Countdown Bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice
Countdown Bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice
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Publisher's Hardcover ©2021--
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Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Just the Series: Chris Wallace's Countdown   

Series and Publisher: Chris Wallace's Countdown   

Annotation: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Following Chris Wallace’s “riveting” (The New York Times) and... more
Genre: [World history]
 
Reviews: 2
Catalog Number: #354842
Format: Publisher's Hardcover
Copyright Date: 2021
Edition Date: 2021 Release Date: 09/07/21
Pages: 357 pages
ISBN: 1-9821765-2-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-9821765-2-5
Dewey: 958.104
Dimensions: 24 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Wed Nov 30 00:00:00 CST 2022)

The latest in the Fox News host's Countdown series tells the inside story of the CIA operation to kill Osama bin Laden.Wallace begins the countdown in August 2010, nearly eight months before the operation bore fruit. CIA director Leon Panetta had just learned about a fortresslike house in Abbottabad that was believed to be the "hideout for the world's most dangerous terrorist, a man who had all but dropped off the face of the earth." The discovery was welcome news, but there was also a high level of uncertainty. The house's owner was a high-level al-Qaida courier believed to be in close touch with bin Laden, and the signs of tight security suggested that someone very important was inside the building. However, there was no direct evidence, and the area was also home to Pakistan's military academy. Mounting any kind of operation in this environment risked civilian casualties as well as unwanted attention from the Pakistani government. Wallace delineates the process of intelligence-gathering, as top officials struggled to determine the likelihood of bin Laden's presence and then create a plan of action. The author alternates the focus among Panetta, the key CIA officials who developed the mission plan, and members of the Navy SEAL team that carried it out. The narrative accelerates as it progresses, and Wallace provides the right amount of detail to bring the events to life. He also presents well-rendered profiles of the participants, giving the story a novelistic fullness. This is a plus given that everyone reading it basically knows the ending beforehand. For further information on bin Laden's life and how he became a terrorist leader and public enemy No. 1, check out Peter Bergen's The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden (2021).A highly readable, vividly detailed account of one of the most dramatic intelligence victories in recent history.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

The latest in the Fox News host's Countdown series tells the inside story of the CIA operation to kill Osama bin Laden.Wallace begins the countdown in August 2010, nearly eight months before the operation bore fruit. CIA director Leon Panetta had just learned about a fortresslike house in Abbottabad that was believed to be the "hideout for the world's most dangerous terrorist, a man who had all but dropped off the face of the earth." The discovery was welcome news, but there was also a high level of uncertainty. The house's owner was a high-level al-Qaida courier believed to be in close touch with bin Laden, and the signs of tight security suggested that someone very important was inside the building. However, there was no direct evidence, and the area was also home to Pakistan's military academy. Mounting any kind of operation in this environment risked civilian casualties as well as unwanted attention from the Pakistani government. Wallace delineates the process of intelligence-gathering, as top officials struggled to determine the likelihood of bin Laden's presence and then create a plan of action. The author alternates the focus among Panetta, the key CIA officials who developed the mission plan, and members of the Navy SEAL team that carried it out. The narrative accelerates as it progresses, and Wallace provides the right amount of detail to bring the events to life. He also presents well-rendered profiles of the participants, giving the story a novelistic fullness. This is a plus given that everyone reading it basically knows the ending beforehand. For further information on bin Laden's life and how he became a terrorist leader and public enemy No. 1, check out Peter Bergen's The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden (2021).A highly readable, vividly detailed account of one of the most dramatic intelligence victories in recent history.

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Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Wed Nov 30 00:00:00 CST 2022)
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Bibliography Index/Note: Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-342) and index.
Reading Level: 12.0
Interest Level: 9+

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Following Chris Wallace’s “riveting” (The New York Times) and “propulsive” (Time) first book Countdown 1945 comes a deeply reported, revelatory, and thrillingly told account of the final months of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

On August 27, 2010, three CIA officers ask for a private meeting with CIA Director Leon Panetta. During that secret session, they tell Panetta that agents have tracked a courier with deep Al Qaeda ties to a three-story house at the end of a dead-end street in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But they say it’s more than a house—it’s a heavily protected fortress. No one in the meeting says the name bin Laden. They don’t have to. Everyone understands that finally, after nearly a decade, maybe, just maybe, they’ve found the world’s most wanted man.

In Countdown bin Laden, celebrated journalist and CNN anchor and Max host Chris Wallace delivers a vivid account of the final eight months of intelligence gathering, national security strategizing, and meticulous military planning that leads to the climactic mission when SEAL Team Six closes in on its target.

The book delivers new information collected from Wallace’s in-depth interviews with more than a dozen central figures, including Admiral William H. McRaven—leader of the operation in Pakistan—as well as CIA Director Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and the SEAL Team Six special operator who kills Osama bin Laden. Wallace also brings to life the human elements of this story, talking to families who lost loved ones on 9/11, sharing what relatives of SEAL Team Six went through, and bringing us inside the tense Situation Room during the raid.

Countdown bin Laden is a historical thriller filled with intrigue, cinematic action, and fresh reporting about the race to apprehend and bring to justice the mastermind of the most consequential terrorist attack in American history.


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