Osama Bin Laden killed

[Rob McCow]

Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama has said.

Bin Laden was killed in a ground operation outside Islamabad based on US intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.

Mr Obama said after "a firefight", US forces took possession of the body.

Bin Laden is believed to be the mastermind of the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 and a number of others. He was top of the US' "most wanted" list. Mr Obama said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda".

The US has put its embassies around the world on alert, warning Americans of the possibility of al-Qaeda reprisal attacks for Bin Laden's killing. Crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC, chanting "USA, USA" after the news emerged.

A US official quoted by Associated Press news agency said Bin Laden's body had been buried at sea, although this has not been confirmed.

Is this something to be celebrated? I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the long term repercussions are.

But from the point of view of Barack Obama's presidency, this can only be a positive boost.

[SiHart]

Un fortunately while getting him is a huge achievement it doesn't necessarily follow that there will be a cessation of Al-Qaeda activities. I'm sure they've prepared for this eventuality and it won't stop, pessimistic as it sounds.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Celebrated? No. He was a vile man, and the world's a better place without him. But his death won't bring back those he killed or balance out the misery he's caused.

[Si Hunt]

Reprisal attacks to look forward to now.

Now, AQ have an excuse to kill us. Hurrah!

Si.

[Perry Vale]

They've always had an "excuse".

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yeah - they just tend to use events to kind of fan up jihad. If the Americans had not burried the body or displayed it, then there'd be claims of "see how they desecrate him even in defeat".

[FlyingBeastie]

As someone who saw everything unfold that day via classroom window as a preteen- I dunno whether it's because I experienced it so young, or experienced it the way I did- but I just kind of feel empty about the whole thing.

Mike is right when he says this won't bring those people back. But it also won't bring us back to the way life used to be. 911 is one of those major turning points in history that we simply can't forget.

As an 11 year old, I remember that morning we were doing the pledge of allegience towards the window to the flag pole in the playground. Our window also had the most wonderful view of the Manhattan skyline and my eyes wondered over to the Twin Towers and I just thought to myself- "They're so beautiful, they really are a world wonder (cos I had just seen a Guiness documentary that weekend about them) and no one really pays much attention to them nowadays."

We left to the library, and when we got back they were on fire. And everything just stopped. We all sat there, some of us cried, and everyone else didn't know what to do or to feel.

Childhood ended for us there, I think. For everyone, really. Cos during your childhood you could never think something like that would happen. How people could be so evil and so cruel. And that's what the world was like at that point- we didn't have such security or a worry about what could happen in tunnels and public places.

And the world just got that much darker after 911- that much more paranoid and cynical and untrusting.


Osama being killed is like the resolution of a B-plot in something you've been watching for the past 4 seasons. You'd think it'd be bigger, or make you feel that much more complete- but compared to everything that's happened since, it seems so minor. Especially since you hear there have been other people sprouting up, like that London educated leader- it's not gonna end here. And I'm just left feeling more worried than before because just 2 weeks ago they changed the Terror Alert system and now this happens- a retaliation is bound to happen.


So, life just goes on.

[Anthony Williams]

As I posted on my blog:

I woke up this morning to find that the USA's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, has been killed in Pakistan. Obviously, killing Bin Laden, the head of Al Qaeda, is a major coup in the ongoing War on Terror.

This, naturally, brought up memories of 9/11 - the event that Bin Laden is most infamous for orchestrating. When it happened, I was only 13 years old. We'd just started back at school, following the summer holidays. It was towards the end of the school day, and I was walking back from an art class to my classroom to pick up my stuff from my locker and go home. On the way back, another boy - Alex - stopped me, and said "the Twin Towers in New York have just been destroyed, and now there's going to be a war." I'm going to be honest and say that I didn't particularly like, or trust, this chap in particular, and my reaction was "oh, whatever..."


After a short walk in which I ridiculed Alex in my head (what a fantasist!), I walked into my classroom with a friend of mine, and lo and behold, on the television, BBC 1's regular schedule had been interrupted to give this breaking news. My friend James, who wasn't there when Alex broke the news to me, simply looked at the tv and marvelled "cool film!" (oh, innocence!) Unfortunately, I had to deliver the news to him that this was actually real ("ohhhhhhhhhhh s**t!")

For days afterwards, speculation mounted as to what would happen. There were rumours that the people responsible for carrying out the attacks had smuggled chemical weapons (including Anthrax) onto the flights, and that this stuff was in the air in New York and Washington DC. Thankfully, those rumours were completely unsubstantiated. A matter of weeks later, the USA and the UK were invading Afghanistan, with the aim of ousting the Taliban - the governing group that were harbouring and supporting Al Qaeda. Of course, this was the day that made the world at large aware of Al Qaeda, and made Osama Bin Laden into a household name. The world truly changed that day.


Likewise, few who lived in London at the time will forget the 7/7 bombings in 2005. School had finished for the summer, and I was taking driving lessons. I was in the car with my instructor, when the radio popped on (he had it programmed to turn on with breaking news), saying that the London Underground had been suspended due to "power surges". Neither myself, nor my instructor, believed that it was true - we were both too cynical to believe what was being said. Suffice to say, that we were right - three trains on the Underground were bombed, followed by a bus around 45 minutes later. The panic on that day was intense. I immediately called my mother, who was still working in Central London, to make sure she was okay. I then worked round all my other friends who could've been anywhere near the blasts - again, everyone was okay. Later that day, a group with links to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility.


People have been quick to condemn the war in Afghanistan. It's still going on today, 10 years later, as allied forces battle Taliban insurgents. It will probably still be going on in 5 years or so. But I strongly believe that it was necessary. I believe that there would have been a lot more terror attacks on the West had we not gone into Afghanistan. However, the question that's on everyone's mind today is probably will Bin Laden's death change anything? Probably not - those who are on the side of Al Qaeda will see him as a martyr, killed by the "evil" West. It will likewise be seen as a PR coup for the Obama administration - they "got" Bin Laden, where the Republican Bush-led administration couldn't. Almost as soon as the news broke, crowds were gathering outside the White House shouting "USA! USA!" as a victory cry - and quite right. After all, this is what we have been told that we were working towards for the last 10 years.

So, will the world change today? Maybe on the surface, but I sincerely doubt that there will be any significant changes. It's unlikely that we'll pull out of Afghanistan anytime soon. It's unlikely that Al Qaeda will be deterred by the death of its leader - another figure will pop up and take Bin Laden's place. His death will be seen as martyrdom, and will be used to fuel further terror attacks. The threat from those who practice a very extreme and radical form of Islam is not over. Both sides will see this as a way to fuel support. The best advice I can give is that old British wartime motto - "Keep Calm and Carry On."

Ant x

[Rob McCow]

Good article from The Daily Mail - Has Osama been dead for seven years? OK - might have been fair enough at the time, but it seems that the answer is now 'Nope.'

Osama's quick burial at sea seems strange to me. If they wanted to avoid offending Muslims, then not desecrating Osama's body seems to be a small gesture. We've ended up with an unverifiable death (unless something has turned up that I'm unaware of). They may well have killed Osama and in all likelihood, that's exactly what's happened. But it opens the door for more conspiracy theories.

[Paul Clement]

I'm sure reprisals will follow, but it was a no win situation. Capture him and you open up the possibility of kidnappings and ransom requests including his release. Kill him and prove it and you have issues, kill him and dispose of him, you likewise have issues. Leave him alone and things just carry on. A no win situation.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yeah to claim victory and "the war is over" is kind of laughable. Because the South won the Civil War cos Lincoln was killed, we lost the Battle of Trafalgar cos Nelson died, or indeed Germany won the Second World War cos Roosevelt died before Hitler.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It seems America can't win ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13261064

The head of the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, Sunni Islam's most important seat of learning, condemned the decision to dispose of the body at sea.

Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb said it was an affront which ran "contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs".

America has gone to great lengths (and restraint) to give Bin Laden a dignified burial at keeping with his faith. They have not (and I don't think will ever) release pictures of his dead body - again giving their greatest enemy dignity in death. However, they could never allow him to really be buried though and his grave turned into a shrine to terrorism.

It makes me feel slightly sick the lengths we go to and show respect and dignity to people who were monsters, and showed little dignity to others. Terrorists have never shown such dignity to the innocents they behead. But it's the restraint we have to show if we still expect to have the upper hand and prove we can be civilised in the face of something monsterous.

[Dino]

Fox News: So how did you track down Bin Laden?

Pentagon: Oh it was easy! Pakistan stopped paying their share of the electricity bills for the fridge we were storing him in!

[Awesome Wells]

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

Martin Luther King, Jr

[Rob McCow]

'YOU ESS EH! YOU ESS EH! YOU ESS EH!'

- Chanters in Washington, May 2011.

[Awesome Wells]

"I just wanna say one thing: God Bless America."

Biff Tannen, 1973

[Dino]

America has gone to great lengths (and restraint) to give Bin Laden a dignified burial at keeping with his faith.

Ooh...yeah... er... I wouldn't read what's below then!


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177872.html

A 2007 Benazir Bhutto interview in which she says the al-Qaeda leader was 'murdered' years ago contributes to the uncertainty surrounding US claims about Osama bin Laden's death.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama announced that the al-Qaeda leader was killed by US forces after he was found hiding in a compound in Pakistan.

This is while in an interview following a failed assassination attempt on Pakistan's former premier in October 2007, Bhutto says bin Laden has already been killed.

In the interview, she identifies the man who killed the notorious al-Qaeda leader as one Omar Sheikh , excerpts of which was sent to Press TV's UReport.

In response to a question whether any of the assassins had links with the government, Bhutto said, "Yes but one of them is a very key figure in security, he is a former military officer … and had dealings with Omar Sheikh, the man who murdered Osama bin Laden."

Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in a bomb attack as she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi when a gunman shot her in the neck and set off a bomb.

The announcement of bin Laden's death comes almost ten years after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Meanwhile, a US official says bin Laden's body has been buried at sea, alleging that his hasty burial was in accordance with Islamic law, which requires burial within 24 hours of death.

This is while burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not determine a timeframe for burial.

The official added that finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted man was difficult, so the US decided to bury him at sea.

[Rob McCow]

So the conspiracy theory will run: 'We deffo thought it was Osama, then we looked more closely after blowing his head off and saw that it wasn't, so we chucked his body in the water real quick.'

Or not.

[Si Hunt]

It's lucky that Bin Laden was killed just before a presidential election; apparently Barack's popularity rating has soared. The announcement of his death on TV interupted an appearance by someone believed to be in the running to stand against Obama for his next term.

I have to say I felt slightly uneasy at being expected to feel joy at someone being shot, who-ever it was. If you delve into the news stories, accounts vary at the number of Bin Laden's wives and children also at the scene, who were also shot. But no-one's that bothered, right?

A reporter for BBC breakfast somewhat unsubtly tackled a member of the public about her feelings this morning by asking "So, are you glad Bin Laden is dead?". The somewhat affronted woman quite rightly replied with, "Well, I wouldn't wish death on anyone..."

Si.

[Paul Clement]

However, they could never allow him to really be buried though and his grave turned into a shrine to terrorism.

Of course, they could have let it become a shrine and shot any bugger that went near it.

[Captain Tancredi]

It's lucky that Bin Laden was killed just before a presidential election; apparently Barack's popularity rating has soared. The announcement of his death on TV interupted an appearance by someone believed to be in the running to stand against Obama for his next term..

The next presidential election isn't until November 2012. Although the primaries will be happening this time next year, it's usually around summer/autumn of the year preceding the election that the candidates start to put themselves forward.

In hindsight, perhaps the way to deal with bin Laden's body would have been to bury it according to Islamic rites in an unmarked grave on a military base on US soil with the location kept secret- that way the American authorities would retain control over access to the site forever.