Apparently Bin Laden was killed today in a mansion outside of Islamabad Pakistan by US forces. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed/story?id=13505703 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/01/osama-bin-laden-dead-killed_n_856091.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676 Strange outcome. I'll very curious to see Obama's comment on this. I would have thought that for various reasons the USA would prefer to capture him alive (so that there can be a trial for public closure and so that Bin Laden would not become a martyr to the same degree); so I can't help but wonder if it was a cluster****ed mission or a suicide explosion, perhaps. Of course, there's also the question now of "Is he really dead?" for the conspiracy theorists to play with..
I'm extremely surprised they did not try to capture him alive, as apparently he was not killed by an airstrike by drone, but by a team on the ground. I'm nervous that there will be counterattacks on US forces and cities.... I don't like the thought of that at all
Obama just said that Pakistan 'co-operated' with the operation to locate the compound he was hiding in and that he hopes they continue to do so in the future...hmm
"Died in a firefight", it sounds like it was a capture mission gone awry. Although we do have the body..
Second time we're told Osama Bin Laden is dead, first time was when Benazir Bhutto mentioned it during an interviewed a few years back.
There are huge numbers of people out celebrating on the streets in the USA. It's going to raise some questions about the appropriateness of celebrating someone's death; but it also makes me wonder about the politics involved. If Bin Laden had been simply captured instead of killed, would the american people be out on the streets in celebration tonight? If not tonight, would they be out celebrating on the night of his death sentence? I don't think his capture and trial would have raised the same kind of spontaneous celebration and exuberance since it doesn't have the same instantaneous finality. This is all likely to be a big boost to patriotic sentiment in the USA, so maybe killing him instead of capturing him wasn't quite as accidental as I first thought.
I strongly believe capturing him would have drawn the same sized crowds... While I believe killing him won't have as big an impact on terror as people think, I still say good riddance!
We never wanted him alive. Look at the legal mess with all the Gitmo detainees. This was a straight kill-no capture mission. They blew the 2 doors, killed everyone inside (ok, not everyone- it seems 2 ladies were injured but survived), secured the body and drove to the nearest plane (likely a MC-130H). Then they told the Pakistanis. No one in their right mind would have told them before hand. The body was in the air and out of Pakistani airspace before they even knew what happened. Chances are there will be a DNA confirmation, cremation and a late night dump into the Atlantic. You do have to ask how he managed to live so long in Islamabad with out anyone noticing. Pakistan has long been a 2 faced ally, especially the ISI.
I agree. I actually think this is the best possible outcome. It would have given more to hate, racism and no doubt images of him in shackles would have personified the perception of American's treating the Muslem world like dogs, had he been captured. Highlight added because I can't inject a shade of grey. Johnny, I doubt 'Pakistan' really knows what's going on within its boarders. It's a fractured country and governing body mixing a secular democratic goal with homegrown fundamental extremeism.
I totally agree with you. The ISI, the government and the military are rarely on the same page. But given the ISI's history, I'd bet money that a core group knew and hid the knowledge of the compound.
The dead work fast - http://twitter.com/#!/GhostOsama I really want some serious questions asked about how he managed to live 100km north of Islamabad, in a fairly developed town next to a FRIGGING MILITARY BASE. Someone needs to sort Pakistan out and it won't happen as long as the US keeps handing out false kudos. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think is anything more than a PR victory for the US Govt. It doesn't change much on the ground, unless the various Islamic terror networks in the region fail to find someone to fill OBL's spot.
Osama is dead! That means that all the nasty people just give up now doesn't it? Does no one else feel this is largely irrelevant?
Symbolic more than anything. It's always been a cobbled together band of small units, he never was the Austin Powers 'Mr Evil' criminal mastermind of the entire group, so to speak. TBH people should watch their backs in the short term.
