Killing of Osama bin Laden - Misplaced Pages

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Osama bin Laden أسامة بن لادن
Bin Laden in 1997
Buried	North Arabian Sea
Allegiance	Al-Qaeda
Battles / wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan War on Terror: War in Afghanistan Battle of Tora Bora War in North-West Pakistan Operation Neptune's Spear

Osama bin Laden, the founder of the al-Qaeda organization responsible for the September 11 attacks in the United States and other attacks worldwide, was killed by gunshot wounds to his head and chest on May 2, 2011, around 01:00 Pakistan Standard Time, in a 40-minute raid by United States special operations forces. The raid, code name "Operation Neptune's Spear", also known as the "Abbottabad Operation" in the Pakistani press, took place at his safe house in Bilal Town, Abbottābad, Pakistan. At the conclusion of the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for identification before burying it at sea within 24 hours of his death.

The operation was authorized by President Barack Obama and carried out by members of the United States Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), informally referred to by its former name, SEAL Team Six, under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command, in conjunction with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives. The team was sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack.

The killing of bin Laden received a favorable response in the United States and was welcomed by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, and a large number of countries as a positive and significant turning point for global security and the War on Terror. The Palestinian Hamas leader of the Gaza strip, Ismail Haniya, however, said: "We condemn the assassination of a Muslim and Arab warrior".

The Pakistani government was criticized for failing to apprehend bin Laden, who had been living in a large prominent compound in a major Pakistani city, close to Pakistan's premier military academy and 50 km from the capital, Islamabad. Pakistani officials denied knowingly harboring bin Laden, saying that they had no knowledge that he was there, and strongly denied allegations of official support for him.

Locating bin Laden

Identity of his courier

Identification of al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

By 2002 interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an al-Qaeda courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed, from Kuwait). In 2003 Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged operational chief of al-Qaeda, revealed under interrogation that he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti but that he was not active in al-Qaeda.

In 2004 an al-Qaeda prisoner named Hassan Ghul told interrogators that al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libi. Ghul further revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, a fact which led U.S. officials to suspect he was travelling with bin Laden. When confronted with Ghul's account, Khalid Sheik Mohammed maintained his original story. Abu Faraj al-Libi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006. He told CIA interrogators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libi had minimized al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin Laden's inner circle.

In 2007 officials learned al-Kuwaiti's real name, though they will not disclose the name nor how they learned it. Since the name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libi released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011, there was speculation that the US assault on the Abbottābad compound was expedited as a precaution. The CIA never found anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded al-Libi made the name up.

A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA officials located al-Kuwaiti and followed him back to bin Laden's Abbottābad compound. The courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were killed in the May 2, 2011 raid. Afterward some locals identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan. Arshad Khan was carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identitification card which said he was from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false identities.

Location of his compound

Main article: Osama bin Laden's hideout compound

A telephone conversation between al-Kuwaiti and another operative monitored by the CIA led the agency in August 2010 to track al-Kuwaiti to the compound in Abbottābad. Using satellite photos and intelligence reports, the CIA determined the identities of the inhabitants of the mansion to which the courier was traveling. In September, the CIA concluded that the compound was "custom-built to hide someone of significance," and that bin Laden's residence there was very likely. Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife.

Google Earth maps show that the compound was not present in 2001, but did exist on images taken in 2005. Built in 2004, the three-story compound was located "at the end of a narrow dirt road", 2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of the city center of Abbottābad. Abbottābad is about 100 miles from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about 20 miles from India). The compound is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Pakistan's "West Point". On a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, it was surrounded by 12-to-18-foot (3.7–5.5 m) concrete walls topped with barbed wire. There were two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high (2.1 m) privacy wall (which could hide the 6' 4" bin Laden).

There was no Internet or telephone service connected to the compound. Its residents burned their trash, unlike their neighbors, who set their garbage out for collection. Local residents called the building the Waziristan Haveli (haveli is a term used in India and Pakistan that roughly translates to mansion).

Role of Pakistan

Pakistan's role in the operation was criticized by many people around the world. Pakistan defended its role and stated that it had no prior information that bin Laden was in Abbottābad.

Allegations against Pakistan

Numerous allegations were made that the government of Pakistan shielded bin Laden. Critics cited the very close proximity of bin Laden's heavily fortified compound to the Pakistan Military Academy (Pakistan's "West Point"), that the United States chose not to notify Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the alleged double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. U.S. government files leaked by Wikileaks disclosed that American diplomats were told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time U.S. forces approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also helped smuggle al Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had told U.S. officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts.

In his first interview after the operation, CIA chief Leon Panetta said that the CIA had ruled out involving Pakistan in the operation, fearing that "any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets." However, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding". Obama echoed her sentiments.

U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said "This is going to be a time of real pressure on Pakistan to basically prove to us that they didn’t know that bin Laden was there". John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, said that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support from within Pakistan. He further stated "People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide out there for so long." Senator Dianne Feinstein said that "it's hard for me to understand how the Pakistanis ... would not know what was going on inside the compound", and that top Pakistan officials may be "walking both sides of the street." Senator Lindsey Graham questioned, "How could be in such a compound without being noticed?", raising suspicions that Pakistan was either uncommitted in the fight against Islamist militants or was actively sheltering them while pledging to fight them. A Pakistani intelligence official said that they had passed on raw phone tap data to U.S. that led to the operation, but had failed to analyze this data themselves.

Indian Minister for Home Affairs P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He called on Pakistan to arrest them.

Pakistani-born British MP Khalid Mahmood stated that he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops, reviving questions about alleged links between al Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's security forces.

Gulf News reported that the compound where bin Laden was killed had previously been used as a safe house by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but was no longer being used for this purpose. The Globe and Mail reported local police saying that the compound belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant group supported by ISI which is fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.

Pakistani response

According to a Pakistani intelligence official, raw phone-tap data had been transferred to the United States without being analyzed by Pakistan. While the U.S. "was concentrating on this" information since September 2010, information regarding bin Laden and the compound's inhabitants had "slipped from" Pakistan's "radar" over the months. Bin Laden left "an invisible footprint" and he had not been contacting other militant networks. It was noted that much focus had been placed on a courier entering and leaving the compound. The transfer of intelligence to the U.S. was a regular occurrence according to the official, who also stated regarding the raid that "I think they came in undetected and went out the same day", and Pakistan did not believe that U.S. personnel were present in the area before the special operation occurred.

According to the Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge that an operation would happen. Pakistan was "in the know of certain things" and "what happened happened with our consent. Americans got to know him—where he was first—and that's why they struck it and struck it precisely." Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., had said that Pakistan would have pursued bin Laden had the intelligence of his location existed with them and Pakistan was "very glad that our American partners did. They had superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to them."

Another Pakistani official stated that Pakistan "assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and the operation was conducted by the United States. He also said that "in any event, we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong."

Operation Neptune's Spear

Operation Neptune's Spear
Part of the War on Terror
AbbottābadIslamabadMap of Pakistan showing Abbottābad (green), where bin Laden was killed, and the capital, Islamabad (red). Abbottābad is 32 miles (51 km) north of Islamabad.
Operational scope	Tactical
Location	Osama bin Laden's hideout compound, Bilal Town, Abbottābad, Pakistan 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E / 34.16917°N 73.24250°E / 34.16917; 73.24250
Planned by	Joint Special Operations Command Central Intelligence Agency
Objective	Kill or capture Osama bin Laden
Date	May 2, 2011 (2011-05-02) 01:00 PST (UTC+5)
Executed by	United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group
Outcome	Osama bin Laden, one of his sons, his courier, the courier's male relative, and one woman are killed
Casualties	5 killed 2 injured

Objective

According to the Associated Press, "Officially, it was a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender. But it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering, two U.S. officials said."

ABC News wrote, after the fact, "As CIA director Leon Panetta explained to PBS' , 'The authority here was to kill bin Laden. And obviously under the rules of engagement, if he in fact had thrown up his hands and surrendered and didn't appear to represent any kind of threat then they were to capture him. But they had full authority to kill him.' ... And they did. He was unarmed, but he resisted capture, his wife rushed a Navy SEAL, and there was no way the SEALs could have known in that split second whether bin Laden or the room was booby-trapped in any way."

White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan stated after the raid that "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that." However, another U.S. national security official, who was not named, told Reuters that "'This was a kill operation,' making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan." Another source referencing a kill (rather than capture order) states, "Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the mission. 'They were told, "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him,"' an official recalled. The SEALs started to cheer."

Planning

After an intelligence-gathering effort on the courier's Pakistan compound that began September 2010, Obama met with his national security advisers on March 14 to create an action plan. They met four more times (March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28) in the six weeks before the raid, including once on March 29, 2011 when Obama personally discussed the plan with Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command. "Many multiple possible courses of action" were presented to Obama in March and "refined over the course of the next several weeks."

The first approach considered by U.S. officials was to bomb the house using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, which could drop 32 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Obama rejected this option, opting for a raid that would provide definitive proof that bin Laden was inside, and limit civilian casualties. Another one of the "courses of action" (COA) suggested by JSOC was "a joint raid with Pakistani intelligence operatives who would be told about the mission hours before the launch." Deploying drones was apparently not a feasible approach, in part because of limited firepower and in part because the compound's location was "within the Pakistan air defense intercept zone for the national capital."

The commando-led course of action (COA) had multiple risks, including the fact that the extensive preparation and training necessary to pull it off "provided greater chances for information to leak out over the ensuing months, scuttling the mission and sending bin Laden deeper into hiding."

Members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group began training for the raid (the objective of which remained unknown to them) after the March 22 national security meeting, "holding dry runs at training facilities on both American coasts, which were made up to resemble the compound." As plans progressed through the month of April, the DEVGRU SEALs began more specific training exercises on a one-acre replica of the Waziristan Haveli that was built inside Camp Alpha, a restricted section of the Bagram military base in Afghanistan. According to The Daily Telegraph, 24 Navy SEALs carried out practice runs on April 7 and April 13.

On April 29, at 8:20 am, Obama convened with Brennan, Thomas E. Donilon, and other national security advisers in the Diplomatic Reception Room and gave the final order to raid the Abbottābad compound. A senior administration official told reporters after the operation was completed that the government of Pakistan had not been informed of the operation in advance.

The raid planned for that day was postponed until the following day due to cloudy weather.

Execution of the operation

Approach and entry

After President Obama authorized the mission to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta gave the go-ahead at midday on May 1.

The raid was carried out by 24 helicopter-borne United States Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) of the Joint Special Operations Command, temporarily transferred to the control of the Central Intelligence Agency. The DEVGRU SEALs operated in two teams of 12 each. According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid. Additional personnel on the mission included "tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers."

The SEALs flew into Pakistan from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Previous reports indicated that they may have staged through Tarbela Ghazi Airbase in northwest Pakistan, but Pakistan has denied that the U.S. used a location in Pakistan to launch the raid.)

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), an airborne unit of the United States Army Special Operations Command sometimes called the "Nighthawks," provided two modified Black Hawk helicopters, and two Chinooks as backups. The Black Hawks may have been never-before-publicly-seen "stealth" versions of the helicopter. The 160th SOAR helicopters were supported by multiple other aircraft, including fixed-wing fighter jets and drones. According to CNN, "The Air Force also had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available."

The raid was scheduled for a time with little moon light so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected," and the helicopters used hilly terrain and nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military. Once the raid began, the Pakistani military scrambled their fighter jets but did not interfere with the raid. According to Public Multimedia, Pakistan was informed by the U.S. about the raid once it had started, but was asked to stay out of the way.

The DEVGRU operators fast-roped out of the Blackhawks. After the operators were on the ground, one of the hovering helicopters stalled, in a vortex created by its own prop wash and the high compound walls. After the helicopter stalled, it "grazed one of the compound's walls" "breaking a rotor." The helicopter "rolled onto its side" during an emergency landing.

At approximately 1:00 a.m. local time (20:00, May 1 UTC), the SEALs breached the compound's walls using explosives.

Combat

Encounters between the operators and the residents took place in the guest house, in the main building on the first floor, where two adult males lived, and on the second and third floors, where bin Laden lived with his family. The second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be cleared.

According to NBC News and the New York Times, the only "firefight" took place between the first team of DEVGRU SEALs and the armed courier, who lived in the guesthouse. A female, identified by some as the courier's wife, was killed during this exchange. The courier's relative and bin Laden's son were both killed in the main house by the second team of DEVGRU SEALs, the relative on the first floor, and the son on the staircase.

The SEALs encountered and captured personnel in the compound, including women and children, who were restrained with plastic zip ties or flexi-cuffs and left in place until the raid was over, at which point the SEALs moved them all outside "for Pakistani forces to discover."

Bin Laden and the DEVGRU team encountered each other on the second floor or third floor of the residence; bin Laden was "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a shalwar kameez". He was later found to have €500 and two phone numbers stitched into his clothes.

Although there were weapons in the room, including an AK-47 and Makarov pistol, bin Laden was unarmed at the the time he was shot.

"The encounter with bin Laden lasted only seconds," according to Politico, and took place during "the last five or 10 minutes" of the raid. Bin Laden was killed by at least one and possibly two American bullets, one of which struck the left side of his head, another shot was widely reported to be a bullet to the chest.

Three men other than Osama bin Laden and a woman present at the compound were reportedly killed in the operation. The individuals were said to be bin Laden's adult son (likely Hamza; some sources call him Khalid), the courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier's relative and the courier's wife. However, Pakistani sources told the New York Times that the dead were all male.

In addition to the five fatalities, two other women were injured. According to ABC News, bin Laden's fifth wife, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, was one of the injured women; "When the SEALs entered the room in which bin Laden was hiding, his wife charged them and was shot in the leg." Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter also saw him killed.

The exact number and identity of the people living in the compound is uncertain. Several appear to be members of the Osama bin Laden family, including possibly his fifth wife and their daughter. A Pakistani official told the New York Times that nine children ranging from two to 12 years old were placed in Pakistani custody; seven of those children may have belonged to the courier and his relative. According to the British Daily Mail, "four children and two women, including bin Laden's daughter Safia, were taken away in an ambulance." One other person was reportedly taken away alive by the U.S. military; CIA and White House officials denied that anyone was taken alive at any time during the raid.

While bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound; those bodies were later taken into Pakistani custody.

Wrap-up

The raid was intended to take 30 minutes. All told, the time between the team's entry in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes. Time in the compound was spent neutralizing defenders; "moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women and children; clearing "weapons stashes and barricades" and searching the compound for information. U.S. personnel removed computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, thumb drives and "electronic equipment" from the compound for later analysis.

The helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged and could not fly the team out. It was consequently destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment (including an apparent stealth capability). After they "moved the women and children to a secure area" U.S. forces "improvise by packing the helicopter with explosives and blowing it up." The assault team "called in one of two backup " to ferry them back to their base.

Diplomatic cooperation

According to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share information about the raid with the government of Pakistan before the operation, but did notify Pakistan after its successful completion. According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the U.S. forces; however, Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials stated that they were also present at what they called a joint operation, a claim which President Asif Ali Zardari has flatly denied.

According to ABC News, Pakistani fighter jets were scrambled in an attempt to locate and identify what turned out to be the U.S. helicopters used in the raid.

Local accounts

Details of the raid, albeit observed from a distance, were tweeted by an Abbottābad resident, who initially did not know what was happening; he had begun tweeting by complaining about the noise of low-flying helicopters, to which he was unaccustomed. Karachi's Geo News described a helicopter crash and "heavy firing" on the evening of May 1 "near the PMA Kakul Road".

The UK Telegraph quoted a resident of the area who said, "We saw four helicopters at around 2 am. We were told to switch off lights of our homes and stay inside."

Local residents in the vicinity of the compound reported that cellular telephone and electrical service in the area went out around the time the raid began and was restored immediately after the Americans departed the area.

According to BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad, reporting two days after the raid, ISI informed him after questioning survivors of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a bin Laden son. The ISI also said that survivors included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently bin Laden's.

Al Arabiya cited an unnamed Pakistani security official as reporting that one of bin Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden had been shot dead in front of family members. The daughter also claimed that Bin Laden was captured alive then executed by American forces and dragged to a helicopter.

Code name

There were conflicting reports in the media regarding what the official mission code name was. Originally reported as Operation Geronimo it was subsequently reported as Operation Neptune Spear, with Jackpot as the code name for bin Laden as an individual and Geronimo as the code word for bin Laden's capture or death.

Neptune's spear is the trident, which appears on U.S. Navy Special Warfare insignia, with the three prongs of the trident representing the operational capacity of SEALs on sea, air and land.

Geronimo references the Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who defied the U.S. government and eluded capture. The use of Geronimo in this context was offensive to some Native Americans.

A transmission from operatives on the ground in Pakistan of Geronimo E KIA (Geronimo, enemy killed in action) alerted mission commanders to the death of bin Laden.

Identification of the body

U.S. forces used multiple methods to positively identify the body of Osama bin Laden:

Measurement of the body: Both the corpse and bin Laden were 6'4" (1.93 meters) tall; SEALs on the scene did not have a tape measure to use for measuring the corpse, so a DEVGRU operator of known height laid down next to the body and the height was approximated by comparison.
Facial recognition software: A photograph transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia for facial recognition analysis yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely match.
In-person identification: One or two women from the compound, including one of bin Laden's wives, identified bin Laden's body after death. ABC News A wife of bin Laden also apparently called him by name during the raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. armed forces on the ground.
DNA testing: The Associated Press, and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing, using tissue and blood samples taken from his sister who had died of brain cancer. ABC News stated, "Two samples were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a sample."

Photographic evidence

Bin Laden's body was photographed multiple times (in Pakistan, Afghanistan and aboard the USS Carl Vinson) before it was buried at sea, sparking a debate about whether to release the photos. Those supporting the release of the photos said it would prove his death and prevent conspiracy theories that bin Laden is still alive, while others expressed concern that the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said in an interview with NBC Nightly News that photographs of the deceased bin Laden would "ultimately" be released, but the White House immediately denied that any decision had been made, referring to the photos—which reportedly show that a portion of bin Laden's skull had been blown off—as "gruesome". A source told ABC News that the photos depict the physical damage done by "high-caliber bullet." CBS Evening News reported that the photo shows that the bullet which hit above bin Laden's left eye blew out his left eyeball and blew away a large portion of his frontal skull, exposing his brain.

President Obama ultimately decided not to release the photos.

On May 4, Reuters published photos it said were taken by a Pakistan security official in the aftermath of the raid; the photos included images of the helicopter wreckage and three male dead bodies.

Burial at sea

According to a U.S. official on May 2, bin Laden's body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition and was buried at sea less than a day after his death. The body was transported to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson (pictured), the flagship of Carrier Strike Group One, operating in the northern Arabian Sea, and at 1:10 am EDT, the body was "washed in accordance with Islamic custom, placed in a white sheet, then put inside a weighted bag". After religious statements translated into Arabic were made, the body "was placed onto a flat board, which was then elevated upward on one side, and... slid off into the sea".

According to two Pentagon officials, a video of the burial may be released.

The burial at sea was criticized by some quarters, including assertions by some Islamic scholars that it was not correctly faithful to the tenets of the religion.

Address of President Barack Obama

President Obama's address

Late in the evening of May 1, 2011, major American news organizations were informed that the president would give an important speech on an undisclosed subject related to national security. Rumors initially spread wildly about the subject, until it was revealed that President Barack Obama was to announce the death of Osama bin Laden. At 11:35 p.m. EDT (May 2, 2011, 3:35 UTC), Obama confirmed this and said that bin Laden had been killed by "a small team of Americans". He explained how the killing of bin Laden was achieved after following up on a lead from August 2010, what his role was in the series of events, and what the death of bin Laden meant on a symbolic and practical level.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound, in Abbottābad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.
— President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011

Legality

Although Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have stated that justice was done, some legal experts and others are not convinced. Professor Nick Grief, an international lawyer at Kent University stated the attack had the appearance of an "extrajudicial killing without due process of the law." On a note of caution he added "It may not have been possible to take him alive… but no one should be outside the protection of the law." Even after the end of the second world war, argued Grief, Nazi war criminals had been given a "fair trial."

Michael Mansfield QC also had his doubts about whether sufficient efforts had been made to capture bin Laden. "The serious risk is that in the absence of an authoritative narrative of events played out in Abbottabad, vengeance will become synonymised with justice, and that revenge will supplant 'due process'. ... Assuming the mission was... intended to detain and not to assassinate, it is therefore imperative that a properly documented and verifiable narrative of exactly what happened is made public. Whatever feelings of elation and relief may dominate the airwaves," he said, "they must not be allowed to submerge core questions about the legality of the exercise, nor to permit vengeance or summary execution to become substitutes for justice."

The human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC said that the killing risked undermining the rule of law. "The security council could have set up an ad hoc tribunal in The Hague, with international judges (including Muslim jurists), to provide a fair trial and a reasoned verdict," he wrote in The Independent. "This would have been the best way of demystifying this man, debunking his cause and de-brainwashing his followers."

John Bellinger III, who served as the state department's senior lawyer during George Bush's second term as president, also insisted the strike was legitimate. "The killing is not prohibited by the long-standing assassination prohibition in executive order 12333 because the action was a military action in the ongoing US armed conflict with al-Qaida and it is not prohibited to kill specific leaders of an opposing force. The assassination prohibition also does not apply to killings in self-defence. The executive branch will also argue that the action was permissible under international law both as a permissible use of force in the US armed conflict with al-Qaida and as a legitimate action in self-defence, given that bin Laden was clearly planning additional attacks." A US embassy spokesman in London put forth the American justification as "In war you are allowed to attack your enemy."

The Pakistan foreign ministry has called into question the legality of American action by expressing "deep concerns" about the "unauthorised unilateral action". According to former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, (QIT WAS QUITE CLEARLY A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW).

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asked the American government to explain whether US forces acted legally in killing bin Laden.

Amnesty International said it was seeking "greater clarification" about what went on, while New York-based Human Rights Watch said "law enforcement" principles should have applied.

Aftermath

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden

Within minutes of the official announcement, large crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House, Ground Zero, the Pentagon and in New York's Times Square to celebrate. In Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a large Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd gathered outside the City Hall in celebration, many of them being of Middle Eastern descent. From the beginning to the end of Obama's speech, 5,000 tweets per second were sent on microblogging platform Twitter. Fans attending a nationally televised Major League Baseball game between two National League East rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets, at Citizens Bank Park initiated "U-S-A!" cheers in response to the news. In addition, at the conclusion of WWE Extreme Rules, a professional wrestling event which was occurring at the time, WWE Champion John Cena announced to the audience in attendance the capture and "compromise to a permanent end" of bin Laden, prompting chants while he exited the arena to the song "Stars and Stripes Forever" This resultant euphoria was criticized by progressive columnist David Sirota as an inappropriate reaction to human death.

Mahmud Ezzat, the deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said that, with bin Laden dead, western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan; authorities in Iran made similar comments. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomed bin Laden's death; the rival Hamas administration in the Palestinian Gaza Strip condemned the killing of an "Arab holy warrior", possibly in order to "cool tensions in the territory with Al-Qaeda inspired Salafi groups" that consider Hamas "too moderate".

An unnamed Pakistani government official confirmed to Agence France-Presse on May 2 that bin Laden was killed in the operation. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan issued a statement on May 2 denying that bin Laden had been killed. Hours later, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said that if bin Laden had, in fact, been killed, it was, "a great victory for us because martyrdom is the aim of all of us" and vowed to take revenge on Pakistan and the United States. Tehrik-i-Taliban later confirmed bin Laden's death.

Intelligence postmortem

Evidence seized from the compound is said to include 10 cell phones, five to 10 computers, 12 hard drives, at least 100 "computer disks" (including thumb drives and DVDs), handwritten notes, documents, weapons and "an assortment of personal items."

A special CIA team has been tasked with combing through the digital material and documents removed from the bin Laden compound. The material is being stored at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, where forensic experts will analyze fingerprints, DNA and other trace evidence left on the material.

Intelligence analysts will also study call records from two phone numbers that were found to be sewn into bin Laden's clothing.

Earlier death reports

Main article: History of Osama bin Laden death reports

Prior to the reported killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, there had multiple past reports in the media that bin Laden was dead.

Previous attempts to capture or kill bin Laden

Conspiracy theories

Main article: Death of Osama bin Laden conspiracy theories

The statement that bin Laden died on May 2, 2011, was not universally accepted, despite assertions made in the media that DNA testing was conducted to verify his identity. The swift burial of bin Laden's body at sea, speed of the DNA results, and decision by Obama to not release pictures of the dead body formed the basis of conspiracy theories that bin Laden had not died in the May 2 raid. Several Facebook groups sprung up with titles such as 'Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD'". Some internet blogs suggested that the U.S. government feigned the raid, and some internet forums hosted debates over the alleged hoax.

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"Progressive references".
- David Sirota (June 4, 2008). "Book World: 'The Uprising'". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
- Mary Ann Akers (February 12, 2007). "Sirota: Journalist or Activist?". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
- Terry M. Neal (September 14, 2005). "A Rare Sight in Washington: Partisans Back Off". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
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"Editor & Publisher". Editorandpublisher.com. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
David Sirota (June 4, 2008). "Book World: 'The Uprising'". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
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Riedel, Bruce. "The Search for al-Qaeda", 2008
"CIA Trained Pakistanis to Nab Terrorist But Military Coup Put an End to 1999 Plot", The Washington Post, October 3, 2001.
"Report: Clinton Targeted Bin Laden", CBS News, September 16, 2001.
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"Osama bin Laden killed: conspiracy theories proliferate in wake of raid". The Daily Telegraph. UK. May 3, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2011.

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External links

[REDACTED] Works related to Remarks by the President on Osama Bin Laden at Wikisource

China.org.cn "The Strange Death of Osama Bin Laden." Chinese English-language website opinion column. May 3, 2011.
Phillips, Macon. "Osama Bin Laden Dead." The White House Blog. May 2, 2011.
"Photo Gallery May 1, 2011." The White House
Garamone, Jim. "Obama Declares 'Justice Has Been Done'." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
Garamone, Jim. "Intelligence, Operations Team Up for bin Laden Kill." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense.
"Office of the Spokesperson Press Release Death of Osama bin Ladin." Embassy of Pakistan in Washington. May 2, 2011.
"Most Wanted Terrorist Dead." Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 2, 2011.
"Message from the Director: Justice Done." (Archive). Central Intelligence Agency. May 2, 2011.
"Statement from September 11 Families’ Association Tribute WTC Visitor Center." September 11 Families Association. May 2, 2011.
January 2011 satellite image of the area where Osama bin Laden was captured (DigitalGlobe)
"Operation Neptune Spear on ShadowSpear.com." ShadowSpear. May 2, 2011.

34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E / 34.16917°N 73.24250°E / 34.16917; 73.24250

v t e Osama bin Laden
Background	Childhood, education, and personal life Militant activity Beliefs and ideology Search Khartoum compound Abbottabad compound Death reactions code name controversy conspiracy theories
Family	Muhammad bin Ladin (father) Hamida al-Attas (mother) Najwa Ghanhem (first wife) Abdallah bin Laden (son) Hamza bin Laden (son) Saad bin Laden (son) Omar bin Laden (son)
Work	al-Qaeda Wadi al Aqiq Messages to the World Fatawā Videos and audio recordings 2004 video 19 January 2006 tape 6 September 2007 video 11 September 2007 video 20 September 2007 tape Letter to the American People
In media	In popular culture Growing Up bin Laden Holy War, Inc. The Looming Tower No Easy Day Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? Zero Dark Thirty Interviews
Related	Soviet–Afghan War Allegations of a support system in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden Bodyguards Issue Station Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory Timeline September 11 attacks Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden Gary Brooks Faulkner

War on terror

September 11 attacks
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) (Withdrawal)
Iraq War (2003–2011) (Withdrawal)

Participants

Operational

Targets

Individuals	Osama bin Laden Hamza bin Laden Anwar al-Awlaki Sirajuddin Haqqani Jalaluddin Haqqani Anas Haqqani Khalil Haqqani Hafiz Saeed Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Bahaziq Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Factions	al-Qaeda al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Abu Sayyaf Al-Shabaab Boko Haram Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Hizbul Mujahideen Islamic Courts Union Jaish-e-Mohammed Jemaah Islamiyah Lashkar-e-Taiba Taliban Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Islamic State

Conflicts

Operation Enduring Freedom	War in Afghanistan OEF – Philippines Georgia Train and Equip Program Georgia Sustainment and Stability OEF – Horn of Africa OEF – Trans Sahara Drone strikes in Pakistan
Other	Operation Active Endeavour Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present) Insurgency in the North Caucasus Moro conflict in the Philippines Iraq War Iraqi insurgency Operation Linda Nchi Terrorism in Saudi Arabia Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa War in Somalia (2006–2009) 2007 Lebanon conflict al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen

Policies

Category
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