I started writing about SEALs and CIA operations more than two decades ago, and I’m proud to say that many of the people who helped me through the Rogue series, as well as SOAR, Jack in the Box, and Direct Action, are still around to backstop me in matters tactical, operational, and military. I’ve also had the opportunity to know a fair number of the folks who either work or have worked at CIA over the years, and for this project I depended heavily on their counsel and their experience.
Writing about the military and the intelligence communities can be tough. Writing about what goes on in military and intelligence operatives’ minds can be nigh-on impossible. I’m grateful to an elite corps of enablers who helped me through the rough spots and provided wise counsel over the years. Especially Major Kent Bolin, USMC (Ret.), Captain Bob Stumpf, USN (Ret.), Admiral James A. “Ace” Lyons Jr., USN (Ret.), Christopher Michel, Myles Fisher, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Bloesl, USMC (Ret.), Richard Hallett, Duane Clarridge, Geoffrey Hancock, Dr. Roger Orth, M.D., Kevin Gors, “Mr. Wade,” Lionel Bourgeois, Buz Mills, Robert K. Brown, John F. Musser, Eliot Jardines, Paul R. Collis, Jerry Glazebrook, Kerry Brendel, Mauro DiPreta, Hardy Ernsting, and last but not least a couple of dozen folks who, because of where they currently work or what they do, cannot be mentioned by name or even initials.
But you unindicted co-conspirators all know who you are. And we will laugh as we sip wine, Jameson, or good single malt, smoke Padilla 1932s or Montecristo Petit Coronas, break off pieces of marble bars, watch Navy beat SMU, and hang out at the U-Club, the Cosmos, the screen porch, or the backyard deck, depending on our mood and/or whim.
A major portion of this book is about character. Bob Corbin of Prescott, Arizona, serves as the template for the Doing What’s Right sections of KBL. Bob, the former three-term attorney general of Arizona and a past president of the NRA, has always lived by the credo that the law is the law, what’s right is right, and politics shouldn’t enter into it. It’s a credo more politicians, cabinet secretaries, and attorneys general should live by. Come to think of it, the rest of us should, too.
And finally, thank you, thank you, Deb Corbin, for getting me through this marathon in one piece.
About the Author
John Weisman, acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling military thriller writer and coauthor of the bestselling Rogue Warrior series, is one of a select company of authors to ever have their books appear on both lists. He reviews books on intelligence and military affairs for the Washington Times and his analysis has appeared in AFIO’s periodical Intelligencer. Weisman lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
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Author’s Note
I approached this work of fiction as I would any journalistic undertaking: researching using OSINT (open source intelligence) techniques, talking to people involved in the sorts of undertakings described herein, and fact-checking the tactical, political, and intelligence nuts and bolts by utilizing special operations sources who have performed scores if not hundreds of HVT missions in the past half decade in the AFPAK theater of operations, informants knowledgeable in the White House bureaucracy, and individuals familiar with how our intelligence community proceeded with the decade-long hunt for Usama Bin Laden. Any flaws or inaccuracies, however, are mine and not theirs.
ALSO BY JOHN WEISMAN
FICTION
Direct Action
Jack in the Box
SOAR: A Black Ops Novel
Blood Cries
Watchdogs
Evidence
The Rogue Warrior Series
(with Richard Marcinko)
Detachment Bravo
Echo Platoon
Option Delta
SEAL Force Alpha
Designation Gold
Task Force Blue
Green Team
Red Cell
NONFICTION
Rogue Warrior
(with Richard Marcinko)
Shadow Warrior
(with Felix Rodriguez)
ANTHOLOGIES
Agents of Treachery
(edited by Otto Penzler)
The Best American Mystery Stories of 2003 (edited by Michael Connelly)
The Best American Mystery Stories of 1997 (edited by Robert B. Parker)
Unusual Suspects
(edited by James Grady)
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Although based on actual events, all references to living people, establishments, organizations, or locales are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
KBL: KILL BIN LADEN. Copyright © 2011 by John Weisman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-211951-3
Epub Edition © OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062119537
11 12 13 14 15 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Maps and Illustrations
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
PART TWO
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
PART THREE
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
; Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Author’s Note
Other Works
Copyright
About the Publisher
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Maps and Illustrations
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
PART TWO
Chapter 10
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
PART THREE
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Author’s Note
Other Works
Copyright
About the Publisher