Bin Laden is Dead

Big news: Osama bin Laden is dead! President Obama shared the news in a public television address late on a Sunday evening. Just short of a decade after 9/11, the mastermind behind the attacks on New York and Washington DC was found and killed in a firefight at a secure compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In Obama's Osama speech, we heard: "Justice has been done."

A team of Navy SEALS raided the compound in the middle of the night and completed their task in just 40 minutes. The operation was conducted in secrecy. Most world leaders, including Pakistan, were unaware of the attack until is was done. The only American loss was a helicopter that malfunctioned and was destroyed. The choppers were only intended to hover over the scene, but due to a technical malfunction, one of them landed or fell — "not a crash," the official said. (Sounds like movie scene. Instead of letting the enemy have access to a mostly capable piece of equipment, the team blows it up and leaves the charred remains behind.) The explosion alerted Pakistani officials to an unusual event at the compound.

Bin Laden's body was quickly taken away for burial at sea (to comply with Muslim law for burial within 24 hours of death), but not before a DNA match was done to prove his identity. The military took pictures of the body for evidence, but these will probably remain classified, as will video of the firefight since it shows operational tactics.

The compound itself was unusual. A far cry from the simple mountain cave dwellings where intelligence suspected bin Laden hid in the years following 9/11, this facility was custom-built to hide someone of significance. It was surrounded by 12 to 18 foot high walls and had two restricted-access security gates. The residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors. Although it was built in 2005, it did not have telephone or internet access. Finally, the plot was 8 times larger than other homes in the area.

The final piece of intelligence came from detainees held in hidden East European prisons. They identified a courier with special access to bin Laden and tracked him over several years. Among the dead and captured were bin Laden, one of bin Laden's sons, a courier, and the courier's brother.

U.S. officials conceded the risk of renewed attack. The terrorists "almost certainly will attempt to avenge" bin Laden's death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo that congratulated the agency for its role in the operation. "Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is not."

But for the time, Americans and others throughout the world celebrate the downfall of this terrorist leader.