White House statement: Bin Laden DEAD

[Dr Mordrid]

Emergency White House statement from President Obama immenant. National Security and Intelligence teams ordered to Operations Centers. Late PM on a Sunday night for 15 min - sounds like a biggie. Pending....starts in ~1 min.

EDIT: Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!!!!

CONFIRMED!!!!

[KRSESQ]

Day-yum!

[Dr Mordrid]

Update: killed a week ago. They waited for DNA tests on the remains to come back. US has the body.

[Dr Mordrid]

Latest is it was a ground op, not a Predator strike, and he was shot in a firefight in a compound outside of Islamabad, Pakistan. No US Special Forces or CIA forces hurt.

[Dr Mordrid]

State Dept. just issued a Global Travel Alert cautioning possible retaliation against Americans overseas. No doubt this is also why they activated all our military & Intel ops centers.

Next target: Ayman al-Zawahiri - AQ #2

[Umfriend]

Finally.

[cjolley]

Buried at sea.
Nice touch.

[UtwigMU]

Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden was Murdered

How many lives can a person have.

[cjolley]

Seems they didn't plan to let things get complicated by a capture.

The U.S. special forces team that raided Osama Bin Laden’s secret Pakistani compound Sunday was under orders to kill the al-Qaida leader, not capture him, a national security official told Reuters Monday.


Reuters: '"This was a kill operation,' the official said, making it clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan."


Still, U.S. officials have told reporters that, in the end, Bin Laden had a choice to surrender but refused.


The Washington Post:


Osama bin Laden had a choice … He could have surrendered. He refused, and the Navy Seals did what they were trained to do. The first head shot surely ended it, but they gave him a “double tap” … to make sure.

[Brian Ellis]

I must be very naïve because I cannot get my head round the fact that a contingent of the US military can mount an assassination operation in a foreign sovereign state. This must be a violation of international law. If it is deemed a military action, then there is a possibility that it is also a war crime because ObL was a civilian.

Furthermore, the scenes of jubilation in a number of countries are very misplaced. It is bad form to rejoice at any assassination or murder, no matter who the victim or what he did, especially as we have no idea what heinous crimes his successors may be planning. You don't sell the bear's skin before you shoot it.

That having been said, I'll reserve my judgement on whether his death is "a good thing" or otherwise (even if I don't like how it occurred) after I've been able to take in the news of repercussions, if any. I sincerely hope there are none. The problem, as I see it, is that AQ is not a solid organisation but a loose federation of autonomous cells and I fear that many of these may react violently off their own bat.

[cjolley]

OTH

1, I must be very naïve because I cannot get my head round the fact that a contingent of the US military can mount an assassination operation in a foreign sovereign state.
They are good aren't they.

2, This must be a violation of international law.
Probably covered by a hot pursuit type of thing. If not, frankly, too f***ing bad.

3, If it is deemed a military action, then there is a possibility that it is also a war crime because ObL was a civilian.
I don't think OBL thought of himself as a civilian. In fact he doesn't seem to have recognized "civilian" as a concept.

[Dr Mordrid]

Brian,

Our relationship with Pakistan is complex. Large parts of the general public and part of their security apparatus are pro-Taliban/AQ, and in fact part of their security apparatus created the Taliban, but the civilian govt. and military work with US forces.

In this op the choppers took off from a Pakistani air base, just as most Predators do.. For local PR reasons the govt. and lead military officers will protest these ops when in fact they were in on them from the get-go. The two militaries coordinate attacks inside of Pakistan all the time. Hand, meet glove.

His civilian stafus doesn't matter - he was what the Geneva Accords call an "unlawful combatant" (un-uniformed, similar to a spy) by his own admission, so he's fair game.

[cjolley]

Our relationship with Pakistan is complex.
...

That's a serious understatement.
Osama's compound was about 1,000 meters from Pakistan's version of West Point.
In a town that also contained two other military bases.

I'll bet there wasn't a single Pakistani official or serviceman who knew the true destination of those choppers when they took off from that Pakistani base.
I don't even think England was informed of the mission ahead of time.

[Dr Mordrid]

And I'd bet part of the intel we got came from inside the Pakistani military, probably on of the numerous officers who trained here abd was stationed nearby.

SEAL Team SIX !! YEAH!!

I have good reason to have a big, wide smile about that

Also: his body was transferred to a USN vessel where ID was confirmed. His body was then prepared for Islamic burial by "appropriate personnel" (read: they had a Muslim Navy chaplain prepositioned) and he was then buried at sea - no martyr's tomb for him.

[cjolley]

And I'd bet the intel we got came from inside the Pakistani military, probably on of the numerous officers who trained here abd was stationed nearby.

That could very well be, but if so I bet they provided information, not received it if so.

Actually, the story I've read is that someone, or ones, at GITMO spilled the name of OBL's courier who was then found and followed for quite a long time, eventually leading to the compound.

Of course there could be many layers of cover stories, so who knows.