Regarding the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: “[President Barack] Obama tapped two dozen members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six to carry out a raid with surgical accuracy. Before dawn Monday morning [May 2, 2011], a pair of helicopters left Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. The choppers entered Pakistani airspace using sophisticated technology intended to evade that country’s radar systems, a U.S. official said. …The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side for reasons the government has yet to explain. None of the SEALs was injured, however, and the mission continued uninterrupted. With the CIA and White House monitoring the situation in real time–presumably by live satellite feed or video carried by the SEALs–the team stormed the compound. Thanks to sophisticated satellite monitoring, U.S. forces knew they’d likely find bin Laden’s family on the second and third floors of one of the buildings on the property, officials said. The SEALs secured the rest of the property first, then proceeded to the room where bin Laden was hiding. In the ensuing firefight, Brennan said, bin Laden used a woman as a human shield. The SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet to the head. Using the call sign for his visual identification, one of the soldiers communicated that ‘Geronimo’ had been killed in action, according to a U.S. official.”
– Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan, Ben Feller, and Kathy Gannon, “One Unwary Phone Call Led U.S. to bin Laden,” Associated Press, May 2, 2011