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Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man | 
| Author: Dalton Fury
Creator: Col.(r) David Hunt
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.27
You Save: $11.68 (45%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 25
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0312384394
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9780312384395
ASIN: 0312384394
Publication Date: October 6, 2008 (New: This Week)
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Product Description
The mission was to kill the most wanted man in the world--an operation of such magnitude that it couldn’t be handled by just any military or intelligence force. The best America had to offer was needed. As such, the task was handed to roughly forty members of America’s supersecret counterterrorist unit formerly known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta; more popularly, the elite and mysterious unit Delta Force.
The American generals were flexible. A swatch of hair, a drop of blood, or simply a severed finger wrapped in plastic would be sufficient. Delta's orders were to go into harm's way and prove to the world bin Laden had been terminated.
These Delta warriors had help: a dozen of the British Queen’s elite commandos, another dozen or so Army Green Berets, and six intelligence operatives from the CIA who laid the groundwork by providing cash, guns, bullets, intelligence, and interrogation skills to this clandestine military force. Together, this team waged modern siege of epic proportions against bin Laden and his seemingly impenetrable cave sanctuary burrowed deep inside the Spin Ghar Mountain range in eastern Afghanistan.
Over the years, since the battle ended, scores of news stories have surfaced offering tidbits of information about what actually happened in Tora Bora. Most of it is conjecture and speculation.
This is the real story of the operation, the first eyewitness account of the Battle of Tora Bora, and the first book to detail just how close Delta Force came to capturing bin Laden, how close U.S. bombers and fighter aircraft came to killing him, and exactly why he slipped through our fingers. Lastly, this is an extremely rare inside look at the shadowy world of Delta Force and a detailed account of these warriors in battle.
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| Customer Reviews:
A Special Book About Special Operations October 10, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is an important and risky book. I know because I helped "Dalton," a first-time author, find an agent and publisher and we talked many times during the book's long gestation period. The culture of US Army Special Operations Forces has long insisted that Delta must not be mentioned or discussed -- everything about the unit is classified. Only a couple of other books have been written about Delta and the authors of those books no longer get Christmas cards from a lot of their old buddies.
"Dalton's" book answers the questions we all had after OBL escaped capture or death. How could it have happened? This book describes exactly how, without (in my opinion) compromising security in any significant way. At last it all makes some sense.
The author's decision to tell this story without the blessing of USSOCOM and over the proverbial dead bodies of some of his former teammates means that he will be shunned from "the community" as Eric Haney has been for "Inside Delta Force." He took a lot of heat from some in the community and was encouraged by others to tell the story. He decided to tell the story regardless of the consequences.
So this review is not impartial and it doesn't come from a typical reader. But I thought you might like to know that the guy that wrote it is a very brave patriot who felt strongly that he had some information the rest of us needed to know. It's a hell of a story and I hope somebody makes it into a movie. Well done, "Dalton."
Hans Halberstadt
 RICKSHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "A CLUMP OF HAIR.. A DROP OF BLOOD.. OR PERHAPS A SEVERED FINGER WRAPPED IN PLASTIC.. STONE-COLD-DEAD!" October 9, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
In the aftermath of 9/11 the order came down from the top... KILL BIN LADEN! The author (a pseudonym) Dalton Fury heads up a group of forty highly-trained... highly-secretive... Delta Force commandos... along with "twelve commandos from the famed British SBS... and another dozen or so U.S. Army Green Berets"... and six CIA intelligence operatives and technicians.
As a Viet Nam era veteran I am extremely aware of how not only the methodology... but the terrain of war... has also changed drastically over the last four decades. As disappointing as the failure to eradicate Bin Laden has been... the constantly changing "BILL-OF-MATERIALS" THAT MUST BE MIXED INTO A FORMULA, THAT CAN BE MANUFACTURED INTO A VICTORIOUS MISSION, NOW HAS MANY MORE INTRICATE COMPONENTS... AND EACH CARRIES THE INNATE CAPABILITY... TO BE THE CATALYST THAT DETERMINES... SUCCESS... OR FAILURE.
This book's strength is in the way it educates the reader, in ways that are never accomplished on the evening news. In Afghanistan, the language barrier is exponentially increased as village to village... war lord to war lord... the dialect may differ. There are fighters involved from many countries. Bin Laden's "outer defense ring comprised Afghans, Algerians, Jordanians, Chechens, and Pakistanis. Bin Laden's more trusted fighters are Saudis, Yemenis, and Egyptians." So American fighters not only have to communicate with their local allies, but intelligence "eavesdroppers" have to decipher endless languages. As the American, British, and Afghan forces advance towards Tora Bora, every few miles there are different war lords in control of the area. The mountainous terrain sports 14,000 foot peaks with well entrenched al Qaeda terrorists in hard to find caves, in place from years of fighting with the Soviets and almost every historical figure that ever passed that way.
The author is very honest in discussing the decisions that are made... and not made... to his satisfaction... up and down the myriad of levels in the American decisional chain. An early back-breaking decision was when President Bush and Vice-President Cheney "denied an immediate commitment of American troops to seal Pakistan's side of Tora Bora, thus cutting off a potential al Qaeda escape route." The author states: "The back door would remain wide open to the enemy. We were not pleased." On the other hand... "A FEW WEEKS EARLIER, COLONEL MULHOLLAND HAD REVIEWED THE CIA PLAN TO GO AFTER BIN LADEN IN THE MOUNTAINS AND DECLARED IT WAS "FLAWED" AND WANTING ON SEVERAL COUNTS. WITH NO ABILITY TO EVACUATE CASUALTIES BY AIR, WINTER GROWING WORSE BY THE DAY, NO AMERICAN QUICK-REACTION FORCE, AND THE PROSPECTS OF A TREACHEROUS UPHILL SLUGFEST - AND WORKING WITH A WAR-LORD WHO HAD NOT YET BEEN VETTED - THE TASK FORCE DAGGER COMMANDER OPTED TO PASS UNTIL THE CIA COULD PRESENT BETTER INTELLIGENCE. AND WHO COULD BLAME A PRUDENT COMMANDER FOR DECIDING NOT TO RISK HIS MEN AGAINST A WELL-PREPARED DEFENSE WHILE SUPPORTED ONLY BY AN INDIGENOUS FORCE OF UNKNOWN RELIABILITY AND QUALITY?"
This book may not have as much action as you might originally have hoped for... but that's why Arnold Schwarzenegger (used to) and Clint Eastwood are stars... but what this book gives you more of than you anticipated is the real-detailed... gut wrenching... myriad... decisions... that based on the verdict... can be truly life or death. One situation that I feel crystallizes this dilemma, is the chain of command involved in giving the grid locations "of where we planned to put in our sniper teams and what area they planned to lase for the bombers." "CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PRESSURE THAT MUST HAVE ROLLED DOWNHILL THROUGH FOUR OR FIVE LEVELS OF COMMAND TO GET THIS REQUEST TO US?" AND IT WAS NOT ONLY SEVERAL LAYERS OF GENERAL OFFICERS BREATHING DOWN COLONEL ASHLEY'S NECK FOR THE INFORMATION, FOR HE EXPLAINED, EVERYBODY FROM "POTUS" ON DOWN IS ASKING FOR DETAILS. IT WENT ALL THE WAY UP TO THE WHITE HOUSE, FOR "POTUS" IS THE ACRONYM FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES."...
**"THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE WILL NEVER BE AS GOOD AS THE ISRAELIS AT KILLING TERRORISTS... WE HAVE TOO MANY BUREAUCRATIC LAYERS AND DECISION MAKERS WHO STIFLE INITIATIVE AND WASTE PRECIOUS TIME."**
By the end of the book the reader will feel like they've been out on the front lines sifting through these levels of bureaucracy with the author. Throughout the book "Fury gives the full measure of credit where it rightfully belongs: to his men. It is one of the traits of a great leader."
Enlightening read that should make you angry. October 7, 2008
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
I thought we'd learned some expensive lessons in Vietnam. Apparently I'm wrong, and the proof of that is the book Kill bin laden (lower case intentional) by Dalton Fury (not the real name) and Col. David Hunt. In Vietnam there was constant interference by Washington in the conducting of operations in the field. I thought we'd learned to turn command of combat operations over to field commanders, define, in advance, the rules of engagement and then step out of the way and let them go. I also thought we'd learned that international borders couldn't always be respected, especially when those borders provide aid and comfort to foreign fighters. This is especially true when the host government knows they are providing cover for these fighters and takes no steps, or weak ones at best, to put an end to that cover. Boy, was I wrong. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
Fury was the leader of an elite Delta Force unit inserted into Afghanistan with the sole mission of finding bin laden and then killing him. Not an easy mission but certainly clear enough. No ambiguity here. As Dalton and Hunt point out, not only was there interference from up the chain of command in disallowing mission options, but the Delta Force was paired with Afghan fighters that were very thin in their commitment of finding bin laden. It is a paradox that the mission seemed doomed almost from the start and yet came very close to succeeding. Dalton maintains that they may have come within a few meters of actually killing b. l. The cave the team thought b. l. was in was targeted and successfully bombed. Later, teams searched the area for b.l. body parts but none was ever found. After reading Kill bin laden, one has to wonder whether our leaders really wanted b. l. found and dispensed with.
Kill bin laden is well written. Why shouldn't it be? The man who wrote it was there.
As a veteran, I've never doubted that the U. S. military is the finest in the world. There's not another soldier in the world that can stand toe to toe with the American fighting man. Our combined forces are simply the best. However, it seems clear that even after the hard lessons learned in the past, we seem doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Will we ever learn?
Dalton and Hunt deliver a masterfully written inside story about the failed attempt to get b. l. Kill bin laden is not a partisan read but it is one that should make you angry.
I highly recommend.
Semper Fi
An exceptional, superb, first hand account by the team leader of US Army Special Forces Detachment Delta October 7, 2008
17 out of 26 found this review helpful
It is rare that readers are provided a first hand, accurate, contemporary, non politically constrained account of a major special operation by US Army Special Forces Detachment Delta. Many organizations claim the title, "special operations;" it takes more than a title. Major Dalton Fury's book explains in complete detail what real special operations are about. Readers may pound the book on the table as they learn that Fury, the team leader, was given the mission but not provided the total command dexterity needed to get bin Laden. Higher echelons unexplainably constrained his alternatives. When will we learn? Nevertheless, Fury writes a lucid description of this most special operation. The understandably unanswered question is why were other alternatives requested by Fury not permitted? Our nation is privileged to have leaders, men, and a unit like this in its military. The continued strong relationship between SAS and Delta is obvious. The book is a great read for active and retired military of all ranks and services, civilians, and academic readers alike. It will be a case history for future generations of special operators. Thank you to Major Fury and your team for trying and for writing the book.
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