breaking news osama bin larden is killed

whatsupdoc wrote:I think the US govt has known where O. Bin Laden has been all along. He went into a hospital a few years back and they knew where he was then.

It is just a way to start another ball rolling....more troubles and more wars.

p.s. eta... I think he had nothing to do with 9/11. It was a brilliantly controlled military operation but was let down by showing too many clues. Any educated person realised it was staged.

Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan
US president confirms al-Qaeda leader's death, saying he has been killed in firefight following US raid in Abbottabad.
Last Modified: 02 May 2011 03:31
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Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, is dead.

US president Barack Obama said bin Laden, the most-wanted fugitive on the US list, has been killed on Sunday in a US operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.

"Tonight, I can report to the people of the United States and the world, the United States had carried an operation that has killed Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist responsible for killing thousands of innocent people," Obama said in a statement.

"Today, at my direction, the United States carried out that operation... they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

"The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda.

"We must also reaffirm that United states is not and will never be at war against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader, in fact, he slaughtered many Muslims," Obama said.

US celebrations


Barack Obama called bin Laden's death the 'most significant achievement' against al-Qaeda [EPA]
As the news of bin Laden's death spread, crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC to celebrate.

Former US president George Bush called his death a "momentous achievement".

"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," Bush said in a statement.

According to Al Jazeeera's Rosalind Jordan in Washington, the operation had been in the making for the last nine or 10 months.

"The fact that it happened inside Pakistan, there have been suggestions that Pakistani intelligence may have been protecting them," she said.

Patty Culhane, another Al Jazeera correspondent, said the US authorities got intelligence last September and were able to track bin Laden down through his couriers. They followed them to his compound which is reported to be worth over a million dollars.

Reporting from Pakistan, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said the development had caught a lot of people by surprise .

"He was considered by many as a hero, but not to the extent that people would come out on the streets. The reaction so far not likely to be strong on the streets, perhaps a protest here or there by the religious parties," he said.

'Symbolic victory'

Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said Afghan officials described bin Laden's killing as a "symbolic victory", since he was no longer directly connected to the group's field operations.

"This organisation (Al Qaeda) is more than Bin Laden, it may be symbolised by Bin Laden, but it definitely is more than Bin Laden"

Mark Kimmit, US military analyst

Mark Kimmit, a US military analyst, said bin Laden's death "was not the end of terrorism, but an end of a chapter."

"Capturing or killing bin Laden has more iconic value. It will have symbolic value, because it has been a number of years since bin Laden has exercised day to day control over operations. We still have an al-Qaeda threat out there and that will be there for a number of years.

"This organisation (al-Qaeda) is more than bin Laden, it may be symbolised by bin Laden, but it definitely is more than bin Laden," he said.

It is, however, a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team. Obama's predecessor, George Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, but never did before leaving office in early 2009.

He had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks - including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

Bin Laden killed in Pakistan, Obama says

May 2nd, 2011
01:42 AM ET
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[Updated, 3:12 a.m. ET] A U.S. official said that Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea. The official said his body was handled in the Islamic tradition, but did not elaborate.

[Updated, 2:31 a.m. ET] U.S. officials said they used facial imaging and other methods to identify the body of Osama bin Laden.

One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity."

A senior national security official said that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."

The national security official would not confirm if DNA testing was performed.

U.S. forces kill elusive terror figure Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 2, 2011 -- Updated 0730 GMT (1530 HKT)
Osama bin Laden, the longtime leader of al Qaeda, was killed by U.S. forces in a mansion outside of Islamabad, Pakistan.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Former Homeland Security adviser to Bush: The war on terrorism is not over
Obama confirms that U.S. officials have taken custody of bin Laden's body
Hundreds celebrate in front of the White House and in New York
The State Department issues a "worldwide caution" for Americans
(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, is dead, officials said -- almost 10 years after the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.
The founder and leader of al Qaeda was killed by U.S. forces Sunday in a mansion in Abbottabad, north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, along with other family members, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
In an address to the nation Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called bin Laden's death "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."
Up-to-the-minute updates on bin Laden | President's statement
"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan," Obama said. "A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."
How U.S. forces conducted the mission | Video
A congressional source familiar with the operation confirmed that bin Laden was shot in the head.
A U.S. official told CNN that bin Laden was buried at sea. The official said his body was handled in the Islamic tradition, but did not elaborate.
Half a world away, the scene outside the White House was one of pure jubilation.
Where bin Laden was killed
Mansion where bin Laden died on fire Obama: Osama bin Laden killed New Yorkers celebrate bin Laden death
Hundreds reveled through the night, chanting "USA! USA!" Others chanted "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!" in reference to the demise of bin Laden. Many also spontaneously sang the national anthem.
Americans hit streets to celebrate | Video
In New York, a cheering crowd gathered at ground zero -- the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Strains of "God Bless America" could be heard intermittently trickling through the crowd.
One former New York firefighter -- forced to retire due to lung ailments suffered as a result of the dust from ground zero -- said he was there to let the 343 firefighters who died in the attacks know "they didn't die in vain."
"It's a war that I feel we just won," he said. "I'm down here to let them know that justice has been served."
Bob Gibson, a retired New York police officer, said the news of bin Laden's death gave him a sense of "closure."
Osama bin Laden, the face of terror
"I never thought this night would come, that we would capture or kill bin Laden," he said. "And thank the Lord he has been eliminated."
The news also brought some relief to family members of those killed on 9/11.
"This is important news for us, and for the world," Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, said in a statement. "It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil."
Bin Laden had been "hiding in plain sight"
Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.
He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s. They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.
In his speech, Obama reiterated that the United States is not fighting Islam.
iReport: Send us your reactions
"I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims," Obama said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, released a statement Monday morning welcoming the death of bin Laden.
What was Pakistan's part? Bin Laden death 'a victory for U.S.' 9/11 responder: Justice was served Chants of 'U.S.A' at Mets-Phillies game
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Terrorism
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"As we have stated repeatedly since the 9/11 terror attacks, bin Laden never represented Muslims or Islam. In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands of Americans, he and al Qaeda caused the deaths of countless Muslims worldwide," the statement said.
While the death of bin Laden "is a significant victory," the war on terrorism is not over, said Frances Fragos Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush.
U.S. leaders react to the news
"We've been fighting these fractured cells. We've seen the U.S. government, military and intelligence officials deployed around the world," Townsend said. "By no means are these other cells nearly as dangerous as he is, but we will continue to have to fight in chaotic places."
U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world were placed on high alert following the announcement of bin Laden's death, a senior U.S. official said, and the U.S. State Department issued a "worldwide caution" for Americans.
U.S. issues travel warnings
The travel alert warned of the "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counter-terrorism activity in Pakistan." Some fear al Qaeda supporters may try to retaliate against U.S. citizens or U.S. institutions.
But for now, many Americans were soaking up the historic moment.
"It's what the world needed," said Dustin Swensson, who recently served in Iraq and joined the revelers outside the White House. "(I'll) always remember where I was when the towers went down, and I'm always going to remember where I am now."

Osama bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 2, 2011 -- Updated 0719 GMT (1519 HKT)


Osama bin Laden's legacy
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: President Obama says of bin Laden's death: "Justice has been done"
Osama bin Laden was the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group
The Islamic militant was born into a wealthy Saudi family
He was behind the 9/11 attacks in the United States, among others
(CNN) -- Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the terrorist group al Qaeda, was killed Sunday night in Pakistan, ending a nearly 10-year long manhunt for one of the world's most-wanted men.
Bin Laden and his terrorist network were behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are linked to others around the world.
The enormity of the destruction in the 9/11 attacks -- the World Trade Center's towers devastated by two hijacked airplanes, the Pentagon partially destroyed by a third hijacked jetliner, a fourth flight crashed in rural Pennsylvania, and more than 3,000 people killed -- gave bin Laden a global presence.
Timeline: The life and times of Osama bin Laden
The Saudi-born zealot commanded an organization run like a rogue multinational firm, experts said, with subsidiaries operating secretly in dozens of countries, plotting terror, raising money and recruiting young Muslim men -- even boys -- from many nations to its training camps in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden used the fruits of his family's success -- a personal fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- to help finance al Qaeda in its quest for a new pan-Islamic religious state. How much bin Laden got in the settlement of the family estate is still a matter of contention. Estimates range from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.
Even before September 11, bin Laden was already on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Up-to-the-minute news on bin Laden | President's statement
He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s.
They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.
Security expert on Osama death Obama: Osama bin Laden killed Bin Laden death 'a victory for U.S.' Bin Laden's death affects the world
RELATED TOPICS
Osama bin Laden
Pakistan
September 11 Attacks
Terrorism
Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.
On September 11, sources said, the evidence immediately pointed to bin Laden. Within days, those close to the investigation said they had their proof.
President Obama: Bin Laden is dead
Six days after the attack, President George W. Bush made it clear Osama bin Laden was the No. 1 suspect.
"I want justice," Bush said. "There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'"
Bin Laden was born in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1957, the 17th of 52 children in a family that had struck it rich in the construction business.
His father, Mohamed bin Laden, was a native of Yemen, who immigrated to Saudi Arabia as a child. He became a billionaire by building his company into the largest construction firm in the Saudi kingdom.
As Saudi Arabia became flush with oil money, so, too, did the bin Laden family business, as Osama's father cultivated and exploited connections within the royal family.
One of the elder bin Laden's four wives -- described as Syrian in some accounts -- was Osama's mother. The young bin Laden inherited a share of the family fortune at an early age after his father died in an aircraft accident.
Celebrations in front of White House
The bin Ladens were noted for their religious commitment. In his youth, Osama studied with Muslim scholars. Two of the family businesses' most prestigious projects also left a lasting impression: the renovations of mosques at Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest sites.
As a young man attending college in Jeddah, bin Laden's interest in religion started to take a political turn. One of his professors was Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian scholar who was a key figure in the rise of a new pan-Islamic religious movement.
Azzam founded an organization to help the mujahedeen fighting to repel the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Bin Laden soon became the organization's top financier, using his family connections to raise money. He left as a volunteer for Afghanistan at 22, joining the U.S.-backed call to arms against the Soviets.
Bin Laden's death affects the world
He remained there for a decade, using construction equipment from his family's business to help the Muslim guerrilla forces build shelters, tunnels and roads through the rugged Afghan mountains, and at times taking part in battle.
In the late 1980s, bin Laden founded al Qaeda, Arabic for "the base," an organization that CNN terrorism analyst and author Peter Bergen says had fairly prosaic beginnings. One of its purposes was to provide documentation for Arab fighters who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, including death certificates.
Al Qaeda, under bin Laden's leadership, ran a number of guesthouses for these Arab fighters and their families. It also operated training camps to help them prepare for the fight against the Soviets.
In the early 1990s, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, bin Laden turned his sights on the world's remaining superpower -- the United States. War-hardened and victorious, he returned to Saudi Arabia following the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan.
iReport: Send us your reactions
In a 1997 CNN interview, bin Laden declared a "jihad," or "holy war," against the United States.
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait provided the next turning point in Osama bin Laden's career.
When the United States sent troops to Saudi Arabia for battle against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, bin Laden was outraged. He had offered his own men to defend the Saudi kingdom but the Saudi government ignored his plan.
He began to target the United States for its presence in Saudi Arabia, home to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina. With bin Laden's criticisms creating too much friction with the Saudi government, he and his supporters left for Sudan in 1991.
There, according to U.S. officials, al Qaeda began to evolve into a terror network, with bin Laden at its helm. Tapping into his personal fortune, bin Laden operated a range of businesses involved in construction, farming and exporting.
Although the U.S. government was unaware of it at the time, bin Laden was already actively working against it.
According to court testimony, he sent one of his top lieutenants, Mohammed Atef, to help train Somalis to attack U.S. peacekeeping troops stationed there. Bin Laden would later hint, during an interview with CNN, of his involvement in the deaths of 18 U.S. Army Rangers in 1993 in Mogadishu.
Also in 1993, terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six and wounding hundreds. Eventually, bin Laden would be named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. The mastermind of the attack, Ramzi Yousef, would later be revealed to have close ties to al Qaeda.
In 1996, bin Laden took his war against the United States a step further. By then, he had been stripped of his Saudi citizenship and forced by Sudanese officials, under pressure from the United States, to leave that country. He returned to Afghanistan where he received harbor from the fundamentalist Taliban, who were ruling the country.
By then, the United States had begun to recognize a growing threat from bin Laden, citing him as a financier of terrorism in a government report.
According to reports, however, the U.S. government passed up a Sudanese government offer to turn over bin Laden, because at the time it had no criminal charges against him. The Saudis, according to an interview with their former intelligence chief in Time magazine, also declined to take custody of bin Laden.
In Afghanistan in 1996, bin Laden issued a "fatwa," or a religious order, entitled "Declaration of War Against Americans Who Occupy the Lands of the Two Holy Mosques."
"There is no more important thing than pushing the American occupier out," decreed the fatwa, which praised Muslim youths willing to die to accomplish that goal: "Youths only want one thing, to kill (U.S. soldiers) so they can get to Paradise."
In his first interview with Western media in 1997, bin Laden told CNN that the United States was "unjust, criminal and tyrannical."
"The U.S. today, as a result of the arrogant atmosphere, has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist," he said in the interview. "It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us."
In February 1998, he expanded his target list, issuing a new fatwa against all Americans, including civilians.
They were to be killed wherever they might be found anywhere in the world, he decreed. This new fatwa announced the creation of the "The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders" and was co-signed by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of Egypt's al-Jihad terrorist group.
Six months later, explosions destroyed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring 4,000 more.
U.S. issues travel warnings
U.S. prosecutors later indicted bin Laden for masterminding those attacks.
By the time three hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbols of the U.S. business and military might, bin Laden's terror network had become global in its reach.
The organization soon became America's prime target in Bush's war against global terrorism. Bin Laden, its founder, became the most-wanted man in the world.
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell explained al Qaeda's network this way: "Osama bin Laden is the chairman of the holding company, and within that holding company are terrorist cells and organizations in dozens of countries around the world, any of them capable of committing a terrorist act."
"It's not enough to get one individual, although we'll start with that one individual," Powell said.
In statements released from his hideouts in Afghanistan after September 11, bin Laden denied al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.
A videotape of bin Laden later obtained and released by the U.S. government, however, showed him saying he knew the September 11 attacks were coming, chuckling and gloating about their toll. Even with his knowledge of the construction trade, he said with a smile, he did not expect the twin towers of the World Trade Center to collapse completely.
Speaking in an earlier video recording that was first broadcast over the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden said America is "filled with fear from the north, south, east and west. Thank God for that."
"These events have split the world into two camps -- belief and disbelief," he said. "America will never dream or know or taste security or safety unless we know safety and security in our land and in Palestine."
Bin Laden had taken advantage of his time in Afghanistan, cementing his ties to the Taliban.
He was particularly close to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. He built a mansion in Kandahar but spent most of his time on the move around the country, according to intelligence sources.
Al Qaeda had a network of training camps and safe houses where recruits from around the world were brought for combat and weapons training and indoctrination.
As long as the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, bin Laden, his four wives and more than 10 children were able to avoid capture.
Before September 11, the Afghan government refused U.S. requests to turn over bin Laden. "Osama's protection is our moral and Islamic duty," one Taliban official was quoted as saying in July 2001.
As the United States bombing campaign helped the Afghan opposition drive the Taliban from power, however, bin Laden's days were numbered.
The reward on his head grew to $25 million. Countless leaflets advertising the bounty were dropped from U.S. airplanes, which flew with impunity over Afghan skies.
"We're hunting him down," Bush said on November 19, 2001. "He runs and he hides, but as we've said repeatedly, the noose is beginning to narrow. The net is getting tighter."
But he eluded U.S. and allied authorities during the war in Afghanistan, vanishing in December 2001, apparently fleeing during the intensive bombing campaign in the rugged Tora Bora region near the border with Pakistan.
"He's alive or dead. He's in Afghanistan or somewhere else," then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in April 2002 when asked about bin Laden's whereabouts.
No more videos showing bin Laden were released during the spring and summer of 2002 and there was speculation that he may have died during U.S. bombing raids in Afghanistan.
But audiotapes released in October and November 2002 and broadcast on Al-Jazeera were allegedly were from him. U.S. government experts analyzed the tapes and said the voice on the tapes was almost certainly bin Laden's.
On February 11, 2002, a new audio message purportedly from bin Laden called on Muslims around the world to show solidarity against U.S.-led military action in Iraq.
The tape was broadcast on Al Jazeera, which originally denied its existence. The voice on tape added that any nation that helps the United States attack Iraq, "(Has) to know that they are outside this Islamic nation. Jordan and Morocco and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia should be careful that this war, this crusade, is attacking the people of Islam first."
Days later, U.S. government reports suggest that bin Laden had survived sustained bombing and could be near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Then, in May 2002, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is quoted in a Saudi-owned publication, "Sheikh Osama is still alive, praise God." A Russian newspaper publishes a similar report likewise quoting Omar, saying, "Osama helped us during the war with the (Soviets), he would not leave us now."
Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper, said in July of that year that bin Laden was in good health, despite being wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan the previous December. Atwan said then that bin Laden's followers had told him that the al Qaeda leader would not make more video statements until his group launched another attack on the United States.
That appeared to prove prescient, as there were no further attacks on U.S. soil in subsequent years -- though there were several high-profile attempts, purportedly linked to al Qaeda -- and few signs of bin Laden.
Muslim clerics in Spain turned the tables on bin Laden in March 2005, issuing the first fatwa against the terrorist leader. The Islamic edict called him an apostate and urged other Muslims to denounce him.
More details about bin Laden came out in October 2009, in the form of a book written by one of his wives and sons titled, "Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their World."
A few months later, the U.S. government admitted a "lack of intelligence" on his whereabouts -- suspecting that he could be in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
But he reappeared on the world's radar in January 2010, with the release of two audiotapes released in the span of a week.
In the first, he purportedly claimed responsibility for the alleged Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMuttallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it neared Detroit, Michigan, from Amsterdam, Netherlands. In that tape, the voice -- thought to be bin Laden's -- warned the United States of more attacks.
Days later, Al Jazeera released an audiotape purportedly from bin Laden in which he condemned the United States and other industrial nations for causing climate change.
Then, in January of this year, a speaker claiming to be the terrorist mastermind warned French troops to leave Afghanistan -- or else two French journalists abducted by militants there could be killed.
The speaker thought to be bin Laden said on the audiotape, which also aired on Al Jazeera, that France's alliance with the United States will prove costly.
One U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN at the time that the tape "sends a chill up your spine," as it refers to "a couple of human beings whose lives are at stake."
For several months before that last tape's release, however, U.S. officials had received specific information about where bin Laden may have been hiding in Pakistan, according to President Barack Obama.
On Sunday, the president said he ordered an operation -- carried out by a handful of U.S. troops -- to get bin Laden in Pakistan. The al Qaeda leader resisted and was killed in an ensuing firefight, and U.S. forces took custody of his body.
"His demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity," Obama said in a speech announcing bin Laden's death. "Justice has been done."

How U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 2, 2011 -- Updated 0755 GMT (1555 HKT)

U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in a mansion in Pakistan.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: U.S. officials call the raid a surgical strike
NEW: Officials believe the compound was built to harbor bin Laden
Sources say bin Laden was shot in the head in a firefight resisting the assault
Three other men and a woman who was used as a human shield were also killed, officials say
(CNN) -- In the dark of night, U.S. helicopters approached a high-walled compound in Pakistan on a mission to capture or kill one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders.
Less than 40 minutes later, Osama bin Laden was dead along with four others inside the complex, and the U.S. forces departed with the slain al Qaeda leader's body to fulfill a vow that originated shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced the successful raid on Sunday night, and senior administration officials provided further details on the assault on the compound they believe was built five years ago about 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden.
The senior administration officials refused to provide information on the composition or numbers of the U.S. mission, but were able to describe to reporters the overall scenario of what happened.
After years of intelligence work and months of following a specific lead, they traced a courier linked to bin Laden to the compound in Abbottabad, described as an affluent residential area.
When first built, the compound was secluded and reachable by only a dirt road, the officials said. In recent years, more residences built up around it, but it remained by far the largest and most heavily secured property in the area, they said.
The mission ordered Friday by Obama encountered outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, the senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a seven-foot privacy wall, they said.
Months of intelligence work determined that the compound was custom-built to hide a high-value terrorism suspect, almost certainly bin Laden. The officials noted there was no telephone or Internet service at the dwelling, which was valued at more than $1 million, and its occupants burned their trash, rather than leave it out for collection like other area residents.
Calling the U.S. operation a surgical raid, officials said it was conducted by a small team and designed to minimize collateral damage. Upon landing, the team encountered resistance from bin Laden and three other men that resulted in a firefight.
In the end, all four of the combatants in the compound were dead, along with a woman whom one of the men used as a human shield, the officials said. Sources said bin Laden was shot in the head.
At some point, one of the assaulting helicopters crashed due to a mechanical failure, according to the officials. It was detonated as the U.S. team flew away to destroy it, they said.
Obama and the senior administration officials said no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, which took place very early Monday morning, Pakistan time. They provided no other details of the raid itself, but a senior defense official said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved.
U.S. officials said they used facial imaging and other methods to identify the body as bin Laden.
One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity."
A senior national security official told CNN that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."
Another U.S. official told CNN that bin Laden has already been buried at sea. The official said his body was handled in the Islamic tradition, but did not elaborate.
A senior administration official also said bin Laden's body would be "handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously, and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner."
According to the senior administration officials, intelligence work determined at the beginning of 2011 that bin Laden might be located at the compound in Pakistan. By mid-February, the intelligence was considered strong enough to begin considering action pledged by Obama when bin Laden's whereabouts had been determined.
Obama chaired five National Security Council meetings from mid-March until late April, with the last two on April 19 and April 28 -- last Thursday. The next day, on Friday, Obama gave the order for the mission, the officials said.
The key break involved one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden, according to the officials. About two years ago, intelligence work identified where the courier and his brother lived and operated in Pakistan, and it took until August of last year to find the compound in Abbottabad raided Sunday, they said.
"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw -- an extraordinarily unique compound," one senior administration official said. "The compound sits on a large plot of land in an area that was relatively secluded when it was built. It is roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area."
Noting that the courier and his brother had no discernible source of wealth to live at such a property, intelligence analysts concluded the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of extraordinary significance," the official said, adding: "Everything was consistent with what experts thought Osama bin Laden's compound would look like."
Another senior administration official told reporters that Obama's administration did not share intelligence gathered beforehand with any other country -- including Pakistan -- for security reasons. The official said that only a small group of people inside the U.S government knew about this operation in advance.
However, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said members of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, were on site in Abbottabad during the operation. There was no way to immediately resolve the apparent discrepancy.

Bin Laden's Last Stand: A Fiery Raid In Pakistan
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

text size A A A May 2, 2011
Helicopters descended out of darkness on the most important counterterrorism mission in U.S. history. It was an operation so secret, only a select few U.S. officials knew what was about to happen.

The location was a fortified compound in an affluent area outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The target was Osama bin Laden.


Bin Laden: From Millionaire's Son To Most-Wanted
The mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks was killed in a U.S.-led operation, President Obama said.
Intelligence officials discovered the compound in August while monitoring an al-Qaida courier. The CIA had been hunting that courier for years, ever since detainees told interrogators that the courier was so trusted by bin Laden that he might very well be living with the al-Qaida leader.

Nestled in an affluent neighborhood, the compound was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire. Two security gates guarded the only way in. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall. No phone lines or Internet cables ran to the property. The residents burned their garbage rather than put it out for collection. Intelligence officials believed the million-dollar compound was built five years ago to protect a major terrorist figure. The question was, who?

The CIA asked itself again and again who might be living behind those walls. Each time, they concluded it was almost certainly bin Laden.

'An Aggressive Course Of Action'

President Obama described the operation in broad strokes Sunday night. Details were provided in interviews with counterterrorism and intelligence authorities, senior administration officials and other U.S. officials. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation.


Credit: NPR
By mid-February, intelligence from multiple sources was clear enough that Obama wanted to "pursue an aggressive course of action," a senior administration official said. Over the next two and a half months, Obama led five meetings of the National Security Council focused solely on whether bin Laden was in that compound and, if so, how to get him, the official said.

Normally, the U.S. shares its counterterrorism intelligence widely with trusted allies in Britain, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. And the U.S. normally does not carry out ground operations inside Pakistan without collaboration with Pakistani intelligence. But this mission was too important and too secretive.

On April 29, Obama approved an operation to kill bin Laden. It was a mission that required surgical accuracy, even more precision than could be delivered by the government's sophisticated Predator drones. To execute it, Obama tapped an elite military team and put them under the command of CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose analysts monitored the compound from afar.

Panetta was directly in charge of the team, a U.S. official said, and his conference room was transformed into a command center.

'A Thundering Sound, Followed By Heavy Firing'

Details of exactly how the raid unfolded remain murky. But the al-Qaida courier, his brother and one of bin Laden's sons were killed. No Americans were injured.

A Pakistani official in the town said fighters on the roof opened fire on the choppers as they came close to the building with rocket propelled grenades.

Abbottabad resident Mohammad Haroon Rasheed said the raid happened about 1:15 a.m. local time.

"I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast," he said. "In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field."

He said the house was 100 meters away from the gate of the Kakul Military Academy, an army-run institution where top officers train.

Senior administration officials will only say that bin Laden "resisted." And then the man behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil died from an American bullet to his head.

It was mid-afternoon in Virginia when Panetta and his team received word that bin Laden was dead. Cheers and applause broke out across the conference room.

malena stool wrote:http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.dead/index.html
Heard it on early morning news.

@SkyNewsBreak

Reports suggest Saudi Arabia was asked to take Osama bin Laden's body but refused
6 minutes ago via SkyNews Alerts - Breaking

@yvonneridley
#Usama bin Ladin has been buried at sea - now will George W Bush & Tony Blair please go dance on his grave
5 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac

carmen wrote:Sorry Panda, no, can't see yours. There was no thread in World News when I started this - I checked - Malena and I have identical post times. JFAK posted hers in the Maddie thread - I didn't look there.

ETA Still can't find your thread.

Man Unknowingly Live Tweets About Raid on Osama Bin Laden's Compound

This April 1998 file photo shows exiled al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. A person familiar with developments on Sunday, May 1, 2011 says bin Laden is dead and the U.S. has the body. AP PhotoAUTO START: ON | OFF


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By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
May 2, 2011
When 33-year-old Sohaib Athar began sending out live Twitter messages detailing a mysterious blast, shaking windows, and a helicopter hovering above Abbottabad, Pakistan, he had no idea he was apparently documenting the U.S. military attack that took down al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Beginning at 3:58 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, which was past midnight in Pakistan, Athar wrote, "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)."

He went on to write about "a huge window shaking bang" and says "it was too noisy to be a spy craft, or a very poor spy craft it was."

At 4:48 p.m., Athar wrote: "The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani." Then at 5:02 p.m.: "Since Taliban probably don't have helicopters , and since they're saying it was not 'ours,' so must be a complicated situation."

At 5:10 pm: "The Abbottabad helicopter/UFO was shot down near the Bilal Town area, and there's report of a flash. People saying it could be a drone."


President Obama Confirms Osama Bin Laden's Death Watch Video

Reactions From Inside Pakistan Watch Video

Osama Bin Laden: How Important of a Target? Watch Video

There were two helicopters, he said, one of which was "down."

The White House has since confirmed it sent two helicopters full of Navy Seals from Afghanistan into Abbottabad to raid the high-walled Bin Laden compound.

During the ensuing raid, one helicopter was damaged and then destroyed by the SEALs before they boarded the remaining helicopter with bin Laden's dead body and flew back to Afghanistan.

Athar, who describes himself online as "an IT consultant" who is originally from the major city of Lahore, Pakistan, but is "taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops" has since been added by thousands of Twitter followers in the hours after bin Laden's death was announced.


He has also tweeted that he is being bombarded by media outlets seeking comment.

ABC News has not been able to independently confirm his identity.

@jperrotto

They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life

@FrankRGardner

Tracking down of #OBL is obviously huge but need to put in perspective. His no2, Ayman AlZawahiri is operationally far more important.
about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone

Curiousfox wrote:

whatsupdoc wrote:I think the US govt has known where O. Bin Laden has been all along. He went into a hospital a few years back and they knew where he was then.

It is just a way to start another ball rolling....more troubles and more wars.

p.s. eta... I think he had nothing to do with 9/11. It was a brilliantly controlled military operation but was let down by showing too many clues. Any educated person realised it was staged.

I totally agree with you, something is going on here....