logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
9m 1s

The killing of Osama Bin Laden

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The US tracked down the al-Qaeda leader to a city in northern Pakistan in May 2011. Special operations troops were sent to capture or kill Bin Laden in a top secret raid in the dead of night. The Americans did not tell their Pakistani allies about the raid beforehand. Gabriela Jones spoke to Nicholas Rasmussen who was in the White House situation room with President Barack Obama and US military chiefs as the raid took place.

Photo: Osama Bin Laden's fortified compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan. Credit: BBC

Up next
Today
The creation of the International Criminal Court
In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Criminal Court.Judge Phillipe Kirsch chaired the Rome conference that led to the formation of the court. He tells Gill Kearsley about the ... Show More
10m 23s
Aug 22
Geneva Conventions
In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers and came up with two ideas – a voluntary aid organisation and an international treaty to protect those injured in wartime. They went o ... Show More
10m 2s
Aug 21
The rise and fall of BlackBerry
In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the phone that ruled the world. But within a decade, it collapsed, overtaken by the touch screen revolution.Sam Gruet speaks to former co-CEO Jim Balsillie about BlackBerry’s meteoric rise, its battle against Apple, and the moment he knew it was ... Show More
9m 50s
Recommended Episodes
May 2021
The killing of Osama Bin Laden
It is 10 years since the al-Qaeda leader was killed. We look at the US special forces operation that finally tracked him down to a city in northern Pakistan, the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, one of the events that shaped his world view; we talk to a Western-based jour ... Show More
49m 33s
Aug 2022
The Killing of bin Laden’s Successor
On Monday, President Biden announced that the United States had killed Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike in Afghanistan. Al-Zawahri was the leader of Al Qaeda. A long time number two to Osama bin Laden and the intellectual spine of the terrorist group, he assumed power after bin ... Show More
18m 46s
Jan 2022
CLASSIC: Did Osama Bin Laden really die in 2011?
When US forces finally tracked down terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden -- living in Pakistan, likely with support of the ISI -- he was killed and, according to the official story, buried at sea. So why doesn't everyone believe this is true? When did Osama Bin Laden actually die? Le ... Show More
55m 40s
Nov 2022
The Bin Laden Files, Part 2/3: Take The Shot
As a new era of True Spies begins, Sophia di Martino joins the experts to reveal Osama bin Laden’s origins, methods and motivation. CIA operatives Gina Bennett and Tracy Walder join CNN’s Peter Bergen, the man who first interviewed Osama, to share the unvarnished truth about Bin ... Show More
49m 41s
Aug 2021
#258 — The Fall of Afghanistan
Sam Harris speaks with Peter Bergen about the US exit from Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban, and his new book, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.” They discuss the Neo-isolationist consensus on the Right and Left, the legitimacy of our initial involvement in Afghani ... Show More
46m 54s
Jan 2023
01/29/2023: Killing Bin Laden
A former member of SEAL Team 6, Mark Owen, recounts the raid that killed the world's most wanted man: Osama bin Laden. Owen, now retired, says the SEALs trained for the mission using a full-size replica of the bin Laden compound, and that a dress rehearsal was held for military t ... Show More
49m 17s
Jun 2023
L'Histoire de Ben Laden
C’est le terroriste le plus connu de notre génération, mais personne ne connaît vraiment son histoire. De sa naissance dans une famille milliardaire d’Arabie Saoudite à sa mort dans sa forteresse pakistanaise, voici le récit de la vie d’Oussama Ben Laden. Hébergé par Acast. Visit ... Show More
30m 2s
Sep 2022
#296 | Osama Bin Laden | The World's Most Wanted Man
  He was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list in 1999, and he would only be removed after he was hunted down and killed by US operatives in 2011In this episode, we will tell the story of how Osama bin Laden went from a shy, religious young boy to the world's most famo ... Show More
23m 3s