Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan yesterday in a firefight with a team of U.S. operatives who raided the compound where he had been hiding, President Barack Obama said.
“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,” Obama said in a late-night televised address from the White House.
Obama delivered the news to the nation almost 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, orchestrated by bin Laden, that killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in suburban Washington and a field in Pennsylvania where hijacked United Flight 93 crashed.
Bin Laden had eluded U.S. forces that had invaded Afghanistan following the 2001 attacks on the U.S., escaping across the mountainous border with Pakistan. After years of “painstaking” work, U.S. intelligence last August picked up his trail in Pakistan, Obama said, and after months of investigation he was tracked to a compound in a city north of Islamabad.
“Finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” Obama said.
Obama and his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, made capturing al-Qaeda leader bin Laden a key national security priority.
Targeting Bin Laden
Obama said that shortly after taking office in 2009, he directed Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the “top priority” in the war against al-Qaeda. In August, Obama was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden’s location, he said.
The intelligence ultimately revealed that bin Laden was living in a large home in a secure compound in Abbottabad, an affluent suburb of Islamabad, according to administration officials who briefed reporters after Obama spoke.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the planning of the raid, said the compound was valued at about $1 million and was built roughly 5 years ago for the purpose of harboring bin Laden.
Housed in an area with many retired military personnel and insulated from natural disasters and local terrorist attacks, the three-story compound sat on a large plot of land with residential homes nearby.
Security Measures
It was roughly eight times larger than other homes in the area with extraordinary security measures including walls towering 12-feet to 18-feet high and topped with barbed wire, the officials said.
Access was restricted by two security gates and the compound residents burned their trash instead of leaving it out for collection like the other homes in the neighborhood. There also were no phone or internet connections, according to the officials.
When they first became aware of it, intelligence officials concluded that there was a high-value al-Qaeda target being harbored and a strong probability that it was bin Laden.
Their conclusions came after years of intelligence gathering, largely from detainees and specifically pursuing leads on personal couriers in bin Laden’s inner circle, officials said.
Officials said they didn’t know for certain how long bin Laden had been living there.
Authorizing Action
The president gave the go ahead for the operation early in the morning of April 29, according to one of the officials.
Officials described a helicopter raid on the compound using what they said was a small team and designed to minimize risk to non-combatants in the compound. At least two helicopters were used; one had mechanical problems.
The operation at the compound lasted less than 40 minutes. Three other adult males were killed in addition to bin Laden, officials said. One woman was killed when she was used as a human shield by a male combatant, the officials said.
Express 24/7, a Lahore, Pakistan-based television station, last night showed video of what it said was compound in Abbottabad in flames. Several Pakistani televisions stations broadcast what they said was a still photograph of bin Laden’s body,with his face smeared with blood and his left eye mutilated.
Abbottabad, a city of about 100,000 people located in hills about 30 miles north of the capital, Islamabad, is the center of a region dominated by army facilities and weapons factories. The city, named for the British colonial officer who founded it, has avoided the terrorist attacks that have struck Lahore, Karachi and other major Pakistani cities.
Intelligence Not Shared
U.S. officials said they didn’t share their intelligence with any other country, including Pakistan, and only a small group of people in the government knew the plans.
“Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to,” Obama, 49, said. “That is the story of our history.”
Obama warned that the fight against terrorism isn’t ended with the death of bin Laden.
“There’s no doubt that al-Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us,” he said.
The State Department issued an alert to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to warn of potential anti-American violence as a result of the raid.
Even before Obama spoke, a cheering, chanting crowd gathered outside the north gates of the White House as news of bin Laden’s death spread. The throng of people continued to grow after midnight along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Proud
“It’s been 10 years, it’s really a rallying point that we’ve been successful with what we’ve been doing abroad,” said Glen Dalakian, 21, a student at American University, who was among those gathered in front of the White House this morning. “It makes you proud to be an American waving the flag once again.”
Obama called Bush to inform him about the raid.
“I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission,” the former president said in a statement. “This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.”
The administration briefed congressional officials ahead of the president’s address.
‘Great Relief’
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he wanted to “commend President Obama and his team, as well as President Bush, for all of their efforts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.”
"The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead will bring great relief to people across the world,’’ U.K Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement congratulating Obama and the U.S. personnel who conducted the raid.
“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,” Cameron said in an e-mail statement. “It is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net
source: http://www.bloomberg.com
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