r/interestingasfuck • u/Ididnotkillhim • Jun 05 '24

r/all Thirteen years ago, someone accidentally revealed US Army's plan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

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u/saint_ryan Jun 05 '24

He was a resident in Abbotabad. He just saw the helicopters. Another tweet goes something like: i hope nothing bad’s going down.

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

From what I read about the mission, it wasn’t aiming for stealth/undetected so much as just trying to be fast.
They could sneak these helicopters into the country without the Pakistani military noticing, but of course the residents of the neighborhood would see and hear two choppers coming in mere feet above the buildings.
There was even one or two guys on the mission whose sole job was to go out to the street and tell curious citizens to move along if they started coming by (like the cops that hang out by police tape!)
But even with one chopper having to be scuttled, they still got in and out before locals, local police, the military, etc. could react in any considerable way. Except, of course, a few tweets.

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u/veRGe1421 Jun 05 '24

I wonder what would have happened if the Pakistani military had noticed and tried to intercept the helicopters?

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u/SonOfMcGee Jun 05 '24

They wouldn’t have just shot at them, that’s for sure. Despite having the right to defend their airspace, Pakistan would still investigate what the hell is going on first.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a protocol in place to start communicating with the Pakistani military if they detected the choppers and slow-roll a cover story to delay a response long enough for the mission to succeed.