Part of CIA Role in Bin Laden's Death Detailed

Everyone knows that McLean's largest employer, the CIA, played a major role in the death of Osama Bin Laden.

This morning the New York Times has the first  details about the detective work conducted by the Agency to track down Bin Laden. It's a fascinating story that begins with information gleamed from prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, about a trusted Bin Laden courier.

The years-long search for the courier's real name and then his whereabouts. Finally located him in a compound 35 miles north of the Pakistani capital.

"C.I.A. analysts spent the next several weeks examining satellite photos and intelligence reports to determine who might be living at the compound, and a senior administration official said that by September the C.I.A. had determined there was a 'strong possibility' that Bin Laden himself was hiding there," the Times said.

Months more of intelligence work would follow before American spies felt highly confident that it was indeed Bin Laden and his family who were hiding in there — and before President Obama determined that the intelligence was solid enough to begin planning a mission to go after the Qaeda leader,  the Times said.

On March 14, Mr. Obama held the first of what would be five national security meetings in the course of the next six weeks to go over plans for the operation, according to the Times.

It's a fascinating story and we commend it to you.

No surprise as everyone else in the world talks about Bin Laden's death, the CIA has not a word on its website.