Op-ed by Brigadier General David R. Irvine, USA (Ret.).
May marks a year since Seal Team Six dropped out of the night sky on a darkened compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Two bullets ended Osama bin Laden’s life, but not the discussion about how he was found.
Was the mystery of his whereabouts cracked by the tedious sleuthing of a George Smiley or the finger-breaking and waterboarding of a Jack Bauer?
The key figure was a courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who was bin Laden’s link to the outside world, and it was a telephone tap and sophisticated surveillance that provided the trail links.