17 thoughts on “Prompts for “The Killing of Osama Bin Laden””

1. According to Seymour M. Hersh, Pakistan played a pivotal role in the killing of Bin laden. The world thinks that Pakistani officials were not aware of Bin laden was housing in their backyard, but Hersh presents another view. Hersh thinks Pakistan was already aware that bin laden was in Abottabad. Pakistani diplomats were using Bin laden as an asset and leverage against jihadists and terrorist organizations. They had kept him hidden from the U. S knowing that once america finds out they would like to assassinate him. Pakistans secret sevice agency, ISI, housed Bin Laden in Abottabad and made sure there base was nearby just incase of an emergency. Pakistan was very important in the killing as U.S had to get them onboard. Pakistan’s important role started by a walk-in. A walk-in told CIA officials about Bin Ladens location in exchange for the reward offered in 2001. U.S officials had to make sure this was a credible source and needed DNA testing to prove to President Obama that Bin Laden lived in that location. In order for this to happen U.S had to get Pakistan onboard of the operation. CIA officials negotiated and struck a deal with Kayani and Pasha , two top officials in Pakistan. Apart of the deal was the DNA tests, which were done by Aziz, he also received a share of the $25 million reward. Pakistan finally agreed for US to come into their home-ground and quietly execute Bin Laden. In the operation, Pakistan assisted US by letting CIA official, a navy seal, and two communication specialists house in their ISI base. Pakistani officials committed to US that there would be no Pakistani military interference, and US can bring the Navy Seal helicopters in Pakistan without a problem. ISI members were on supervision of the Bin laden compound and were told to leave as soon as they heard the motor rotors of the US helicopters. One ISI member traveling with the seals guided them into Bin Ladens room. Pakistan played a very important role to kill Bin Laden. After the killing to cover up the story, Obama administration said that Pakistan played no role in the killing and they did it themselves based on a previous lead.
   Hersh structures his essay in a very interesting way. His essay unwraps in a sequence of events just like a good movie. Hersh makes his claim and strongly backs it up with credible sources and first hand accounts. The sequence makes it easy on the eyes, its depicts a clear path of events that took place. Hersh does a great job in talking about the Pakistan side too. He doesn;t just focus on the US officials, but thoroughly explains Pakistans side in the story. A lot of his essay explains about the events that took place after the killing of Bin laden. Hersh does a great job in structuring a chronological sequence of events. It makes it seem his essay has a past and present affects sense. Hersh structured his essay this way so the reader can be more knowledgable of the events leading up to Bin ladens killing and the events that followed it. Its like a timeline which helps the reader better understand his claim.

2. According to Hersch, Pakistan’s role in killing Osama Bin Laden was instrumental. He claims that a senior official in the ISI came to the U.S. embassy as a walk in and told them that Bin Laden was living in a compound outside of Abbottabad and that after having his story checked, was given most of the $25 million dollar reward for information leading to Bin Laden that the U.S. put up for grabs after 9/11. On top of this, Obama wanted proof that the person living in this compound was really Bin Laden, he wanted DNA evidence. And for this he turned to the two highest ranking members of the ISI; Generals Kayani and Pasha. They contacted another member of the ISI; Major (and Doctor) Amir Aziz, who was living just near Bin Ladens compound to get a DNA sample from Bin Laden. This was easy because the Pakistani government had moved him there to take care of Bin Laden, whose health had been deteriorating for some years. The Pakistanis had secretly been keeping Bin Laden in the country as leverage over terrorist groups Al-Queda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, because they had Bin Laden they were safe from these groups and threatened to turn him over to the Americans if they behaved in a way that didn’t favor Pakistan and the ISI. The only reason that the Pakistanis didn’t interfere with the mission was that the U.S. threatened to cut off military aid unless they kept their collective mouths shut. The ISI also kept soldiers outside of Bin Laden’s compound in the time leading up to the attack in order make sure that he was actually going to be there when the Navy Seals landed.

   Hersch structures his essay like a story. Hersch takes the reader through the initial reception of the information, all the way to what the US did with his body. Along the way, he first presents the official government story, which is followed by insider information which presents a very different account of the events which transpired. Hersch interviewed a number of high ranking officials to write this article and it is from these people that he got his information.

   I believe that he made the structural choices that he did because of how vastly different the 2 accounts are. One example would be where the US first found out about Bin Laden’s whereabouts – the article first says that they tracked one of his couriers, and then reveals that it was in fact a member of the ISI who simply walked into the US embassy and told them where he was. Hersch structures his essay like this to highlight the differences between the official government account and the insiders account.

3. The United States had said that Pakistan were not aware of Osama Bin Laden location in Pakistan. While Seymour M Hersh disagree with how the United States told a lie about Pakistan not knowing about Bin Laden location. Hersh said that the United States had lie that “Pakistan’s two most senior military leaders – General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of the ISI – were never informed of the US mission”, when in fact they were well aware. According to Hersh, Pakistan did play a role in capturing Osama Bin Laden. Hersh wrote that Carlotta Gall from the New York Times Magazine said that she was told that Pasha had known of Osama Bin Laden location in Abbottabad. Hersh says that in “August 2010 a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer went to the CIA’s station chief at the US embassy in Islamabad and offered to tell the CIA where to find bin Laden in return for the reward that Washington had offered in 2001” of 25 million dollars. In response, the headquarters flew in a polygraph team. The walk-in passed the test. The US kept this to themselves so that no one could tip off the location of Bin Laden which will then cause Bin Laden to flee. The informant was smuggled out of Pakistan to the US to ensure his and his family safety. Obama wanted more proof and wanted to ensure that it was Bin Laden who was living in the compound, so he wanted DNA proof. ISI ordered one of their major and doctor, Amir Aziz, to get Bin Laden’s DNA, but it was not a difficult task because he lived next to Bin Laden compound and was taking care of Bin Laden’s health, which at the time was deteriorating. Pakistan had Bin Laden as leverage from al- Qaida and the Taliban, to get them on board the United States threaten to take away American military equipment such as bullet-proof limousines, security guards, and housing for the ISI leadership as well as American aid programmes. Pakistan played a very important role to kill Bin Laden, but Obama made it seem to the public eye that Pakistan had no clue of what was going on in capturing Bin Laden.
   Hersh structures his essay in the order in which the events are happening. He structures his essay in a way that the reader would read a book. Hersh makes sure to back up his statements with credible sources he just does not say a fact and not back it up. He states both the US’s perspective and Pakistan’s perspective. He is not favoring either side; he states both arguments and backs them up with sources. As well, he starts with what was the actual story that the US had said and then piece by piece he reveals throughout his essay the facts that the US was not telling the entire truth in Pakistan involvement. He structure his essay this way to allow the reader to know what was occurring in both sides. As well to allow the reader to know what actually was occurring before and after Bin Laden capturing. Hersh also structure his essay this way so that he can show what was the perspective of people who were insiders in Pakistan, the people who knew the truth of Pakistan involvement.

4. The White House claims the killing of Osama bin Laden was an all-American affair. Without the help from Pakistan, however, it would have been a more difficult ordeal. The initial help began when a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer approached the CIA’s station chief, at the US embassy in Islamabad. The former intelligence officer offered to disclose information on bin Laden’s whereabouts. When the news revealed from this interaction was deemed reliable, the CIA was to obtain President Obama’s support. This, they believed, was highly probable if they got DNA evidence and if they could assure the president that the assault would carry no unnecessary risk. The only way to accomplish both things “‘was to get the Pakistanis on board.’” Co-operation between the CIA and the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) was ensured with incentives and blackmail by the CIA. When the night of the mission was to take place, the electricity supply had been cut off on the orders of the ISI, hours before the raid. “‘Everyone in Pakistan has a gun…and yet there was no weapon in the compound,’” indicating that Pakistani generals and ISI officers aided the US in conducting the raid. Without the help of Pakistan, if there had been opposition, the team would have been highly vulnerable and may not have successfully completed the raid. Pakistan played a critical role in not only disclosing Osama bin Laden’s location, but also assisting the US in his assassination.

   Comparable to a preface in a book or story, Hersch structures his essay so the reader will understand the content. Starting off with “it began with a walk-in,” would been quite the attention-grabber; but, it would have hindered the reader’s understanding until later sentences. The preview that Hersch uses to begin his essay helps the reader understand the context of 2013, while keeping the reader interested. After his short summary, the essay continues in a structure similar to a chronological timeline. He begins with how the US received such valuable information, and then goes into how Pakistan assisted the US mission. Chronological order is best for the topic of Hersch’s essay, because it allows for clear, and effective writing. To clarify, if Hersch used a different structure, such as starting from the end of the story, his essay would have been confusing.

5. “The Killing of Osama bin Laden,” written by Seymour M. Hersh presents an alternative view to what had happened in regards to the knowledge of the whereabouts to Osama bin Laden (a madman notorious for his leadership in the 9/11 terror attacks) and in regards to the knowledge of the death of one of the most dangerous terrorists in history. This article gives light to the fact that certain Pakistani officials, indeed, had knowledge of the whereabouts of the location of Osama bin Laden. Kayani and Pasha, two head Pakistani officials, were proven to have known the location of Osama bin Laden all along. In regards to the mentioned Pakistani officials, Aziz had also been rewarded up to $25 million for a series of DNA tests, which led up to the knowledge and confirmation of the fact that Osama bin Laden had been living in Abbottabad. Although there were suspicious and conspiracies that bin Laden might be dwelling in Pakistan – under close care of the ISI – President Barack Obama understood the relevance of attaining actual [DNA] evidence.

   Pasha justified the capture and secrecy of Osama bin Laden’s location by claiming that it was essential to keep tabs on the al-Qaeda leader in order to thwart any further terrorist progression. The ISI asserted that bin Laden would help identify any further activities that pertained to the future plans of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

   However, Pakistan aided greatly in the killing of Osama bin Laden. They granted permission for the US Navy Seal to enter the room that was suspected to be where bin Laden resided. The Pakistan IS worked with the US Navy Seal to help kill an international terrorist and without the cooperation of Pakistan, it was a task that could never have been accomplished.

6. Seymour M. Hersh, author of “the Killing of Osama bin Laden,” informed the readers about the details behind the assassination of bin Laden. According to the U.S officials, Pakistan was not involved with nor informed of the housing of bin Laden in Abottabad. Hersh, however, presents the reader with a whole new understanding. Hersh claims that the Pakistanis were aware of bin Laden’s presence and were in fact, keeping him hostage to prevent the Al-Qaeda and Taliban from planning any harmful activities, within the boundaries of Afghanistan, that will go against the interests of ISI. Unlike that of what the White House officials had told the public, Pakistan actually played an important role in killing Osama Bin Laden. U.S was initially informed of bin Laden’s location by a walk in from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer. Then under the help of Amir Aziz, a doctor in the Pakistani army who was ordered by the ISI to live nearby bin Laden to provide treatments, the U.S was able to confirm bin Laden’s identity through DNA testing. Next, the U.S came into an agreement with the Pakistan’s retired officials, Pasha and Kayani. The two assisted the U.S in the operation to kill bin Laden. In the article, Hersh mentioned how keeping the involved Pakistanis in the assassination of Bin Laden invisible to public is actually protecting them and their family. Many people in Pakistan views Bin Laden as a “hero.” If they were to find out the truth, Kayani, Pasha, Aziz and other related Pakistanis would be in danger.

   Hersh wrote his essay in a very clear and organized structure. This type of structure allows the readers to interpret the essay in a more timely matter. The essay is formatted in chronological order, specifying the events in the order that it had taken place in.

7. According to Seymour M. Hersh, Pakistan played a big role in killing Osama Bin Laden. Pakistani officials already knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts, but they we’re using him as an asset to gain more information on the terrorists groups such as the Taliban and jihadist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The U.S. found out about bin Ladens’s whereabouts through a Pakistani intelligence officer. After the U.S. found out where bin Laden was, they were afraid if the Pakistanis found out, they would move him to another location. Both countries agreed that there would be no opposition towards each other during the mission. The American and Pakistani militaries worked closely together. The CIA rented a house in Abottabad and used it as an observation base filled with American and Pakistani workers. After the U.S. Navy Seals killed bin Laden, Obama delivered a speech in which he praised the Pakistanis. He stated that because of their counterterrorism operation with Pakistan, they were able to find bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.

   Hersh structured his essay in chronological order. The beginning of the essay starts out with the speculations of bin Laden’s whereabouts. The essay then continues on to describe what the U.S. is doing with that information. The essay later on describes when and how the U.S. find bin Laden and kill him. The essay continues on and ends with the aftermath of bin Laden’s death. I think Hersh made these structural choices because he wanted the reader to clearly understand the timeline and specific details that led up and happened after bin Laden’s death. I also think he made these structural choices because it was the only logical way to display all the information. There were a lot of specific details, so to organize them he displayed them according to which happened first.

8. In the short essay “The Killing of Osama Bin Laden” by Seymour M. Hersh, Hersh structures his essay from revealing the well-known fact that bin Laden had been killed, then suggests that Pakistan had knew about bin Laden’s whereabouts when America was looking for him, and then presents evidence (with explanation) of his hypothesis. Although I found the structure and overall presentation of Hersh’s essay to be confusing I was under the impression that Hersh was suggesting that Pakistan had to know where Bin Laden was; and actually it came to the point that Hersh blatantly pointed out that Pakistan was protecting bin Laden from America forces (“The fear was that if the existence of the source was made known, the Pakistanis themselves would move bin Laden to another location.”). Once Hersh states that point he goes back to Obama’s perspective where Obama basically says that whoever said that bin Laden was living there was crazy and only DNA evidence will prove that he was. The statement that Hersh said that made me understand his point was “‘The Pakistani army sees itself as family,’ the retired official said. ‘Officers call soldiers their sons and all officers are “brothers”. The attitude is different in the American military. The senior Pakistani officers believe they are the elite and have got to look out for all of the people, as keepers of the flame against Muslim fundamentalism. The Pakistanis also know that their trump card against aggression from India is a strong relationship with the United States. They will never cut their person-to-person ties with us.’”. From that statement I deduced that bin Laden is considered a brother to the country based on the fact that Pakistan was basically trying to hide bin Laden from American forces (and although isn’t fighting for the sake of the country he is fighting in a group and is from the country of Pakistan so by putting those two ideas together he may be considered a brother). However the next statement is even more confusing when Hersh states that the trump card for Pakistan is the United States; if that is the case then why not hand over bin Laden to further strengthen ties and thus gain more power? The answer maybe because(as a reiteration)the country sees bin Laden as a brother and cannot/does not want to hand over family so easily, yet by doing that Pakistan is jeopardizing the relationship they have with America. It still makes me wonder why did Pakistan hide bin Laden if they were putting their ties with America at stake for someone sought out to be a terrorist.

9. Pakistan’s role in the assassination of Osama Bin Laden was a very crucial one. They cooperated with the United States in this operation and helped them fabricate details in the view of the public eye. General Kayani and General Pasha were the two key team members who helped bring the mission together. They leaked information on Laden’s whereabouts-he was residing peacefully in Abbottabad, and from there, plans were made to target the leader of Al-Qaida.
   Some of the concerns surrounding the planning of such an important kill were to make sure the right man was targeted-Osama Bin Laden. DNA evidence from his body was needed to verify his identity, but killing Bin Laden and quickly obtaining his corpse through a seamlessly completed operation was going to be difficult. Getting Pakistani to support such a plan was quite a move to make, since it would upset a lot of its citizens, who viewed Osama as a savior.
   In return, the two ISI officials were also told that news of the assassination would not be announced for at least one week and that their roles in Osama’s killing would be kept hidden. So they made sure that US advances towards Abbottabad would not be interfered by Pakistani forces.
   The author structures these series of events in a very interesting way. Even though he implemented the very common use of chronological order, he made sure to elaborate on why each event was significant. He explains why keeping Pakistani involvement and certain details should not have been revealed, and what obstacles both countries were facing. On top of it all, he ends with a satisfying conclusion-the consequences the US government faced after announcing Osama’s death, which was the uproar of questions from media outlet. In the end, the public was able to piece together that something was amiss, and figure out the truth.

10. In the article, “The killing of Osama Bin Laden” by Seymour M. Hersh, Hersh provided details on how Pakistan helped the United States in killing Bin Laden. Everything began with a walk-in from a former senior Pakistani officer, and lead to other progress, the U.S. did not know whether the information was true, so they needed evidence in order to make the decision of taking action or not. The U.S. eventually found that Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was, and they were using him as a resource against the Al-Qaeda and Taliban to prevent any activities that would be harmful to Pakistan government. When the United States discovered this issue, they used it as their own resources to kill Osama Bin Laden, US used Pakistan doctor Amir Aziz to get the DNA evidence of Bin Laden to prove he is actually living in Abbottabad, and negotiated with Pasha and Kayani, two high officers in Pakistan, in order to get more help from them in killing Bin Laden. With all these resources from Pakistan, the U.S navy eventually took down Osama Bin Laden and accomplished the mission. These are the roles that Pakistan played in killing Osama Bin Laden, which provided help in many ways, even though the United States did not admit that Pakistan had any influence in the mission of killing Bin Laden.
    The author structured his essay with a flow, it started with how the mission of killing Bin Laden started, and provided details of how the progress proceed, and the author also provided different opinions and stories circulating the killing of Bin Laden. It helps the reader with a better understanding of the article and how the whole mission proceeds, and also the opinion and stories provided more interesting details for the reader to read on.

11. Pakistan played a very important role in the killing of Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden for a brief period(2001-2006) had been living in the Hindu Kush mountains, where he would meet with his wives and children. Pakistan was able to get a local tribe to betray bin Laden, and later capture him. Osama bin Laden provided a lot of value for the Pakistanis. He could be used to leverage with jihadist groups and the taliban, also as a negotiation piece with countries like the U.S. Because bin Laden was very important to the Pakistanis, the ISI sent a doctor,Amir Aziz, to ensure that he was healthy and alive; it was reported that bin Laden grew very ill in the Hindu Kush mountains, to the point that he was crippled. So from that point until his death, bin Laden lived in the Pakistani resort town of Abbottabad, where he lived in a big compound. Since the U.S. had such a big reward for the finding of bin Laden, it was inevitable that a Pakistani with this vital intel was tempted into turning it over. A walk-in with a CIA official,Bank, gave the U.S. the information they needed to find the whereabouts of bin Laden, and eventually kill him. With this given information, it is easily apparent that Pakistan played a very huge and fundamental role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, contrary to public opinion.
    Hersh starts off his article with a bit of context to the situation, and prompts the reader to think about the killing of Osama bin Laden a little more critically. He provides some sources that give a very different spin on the story, a story different from the U.S.’s version. He then gives us the story a very reliable and valuable source provided him. This story is in chronological order, and very clearly depicts what happened and why it happened. Hersh made these choices to make it very easy for the reader to digest and process everything being said; the subject matter could definitely be too confusing if told the wrong way.

12. Hersch gives Pakistan and the ISI a substantial amount of credit in the killing of Osama Bin Laden and it can be argued that without them the assassination would not have been possible. Hersch says in the beginning of his essay that a senior Pakistani intelligence officer offered to tell the CIA where to find Bin Laden for the reward. Without the Pakistani intelligence officer the United States would have had a much harder time getting a lead on Bin Laden. Pakistan also played a huge role in the actual assassination of Bin Laden. While the ground team that actually killed Bin Laden were American Navy Seals the Pakistani army was a huge factor. In his essay Hersch says Kayani and Pasha, the chief of the army staff and director general of the ISI, knew of the raid on Bin Laden ahead of time and made sure that the two US helicopters crossed Pakistani airspace without raising alarms. Ultimately both the forces of the United States and Pakistan were needed to take out Osama Bin Laden.
    Hersch structures the essay by first giving the reader a glimpse of what they will be reading in his introduction then going into his main topic. Before he starts explaining how the US found and killed Bin Laden with Pakistan’s help Hersch tells the reader about the Pakistani forces which played a role in the raid and also talks about misconceptions made by the general public.
    Hersch does this to grab the reader’s attention in the very beginning of the essay. In one of the first sentences he says that the raid on Bin Laden was not only an American affair which is not a common fact. Hersch does that to engage the reader.

13. According to Seymour M. Hersh in “The Killing of Osama Bin Laden,” the Pakistan played a huge role in the murder of Bin Laden. In Hersh’s piece, he mentions two Pakistani generals that are believed to have had no knowledge on the attack of Bin Laden when in fact they did. The two generals knew about the attack and even made sure that the air space was clear for the American helicopters. Hersh also talks about an interview he found with Asad Durrani stated that it is a huge possibility that the Pakistani officers knew about the whereabouts of Bin Laden. He then goes on to say that a Pakistani officer approached the, then, CIA station chief at the U.S. Embassy to tell him that he knows where Bin Laden is and is willing to let him know for a reward. At first, the U.S. was skeptical so they made the source take a polygraph, which he did. In order to prove that this source’s information was true, Obama wanted a DNA sample proving that it was Bin Laden without a doubt. Obama asked the two Pakistani officers, that are believed to have no knowledge of anything, to obtain the DNA. Hersh talks about a deal made between the U.S. and the Pakistani officer named Kayani, which states that the U.S. cannot have a “big strike force” but they could go in, find Bin Laden, and kill him.
    Hersh structures his piece chronologically. He starts off talking about the hidden alliance between Pakistan and the U.S. He gives information to prove that Pakistan was not as naive as they pretended to be and that they were the ones that told the U.S. where to find Bin Laden and helped them kill him. Hersh then goes into the actions taken right before the attack and the thought process that Obama most likely had at the time. Afterwards, he discusses about the aftermath of Bin Laden’s death and the steps they took to cover up any involvement that Pakistan had in helping them find Bin Laden. Hersh chose to structure his piece like this to give his audience the play-by-play of what happened to Bin Laden; from how they found him to what happened after he was killed. He was able to show his readers the truth behind all the lies that the government told us about how the U.S. found Osama Bin Laden and what happened to him.

14. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

    According to Hersch, What was Pakistan’s role in killing Osama Bin Laden?
    (From Anas and Joseph V.)
    How does Hersch structure his essay? Why do you think he made the structural choices that he did?

    According to Hersch, Pakistan was the one crucial ‘element’ determining the death of Osama bin Laden. Why so? Hersch delineates a series of events and facts which all aim to aid his theory: that in the contrary of what many Americans were told, Pakistan did know exactly where bin Laden was, lived, and do in the Pakistani compound, Abbottabad. And this was revealed by a senior I.S.I. official who was offered 25 million dollars by US officials to disclose where bin Laden lived. The Pakistani peoples have detained bin Laden as a hostage, and had not revealed their constraint to neither the Al-Qaeda nor the Taliban peoples, for fear of being subjects of warlike consequences. After Obama heard of the Pakistani having the most sought-after world terrorist as a hostage, a DNA proof of bin Laden was what Obama himself requested to have. This could scientifically prove that bin Laden actually was living in the aforementioned compound of Abbottabad. How to get the DNA was the question. The two most predominant I.S.I officials, General Kayani and General Pasha. The two reached Major and Doctor, Amir Aziz, to whom the [Pakistani] government appointed as care-taker for Osama bin Laden. At that time, bin Laden’s health conditions were precarious. In addition, Doctor Aziz was give a habitation close to bin Laden’s. At that point, getting Osama bin Laden’s DNA was a [relatively] easy task for the Doctor of the same Osama bin Laden. So why didn’t Pakistani people interfere with the U.S.’s mission to kill bin Laden? According to Hersch, the U.S. would have cut all military aid if Pakistani government revealed any of the events that were taking place. In addition, when the time for the Navy Seals to land on Abbottabad and crash bin Laden’s life, no Pakistani soldiers were around. U.S. and Pakistan have been war ‘colleagues’.

    Hersch utilizes a chronological, facts-backed ‘unrolling’ of information, facts, opinions, dilemmas, answers-to-dilemmas, and pathos; in such a manner that is fascinating as well as mysterious to read. Hersch presented a [way] different angle [circa the killing of Osama bin Laden] from that which we have been told for almost a decade.
    I appreciated the analysis Hersch made, and I sense I have a wider view of how facts can actually be less factual depending on how those are presented to us.

15. In his article, Seymour M. Hersh reveals the role Pakistan played in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The ISI had found Bin Laden in the Hindu Kush mountains and from 2006 onward, kept him a prisoner at their Abbottabad compound. A former senior Pakistan intelligence officer betrayed Bin Laden’s whereabouts to the CIA in exchange for much of the $25 million reward the U.S offered for this information. With this information, the CIA was able to set up a base in a house near the compound Bin Laden was in and keep track of him. In addition, when two helicoptors carrying Seals set out to Abbottabad, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of the ISI made sure the helicopters could make it across Pakistan airspace without triggering any alarms. By doing all this, Pakistan played a crucial role and aided the U.S in killing Osama Bin Laden.

    Hersh structures his essay by beginning with the present (post Bin Laden), and then going back into the past to the time the events he is talking about took place. By beginning with the present, or in other words most recent events, Hersh sets up the narrative and builds the foundation of his article, which focuses on revealing the role Pakistan played in the killing of Osama Bin Laden along with the U.S. and information that was not revealed to the public before and after the killing of Bin Laden. After establishing this post Bin Laden time, Hersh then goes into great detail about what occurred before the U.S. killed Bin Laden. This structure really helps the reader follow along with Hersh and gain insight into the subject matter, which is what Hersh was trying to do. He wanted to reveal the truth and he did that through the use of this structure.

16. While reading the article “The Killing of Osama bin Laden” I found it a little confusing because it jumped often from topic to topic but I assume that he was saying that Pakistan knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. In the article it states that the Pakistinis would move Osama bin Laden if they found out the America knew where he was. It kind of reminds of family, like you’re not going to snitch on your family because they are your family, regardless of their wrong doings. In the article they even state something similar to this related to what a retired officer.

17. I think that Hersh structured his essay the way he did to kind of shots the views of both sides of the spectrum. Not to sound biased at all. He explains the Pakistan side that Osama was born in the country, that he was raised there abs that because he is born there he had some type of importance to the country. In addition, I stated earlier that they were going to move him if America had found out where he was located is another reason on why they weren’t willing to give him up from America’s point of view is more on the fact that you want a relationship with us but once we actually need your help to catch a hostage you’re not willing to give him up, it doesn’t make sense. In addition it’s like those people you meet in life where they only call you when they want something but never seem to be there when you need something but on a wider scale. Pakistan wouldn’t give up a terrorist who has been watching the gap between two country because of “brotherhood”. Hersh gives us that opportunity to understand both sides going back and forth between the two countries leading to some type of confusion.