Bin Laden: world’s costliest manhunt

Tracking down Osama bin Laden was arguably the costliest manhunt in history.

Al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States on September 11 2001 led the Bush White House to launch what it called the ‘War on Terror’ which started in Afghanistan – where bin Laden was living under the protection of the Taliban – but spread to Iraq and other countries.

Afghanistan has cost 300 billion euros – so far – according to government calculations and another 540 billion euros went on the invasion of Iraq, which was partly justified by a non-existent link between Sadam Hussein, al-Qaida and bin Laden.

Economists said those wars added substantially to the US government’s debt because of the money that had to be borrowed to pay for them.

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