Osama Bin laden
The following is the report by the more responsible U.S. media of the Osama killing a day after he was killed by U.S. Special Forces. The fog created by Obama’s electioneering speech the night before when he announced his cleverness to the world still caused the true account of the killing and subsequent disposal of the body to be incorrectly stated. Nevertheless, it was a victory for Obama as his jingoistic speech achieved an improvement in his overall favorability rating of 13%. A significant majority of voters in the USA (57%) now view his performance as President favorably. He appealed to U.S. triumphalism. It is enough for them to be able to chant, “We are the Champions.”
“Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a mastermind of the largest terrorist attack in American history, was killed Sunday in Pakistan in a military operation after the U.S. learned of his location.
Obama agreed to the attack earlier in the day after it became clear last week that there was sufficient intelligence, following a lead about his whereabouts that first surfaced in August. Mr. bin Laden was killed with a "head shot" during the firefight, a senior administration official said. The raid was conducted by U.S. military personnel operating under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Bin Laden's body was given a burial at sea.
The elusive al Qaeda leader was killed in a targeted assault in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, roughly 40 miles outside the capital city of Islamabad, like WestPoint. The raid was conducted by a small helicopter-borne strike team, a senior U.S. administration official said. The team was on the compound for less than 40 minutes.
Bin Laden's body was identified by the strike force, officials said. Family members in the compound also positively identified the body as Mr. Bin Laden's, giving the U.S. the confidence to make the announcement Sunday. DNA testing is also being conducted.
During the raid, one of the U.S. helicopters had to be destroyed because it was damaged during a hard landing in the compound and couldn't be flown out.
Omar Khan, a local resident in the area of the attack, said American and Pakistani commandos landed in the area at 1:10 a.m., local time, and raided a house. "The entire area was rocked with a massive explosion," he said. "A massive exchange of firing took place which continued for more than half an hour." Security forces have cordoned off the area.
Mr. Bin Laden's death is a major milestone for the U.S., but its precise effects on the battle against terrorism are unclear. Although Mr. Bin Laden is the inspirational leader of al Qaeda and its offshoots around the world, he isn't thought to be a critical operational leader of the organization. Increasingly, terrorist actions have been undertaken by offshoots of his organization.
Obama said he was first briefed on a possible lead on Mr. Bin Laden's whereabouts last August. Senior U.S. officials said the elusive al Qaeda leader was found in living in a large compound in an affluent suburb of Islamabad. In ordering the attack, officials "had high confidence that the compound harbored a high value terrorist target," one official said. He said there was a "strong probability" that Mr. Bin Laden was there.
For many years, the CIA has been gathering leads on people in Mr. Bin Laden's inner circle, and came to focus on one particular courier who turned out to be key to the operation, officials said. About two years ago, they identified areas where the courier and his brother operated, and they eventually led the U.S. to the compound.
In addition to Mr. Bin Laden, three men were killed in the raid. The U.S. believes that two of them were the couriers and the third was Mr. Bin Laden's adult son. A woman was also killed during the raid when she was used as a "shield" by one of the men in the compound. Two other women were injured.
The U.S. teams located the residence in August. "We were shocked by what we saw," one official said, calling it "an extraordinarily unique compound." That gave them the confidence it might be harboring Mr. Bin Laden.
The compound was roughly eight times larger than other homes in the neighborhood and with security measures including more than 12-foot-high barbed-wire fences and access restricted by two security gates.
The property was valued at about $1 million but had no telephone or Internet service. It was built in 2005. U.S. officials believe it was constructed to house Mr. Bin Laden, but they don't know when he moved in.
The strike also has the potential to make already tense relations with Pakistan even more strained. Having vastly ramped up intelligence efforts on the ground and from the air in Pakistan, the U.S. carries out the strikes with little input from the Pakistanis.
The CIA has launched more than 200 drone strikes since it was ramped up in 2008. The bulk of those strikes have been launched under President Obama, who was an early convert to the covert program, which has killed 1,200 militants.
In recent months relations with Pakistan have grown tense, but the drone program has continued. CIA director Leon Panetta met on April 11 with Pakistan's intelligence chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha, and continued to receive private agreement allowing the U.S. to launch drone strikes.
There were differing accounts of Pakistan's involvement in the raid. Senior U.S. officials said that the U.S. didn't notify Pakistan, or any other nation, ahead of the strike, because of concerns about possible leaks that could compromise the safety of the strike force. However, an official with Pakistan's the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency said that the raid was conducted by a joint U.S.-Pakistani team.
Only U.S. personnel took part in the raid, one U.S. military official said, dismissing Pakistani claims that Pakistani forces were involved.”
After the news of Mr. Bin Laden's death became public, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called an emergency meeting and security around Islamabad was tightened.
The official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence said the ISI was concerned that the news could lead to further criticism of Pakistan in the U.S. for not doing more to clamp down on al Qaeda in the heart of Pakistan and overshadow the death of Mr. bin Laden. In the past, Pakistani officials have said they didn't know where the al Qaeda leader was.
Mr. Bin Laden survived numerous earlier American attempts to capture or kill him, both from the air and by forces on the ground. Knowing he was vulnerable, he appears to have laid the groundwork for his terror movement to survive his death.
In recent months, U.S. counterterrorism officials have come to see Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and one of its leaders, U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, as perhaps a bigger immediate threat to the U.S. The CIA and Special Operations teams have been searching for Mr. Awlaki but lack good intelligence on his whereabouts, officials say.”