SFGate: U.S. Forces Unsure Bin Laden in Compound Until Face to Face

[Poll_Blind]

From SFGate:

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. commando team dispatched to Pakistan wasn't 100 percent certain it had Osama bin Laden in its grasp until after confronting and shooting the al-Qaeda leader inside a walled compound in an Islamabad suburb.

--snip--

Central Intelligence Agency specialists used photo- identification techniques and DNA tests to positively identify bin Laden's body, the officials said.

In addition, a woman believed to be bin Laden's wife also identified him by name, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Very interesting article, including covering that there were at least two other families living there but only apparently 4-5 people were killed and just 2 injured. Everyone else was turned over to Pakistani authorities. It's worth reading.

PB

[aquart]

1. "Everyone not taken by the US"...uh, WHAT?

We took live prisoners? Who? What? Where? Why?

[Poll_Blind]

2. Who said we took live prisoners?

PB

[aquart]

3. "Everyone not taken by the US" means...?

[Poll_Blind]

5. Sorry, there's another article I read which indicated that two of the women were taken to hospital..

...but it's unclear by who(i.e. whether there were any US assets who did not arrive by helicopter). Everyone else was turned over to Pakistani military- there were like a dozen kids there from 2-12, women (at least a few wives) and one wife who spoke English. I would doubt anything but Osama's body got on the chopper with the U.S. troops but I'm not ruling out that there weren't other U.S. assets on the ground as well. There aren't a whole lot of details yet.

BTW, this article goes into quite a bit of depth about all the other people who were at the compound and their significance.

PB

[SadPanda]

4. We took no prisoners... it is now clear there had to have been Pakistani authorities near the site

And we immediately handed them over to those authorities. We only had so many helicopters and we actually lost one helicopter to mechanical failure. I doubt we lifted off with captives and then handed them over at the border. It had to have been immediate.