Bin Laden's killing: intriguing questions, few answers

“firefight.” In a firefight in which the two sides are seriously engaged, more people die and get injured on both sides. In this instance only three combatants other than bin Laden were killed – two of his couriers and possibly one of his sons. Where were bin Laden’s many body guards? We were told that he was surrounded by a phalanx of guards who were willing to die protecting their leader. Where were they? How many of them were there? Why did they not spring into action to protect their leader?

B. Compound layout
This was a large compound – large enough and ostentatious enough for Donald Trump to be its proud owner. How did the Navy SEALs know in which of the many rooms in the compound bin Laden was staying? How did they manage to get to that room without being noticed? If they had been noticed, they would have had to overpower those sentries and guards who noticed them. This would have created a lot of noise – not just any noise, but fire arms noise – alerting bin Laden and the guards who were physically close to him at the time, thus allowing them to put up more of a fight when the American showed up at the door. It may well be the case that the Navy Seals used guns with silencers, but even then, complete silence is difficult to maintain.

C. Escape route
How come bin Laden did not have an escape route – a tunnel leading outside the compound? The compound was built in 2005 and whoever designed it, knew it was designed for a wanted man. It may well be the case that there was an escape tunnel, but that bin Laden and his people were taken by surprise and thus were unable to reach it.

There are other questions to which we may receive answers in days to come. For now, it appears that the United States may have had someone on the inside providing information. The ability to arrive stealthily, enter the highly secure compound, find the room where bin Laden was staying, kill only four people, and do it all in less than forty minutes means that the Navy Seals team had either unusually precise and current information, or an unusually high degree – extremely high degree — of sheer luck.

I vote for precise and current actionable information.

Ben Frankel is editor of the Homeland Security NewsWire