How CIA could have taken down Osama bin Laden years before 911
A former CIA operative has revealed how his task-force could have taken down Osama bin Laden years before 911.
It’s a tragedy forever etched into the minds of all Americans.
September 11 – a strategically planned attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden – resulted in the deaths of 2,996 people and left thousands injured.
Now, over two decades on, former CIA operative Ric Prado said his task-force could have taken down bin Laden years before the 2001 tragedy.
“Imagine if we would have been allowed in 1997 (or) 1998 to take down Osama bin Laden. It would be like shooting Hitler in 1938,” Mr Prado told the podcastI Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin.
“The coal, the embassy bombings in Africa. You know, 9/11, all those things (could have) probably been adverted and not happen.”
As a former CIA operative, Mr Prado has spent over 25 years gathering intelligence and conducting covert operations.
In 1996, he was appointed the Deputy Chief of Station for a new task force set up to target Osama bin Laden.
Between liaison services, sources, and signals intelligence (SIGINT), the task force was busy “compiling a lot of information” on the militant leader.
“When we started, we had two files on him, six months later, we had 20 or 30. A year later, we had a hundred,” Mr Prado said.
“We knew he was bad. We had overheard of the training camps he was building.”
The CIA and the task force made several proposals up the ladder to take out bin Laden.
But they were denied.
“Unfortunately, the administration at the time did not want to take the risk that we were proposing (which) was let’s take care of this guy now because he’s building something that is huge and he’s got Saudi money by the tens of millions of dollars,” he said.
“It was always, well, we don’t have enough proof. We had people coming out and telling us, ‘this guy is training terrorists to do this’. We have the communications, but they still wouldn’t do it.”
At the time, bin Laden was comfortably living in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum – a city Mr Pardo described as a “hotel for terrorists”.
“If you were a terrorist and you had money, you could go to Khartoum and you were there with impunity,” he said.
“You had special papers and everything else. So he was what we call in the white. He was driving his own car, going to places.”
The task force had proposed multiple options to take bin Laden out, including kidnapping him out of the country where he could be held to justice.
“It wasn’t just killing the guy, you know, we are prohibited from doing political killings. I’m good with that. If you’re an elected (leader) or even a dictator, that’s off-limits. But when you have a terrorist, that you know, is targeting Americans and, and is going after other democratic allies that we have, and you have the capability to disrupt and pre-empt their intentions, that is our job.”
“As a matter of fact, that’s one of the models of the counterterrorist centre – to be able to deter or prevent acts of happening, not retaliate after the fact.”
Mr Prado said while shooting bin Laden would have been easier than trying to “take a six foot five guy that weighs 200 pounds against his will out of the country”, kidnapping “and throwing him in a helicopter and getting out of the air was very doable”.
“We had the options, it wasn’t just killing him. But the political fortitude was never there.”
Instead, the task force worked to disrupt bin Laden’s financial trials and collect sources.
Two years into the task force, n 1998, al Qaeda bombed US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi in Africa in near-simultaneous attacks which killed over 200 people and wounded another 4,500.
Bin Landn was later indicated for his role in the bombings, charged within the murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals outside the United States, and attacks on a federal facility resulting in death.
By the time September 2001 rolled around, Mr Prado had been appointed Chief of Operations for CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and it was clear al Qaeda were “up to something”.
“We didn’t know when or where, but we knew that they were going to hit us. And that was very frustrating for us.
“And then of course, when we got hit, I was there. As a matter of fact that, we all know exactly where we were on 9/11,” said Mr Prado who when asked about the tragedy, described it as “pet peeve”.
That morning, 19 men who were all trained by al Qaeda hijacked and crashed four US passenger planes, two of which crashed into Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
A third plane flew into the Pentagon, outside Washington, DC and the last crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania after those on board attacked the terrorists.
After the attack, the finger-pointing began and Mr Prado copped remarks from those in the political space.
“George Bush had just taken over, so he was a very different individual, and he actually was extremely supportive of the agency and gave us free rein to go after bin Laden.
“He signed the special authorities for us to go after bin Laden anywhere that he was at. But there were some political comments, you know, people say you should have (done this).”
To the criticisers, Mr Prado says: “I could have had bin Laden in 97. I could have had bin Laden in 98. I could have had bin Laden in 99. You took away the tools that I had to neutralise him.”
Mr Prado said the attack changed the whole dynamics of the CIA which pivoted to prioritise the prevention of terrorist attacks and became more predictive in national security and criminal threats.
“The diplomatic circuit … was counter-terrorism. We needed to go back and try to put that genie back in the bottle. So for me, it was a learning experience, that again if we would have been able to do something about bin Laden before, that (never) would have happened.”
A year after 9/11, Mr Prado retired from the CIA, with his frustrations over 9/11 a major factor in his decision.
It would be another nine years before bin Laden would be taken down.
In August 2010, US intelligence agencies learnt the al-Qaeda leader was likely living in a compound in northern Pakistan.
On May 2, 2011, Navy SEAL Team Six raided the compound and killed him.
“Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children,” former President Barack Obama announced at the time.
“At my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden.”
Looking back, Mr Prado said he misses his time in the CIA and admits he could have done more throughout his career.
“To tell you the truth I don’t think that I did enough,” he told Gary Jubelin.
“I really look back and I think. I wish I would’ve done this or I would’ve done more, or I would’ve insisted on this. I think the people in our business are never satisfied, with the damage that we could do to the bad guys.”
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