Israel Matzav

Israel's role in getting Bin Laden

I am going to guess that Israel played some roles in getting Bin Laden about which we do not know and may never know. But here's one role we do know about: The role of the IDF's 1976 Entebbe operation in shaping the strategic thinking of US Vice Admiral William McRaven, the commander of the Bin Laden operation.

In the mid-1990s, William McRaven, then a U.S. Navy SEAL, wrote a book about commando operations. Entitled "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice" (Presidio Press), the book featured six case studies. One chapter was devoted to Entebbe, beginning with the lessons learned in the Israel Defense Forces as a whole, and in the Sayeret Matkal special operations unit in particular, after the failure to save the lives of 25 hostages in Ma'alot two years earlier. It included a discussion of Israeli intelligence gathering, decision-making processes, creation of the command and control system, personnel conflicts and the actual rescue operation in Entebbe Airport in Uganda, on July 4, 1976.

One of the slides McRaven subsequently used in lectures was a drawing of the old terminal building there, a sort of elderly relative of the intricate mock-up that McRaven - who is now relinquishing control of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in order to be promoted - used for preparing for last week's targeted raid on Osama bin Laden.

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In recent years there has hardly been an Israeli chief of staff, branch commander or senior officer who has visited the Special Forces bases in North Carolina and Florida who has not engaged with McRaven and his brothers-in-arms. American officials have come here as well, among them CIA chief Leon Panetta, who visited Israel about three months ago, was hosted by Mossad head Tamir Pardo, and participated in a farewell meeting with outgoing Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

A few weeks ago McRaven was about to complete his tour of duty and prepare for his promotion to four-star head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, where he will preside over JSOC, the army, navy, Marines, air force and Special Forces. McRaven will be the second consecutive naval commando man in this position, following the current SOCOM chief, Adm. Eric Olson. From the reports on McRaven's involvement in the final stages of the bin Laden operation, it appears that the changeover was delayed until the mission was accomplished.

Olson, McRaven and the fighters who pulled the trigger at Abbottabad are all Navy SEALs, even though the only "naval" part of the operation was at the end: the burial at sea.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Entebbe, Osama Bin Laden, US Navy Seals

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM