The U.S. Code Name for Bin Laden Was Actually 'Cakebread'

atlantic wire ^ | June 9, 2011 | John Hudson

[posterchild]

Though the Navy SEAL team storming into bin Laden's Pakistan compound referred to the Al Qaeda leader as "Geronimo," Pentagon and CIA analysts knew him by a more culinary nickname: "Cakebread." The quirky piece of bin Laden death trivia comes from excerpts from a new book published by ABC News called Target: Bin Laden—The Death and Life of Public Enemy Number One. This morning, the network sent us a preview of the book with a conveniently bulleted list of its latest scoops:

[posterchild]

I didn’t care for the use of an American name like Geronimo applied to bin laden. Some urdu swear words come to mind as replacements.

[PastorBooks]

“with a conveniently bulleted list...”

Conveniently bulleted... yes, indeed.

[grey_whiskers]

...and I don't even want to know what Congressman Weiner's nickname was.

Cheers!

[ASA Vet]

And the code name for the Muslim in DC is Resident Sipdhit.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Actually, it was...

“HighSpeedLeadWithBrainMatterAttached”

[gandalftb]

The Navy Seals never referred to UBL as Geronimo, they were referring to the High Value Target of the mission, whom ever that turned out to be.

At the time of the mission it was not certain whom the HVT was or that the HVT was even there.

The term Cakebread would never be used in communication in case UBL was not degraded or detained, as to keep his identifier secret for a future op.

The reason for revealing the op was two-fold. First, our stealth helo wreckage would be impossible to explain a mile away from their version of West Point. Second, AQ would quickly claim UBL's martyrdom. Once a major AQ leader is dead it is proclaimed to benefit recruiting, any delay would give AQ a free hand to control the story instead of Obama.