Text/Guanwen Shi said
Editor/Guanwen Shi said
The events of 9/11 in 2001 shocked the world and left the American people with lingering fears to this day. [Floating clouds]
Despite years of hunting and investigation, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden managed to escape the clutches of law enforcement agencies and hid in his shelter for up to a decade.
But surprisingly, on the night of May 2, 2011, a special contingent of American troops suddenly appeared inside a mansion in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and managed to find and defeat the terrorist boss who had long evaded law enforcement.
The raid quickly became a global sensation, with many speculating and discussing what kind of clues had allowed the U.S. government to finally locate bin Laden.
In fact, according to some reports, the initial clue was a seemingly ordinary but vital clothesline.
The existence of this clothesline is believed to be a key factor in bin Laden's discovery, what is going on?
01
Arrest bin Laden with all your might
In search of him, the United States, in cooperation with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, captured Kabul, and in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, bin Laden managed to escape thanks to his familiarity with the terrain.
But bin Laden's escape has left the U.S. government facing criticism and a political embarrassment for President George W. Bush.
Osama bin Laden's whereabouts are unclear, but his position among global terrorists and the continuing threat to the United States have forced the U.S. government to continue to strengthen its intelligence efforts, international cooperation, and a strong fight against terrorist organizations.
As time passes, bin Laden's cunning and counter-detection tactics may have made him more elusive, but for the U.S. government, eliminating his threat remains an urgent and important task.
That doesn't mean he's safe, and even though bin Laden confuses intelligence experts' analysis by releasing video leads, he's the U.S. government's number one target because of his enormous impact in the global fight against the United States.
He knew that the U.S. government was chasing him, but he took the initiative to provide clues, which was not an act for no reason.
Osama bin Laden offered the lead because he knew that he had become a symbol of the world's anti-American terrorists, that the impact of 911 was enormous, and that his presence inspired anti-American elements to continue fighting.
Each video was recorded to prove to the outside world that he was still alive and continuing to lead anti-American forces, and although this behavior increased his danger, he had to do so, otherwise his prestige would be greatly damaged.
The U.S. government analyzed video leads through experts, and despite the confusion of information, came up with some clues, speculating that bin Laden may be in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Despite the failure of the roundup, the U.S. government has not given up on tracking bin Laden, and has become a strategy to strengthen intelligence gathering, international cooperation, and intensify the fight against terrorist groups.
Osama bin Laden has become more cunning and alert with the passage of time and technological advances, and he is well aware of America's technological superiority, living a life of secrecy, avoiding easy appearances and information.
On the other hand, changes in Afghanistan and U.S. cooperation with the Northern Alliance provided bin Laden with an escape.
In the town of Parazina in northwestern Pakistan, American geographers have suggested that bin Laden may be a hiding place, although there is a certain deviation, but it also provides a direction for the United States to find it, and although this incident did not catch bin Laden, it strengthened the United States' determination to fight terrorist groups.
02
9/11 Incident
On 11 September 2001, terrorists hijacked four civilian airliners and used them to attack the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon of the United States Department of Defense and an unidentified aircraft.
It killed an estimated 3,000 people and injured thousands, making it the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, comparable in severity to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
The president of the United States at the time was George W. Bush, and Bush Jr. was not at the site of the attack, but at an elementary school in Florida.
When he learned about the first attack, the Twin Towers had been hit by planes, and he was attending a student reading event, Bush remained calm and kept in touch with the national security team for some time afterward.
Just a few minutes later, George W. Bush urgently left the elementary school under the protection of special agents, rushed to the airport, and rode to the airport at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour in the president's car.
The attack killed nearly 3,000 Americans, and as a country still at war, the whole United States was furious, so all the intelligence and armed services of the United States began to take revenge with the unlimited authorization of the president and the popular support of the whole people, but where was bin Laden at this time?
Osama bin Laden has planned a number of terrorist attacks before, but this time he attacked the continental United States, the first time in American history.
With the "911 incident", Osama bin Laden, a headache for the United States in the Middle East, made headlines around the world.
Since then, the United States has not stopped arresting him, and even issued a reward announcement just to get a clue, and it took nearly 10 years for the United States to discover the tragic location of bin Laden and shoot him dead.
So, where did bin Laden hide during these nearly a decade, and how was it exposed?
03
On the run for nearly a decade
In the war between the United States and Afghanistan, bin Laden's trace has become an insurmountable problem, and this war is not only a head-to-head confrontation, but also a long-term search for bin Laden by the United States.
In the process of searching for bin Laden, the United States has taken all the subtle clues seriously, and the biggest clue is undoubtedly the video released by bin Laden himself.
In order to prove that he is still alive, bin Laden shoots videos from time to time and posts them on the Internet, which not only make the US side jump on his feet, but also pose a huge threat to bin Laden himself, and may expose his position.
The US side has carefully studied each video, including the environment and objects in the picture, and even the meaning and sound that appear in the video, and even paid attention to the bird's call, trying to judge what kind of bird it belongs to from the bird's call, but whether bin Laden deliberately confused the US side through the ambient sound in the video tape has also become an uncertain question.
Despite the limited clues, the enthusiasm of the US side has not diminished due to the length of time or the scarcity of clues.
They sometimes get some definite information, but bin Laden's cunning meant that he never stayed in one place for long.
The fact that his place of residence and the location where the video was filmed are not fixed makes it more difficult for the United States to find him, especially since bin Laden chooses a desolate and uninhabited location for each meeting, which further complicates the task of finding him.
Osama bin Laden is not without a trace, and his kidney disease requires regular treatment, which may leave clues in the trail of the work of the paramedics. Coupled with the large number of family members and the need for a large number of supplies and bodyguards for each move, it is impossible for these activities to leave no traces at all, and these analyses have become new clues for the US side to look for.
The videos became the only clues for the U.S. government to search for him, and the ambient sound of the videos became a difficult problem for analysis, as they may have been prepared in advance for misleading.
The Department of Geography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States stepped up to the game, using meticulous data analysis to suggest that bin Laden might be hiding near the Pakistani town of Parazina.
They argue that, according to island biology, bin Laden is unlikely to have chosen to live in isolation, instead living in a population cluster.
This speculation, while ultimately proven to be correct, provided a valuable reference for U.S. intelligence services, making the search for bin Laden not in vain.
Bin Laden's trail was like a game, his cunning made it impossible for the United States to repeatedly hit the air, and the U.S. government's firm determination and active pursuit of various clues made it possible for bin Laden to reappear at the last moment after a decade.
04
Betrayed by a clothesline
Contrary to previous speculations, he did not choose to hide in the heart of Pakistan's wealthy neighborhoods, a discovery that raises questions about how he managed to be so secretive.
Osama bin Laden has been able to hide here for a number of reasons, and his vast network of contacts and followers throughout the Arab world has provided him with refuge and support.
He played a certain role in challenging the United States in psychological warfare, and tested the patience and confidence of the United States by constantly releasing provocative audio and video recordings, which led to some mistakes in the pursuit of the United States.
The Abbottabad area is home to the wealthy, most of whom are surrounded by high walls, and bin Laden's chosen compound is also a 5.5-metre-high wall, barbed wire, and two security gates, making it a secret fortress.
It was a place where the poor could not snoop into the lives of the rich, and even bin Laden's seclusion did not arouse suspicion, and this shelter, combined with bin Laden's cautious lifestyle, allowed him to successfully evade the surveillance of high-tech American surveillance.
In this seemingly perfect hiding place, a clothesline became bin Laden's fatal exposure.
The U.S. government locked down bin Laden's hiding area through a review of the al-Qaeda "Courier", and the key discovery was that some women's clothes and diapers were hanging on the clothesline of a mansion in a wealthy area, and it happened that bin Laden also had a wife who had just given birth to a child, which aroused the suspicion of American intelligence analysts.
An in-depth investigation of the mansion revealed a number of anomalies, including the strict secrecy of life, garbage incineration, and lack of communication facilities.
To confirm this suspicion, the C.I.A. launched a secret investigation, using satellite imagery and drones to monitor the house 24 hours a day.
The images show an unusual pattern of activity in the house: during the day, there are almost no people in and out, but in the early hours of the morning, there are often people walking through, and the landfill of the house often burns a large amount of household garbage, as if to hide something, and there are signs that there is something unusual inside the house.
President Ma ordered the Navy SEALs to storm the home, and at 11 p.m. on May 1, 2011, two Invisible Black Hawk helicopters carrying 24 Navy SEALs quietly flew over the home.
The soldiers quickly climbed off the helicopter, used explosive bombs to open the courtyard door, and then broke into the compound in two separate ways.
In the main building of the house, bin Laden was preparing to escape with his wife and children, and was shot dead by the commandos in the room on the third floor, the action lasted only more than 30 minutes, and the US military completely wiped out the armed personnel in the house, and bin Laden was ambushed.
Osama bin Laden's body was quickly taken away from the scene by Navy SEALs and transported back to the United States, where President Ma announced that the "main culprit of symbolic terrorism" had been condemned and that "justice had been done," the world rejoiced, and bin Laden's decade of impunity came to an end.
05
Changes in Libya and the death of Muammar Gaddafi
When it comes to bin Laden, Gaddafi naturally comes to mind.
In 2011, the North African country of Libya underwent a seismic change.
Muammar Gaddafi, the ruler of 42 years, was overthrown in a nationwide rebellion and eventually killed in the streets.
A political unrest erupted in Benghazi and spread across the country against the backdrop of years of deteriorating economic conditions due to opaque governance and corruption.
At first, the rebels were vulnerable to the strength of the regular army, but the support of the international community turned a corner for them, forcing Gaddafi to opt for a ceasefire and negotiate with the rebels.
Western countries took this opportunity to intervene in the civil war, France, the United States and the United Kingdom and other countries have sent troops to launch military strikes on Libya, the strength of the NATO coalition force made Libya difficult to parry, and many relatives, including Gaddafi's son, were killed in the war.
After the capital, Tripoli, fell to the opposition, Gaddafi fled back to his hometown of Sirte for support, and despite all the difficulties, with the help of the local population, he organized a resistance force to defend the city.
The decision of the National Transitional Council to assemble forces to attack Sirte, with the assistance of NATO air forces, led to a stalemate after several rounds of fierce fighting, at which point the "fake ceasefire" strategy allowed the rebels to capture the town of Hadi.
As the fighting heated up and suicide attacks became frequent, the defenders under Qaddafi fought stubbornly, but their situation became increasingly difficult due to a lack of outside assistance and a dwindling number.
The final assault took place on 20 October, when an injured but wounded Gaddafi took refuge in the sewers with the remnants of his soldiers, but was captured.
A young soldier, Urebi, finds Gaddafi in hiding and drags him out to humiliate him.
Regrettably, the death of the Kaza bandits did not bring peace and prosperity to this troubled country, but on the contrary, the issue of the distribution of benefits triggered a new round of conflict, dragging the originally rich land into a deeper abyss.