Center for Investigative Reporting

August 16th, 2011

FBI creates website detailing its 10-year long response to Sept. 11

By the numbers: How the FBI responded to 9/11

7,000 agents aided in the recovery and investigation

500,000 investigative leads responded to by agents

167,000 interviews conducted by agents

5 FBI dogs participated in search for Pentagon survivors

1,600 small or damaged pieces of paper examined

126,600 finger-print comparisons conducted

35 terabytes of data investigated by computer experts in first 30 days

170,000 images snapped by photographers

1.8 million tons of debris sifted through for remains of victims

Source fbi.gov

Reblogged from Perilous

July 14th, 2011

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

publicradiointernational:

From PRI’s The World: The CIA ran a fake vaccine program in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad to try to get a DNA sample from the family of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, media reports say. The Guardian newspaper says CIA agents recruited a Pakistani doctor there to organize the vaccination drive. The paper says the doctor has since been arrested.

Reblogged from Public Radio International (PRI)

June 15th, 2011

“Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials.” via New York Times

May 31st, 2011

More proof of its corporate structure: As odd as it sounds, al-Qaida had excellent HR benefits. The seized documents showed that al-Qaida paid an unusual amount of attention to its fighters and their families. Married members were allowed to have seven days of vacation for every three weeks worked. Bachelors got five days off a month.

Married members also got a salary of $108 a month. The pay was smaller for single men and larger if the fighters had more than one wife. Now that the organization has less money and is under such pressure, it is unclear whether the benefits are as generous as they used to be.

Al-Qaida’s Paper Trail: A ‘Treasure Trove’ For U.S. : NPR

May 17th, 2011

Zoom

sunfoundation:

The Bulletproof Dog That Stormed Bin Laden’s Lair

Last year, the military spent $86,000 on four tactical vests to outfit Navy Seal dogs. The SEALs hired Winnipeg, Canada-based contractor K9 Storm to gear up their four-legged, canine partners, which it has used in battle since World War I. K9 Storm’s flagship product is the $20,000-$30,000 Intruder, an upgradeable version of their doggie armor (you can check out the full catalogue here). The tactical body armor is wired with a collapsible video arm, two-way audio, and other attachable gadgets.

Reblogged from Project On Government Oversight

May 13th, 2011

I was eating souffle at Rise Restaurant with Laura and two buddies. … I excused myself and went home to take the call. … Obama simply said ‘Osama Bin Laden is dead.’

Fmr. President George W. Bush, describing how he got the phone call from President Obama telling him that Osama bin Laden was killed. When Obama described the mission and the decision he made, Bush told Obama, “Good call.” (via officialssay)

Reblogged from Officials Say the Darndest Things

May 13th, 2011

Bin Laden rankled comrades with endless talk of replicating 9/11

ageofperil:

Documents and other material scooped up by commandos after the killing of Osama bin Laden show that the world’s most wanted man obsessed for years over how to carry out another attack on the United States matching the fury of Sept. 11.
But his allies had other targets more important to them — countries they didn’t believe would respond as harshly as the Americans. From the Washington Post:

Some followers pledged their fealty to him; others, however, chafed at his exhortations to remain focused on U.S. targets instead of mounting less risky operations in places such as Yemen, Somalia and Algeria.

ProPublica adds that bin Laden sought to micro-manage tasks and deeply involve himself in identifying perpetrators for attacks, determining what to strike and deciding when it should be done, according to officials.

Reblogged from Perilous

May 5th, 2011

In many ways, it was strange for me, because I was reading it as a regular reader. I did wonder, “Does this stand up to the test of time?” I remember in particular the last paragraph, when you’re writing such a long piece, you always think, “How can I wrap this up?” And I remember writing the bit about how, what bin Laden really wanted was to become a martyr to his cause, and that if the United States ever killed him, that this would cause a great uprising in the Arab world against the United States. So when I read that, and it was interesting, I immediately was back in the moment when I actually had written that, ten years ago, and thought, “Yes, this did stand the test of time,” because this was still the question, I think, when we killed him. You see it now in the debate over whether to release his photo—the question of, Does he become even larger in death than he was in life?

A Tight Deadline, 4,000 Words, Then Ten Years of Waiting - Columbia Journalism Review conducts a Q&A with Kate Zernike, Osama bin Laden’s obituarist for the New York Times.

May 4th, 2011

In case you missed it, FRONTLINE’s newest report.

Fighting for Bin Laden: A special report — in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, FRONTLINE takes you inside two fronts of the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

May 4th, 2011

We’ve got a four-month window to win the war. We have got to push as hard as we can with security.

Lt. Col. Jesse Pearson, the battalion commander of Task Force Spader, on the future of the war in Afghanistan after the death of Osama bin Laden. From Slate.com article: “We’re Still Going To Be Here”

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