CIA unveils model of al-Qaida leader al-Zawahri's hideout

REVEALED: CIA model of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Kabul safe house that was shown to Biden before he authorized Ninja missile strike that shredded 9/11 architect

• A model of the safe house where a precision missile strike killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was unveiled at the CIA Museum in Langley, Virginia 
• Al-Zawahiri was killed after 21 years on the run after serving as one of the key masterminds behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks 
• The model was used in a brief for Joe Biden, who approved the Hellfire Ninja strike in July, while al-Zawahiri stepped out onto the third-floor balcony 
• The use of the model and display at the museum, closed to the public, calls back the model used to plan the strike on Osama bin Laden 

The CIA has unveiled a model of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s safe house, used to brief Joe Biden about the al-Qaeda leader’s whereabouts before the agency killed him.

Al-Zawahiri, a deputy of Osama Bin Lande, was killed in late July via Hellfire Ninja drone strike in Afghanistan from his safe house’s third-floor balcony, 21 years after the CIA began its hunt for one of the key plotters of the September 11 terrorist attacks. 

Shortly after al-Zawahiri’s death, White House officials released a photo showing Biden talking to CIA Director William Burns with a closed wooden box on the table in front of them. 

Now, the contents of the box – a model depicting a white-walled home with at least five stories and three partially obscured balconies – are on display at the CIA Museum inside the agency’s Virginia headquarters.

A model of the house where a precision counterterrorism operation killed al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was unveiled at the CIA Museum in Langley, Virginia 

The model was used in a brief for President Joe Biden , who approved a drone strike to shoot and kill the al-Qaeda leader in July, while he stepped out onto the third-floor balcony

Al-Zawahiri was killed after 21 years on the run after serving as one of the key masterminds behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

Al-Zawahiri’s display is right below a rifle used by Michael Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan. Al-Zawahiri was killed about a year after the US withdrawal from the country

Pictured: President Joe Biden in the Situation Room at the White House meeting with his national security team on July 1, where they outlined the operation to take out al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri using a model of his home

The museum is closed to the public and access is generally limited to the agency’s employees and guests. The CIA allowed journalists to tour the museum, newly refurbished in time for the agency’s 75th anniversary, as part of a broader effort to showcase its history and achievements.

Most of the exhibits took years or decades to declassify. The al-Zawahiri model home is the rare artifact that had been used by intelligence officers just weeks beforehand.

Al-Zawahiri was killed nearly a year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ending a two-decade war in which the CIA had a central role. 

The agency sent the first American forces two weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Two decades later, it pulled out intelligence assets and assisted in the chaotic evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies.

The Biden administration has said the strike shows it retains what it calls an ‘over-the-horizon’ counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan. 

Zawahiri’s death means that all of the plotters of 9/11 have now been captured or killed. 

The model of Zawahiri’s safe house is not the only one of its kind on display in the museum, as the archives also include a model of Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani compound, where he was in hiding before being killed by American forces.  

The display was set up in time for the CIA’s 75th anniversary at the museum, which is closed to the public with only agency and guests allowed in  

Pictured: Al-Zawahiri’s display is among many at the CIA museum in Virginia   

A display for the Central Intelligence Agency’s work in Afghanistan shows the seven stars that were part of a larger memorial to the seven CIA officers killed in the line of duty on Dec. 30, 2009, at Forward Operation Base Chapman in a hunt for Al-Zawahiri

Deputy Director for the Museum in the Central Intelligence Agency Janelle Neises describes a model of the compound where U.S. forces located and killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that is on display in the refurbished museum 

Like with Al-Zawahiri, the US used a model of bin Laden’s home to plan its strike

An AKM rifle that was found near the body of Usama Bin Laden during the raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan

Opponents of the administration and some analysts question whether al-Zawahri’s presence in a Kabul neighborhood suggests extremist groups like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State are growing stronger under the Taliban, who now rule the country.

The strike was particularly meaningful for the CIA, which lost seven employees in trying to find al-Zawahiri, a key plotter of the September 11 attacks who was then al-Qaeda´s second-in-command.

They were killed when a Jordanian doctor who pretended to have information about al-Zawahiri carried out a 2009 suicide bombing at a base in Khost, Afghanistan. The doctor was working for al-Qaeda.

On display near the model of al-Zawahiri’s home are seven stars honoring the CIA employees slain at Khost. The stars were previously part of a memorial in Afghanistan that was taken down as the U.S. withdrew.

A gold AK-47 that belonged to Saddam Hussein along with an Iraqi sniper rifle

A Ruger M77 bolt action rifle brandished by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein 

Director for the Central Intelligence Agency Museum Rob Byer

Other newly revealed artifacts include concept drawings for the fake film created as part of a 1980 operation to rescue American diplomats from Iran, the subject of the 2012 movie ‘Argo’ starring Ben Affleck. 

There are also crew uniforms and other items from the Glomar Explorer, the Howard Hughes-built ship that served as cover for a 1970s mission to surface a sunken Soviet submarine carrying nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. 

The story on the front page of the Los Angeles Times exposing the operation is reproduced on a nearby museum wall.

The museum also includes some information on the agency’s darker moments, including its role in the ultimately false assertions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion, as well as the exposure and execution of several key spies the U.S. had in the Soviet Union.

Deputy Director for the Museum in the Central Intelligence Agency Janelle Neises talks about the CIA’s Soviet spies exhibit 

Neises gives a group of journalists a tour of the refurbished museum

A junior officer disguise kit is on display at the Central Intelligence Agency’s museum 

A display showing a photo of Valerie Plame

Neises talks about the ‘Argo’ exhibit on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022

Janelle Neises, the museum’s deputy director, says a running agency joke about the collection is that for most people, it´s ‘the greatest museum you’ll never see.’

The CIA wants to use its history to engage more with the public, albeit on the narrow terms one might expect of an intelligence service. The number of annual visitors to the museum, for example, is classified. 

Among the known guests are U.S. lawmakers, officers from other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and foreign officials.

But CIA employees post about some of the museum´s roughly 600 exhibits on social media. The agency also recently started a podcast with Burns, the CIA director, as its first guest.

A primary goal of the museum is to reinforce lessons from the agency’s successes and failures for the current workforce, Neises said. 

Some CIA veterans who served in the missions depicted in the museum donated artifacts to the collection. But the agency is now hiring officers in their twenties who are too young to remember the September 11, 2001, attacks.

‘The idea here is as you´re going to lunch or as you´re going to a meeting, leave 10 minutes early, leave 20 minutes early, and just take the time to look at one section and really learn about your history,’ Neises said.

A mockup of a pigeon with a camera attached

Copies of the President’s Intelligence Checklist (PICL) from the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination

A mockup of the Berlin Tunnel the Central Intelligence Agency used for Operation Gold

A display showing the covers of the President’s Daily Briefing

An early version of the Central Intelligence Agency’s seal signed by President Truman

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