The NewsOctober of 2004 Osama bin Laden, ascribed leader of al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for ordering the attack of September 11, 2001, which massacred thousands using hijacked planes as weapons of mass destruction in the United states of America.
Last night, almost a decade later, the American people as well as those across the world were informed that Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid on a compound in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden became the figurehead, the objective for intelligence agencies, his capture or death the goal for perceived justice on behalf of the thousands that died on 9/11 and the families and friends they left behind.
News is full of the heroic actions of our American military for reaching that goal. For the intelligence agencies who worked tirelessly to sift through information and find bin Laden and bring him to justice.
"From the time that we first recognized bin Laden as a threat, the U.S. gathered information on people in bin Laden's circle, including his personal couriers," a senior official in the Obama administration said in a background briefing from the White House.
After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, "detainees gave us information on couriers. One courier in particular had our constant attention. Detainees gave us his nom de guerre, his pseudonym, and also identified this man as one of the few couriers trusted by bin Laden."
In 2007, the U.S. learned the man's name.
In 2009, "we identified areas in Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated. They were very careful, reinforcing belief we were on the right track."
In August 2010, "we found their home in Abbottabad," not in a cave, not right along the Afghanistan border, but in an affluent suburb less than 40 miles from the capital.
Video of Obama's speech was posted here at WuA last night when news first broke.
George Bush was notified by Obama and issued a statement as well:
Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001.
I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude.
This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.
Obama Preempted
News spread fast last night with word of bin Laden's death coming from sources to media outlets before Barack Obama could finish writing his speech and inform the public himself.
NYT's Media Decoder explains how Obama was preempted:
The nation’s television anchors and newspaper editors did not know, at first, that President Obama would be announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, an extraordinary development in the nearly 10-year-long war against terrorism waged by the United States and its allies. But reporters in Washington suspected almost immediately that the announcement could be about bin Laden.
That speculation was not aired out on television immediately, but it did erupt on Twitter and other social networking sites. Wishful thinking about bin Laden’s death ricocheted across the Web — and then, at 10:25 p.m., while Mr. Obama was writing his speech, one particular tweet seemed to confirm it. Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wrote at that time, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.”
Mr. Urbahn quickly added, “Don’t know if it’s true, but let’s pray it is.” He was credited by many on the Web with breaking the news, though he did not have first-hand confirmation.
Within minutes, anonymous sources at the Pentagon and the White House started to tell reporters the same information. ABC, CBS and NBC interrupted programming across the country at almost the same minute, 10:45 p.m., with the news. “We’re hearing absolute jubilation throughout government,” the ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz reported.
Brian Williams on NBC told viewers, “This story started to leak out in the public domain largely when some Congressional staffers started to make phone calls.”
Additional Information
Information is coming out fast, from the initial intelligence to the raid itself and bin Laden's body disposal.
The Star Tribune reports that "CIA interrogators at secret prisons developed first strands that led to bin Laden"
The Politico reports that Osama bin Laden's body was buried at sea in accordance with "Islamic practice and tradition."
Reactions
Impromptu celebrations at ground zero, crowds gathering at the White House are just a couple examples of reactions within the US.
Other reactions around the world are more ambiguous.
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is accusing the U.S. of violating his country’s sovereignty:
“American troops coming across the border and taking action in one of our towns, that is Abbottabad, is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan. It is a violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Musharraf told CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel.
He added that it would have been “far better if Pakistani Special Services Group had operated and conducted the mission. To that extent, the modality of handling it and executing the operation is not correct.”
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas is condemning the killing and calling bin Laden a "holy warrior":
"We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters.
Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden's al Qaeda and Hamas, Haniyeh said: "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."
It is being reported that inside of Pakistan the sense of mood is "stunned silence."
Political Reactions
Political posturing has already started but with politics what it is, that was to be expected.
What is surprising is that while many are praising Obama, others in the media and blogosphere giving Bush his due for his decisions which ultimately led to the information on the courier that ultimately led to bin Laden's fall, realism about how Obama will "exploit" this for political gain, comes from progressive leftist Glenn Greenwald:
In sum, a murderous religious extremist was killed. The U.S. has erupted in a collective orgy of national pride and renewed faith in the efficacy and righteousness of military force. Other than that, the repercussions are likely to be far greater in terms of domestic politics -- it's going to be a huge boost to Obama's re-election prospects and will be exploited for that end -- than anything else.
Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight delves into how this will help Obama, short term and perhaps give him a ratings bounce but ultimately will not be predictive of "how much the residue of this news might produce for him 19 months from now."
The media, bloggers and political pundits across the Internet are weighing in, staking positions and writing about the reactions across the world as well as the political ramifications.
This blogger has but one reaction at the moment.
May Osama bin Laden burn in hell. No virgins for you bin Laden!!!
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