, who is a senior fellow at the New America |
| 1:22.3 | Think Tank in Washington DC. |
| 1:24.1 | Now Nellie has a unique position in the fact that she was granted access to |
| 1:29.0 | over 90,000 files and 6,000 letters that were retrieved from bin Laden's compound immediately |
| 1:36.4 | after his death. |
| 1:38.0 | And it's from these files that Nellie and their team have been able to piece together |
... |
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