US President Barack Obama has declared the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US forces.
In a live broadcast to the US on Sunday night, Obama claimed that an intelligence lead in August 2010 had culminated in the tracking of bin Laden to Abbottabad, a town north of Islamabad in Pakistan far from the tribal belt where the US has been searching for the fugitive.
“It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorised an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” Obama said.
“A small team of Americans” engaged bin Laden in a firefight, killing him. No US or civilian casualties were reported, and bin Laden’s body was recovered.
A US official told Associated Press that “We are assuring [his body] is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition.”
Counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan “help lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding,” Obama said.
“We must also reaffirm that the United States is not – and never will be – at war with Islam,” he added. “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. His demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”
Reaction
Crowds immediately gathered outside the gates of the White House singing the country’s national anthem, while news networks reported a “party atmosphere” spreading throughout the country.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that confirmation of bin Laden’s death should “bring great relief to people across the world”.
“Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen – for 9/11 and for so many attacks, which have cost thousands of lives, many of them British,” the PM said.
A Western diplomat based in Islamabad told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that bin Laden’s death was a “game changer” for US foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“I’m overjoyed, but what this exactly means is really not clear,” the diplomat said.
A number of analysts speculated that while bin Laden’s death was a significant symbolic victory for the US, it was unlikely to hamper al Qaeda’s operations as bin Laden was no longer involved in the day-to-day functioning of the terrorist organisation.
The US State Department meanwhile issued a travel alert to all US citizens warning of an outbreak of anti-American violence in the wake of bin Laden’s death.
“Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, US citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations,” the State Department said.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, is currently in Male’ for meetings with political leaders and civil society.
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Osama Bin Laden: Hide and seek champion 2001-2011
Was there clear evidence that connects the september 11 attacks and Bin-Laden? Has the US government answered the questions raised by the public on the conspiracies that lead to proving its an inside job? I don't think the American people will ever get the answer. But the media has done a good job of making the whole world believe its Bin-Laden's work (with a lot of help from Pres. Bush).
good one more bearded barbaric a*&^%e who think he speak for me is dead.
@: al on Mon, 2nd May 2011 11:28 AM
Yes al, ur absolutely right, no proof that it was Bin Laden and not Israel behind 9/11.
I'm also seething with anger that they are still saying that the Earth is round and not flat. They also expect us to believe that the moon landings were not an American movie. But we know better!
woohoooo....
wait isnt this just chopping the head off a hydra, need to stop the problem at the root.
I wonder what kind of reaction the maldivian mullahs will give now that their idol is dead..
Bin Laden might have founded Al Qaeda. But I would not say he is the chief of this organisation now. Bin Laden must be too old and sick for such a job. Killing him might be considered a victory by the US forces but I think the act is symbolic more than anything else.
Now that they have killed Bin Laden, I hope the US will leave Afghanistan and Pakistan. Having them based in these countries causes more trouble to them than what is caused by their search for Bin Laden.
peasant,
On the contrary, I don't care about Bin-Laden. He had been making life very difficult for the ordinary Muslims around the world. Giving a bad name to Islam as well. Was just pointing out how the media twists away attention from the real criminals in the 9 11 case.
According to CNN, Osama's body is buried under the sea as per Islamic tradition. HA!!! Islamic tradition...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/bin.laden.dead/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
I think he is pretty much alive. no official pictures released by the US Government. the pics we saw were really questionable...
You mad Adhaalath?
It is a good lesson for extreme ideologies, that there is no force of nature that supports such an ideology. No one has to scarify his life for the sake of an ideology. The truth is, be powerful and use that power wisely.
Yeah yeah, well done USA, but let's be honest, it's taken you ten years to catch a guy in flip-flops
Osama Bin Laden's body has already been buried at sea according to reports.
Let's hope it's just off the coast of Fukushima
Americans being stupid again:
"We've killed Bin Laden"
'Oh Fantastic!!! Have you got any proof? Where did you find him?'
"We found him in a Pakistani village, killed him, then buried him in the sea"
Brings a whole new meaning to the title 'US 'Special' Forces'
So Bin Laden was killed during an operation carried out by American troops in Pakistan.
Wouldn't happen to have been a rescue operation would it?
BBC News: US Special Forces kill Osama Bin Laden in apparent " friendly fire" incident gone wrong...
Bin Laden has not been in effective control of the organisation since 2009, so this will not change much, apart from inspiring greater efforts as revenge.
ooooohhhhh... wow! the Americans are right!
The best thing that the US president can do is to put an end to the humiliation of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims at the hands of Jews as well as the state of Israel. We know that Israel cannot do these things without the massive support the USA is giving to Jews and Israelis.
Obama is a good orator and he is the first multi-cultural president in the West.
Declaring peace on earth without solving the Arab-Palestinian conflict is hollow rhetoric for the US president.
So were there any legitimate reports saying he was dead other than the osama loving obama? and the armed forces who trained obama?
Coincidence to a significant event? has anyone seen "wake up project"?convincing but cud b and cud not be.
How many times haamoon (amon) killed sinhouth in Mohamed (S)drama. Is this same game? We need convincing proof Mr. Obama...Your country is best at lies. so prove it,,.last i heard, the DNA results take 24 hours at fastest. how soon was it announced? and without proper evidence? listen u all,,,,rannamaari was a cock sick king hu luvd to rape. We converted to islam on a lie. V are already sick...no more sickness. please show facts. Haabees, keep ur mouths shut.
Oh really. Sounds like the chorus of derision got too much. Watch all the sheep start bleating about how this proves the War on Terror is justified. Read my lips. Bin Laden is a myth. Bin Laden was a myth. Bin Laden will be a myth into the future. If you 'believe' this is 'Bin Laden'... you are accepting myths as truth. You need to stop doing that. It makes you sound ignorant and easily led.
Are some of you seriously that delusional and schizophrenic with your conspiracy theories?
We're talking about an event that has been 10 years running and the entire eyes of the world & media are paying close attention to this.
Osama is dead ... Deal with it. There is NO way a government can hide anything this big, let alone the US government ....(They sure did a good job with the ''cover-up'' of the WMD's in Iraq) ... And more importantly, what would be the point? .... If it was deemed to be a fake, not only would this reflect extremely badly to the US in the eyes of the international community .... Their government would never...ever be legitimate in the eyes of their people .... And their already having a hard time trying to win favor with the people as it is.
Lol.
On that note, reports are also coming in that Tupac and Bob Marley were both found to be staying with Bin Laden smoking up that afghan 'erb.
( This is my last post, so dont expect me to come and debate with any of you)
great news.
@ Rage guy.
yeah yeah..better u dont....from the looks of it, you evade things a lot.
So here is what I am saying in simple words.
No body, no proof, no beleif...atleast nt the words of pple hu are saying they killed him. How many times has obama being killed like this.
Obama, for me; is a bad guy cz he did wrong. Killing is not the ans to islamic ways. But I am saying i will not beleive unless a considerable and highly factual evidence is shown/released..its just here-say. like the ugly truth stories about our country written in our local school books. Who was mode ameen? al adheeb.??! adheeb my ass...He was a organized crime leader.
So no more here say...get us proof.
Within moments, a media blitz ran across virtually all television networks in what could only be described as a grotesque celebratory display, reflective of a level of emotional immaturity that borders on cultural psychosis. Depictions of people running through the streets of New York and Washington chanting jingoistic American slogans, waving their flags like the members of some cult, praising the death of another human being, reveals yet another layer of this sickness we call modern society.
It is not the scope of this response to address the political usage of such an event or to illuminate the staged orchestration of how public perception was to be controlled by the mainstream media and the United States Government. Rather the point of this article is to express the gross irrationality apparent and how our culture becomes so easily fixed and emotionally charged with respect to surface symbology, rather than true root problems, solutions or rational considerations of circumstance.
The first and most obvious point is that the death of Osama bin Laden means nothing when it comes to the problem of international terrorism. His death simply serves as catharsis for a culture that has a neurotic fixation on revenge and retribution. The very fact that the Government which, from a psychological standpoint, has always served as a paternal figure for it citizens, reinforces the idea that murdering people is a solution to anything should be enough for most of us to take pause and consider the quality of the values coming out of the zeitgeist itself.
However, beyond the emotional distortions and tragic, vindictive pattern of rewarding the continuation of human division and violence comes a more practical consideration regarding what the problem really is and the importance of that problem with respect to priority.
The death of any human being is of an immeasurable consequence in society. It is never just the death of the individual. It is the death of relationships, companionship, support and the integrity of familial and communal environments. The unnecessary deaths of 3000 people on September 11, 2001 is no more or no less important than the deaths of those during the World Wars, via cancer and disease, accidents or anything else.
As a society, it is safe to say that we seek a world that strategically limits all such unnecessary consequences through social approaches that allow for the greatest safety our ingenuity can create. It is in this context that the neurotic obsession with the events of September 11th, 2001 become gravely insulting and detrimental to progress. An environment has now been created where outrageous amounts of money, resources and energy is spent seeking and destroying very small subcultures of human beings that pose ideological differences and act on those differences through violence.
Yet, in the United States alone each year, roughly 30,000 people die from automobile accidents, the majority of which could be stopped by very simple structural changes. That's ten 9/11's each year... yet no one seems to pine over this epidemic. Likewise, over 1 million Americans die from heart disease and cancer annually - causes of which are now easily linked to environmental influences in the majority. Yet, regardless of the over 330 9/11's occurring each year in this context, the governmental budget allocations for research on these illnesses is only a fraction of the money spent on “anti-terrorism” operations.
Such a list could go on and on and with regard to the perversion of priority when it comes to what it means to truly save and protect human life and I hope many out there can recognize the severe unbalance we have at hand with respect to our values.
So, coming back to the point of revenge and retribution, I will conclude this response with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., likely the most brilliant intuitive mind when it came to conflict and the power of non-violence. On September 15, 1963 a Birmingham Alabama church was bombed, killing four little girls attending Sunday school.
In a public address, Dr. King stated:
“What murdered these four girls? Look around. You will see that many people that you never thought about participated in this evil act. So tonight all of us must leave here with a new determination to struggle. God has a job for us to do. Maybe our mission is to save the soul of America. We can't save the soul of this nation throwing bricks. We can't save the soul of this nation getting our ammunitions and going out shooting physical weapons. We must know that we have something much more powerful. Just take up the ammunition of love.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963
~Peter Joseph~
All these years the world famous terrorist (bin Laden) was hidden in Pakistan. Now, somebody should be answerable in Pakistan as to why this 'terrorist' was given shelter there.
This also means that all these years the Indian govt's claim of bin Laden and narcotic smuggler Dawood Ibrahim being in pakistan were true.
There is a lesson for our country and people "stay away from Pakistan". Pakistan is a breeding ground for all terrorists and terrorism.
May Allah accept Sheik Usama bin Laden as a martyr.. And may Allah guide us with someone stronger than him.. Someone who can free the mulims who are being tortured in the Kuffar jails..
Amen
May Allah destroy America and their alliance.. May Allah bring victory to Muslims..
Amen
@joker osama a martyr? you mean mass murder justifies you eternal heaven? what about normal person who does not condone violence? are you making both equal? this person has been giving a bad name to Muslims everywhere.
Ameen
Earthling, nobody cares about your verbose pseudo-intellectualism.
This is both a symbolic and tangible victory against terrorism - and the good citizens of American, and faithful Muslims around the world who have been tarnished by his actions have every right to revel in his death. Your sanctimony does not detract from my "catharsis"
So, ignorance is bliss, if your name happens to be Rage Guy.
And apparently so is stupidity, ignorance, gullibility and believing everything you see and hear.
Rage Guy for president!
If he's not already an American he'd make a damn fine one!
I demand an immediate investigation into the supposed deaths of Osama Bin Laden, and Michael Jackson - if you beleive what the major news networks, "experts", and witnesses say -you are clearly delusional and living in bliss.
In fact I doubt that 9/11 ever happened. I even doubt that September, or the year 2001 happened, - these dates do not exist. EVERYTHINGS a consipiracy.
Had Bin Laden been killed ten years ago this may well have signalled the death blow for Al-Quaida but the past decade has allowed it to grow independently of its founder so I think this death and the reported death of one of Gaddafi's sons, will only provoke further terrorist attacks on the West.
go usa go.