William McRaven

William Harry McRaven (born November 6, 1955) is a United States Navy four-star admiral who currently serves as ninth Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command. He previously served as the Commander, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). from March 2008 to August 2011. Prior to assuming command of JSOC on June 13, 2008, he served from June 2006 to March 2008 as Commander, Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). In addition to his duties as COMSOCEUR, he was designated as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre (NSCC), where he was charged with enhancing the capabilities and inter-operability of all NATO Special Operations Forces. He assumed his current assignment on August 8, 2011.

Career in special operations

McRaven has commanded at every level within the special operations community, including assignments as deputy commander for operations at JSOC, Commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group 1, Commander of SEAL Team 3, task group commander in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, task unit commander during the Gulf War, squadron commander at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and SEAL platoon commander at Underwater Demolition Team 21/SEAL Team 4.

McRaven has also served as a staff officer with an interagency coordination focus, including as the director for Strategic Planning in the Office of Combating Terrorism on the National Security Council Staff, assessment director at U.S. Special Operations Command, on the Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations and the chief of staff at Naval Special Warfare Group 1.

On April 6, 2011, McRaven was nominated by President Barack Obama for appointment to the rank of admiral and as the ninth Commander of USSOCOM, of which JSOC is a component. In his confirmation hearings, McRaven "endorsed a steady manpower growth rate of 3% to 5% a year" and favored more resources for USSOCOM, including "additional drones and the construction of new special operations facilities." After the Armed Services committee hearings, in late June, McRaven was confirmed unanimously by the Senate for his promotion to four-star admiral and as commander of USSOCOM and took command August 8. The transfer ceremony was led by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in Tampa, with Admiral Olson also in attendance, two days after the Wardak Province helicopter crash which cost 30 Americans, including 22 SEALs, their lives. With several hundred in attendance, Panetta spoke of sending "a strong message of American resolve [and] ... carry[ing] on the fight."

Operation Neptune's Spear: Death of Osama bin Laden

McRaven is credited for organizing and executing Operation Neptune's Spear, the special ops raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. CIA Director Leon Panetta delegated the raid to McRaven who has worked almost exclusively on counterterrorism operations and strategy since 2001. According to the New York Times, "In February, Mr. Panetta called Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command, to C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va., to give him details about the compound and to begin planning a military strike. Admiral McRaven, a veteran of the covert world who had written a book on American Special Operations, spent weeks working with the C.I.A. on the operation, and came up with three options: a helicopter assault using U.S. Navy SEALs, a strike with B-2 bombers that would obliterate the compound, or a joint raid with Pakistani intelligence operatives who would be told about the mission hours before the launch." The day before the assault, "Mr. Obama took a break from rehearsing for the White House Correspondents Dinner that night to call Admiral McRaven, to wish him luck." In December 2011, Time Magazine profiled McRaven as runner-up for Time Person of the Year for his role in the operation.

Personal and education

McRaven is a native of San Antonio, Texas, where he graduated from Roosevelt High School. He is the son of the late Col. Claude "Mac" McRaven, World War II pilot who played briefly in the NFL. McRaven attended the University of Texas at Austin on a track scholarship, and was a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. He graduated in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. McRaven holds a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School, where he helped establish and was the first graduate from the Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict curriculum.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Timeline : Osama bin Laden

A look back at some key moments in the life of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, including attacks that he was purportedly behind and messages attributed to him, based on information from U.S. authorities and other official government sources.

* 1957 -- Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden is born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is the 17th of 54 children fathered by Muhammad Awad bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who built a billion-dollar construction company in Saudi Arabia. His mother is Hamida al-Attas, from Syria.

* 1979-- Bin Laden graduates from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah with a degree in public administration and economics. He goes to Afghanistan to join the "jihad," or "holy war," against the Soviet Union. He remains there for a decade, using construction equipment from his family's business to help the Muslim guerrilla forces build shelters, tunnels and roads through the rugged Afghan mountains, and at times taking part in battle.

* 1980 - 1989-- Bin Laden raises money for the mujahedeen fighting in Afghanistan and also provides them with logistical and humanitarian aid. During these years, he also personally fights in battles against the Soviet Union.

* 1988-- Bin Laden founds a group he names al Qaeda, which in Arabic means "the base."

* 1989 -- The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan. Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia to work for the family construction firm, the Bin Laden Group.

* August 7, 1990 -- Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, U.S. troops arrive in Saudi Arabia in order to have a close base to eventually go after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's troops. Bin Laden becomes outraged at the U.S. forces' presence near the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina.

* 1991-- Bin Laden is expelled from Saudi Arabia by its regime. Eventually he and his followers relocate to Sudan, funded by assets that had grown to as much as $20 million, according to lawyers familiar with the family forture. In that African nation, al Qaeda begins to evolve into a terror network.

* December 1992 -- U.S. forces land in Somalia, spearheading a U.N.-authorized humanitarian plan to bring in famine relief supplies. Part of their challenge is disarming the various warlords who control the country. Prosecutors charge that bin Laden threw himself into the conflict, sending some of his followers to Somalia to train the warlords to fight the U.S. troops.

* February 26, 1993-- A bomb explodes at the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and wounding hundreds. Six Muslim radicals, who U.S. officials suspect have links to bin Laden, are eventually convicted for the bombing. Bin Laden is later named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case.

* October 1993 -- Eighteen U.S. servicemen, all of them part of a humanitarian mission to Somalia, are killed in an ambush in Mogadishu. Bin Laden later says that some Arab Afghans were involved in the killings and calls Americans "paper tigers" because they withdrew from Somalia shortly after the soldiers' deaths.

* 1994 -- The Saudi government officially strips bin Laden of his citizenship, freezing all the remaining assets he has in the country. His family disowns him as well.

That same year, bin Laden is the target of an assassination attempt. Afterward, he strengthens his personal security detail.

In the following months, officials believe he funds and directs a series of attacks, including a failed attempt to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a 1995 suicide bombing at the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan. Authorities now believe that this marked the early days of a growing alliance between bin Laden and other militant Islamic groups, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

* 1995 -- A truck bombing at a military base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kills five Americans and two Indians.

* 1996 -- Sudanese officials expel bin Laden from their country. He moves with his children and three wives to Afghanistan, where he receives support from the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

That year, U.S. authorities indict bin Laden on charges he helped train the people involved in the 1993 Somalia attack.

* June 25, 1996 -- Nineteen U.S. soldiers die in a bombing of the Khobar military complex in Saudi Arabia.

* August 23, 1996 -- Bin Laden declares a holy war against U.S. forces. He signs and issues a declaration of jihad from Afghanistan titled, "Message from Osama bin Laden to his Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula."

* 1997 -- In his first interview with Western media, bin Laden tells Peter Bergen -- now a CNN analyst -- that the United States is "unjust, criminal and tyrannical." "The U.S. today, as a result of the arrogant atmosphere, has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist," he said in the interview. "It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us, and then wants us to agree to all this. If we refuse to do so, it says we are terrorists."

Bin Laden also says that "Arab holy warriors" trained in Afghanistan had banded with Somali Muslims in October 1993 to kill 18 U.S. soldiers in a bloody battle on the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia.

* February 1997 -- According to court documents, bin Laden orders the militarization of the East African cell of al Qaeda, a move that culminated in the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, eight years to the day after U.S. troops landed in the Saudi kingdom.

* 1998 -- Bin Laden's al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, merge, according to U.S. prosecutors.

* February 1998 -- Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri endorse a fatwa under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders." This fatwa, published in the newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, on February 23, 1998, states that Muslims should kill Americans -- including civilians -- anywhere in the world.

* May 7, 1998 -- Bin Laden associate Mohammed Atef sends Khaled al Fawwaz a letter discussing the endorsement by bin Laden of a fatwa issued by the "Ulema Union of Afghanistan" which termed the U.S. army the "enemies of Islam" and declared jihad against the United States and its followers. The fatwa is subsequently published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

* May 29, 1998 -- Bin Laden issues a statement titled "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam," under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Fighting the Jews and Crusaders." In it, he states that "it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God."

* August 7, 1998 -- A pair of truck bombs explodes outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Some 224 people are killed.

* November 1998 -- Bin Laden is indicted in the United States on 224 counts of murder -- one for each death in the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings.

* June 7, 1999-- Bin Laden appears for the first time on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives list.

* May 2000 -- Muslim separatist guerrillas who seized 21 hostages at a diving resort in Malaysia publicly announce that they are being supported by bin Laden.

* October 12, 2000 -- Bin Laden is linked to the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead and another 39 injured.

* 2000 -- Algerian Ahmed Ressam pleads guilty in connection with a failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations. He claims he was trained in urban warfare and explosives at a camp in Afghanistan run by bin Laden.

* May 29, 2001-- Four of bin Laden's alleged supporters are convicted of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa.

* August 14, 2001 -- Bin Laden's last statement prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is given to Al Rai Al Aam newspaper.

* September 2001 -- Four U.S. commercial aircraft are commandered in flight by 19 hijackers. Two are flown into the World Trade Center in New York, another into the Pentagon just outside Washington, and the fourth, headed to an unknown target, crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people are killed. Soon thereafter, the U.S. government names bin Laden as a prime suspect.

* November 2001 -- U.S. forces drop leaflets in Afghanistan offering a $25 million bounty for bin Laden.

* December 1, 2001-- Hazarat Ali, security commander for Afghanistan's Jalalabad province, reports there was a bin Laden sighting on November 27 in the Tora Bora region. Hundreds of Afghan fighters with U.S. and British Special Forces head to that area to launch a major assault.

* December 27, 2001-- Afghan officials report that bin Laden is in Pakistan, along with al Qaeda sympathizers.

* January 18, 2002-- Then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says that Osama bin Laden might have died of kidney failure in Afghanistan after becoming separated from a dialysis machine he had used in recent years.

* February 15, 2002 -- Reports go out to top levels of the U.S. government stating bin Laden survived the U.S. bombing assault on his alleged hideouts. They are vague and lack solid evidence that he could be near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, such as sightings by witnesses or interception of radio transmissions with his voice.

* March 9, 2002-- A Saudi-owned publication quotes one of bin Laden's wives, identified only as A.S., as saying she "feels deep down that he's still alive and that the whole world would have known if he had been killed. Osama's death cannot be hidden."

* May 17, 2002-- A Saudi-owned newspaper publishes quotes from fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar in which he states, "Sheikh Osama is still alive, praise God, and this is causing anguish to (U.S. President George W.) Bush who promised his people to kill Osama, not knowing that lives are in the hands of God."

* June 12, 2002-- A Russian newspaper publishes what it claims is an interview with Omar. The ousted Taliban leader states that bin Laden is alive in Afghanistan. "Osama helped us during the war with the Russians, he would not leave us now," the newspaper quotes Omar as saying. "The Holy War is only just beginning. The fire from this war will reach America, and it will burn the capital that launched an unjust attack on Muslims."

* July 2002-- Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper, says the al Qaeda leader is in good health, but had been wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan in December 2001. Atwan says that bin Laden's followers had told him that he would not make more video statements until his group launches another attack on the United States.

* March 1, 2003 -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's "No.3 man" and the alleged planner of the 9/11 attacks, is captured in a raid in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He also had been linked to previous al Qaeda attacks and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

* March 10, 2005-- Muslim clerics in Spain issue what they called the world's first fatwa, or Islamic edict, against Osama bin Laden. They call him an apostate and urged others of their faith to denounce him. The ruling is issued by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main body representing the country's Muslim community.

* October 2009-- The book, "Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World," written by Najwa and Omar bin Laden, is published.

* December 2009 -- A U.S. government official admits a "lack of intelligence" on bin Laden's whereabouts, noting he could be in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells ABC that "it's been years" since there was good intelligence on the al Qaeda leader's location.

* January 29, 2010 -- A man thought to be bin Laden is heard on two audiotapes, released in the span of a week. On the first, he claims responsibility for the alleged Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMuttallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it neared Detroit from Amsterdam.

On another tape -- aired days later, also on Al-Jazeera -- a similar voice blames the United States and other industrialized nations for causing climate change.

* March 2010 -- An audiotape purportedly from bin Laden hints at retaliation if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is executed in the United States.

* October 2010 -- A message from someone thought to be bin Laden appears on jihadist forums urging Muslims to help people suffering from famine, floods, a lack of clean water and the effects of climate change. At the time, a U.S. official says that bin Laden has been in communication with al Qaeda affiliates within Pakistan and beyond, encouraging them to take more military actions.

Weeks later, a speaker in an audiotape -- purportedly bin Laden -- warns France to get its troops out of Afghanistan and not to oppress Muslims at home. "As you kill us, you will be killed," the voice says. "As you imprison us, you will be imprisoned."

* August 2010 -- U.S. President Barack Obama is briefed on a "possible lead" about the location of bin Laden. It is in Abbottabad, an area 30 to 35 miles north of Islamabad where a trusted bin Laden courier and his brother have been located. (After bin Laden's death nine months later, the president will reveal that intelligence agents pressed to get more information in the subsequent months).

* January 2011 -- A speaker claiming to be bin Laden warns French troops to leave Afghanistan -- or else two French journalists abducted by militants there could be killed. The man warns France that its alliance with the United States could prove costly.

In the subsequent weeks, U.S. authorities determine that there is "sound intelligence" that bin Laden is in the specific housing compound in northern Pakistan.

* March 14, 2011 -- President Obama chairs the first of a series of National Security Council meetings on a possible operation to target bin Laden. In time, he becomes more confident that the information on the terrorist leader's whereabouts is credible and that the operation can be accomplished.

* April 29, 2011 -- After more meetings April 12, April 19 and April 28, President Obama gives the final order authorizing the mission.

* May 2, 2011 -- In the early morning, "a small team of Americans" -- special operations forces, including U.S. Navy SEALs -- fly by helicopter into a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, according to U.S. authorities. During a 40-minute operation, bin Laden resists and is killed in a firefight, as were one woman and three other adult males, one of them believed to be an adult son of the al Qaeda leader.

Pakistani authorities were not alerted about the operation in advance, with U.S. officials informing them and those from other countries only after the U.S. forces were safely out of Pakistani airspace. A U.S. helicopter goes down in the operation, but no U.S. troops are harmed.

After killing bin Laden, the U.S. forces fly off from the compound with his body. Within 24 hours, it is buried at sea in accordance with Islamic law, because no country was willing or able to take his body for burial on land.

From : www.cnn.com

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden joined the Afghan resistance. After the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden formed the al-Qaeda network which carried out global strikes against Western interests, culminating in the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Early Life

Jihadist leader. Born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden on March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to construction billionaire Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Mohammed's 10th wife, Syrian-born Alia Ghanem. Osama was the seventh of 50 children born to Muhammad bin Laden, but the only child from his father's marriage to Alia Ghanem.

Osama's father started his professional life in the 1930s in relative poverty, working as a porter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During his time as a young laborer, Mohammed impressed the royal family with his work on their palaces, which he built at a much lower cost than any of his competitors could, and with a much greater attention to detail. By the 1960s, he had managed to land several large government contracts to build extensions on the Mecca, Medina and Al-Aqsa mosques. He became a highly influential figure in Jeddah; when the city fell on hard financial times, Mohammed used his wealth to pay all civil servants' wages for the entire kingdom for a six-month period. As a result, Mohammed bin Laden became well respected in his community.

As a father, he was very strict, insisting that all his children live under one roof and observe a rigid religious and moral code. He dealt with his children, especially his sons, as if they were adults, and demanded they become confident and self-sufficient at an early age.

Osama, however, barely came to know his father before his parents divorced. After his family split, Osama's mother took him to live with her new husband, Muhammad al-Attas. The couple had four children together, and Osama spent most of his childhood living with his step-siblings, and attending Al Thagher Model School—at the time the most prestigious high school in Jedda. His biological father would go on to marry two more times, until his death in a charter plane crash in September 1967.

At the age of 14, Osama was recognized as an outstanding, if somewhat shy, student at Al Thagher. As a result, he received a personal invitation to join a small Islamic study group with the promise of earning extra credit. Osama, along with the sons of several prominent Jedda families, were told the group would memorize the entire Koran, a prestigious accomplishment, by the time they graduated from the institution. But the group soon lost its original focus, and during this time Osama received the beginnings of an education in some of the principles of violent jihad.

The teacher who educated the children, influenced in part by a sect of Islam called The Brotherhood, began instructing his pupils in the importance of instituting a pure, Islamic law around the Arab world. Using parables with often-violent endings, their teacher explained that the most loyal observers of Islam would institute the holy word—even if it meant supporting death and destruction. By the second year of their studies, Osama and his friends had openly adopted the attitude and styles of teen Islamic activists. They preached the importance of instituting a pure Islamic law at Al Thagher; grew untrimmed beards; and wore shorter pants and wrinkled shirts in imitation of the Prophet's dress.

Osama was pushed to grow up rather quickly during his time at Al Thagher. At the age of 18 he married his first cousin, 14-year-old Najwa Ghanem, who had been promised to him. Osama graduated from Al Thager in 1976, the same year his first child, a son named Abdullah, was born. He then headed to King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, where some say he received a degree in public administration in 1981. Others claim he received a degree in civil engineering, in an effort to join the family business.

From Hero to Exile

But Osama would have little chance to use his degree. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Osama joined the Afghan resistance, believing it was his duty as a Muslim to fight the occupation. He relocated to Peshawar, Afghanistan, and using aid from the United States under the CIA program Operation Cyclone, he began training a mujahideen, a group of Islamic jihadists. After the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero, and the United States referred to him and his soldiers as "Freedom Fighters."

Yet Osama was quickly disappointed with what he believed was a corrupt Saudi government, and his frustration with the U.S. occupation of Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift between Osama and his country's leaders. Bin Laden spoke publicly against the Saudi government's reliance on American troops, believing their presence profaned sacred soil. After several attempts to silence Osama, the Saudis banished the former hero. He lived in exile in Sudan beginning in 1992.

Formation of al Qaeda

By 1993, Osama had formed a secret network known as al Qaeda (Arabic for "the Base"), comprised of militant Muslims he had met while serving in Afghanistan. Soldiers were recruited for their ability to listen, their good manners, obedience, and their pledge to follow their superiors. Their goal was to take up the jihadist cause around the world, righting perceived wrongs under the accordance of pure, Islamic law. Under Osama's leadership, the group funded and began organizing global attacks worldwide. By 1994, after continued advocacy of extremist jihad, the Saudi government forced Osama to relinquish his Saudi citizenship, and confiscated his passport. His family also disowned him, cutting off his $7 million yearly stipend.

Undeterred, Osama began executing his violent plans, with the goal of drawing the United States into war. His hope was that Muslims, unified by the battle, would create a single, true Islamic state. In 1996, to forward his goal, al Qaeda detonated truck bombs against U.S. occupied forces in Saudi Arabia. The next year, they claimed responsibility for killing tourists in Egypt, and in 1998 they bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, killing nearly 300 people in the process.

Osama's actions abroad did not go unnoticed by the Sudanese government, and he was exiled from their country in 1996. Not able to return to Saudi Arabia, Osama took refuge in Afghanistan, where he received protection from the country's ruling Taliban militia. While under the protection of the Taliban, Osama issued a series of fatwas, religious statements, which declared a holy war against the United States. Among the accusations reared at the offending country were the pillaging of natural resources in the Muslim world, and assisting the enemies of Islam.

September 11th and Final Days

By 2001, Osama had attempted, and often successfully executed attacks on several countries using the help of Al Qaeda trained terrorists and his seemingly bottomless financial resources. On September 11, 2001, Osama would deliver his most devastating blow to the United States. A small group of Osama's Al Qaeda jihadists hijacked four commercial passenger aircraft in the United States, two of which collided into the World Trade Center towers. Another aircraft crashed into The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane was successfully retaken, and crashed in Pennsylvania. The intended target of the final aircraft was believed to be the United States Capitol. In all, the attack killed nearly 3,000 civilians.

Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, the government under President George W. Bush formed a coalition that sucecssfully overthrew the Taliban. Osama went into hiding and, for more than 10 years, he was hunted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In 2004, shortly before President Bush's reelection, Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message claiming responsibility for the September 11 attacks.

Then, on May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In an 8-month plan enacted by the president, and led by CIA director Leon Panetta and American special forces, Osama was shot several times. His body was taken as evidence of his death, and DNA tests revealed that the body was, in fact, his. "For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda's leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and our allies," President Obama said in a late-night address to the nation on the eve of Osama's death. "The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda." He added that "his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity."

From : www.biography.com