The New Yorker: Getting bin Laden

Nowhere does the piece suggest that he "was the only guy close to" 6 feet. It merely points out that 6 ft was his height.

 

The food staff at 1600 needs plausible deniability?

 

Yeah, it only says they didn't have a tape measure.

 

When the president wants turkey and cheddar, and you give him turkey and American, well... a contingency plan is needed.

 

Followed the on line chat. Almost as interesting as the article.

A few questions about Hamza with no real answer. Seems like there is more to that part of story.

Guess they can close nominations for this years National Magazine Awards.

 

Or maybe Hillary is just crazy for Costco's pinwheel sandwich platters.

 

Reporter's father is a lt. general in the Marines, btw. In the Cyber Command.

 

I found it interesting that some readers claim to be "misled" into thinking that Schmidle talked to the SEALs because he directly quoted them. I've seen some papers that write this sort of nonfiction short story include an inset with information about how the report was obtained, quotes verified, etc., etc.

When I read it, I admit that I assumed that the writer had been provided open access to everyone - or at least several SEALs - who were in the helicopter and the compound.

That he was not actually makes the reporting more impressive to me, not less. I just figured the administration wanted the whole story out there, and hand-picked a publication - maybe even as an olive branch after banning Lizza from Air Force One because of the campaign cover.

 

CNN's Ben Wedeman & Richard Engel took somewhat similar paths.

Both moved to the Middle East, learned Arabic, and got hired on by local news bureau.

 

Nothing about the stealth drones?

 

Joe Biden owns shares in Costco. Joe is always looking to get some extra bucks in his pocket.

 

I have landed in dozens of walled compounds in Afghanistan and never gotten anywhere near settling with power.

The more I think about it, the less I believe the settling with power argument. The air would've hit the walls and properly recirculated through the rotor system. Also, settling with power would have begun at higher altitudes (maybe as high as 300 feet above the ground). If that would've happened, it would've been uglier than it was.

The next most suitable solution is that they used too much power when landing because of their high weight and probably higher than expected temperature (bad combination for jet engines). If they went past their maximum power available -- a number that is constantly in your mind when you're near it -- then the engines got too hot and began to shut themselves down, causing the rotors to slow (or "droop," in helicopter lingo) and produce less lift, causing a rapid descent.

After a long conversation with some big brains today, this is the conclusion we came to.

The other thought is that they just hit the fucking wall.

Either way, they're lucky as hell they didn't kill a bunch of people.