Агент ЦРУ Элизабет Хансон, погибшая при охоте на бен Ладена, завещала стипендию своему alma mater

Elizabeth Hanson, who died tracking down Bin Laden, left a will creating a Hanson scholarship at Maine’s Colby College. Elizabeth Curry Marie Hanson graduated from Colby College in 2002. Just three years later, at the age of 26, the Maine grad with a degree in economics and literature, joined the world’s most elite spy agency. At the Central Intelligence Agency, Hanson initially worked under the cover of a Washington-based consulting firm, quickly rising through the ranks due to her skills as a “targeter.” Her role involved analyzing vast amounts of intelligence data, including intercepted communications and reports from informants, to track high-profile terrorists. Hanson played a key part in recommending actions based on this intelligence, often leading to targeted drone missile strikes. Her talents led to her promotion as a lead targeter in a high-level group focused on dismantling al-Qaeda, including tracking down Osama bin Laden, the monster behind America’s worst-ever domestic attack. 9/11/2001. It was 25 years ago that nineteen terrorists working for Osama hijacked four airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers. A third plane went into the Pentagon. A fourth plane, which was believed headed to a target in the D.C. area, crashed in rural Pennsylvania as passengers made a heroic attempt to take back control of the aircraft. Two of the hijackers spent the night before the ill-fated flights at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, Maine, catching a plane the next morning to Logan Airport in Boston, where their mission of evil began. Bin Laden was the leader of al-Qaeda and the primary mastermind behind the attacks. Elizabeth Hanson’s mission was finding him. “She was part of a generation of tech-savvy intelligence officers hired aggressively after September 11, people who could track threats through intercepted communications, online networks, and informant reports with the same fluency that earlier generations had used to run covert operations on the ground,” says History Today on Facebook. “Elizabeth Hanson turned out to be extraordinary at it.” Sixteen years ago, Hanson volunteered for a deployment to Afghanistan, seeking to gain field experience and further develop her skills. On December 30, 2009, she was killed in the so-called Camp Chapman attack in Khost, Afghanistan. The attack was carried out by Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian double agent who had gained the CIA’s trust. Hanson, who died at the age of 30 in a challenge she loved, is buried in section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. CIA Director Leon Panetta attended her funeral. A star was carved into the CIA Memorial Wall to honor the college grad from Waterville, Maine. The CIA posted the following on its website: “Elizabeth Hanson was a gifted innovator in fighting terrorists, a woman with boundless energy and a quick wit who relished the challenge of her work and was committed to excellence and integrity in everything she did.” The attack Hanson died in was depicted in the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty. The Pulitzer Prize winning book about it, The Triple Agent, profiles each of the seven CIA officers who died. Before Hanson deployed to Afghanistan, she had included a quiet request in her will. She asked that a scholarship in her name be established at Colby College. Hanson was 30 years old and already thinking about what she would leave behind for others. “Joining the CIA was a way to be part of something bigger than herself,” one of her closest friends was quoted by History Today. “She always had a purpose, and if she felt like what she was doing over there was worth it, then that’s all that mattered to her.” – Other 9/11 Maine victims include: Robert Jalbert, Lewiston, United Airlines Flight 175 James Roux, Portland, United Airlines Flight 175 Navy Cmdr. Robert Schlegel, Gray, Pentagon Stephen Ward, Gorham, World Trade Center Robert Grant Norton, Lubec, American Airlines Flight 11