The War Office

Operation Neptune Spear - The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden

The War Office

Show Notes

In the early hours of May 2nd, 2011, US Navy SEALS are en route for Pakistan are hoping to bring a 10-year search to its conclusion. Their target is just one man; Osama bin Laden. This episode covers the manhunt for Bin Laden, and the final operation to kill or capture him - Operation Neptune Spear.

Thanks to: Joby Warrick - Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and best-selling author of 'The Triple Agent: The Al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA' Adam M. McMahon - Associate Professor of Political Science at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. His article 'Obama, Operation Neptune Spear, and the Specter of Failure', was published by the journal Congress & the Presidency in 2024. He is writing a forthcoming book entitled American Extremist that traces the development of the Department of Homeland Security from September 11th, 2001 to January 6th, 2021. He can be reached at [email protected] You can listen to The War Office on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or The War Office Podcast YouTube Channel.

New episodes will be released every Tuesday morning. If you enjoy the episodes, please help us grow the podcast by subscribing, liking, sharing, commenting, and listening to future releases. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from The War Office

Oct 20, 2026

On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, heading from Majorca in Spain to Frankfurt, West Germany was hijacked by four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP. In response to the hijacking, the West German government dispatched GSG-9, Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or Border Guard Group 9 in English, which was created following the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Oct 13, 2026

On 5 September 5th 1972, eight militants of Black September, a Palestinian militant group with ties to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, burst into one of the apartments of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics. At gunpoint they take many Israeli hostages. One of the hostages was able to escape and two were killed in the apartment building after attempting to fight back against the militants.

Oct 6, 2026

Operation Overlord was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War. The Germans had been preparing for an Allied landing in Europe for many years. One of their attempts to keep the Allies out was the Atlantic Wall. This was a series of concrete emplacements, guns, barbed wire, and other obstacles located from the Arctic Circle in Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. Pas-de-Calais was heavily defended where as Normandy had less defences. This was a critical element in choosing the location of landings.

Sep 22, 2026

By the end of June 6, 1944, D-Day, thousands of Allied troops had landed in Normandy, France. They were supported by tanks, artillery, and thousands of tons of supplies. How did the Allies pull off one of the largest military operations in history?

Sep 15, 2026

In this podcast, we pick up from where The September 11th Attacks from the Pentagon's Perspective - Part 1 left off.

See all episodes →