The Making of Osama bin Laden
Dan Snow's History Hit

The Making of Osama bin Laden

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 17, 20261h 7m
  • Interview
  • History

A deep dive into the rise and fall of Osama bin Laden, from his affluent childhood in Saudi Arabia to his assassination during the biggest manhunt in modern history. For this, Dan is joined by Jason Burke, author of 'The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s’, to make sense of the forces that inspired the world's most infamous Jihadist, the beginnings and growth of Qaeda, and 9/11 and its aftermath. Produced by James Hickmann and Mariana Des Forges, and edited by Dougal Patmore. We need your help! Let us know wh...

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lifted off from a US base in Jalabad Afghanistan carrying 23 Navy SEALs, an interpreter and

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 33%A2 34%B1 21%B2 9%C1 2%
  • 89% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 165 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 364 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:30

Just after 10.30pm on the 1st of May 2011, two specially modified Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from a US base in Jalabad Afghanistan carrying 23 Navy SEALs, an interpreter and a dog named Cairo. Their destination lay 150 miles away across the Pakistani border. It was a fortified compound

1:02

in the garrison town of Abbottabad. The mission was codenamed Neptune's Spear and had a single objective – kill or capture the world's most wanted man – Osama bin Laden. For nearly a decade he it seems like almost a mythical presence. The architect of the deadliest terrorist attack in modern history, a ghost who'd vanished into the mountains,

1:25

It had been targeted by one of the most expensive and relentless manhunts ever undertaken. Presidents had come and gone. Wars had been fought. Thousands had died.

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