SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden

by Chuck Pfarrer

Overview

The controversial New York Times bestseller that tells the "engrossing account of the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden." —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

On May 2, 2011, at 1:03 a.m. a satellite uplink was sent from Pakistan crackling into the situation room of the White House: "Geronimo, Echo, KIA." These words, spoken by a Navy SEAL, ended Osama bin Laden's reign of terror. SEAL Target Geronimo is the story of Neptune's Spear from the men who were there. After talking to members of the SEAL team involved in the raid, Chuck Pfarrer shares never-before-revealed details in an exclusive account of what happened as he takes readers inside the walls of Bin Laden's compound penetrating deep into the terrorist's lair to reach the exact spot where the Al Qaeda leader was cowering when the bullet entered his head. SEAL Target Geronimo is an explosive story of unparalleled valor and clockwork military precision carried out by the most elite fighting force in the world—the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250014719
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Chuck Pfarrer is a former assault element commander of SEAL Team Six. He has written op-eds for The New York Times and the Knight Ridder syndicate, and appeared as an author and counterterrorism expert on C-SPAN2, NPR, Alhurra, IPR, Voice of America, Fox News, and America Tonight. Pfarrer is the author of the bestseller Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL. His Hollywood credits include writing and producing work for Navy Seals, Darkman, Hard Target, The Jackal, Virus, and Red Planet. He lives in Michigan.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition: An Inconvenient Bit of History xi

Neptune's Spear: The Bigger Picture 1

Abbottabad: May 1, 2011-Late That Night 5

The Seal Road to Abbottabad

Men with Green Faces 11

An Invisible Empire: The Birth of the Joint Special Operations Command 29

Team Jedi 35

Going Solo 43

Maersk Alabama 49

Bin Laden's Road to Abbottabad

The Day the World Changed-September 11, 2001 69

Rich Kid 75

Learning to Hate 79

The Making of a Jihadi 95

Hero of the Lion's Den 101

The Emir 123

Weapons of Mass Denial 135

Neptune's Spear

Continue to Plan, Plan to Continue 147

Vanishing Act 159

Pointing a Finger 177

Neptune's Spear 187

Thirty-eight Minutes 205

What Came After 219

How This Book Was Written 237

Acknowledgments 241

Glossary 245

Selected Bibliography 255

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

A marvelously engrossing account of the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden...Richly told in broad, cinematic strokes, this is catnip for readers who enjoy special-ops tales.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The book is more than just a high-adventure black ops thriller. It is a work of historical importance that sets the record straight about our struggle against forces dedicated to rebuilding an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East... It is a book you will read as you walk on the sidewalk because you do not want the action to stop.” —Neil W. McCabe, Human Events

“Pfarrer certainly had access. A SEAL Team Six assault-element commander in the 1980s, he is known inside the intelligence community for his well-regarded first book, Warrior Soul...He clearly had detailed conversations with senior officers in the SEALs' chain of command (especially Adm. William McRaven and then–SEAL Team Six commander Scott Kerr) and understands the vocabulary and the culture very well...SEAL Target Geronimo explodes a number of media myths about the raid to kill bin Laden...There was no "45-minute" running gun battle. The SEAL team fired only 12 bullets, and the whole operation lasted only 38 minutes...The most provocative part of the book is pure speculation: by killing bin Laden, did the SEALs accidentally do Zawahiri's dirty work?... As the British Foreign Office used to famously say: 'Interesting, if true.' ” —Richard Miniter, The Daily Beast

“Chuck Pfarrer writes with the brilliant eye of a novelist, and the real-world authority of a soldier who has fought in the world's most mysterious corners. He's not a only poet and soldier, but a deeply read historian who brings to light the convoluted world of hatred that gave birth to the terrorists of Al Qaeda and their elusive leader, Osama Bin Laden. Pfarrer has written a true page-turner about the inside story of Operation Neptune's Spear — the daring raid by SEAL Team Six that killed Osama bin Laden, the most nefarious terrorist in history. There is enough action here, enough human drama, enough fascinating history, to keep you reading until dawn— you simply have to know what happens next. SEAL Target Geronimo is first-rate storytelling. It's an amazing story, written about a world no one knows better than Chuck Pfarrer himself.” —Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors

From the Publisher

Drawing upon personal experience, extensive research, and interviews with military personnel, former Navy SEAL Pfarrer charts the events that led SEAL Team Six to assassinate Osama Bin Laden in 2011, traces the origin of the Navy SEALs, and details the training and leadership that ultimately gave SEAL Team Six the skills needed to end a decade-long manhunt.Erik Bergman provides solid narration, reading in a voice that is deep, determined, and slightly raspy—all of which captures the tone of the author’s prose and spirit of his subject matter.Bergman’s delivery also contains a much-needed note of cordiality, which works to balance the author’s assertion that he and other SEALs are a world apart from average Americans. A St. Martin’s hardcover. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A marvelously engrossing account of the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, from associate editor of The Counter Terrorist Pfarrer (Warrior Soul, 2004, etc.). The author is a former assault commander of SEAL Team Six, which gave him a decided upper hand when collecting material for his story: As a brother in arms, he was able to talk to team members. It is a decidedly different picture than other high-profile accounts, such as the recent New Yorker article. Before he gets to northern Pakistan, however, Pfarrer has a number of other stories to tell. First is a history of the Navy SEALs, with emphasis on Team Six, "the smallest and most elite special operations unit in the world." He covers their training, equipment and operations they have led in Beirut, Grenada, Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia and, perhaps the most fleshed-out operational description included here, the rescue of an American sea captain from Somali pirates. Seeking a broader context, Pfarrer delves into the roots of Islamic fundamentalism and produces a pocket biography of bin Laden, which in turn informs his history of al-Qaeda and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who played bin Laden like a puppet to get at his money. "Zawahiri needed capital," writes the author, "and Osama needed intellectual and religious justification for a global campaign of violence." Pfarrer points to Zawahiri as the likely source who ratted out bin Laden, and many others, to gain control of the organization's treasure box. Though the author's line of thought on al-Qaeda's access and deployment of weaponry is not always easy to follow, his writing is consistently informed, with a crunchy texture that belies its sub-surface polish. Richly told in broad, cinematic strokes, this is catnip for readers who enjoy special-ops tales.

Kirkus Reviews