Osama bin Laden Killed: ‘Justice Is Done,’ President Says
Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, President Obama announced tonight.
The president called the killing of bin Laden the “most significant achievement to date” in the effort to defeat al Qaeda.
“Justice has been done,” Obama said.
Bin Laden was located at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was monitored and when the time was determined to be right, the president said, he authorized a “targeted operation.”
Richard Fernadez asks,
The location of Bin Laden’s hide-out and the use of a U.S. raiding team on settled Pakistani territory raises a number of questions. First, has Pakistan been hiding Osama Bin Laden all along? Second, did the U.S. independently discover the location of Bin Laden? Third, was the information shared by some elements of Pakistani intelligence, assuming that his location was known to them, in exchange from some quid pro quo which has not yet been revealed? Or was the discovery of Bin Laden simultaneous, the result of the mutual and cooperative investigation of the ISI and U.S. intelligence?
If highly placed persons in Pakistan have been instrumental in hiding Bin Laden these ten years, it suggests that some of the real masterminds of September 11, far from lying dead, are still at large.
The chances that Pakistan was wholly innocent were somewhat thrown into doubt by the possible location of the safe house. “President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad.” What must have been the raid was reported on Pakistani media, putting Osama’s safe house very close to the Pakistani Military Academy
Crowd celebrates Bin Laden’s death for hours outside the White House (h/t Instapundit)
Burying bin Laden’s body at sea would ensure that his final resting place does not become a shrine and a place of pilgrimage for his followers.
Michael Yon doesn’t think that was a good idea. Expect conspiracy theories to flourish, too.
Huge string of articles and posts at Memeorandum
UPDATE:
A guy in Pakistan live-tweeted the raid.
More photos and video at FreedomTorch.