The long and secret effort to track down Osama bin Laden has been called the biggest, costliest manhunt in history. This reconstruction, compiled from reporting from more than two- dozen Washington Post correspondents and staffers over more than 15 years, traces the hunt from its beginnings in 1997, during the Clinton administration.
The Hunt for bin Laden is a behind-the-scenes narrative reveals the fourteen-year, billion-dollar effort that brought the hunt to a swift and conclusive end, including:
- The numerous times CIA agents had bin Laden in their crosshairs prior to 9/11, only to have missions canceled at the last moment
- Vivid details of bin Ladenβs behavior in the wake of the attacks on September 11th.
- The myriad of ways he evaded detection in his years on the lam, including his narrow escape from the caves and tunnels of Tora Bora
- How the war in Iraq drained resources and diverted the spotlight from the hunt, turning the mission to kill or capture bin Laden into a back-burner operation and political liability for the Bush administration.
- It wasn't until the Iraq war began to wind down that the search gained its endgame momentum, the Post shows, reclassified as a highest priority again by a new president.
- How increasingly punishing drone attacks, interrogations of captured al Qaeda operatives, and an ever-expanding network of informants finally began to yield a trail that led to bin Ladenβs courier, a cell phone interception, and ultimately, bin Laden.