How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
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How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
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Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#2So did Palantir help or not?
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#3Wild that the NSA has a podcast. Part of me always wanted to work for them, and I still dream of cyber warfare, but the allure of big tech money and the Virginia location always pushed me away. Maybe some day.
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#4> Learn from a counterterrorism expert who was in the room when the word came in that Osama bin Laden was Killed In Action.
There’s a very famous photo of Obama, Biden, the Joint Chiefs, and National Security advisors in the White House Situation Room watching the raid unfold in real-time…but sure, I guess it’ll be pretty neat also to get the names of the folks working on the other side of town who got a phone call from someone on the staffs for one of the people in that photo.
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#5> Learn from a counterterrorism expert who was in the room when the word came in that Osama bin Laden was Killed In Action. There’s a very famous photo of Obama, Biden, the Joint Chiefs, and National Security advisors in the White House Situation Room watching the raid unfold in real-time…but sure, I guess it’ll be pretty neat also to get the names of the folks working on the other side of town who got a phone call f…
I'm guessing those people all declined the podcast invite.
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#6From the NSA, this seems like historical revisionism as it contradicts the bin Laden story widely accepted.
The short version is: 9/11 happens. The Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden and George W. Bush refuses [1]. Bin Laden escapes into Pakistan. We then start a completely pointless war in Iraq against someone who played no part in 9/11. There was a letter from many conservative leaders prior to 9//1 calling for the invasion of Iraq [2]. Interestingly, then Senator Biden predicted in 1998 he'd vote to topple Saddam Hussein in 1998 [3].
There is no partisan divide on US foreign policy.
Anyway, bin Laden builds a massive compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about a half mile from the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence agency). Like, it stood out like a sore thumb. It was so much larger than the surrounding houses. And there he sat for years. He had no Internet access. He communicated with the outside world via couriers. Those couriers would take USB drives and travel to distant Internet cafes and such to communicate on bin Laden's behalf.
One of those couriers was identified through torture ("interrogation") of people held at Guantanemo Bay. The CIA followed said courier and found the compound in Abbottobad and, well, the rest is history.
So where does the NSA fit into this? It seems like good ol HUMINT (human intelligence) to me.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.te...
[2]: https://www.militarist-monitor.org/images/uploads/PNAC_Lette...
[3]: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4842886/user-clip-1998-biden-...
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#7So did Palantir help or not?
Palantir had no role. It's disgusting they try to tie themselves to it.
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#8From the NSA, this seems like historical revisionism as it contradicts the bin Laden story widely accepted. The short version is: 9/11 happens. The Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden and George W. Bush refuses [1]. Bin Laden escapes into Pakistan. We then start a completely pointless war in Iraq against someone who played no part in 9/11. There was a letter from many conservative leaders prior to 9//1 calling for t…
Iraq was never about 9/11. The error of Iraq happened because the US followed one HUMINT source Saddam was developing WMD. Considering bin Laden was in Pakistan, it would presumably require a multi-source confirmation.
Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#9From the NSA, this seems like historical revisionism as it contradicts the bin Laden story widely accepted. The short version is: 9/11 happens. The Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden and George W. Bush refuses [1]. Bin Laden escapes into Pakistan. We then start a completely pointless war in Iraq against someone who played no part in 9/11. There was a letter from many conservative leaders prior to 9//1 calling for t…
Iraq was never about 9/11. The error of Iraq happened because the US followed one HUMINT source Saddam was developing WMD. Considering bin Laden was in Pakistan, it would presumably require a multi-source confirmation.
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Re: How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence
#10From the NSA, this seems like historical revisionism as it contradicts the bin Laden story widely accepted. The short version is: 9/11 happens. The Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden and George W. Bush refuses [1]. Bin Laden escapes into Pakistan. We then start a completely pointless war in Iraq against someone who played no part in 9/11. There was a letter from many conservative leaders prior to 9//1 calling for t…
> The Taliban offer to hand over bin Laden and George W. Bush refuses
A bit disingenuous to say that and leave out that the most generous version of that offer was to hand Bin Laden over to a third country.