The bin Laden raid had not been very successful if not for the 16 spy agencies that collaborated to track the al-Qaeda operative's endeavors, and in a recent America's Secret Intelligence Budget leak, it was found out that the joint forces mostly relied on satellites to efficiently gather pertinent electronic intelligence for the invasion, The Telegraph reported Friday.
According to The Washington Post, the leaked documents provided to them by Edward Snowden, a fugitive whistleblower, showed details on how 16 American spy agencies coordinated in tracking Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda operatives through their mobile phone activities.
However, only a small portion of the 178-page leaked document was published since the US government is withholding the release of other information that may harm the country's intelligence systems.
The documents mainly featured the major contribution of the National Security Agency in the surveillance of the mobile phone calls made by senior al-Qaeda lieutenants and in the location of bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. NSA's tracking group is famous for planting spyware and homing devices on computers and mobile phones.
It was also detailed how the National Reconnaissance Office took minute-by-minute photos of the al-Qaeda compound using a constellation of satellites.
Nevertheless, despite the resilient effort of the agencies, the undeniably stellar resources, and a sufficient budget of $52.6 billion for all the operations, spy chiefs of the bin Laden raid were not able to provide concrete data to President Barack Obama, The Star Phoenix reported.
In as much as they wanted to give concrete information on the whereabouts of bin Laden during that time, intelligence officials were only able to ascertain a 40 to 60% probability that bin Laden was really hiding in the said compound.
Nevertheless, the raid ensued successfully with three guards and the terrorist leader dead.
Reports stated that the spy agencies also took part in the investigation over bin Laden's death. Samples of the head terrorist were taken before his body was dropped from the U.S. warship for DNA testing under the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Newspapers reported that the agency was able to verify a "conclusive match" within eight hours after the raid.
Meanwhile, evidence on bin Laden's inner circle endeavors related to obtaining information via WikiLeaks also surfaced from the bin Laden raid investigation.
