Justice Has Been Served: Osama Bin Laden Is Dead!

“Justice Has Been Done”

For nearly ten years the United States has been in pursuit of the mastermind behind the most horrific terrorist attack in American history.  Last night President Obama made the announcement that Americans have been waiting from since September 11, 2001 – Osama bin Laden has been killed (transcript and video):

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history…

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  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.

…And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda’s terror:  Justice has been done.

Intelligence

Ever since the 9/11 attacks OBL has been in hiding.  It was falsely assumed that he was somewhere in the caves of the lawless region of Pakistan.  Instead he was found in a fairly comfortable compound.  The trail that lead the U.S. to OBL’s hideout started with al-Qaida’s former #3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  ABC News details the rest:

In a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe years ago, al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden’s couriers, four former U.S. intelligence officials said. Those names were among thousands of leads the CIA was pursuing.

One man became a particular interest for the agency when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, told interrogators that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed as al-Qaida’s operational leader he received the word through a courier. Only bin Laden would have given al-Libi that promotion, CIA officials believed.

If they could find that courier, they’d find bin Laden.

It took years of work for intelligence agencies to identify the courier’s real name, which officials are not disclosing. When they did identify him, he was nowhere to be found. The CIA’s sources didn’t know where he was hiding. Bin Laden was famously insistent that no phones or computers be used near him…

Then in the middle of last year, the courier had a telephone conversation with someone who was being monitored by U.S. intelligence, according to an American official…The courier was located somewhere away from bin Laden’s hideout when he had the discussion, but it was enough to help intelligence officials locate and watch him.

In August 2010, the courier unknowingly led authorities to a compound in the northeast Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where al-Libi had once lived…Intelligence officials had known about the house for years, but they always suspected that bin Laden would be surrounded by heavily armed security guards. Nobody patrolled the compound in Abbottabad.

By mid-February, the officials were convinced a “high-value target” was hiding in the compound. President Barack Obama wanted to take action.

Osama bin Laden’s Compound

OBL was viewed as the brave, heroic leader by his terrorist foot-soldiers, who live in rough and dirty conditions fighting a bloody war against Americans.  If they only knew that OBL was living in a “mansion” (more like an upscale hut).   From National Journal:

“The physical security measures of the compound are extraordinary,” a senior administration official said. “It has 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire…. Internal walls sectioned off different portions of the compound to provide extra privacy…. The residents of the compound burn their trash, unlike their neighbors, who put the trash out for collection.”

Bin Laden and his family were living on the top two floors of the three-story structure, the most prominent building on the property. The compound had neither Internet nor telephone access which was unusual, to say the least, since the property was estimated by American officials to be worth approximately $1 million…

Intelligence analysts studied the compound, which was built in 2005, carefully. While convinced that a high-value target was staying there, they assessed whether it could be someone other than bin Laden, perhaps his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

“We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work,” the senior administration official said. ”No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did.”

Aerial photos of OBL’s compound.

The Rehearsal & Decision

From Politico:

Officials knew there were 22 people living there, and Obama wanted to be sure not to kill civilians unnecessarily. So he ordered officials to come up with an air-assault plan.

The SEALs held rehearsals of the raid on April 7 and April 13, with officials monitoring the action from Washington.

As the real thing approached, daily meetings were held of the national security principals, chaired by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and their deputies, chaired by Brennan, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser.

Over the past seven weeks, Obama had chaired numerous National Security Council meetings on the topic, including ones on March 14, March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28.

“In the lead up to this operation, the President convened at least 9 meetings with his national security Principals,” a senior administration official e-mailed reporters. “Principals met formally an additional five times themselves; and their Deputies met 7 times. This was in addition to countless briefings on the subject during the President’s intelligence briefings; and frequent consultations between the [White House National Security Council], CIA, [Defense Department] and Joint Staff. The President was actively involved in reviewing all facets of the operation.”

At an April 19 meeting in the Situation Room, the president approved the air assault as the course of action. He ordered the force to fly to the region to conduct it…

The raid was scheduled for Saturday, the day when Obama and most of the West Wing was due at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But weather pushed it to Sunday.

Top West Wing staff worked most of the day on the operation. Senior national-security officials stayed in the Situation Room beginning at 1 p.m.

The official’s e-mail gave this account of Obama’s day: “2:00pm the President met with the Principals to review final preparations. … 3:32pm the President returned to the Sit Room for an additional briefing. … 3:50pm the President first learns that UBL was tentatively identified. … 7:01pm the President learns that there’s a ‘high probability’ the HVT [high-value target] was [bin Laden]. … 8:30pm the President receives further briefings.”

Obama went golfing at Andrews Air Force Base on Sunday, leaving the White House at 9:42 a.m. and returning at 2:04 p.m.

Operation OBL

Few details are known about how the mission went down exactly, but a few sources give us a pretty good idea about what took place.

From Foreign Policy:

When the small team of U.S. operatives raided the compound in the early morning hours Sunday Pakistan time, they encountered resistance and killed three men besides bin Laden and one woman. The three men were the two couriers and one of bin Laden’s sons. The woman was being used as a human shield, one official said. Two other women were injured.

One U.S. helicopter was downed due to unspecified “maintenance” issues, one official said. The U.S. personnel blew up the helicopter before leaving the area. The team was on the ground for only 40 minutes.

From ABC News:

Officially, it was a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn’t kill unarmed people trying to surrender. But it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering, two U.S. officials said.

The helicopters lowered into the compound, dropping the SEALs behind the walls. No shots were fired, but shortly after the team hit the ground, one of the helicopters came crashing down and rolled onto its side for reasons the government has yet to explain. None of the SEALs was injured, however, and the mission continued uninterrupted.

With the CIA and White House monitoring the situation in real time — presumably by live satellite feed or video carried by the SEALs — the team stormed the compound…

The SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet to the head. Using the call sign for his visual identification, one of the soldiers communicated that “Geronimo” had been killed in action, according to a U.S. official.

Burial At Sea

It is being reported that OBL was given a “religious funeral” before his “burial at sea.”  A video of this taking place is supposed to be released soon, but for now all we have is the news reports.

From The Hill:

U.S. forces were able to capture bin Laden’s body after killing him at a compound outside Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad, but he was buried at sea soon afterward, reportedly not to leave a shrine to him.

From Fox News:

Usama bin Laden was given a religious funeral prior to his burial at sea, senior military officials told Fox News.

Religious rites were conducted on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier at about 1:10 a.m. Monday in the Persian Gulf.

In accordance with Islamic practice, bin Laden was washed and wrapped in a white sheet before buried at sea at 2 a.m. local time, senior U.S. military and intelligence officials said.

Why was this done exactly?  Who knows!  If it was to appease Muslims then that was a naive decision.  Muslims are ticked off!  This was a mass-murdering terrorist not an honorary man that died valiantly in battle.

Doubts & Evidence

If there is one thing the Obama Administration has promoted it is a lack of trust with the American people.  Distrust of the federal government is not necessarily a new development, but the Obama Administration’s policies and actions over the past two years have amplified the feeling.   I don’t blame them!

From AP:

Knowing there would be disbelievers, the U.S. says it used convincing means to confirm Osama bin Laden’s identity during and after the firefight that killed him. But the mystique that surrounded the terrorist chieftain in life is persisting in death.

Was it really him? How do we know? Where are the pictures?

Already, those questions are spreading in Pakistan and surely beyond. In the absence of photos and with his body given up to the sea, many people don’t want to believe that bin Laden – the Great Emir to some, the fabled escape artist of the Tora Bora mountains to foe and friend alike – is really dead.

From Politico:

After using multiple forms of identification, U.S. officials say they are confident that the man killed Sunday in Pakistan is Osama bin Laden.

Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan at a White House briefing that DNA evidence had proven with “99.9 percent certainty” that the body disposed of at sea on Monday was bin Laden’s.

The White House can issue all of the reports about DNA testing, testimonies, and footage of the aftermath, but there is only one thing that will satisfy most of the doubters – the death certificate!  By that I mean a picture of OBL’s lifeless body at room temperature.  The reason for not showing the picture is obvious – it won’t be a pretty sight (reportedly his skull was blown apart).  However, the victims of 9/11 and their families along with every other American that felt the pain in their heart deserve to see the confirmation of justice!

Muslim Backlash

It was expected that when we finally sent OBL to his maker that there would likely be a surge in violence by Islamic terrorists all around the world.  Wikileaks files suggest that the backlash could go nuclear!

The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks warned that al-Qaeda has hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” if Osama bin Laden is captured, leaked files revealed.

The terror group also planned to make a 9/11 style attack on London’s Heathrow airport by crashing a hijacked airliner into one of the terminals, the files showed.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Guantanamo Bay interrogators the terror group would detonate the nuclear device if the al-Qaeda chief was captured or killed, according to the classified files released by the WikiLeaks website.

And anger the backlash begins.

From Israel National News:

While most of the free world praised the United States for having rid it of arch-terrorist Bin Laden, the Hamas organization – which has recently all but merged with Fatah, headed by Mahmoud Abbas – condemned the act.

Similarly, Arabs in the village of Silwan, adjacent to the City of David neighborhood in Jerusalem, rioted Monday night in protest over the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. The rioters threw stones at police and attempted to block roads.

From Reuters:

Some Arabs mourned him as a holy warrior and martyr, while others saw him as a “pillar of evil” whose deadly attacks on the United States unleashed a backlash against Muslims across the world.

“We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior,” said Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in Gaza, which faces a challenge from al Qaeda-inspired groups that consider it too moderate.

“We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.”

Videos and Images

The compound burning, supposedly by the bomb that destroyed the downed U.S. chopper:

Inside the compound (WARNING – GRAPHIC!):

Photos inside the compound here (WARNING – GRAPHIC!)

American’s Celebrate! “USA! USA! USA!”

From U.S. Naval Academy:

From West Point

And finally, from New York at Ground Zero:

My Final Thoughts

While I still hold numerous criticisms of President Obama, including some about the events surrounding this turn of events, I hold no reservation in congratulating him on serving OBL with the justice he deserves!  It should have happened much sooner, but it’s better late than never.  So, Mr. President, well done!  I’m going to let Toby Keith close this one out:

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