New 9/11 exhibit stages hunt for Osama bin Laden

Declassified U.S. government documents and artifacts are part of a new exhibit on the decade-long, search for Osama bin Laden at the site of the New York terrorist attack.

"Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden" opens Nov. 15 at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a multimedia account of the mission that ended with bin Laden's death in Pakistan in 2011.

The exhibit presents the hunt for bin Laden as a sort of who-done-it come alive with graphics, videos and the voices of the protagonists, from intelligence agents, former President Barack Obama and members of the U.S. Navy SEALs team that raided bin Laden's home and shot and killed.

In this artist's rendering provided by C&G Partners, the exhibit "Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden," is shown at the National September 11 Museum in New York. Newly declassified U.S. government artifacts are part of the exhibit, opening Nov. 15, 2019, that traces the decade-long, secret search for Osama bin Laden at the site of the New York terrorist attack he commandeered. (C&G Partners via AP)

"We began to think of it as a crime story, albeit a horrific one at a huge scale," the design firm, New York-based C&G Partners, said in a statement. "The exhibit is built of tall angled 'shards' of raw plywood, no two alike, which can be positioned to evoke a mountain canyon, military field office or residential compound."

Photos show the scenes of the search, from caves to a wild mountain range in Afghanistan where bin Laden was believed to have been hiding. He was under protection of the Taliban that issued al-Qaida members passports allowing them to move around freely. One of these passports will be displayed.

In other images, American military personnel huddle in strategy sessions and outside on terrain being searched. Visitors will see trunks containing items gathered during various U.S. raids of al-Qaida locations that might have yielded evidence of bin Laden's whereabouts.

One pre-9/11 U.S. intelligence document reveals: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US."

The presentation does not whitewash failures, titling one section "Gains and Setbacks."

The exhibit details the failure to catch bin Laden before he fled Afghanistan. One artifact on display from his al-Qaida training camp there is a blue wall fragment seen in propaganda videos featuring bin Laden.

After he disappeared, law enforcement experts and members of military and civilian anti-terrorism units describe how they hounded down al-Qaida followers working to hide him. Finally, members of Navy SEAL Team 6 explain, in their own words, how they acted on a tip that led them to descend on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as Obama and his Cabinet watched from the White House.

The exhibit includes images and a model of the home where bin Laden was shot to death in his bedroom.

The 9/11 museum is a nonprofit located on the 16-acre trade center site where more than 2,700 people died and are memorialized with two reflecting pools in the footprints of the fallen twin towers. The museum's collection includes more than 60,000 items that tell intimate stories linked to the attacks and its aftermath.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.

The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.

Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)