The death of Osama bin Laden: How the U.S. got him

Nilza Maria

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• Publié par: ycyzadom
• Nombre de lectures: 60
• Langue: English

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The death of Osama bin Laden: How the U.S. got him

Mon. May 2, 2011

By

Laura Rozen

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/20110502/ts_yblog_theenvoy/the-death-of-osama-bin-

laden-how-the-u-s-got-him

President Barack Obama gave the final sign-off on

Friday for the forty-minute operation that killed al

Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden on Sunday.

The action took place in a compound in

Abbottabad, an affluent Pakistani military town just

thirty miles away from the Pakistani capital

Islamabad, U.S. officials said.

Despite the apparent rapid turnaround for the

operation, the raid on the compound was the result

of an intensive, multi-year, bipartisan, cross-agency

effort, senior U.S. officials stressed in a phone call

with journalists Sunday night. Officials called it the most important victory yet in the

world's fight against al Qaeda, but noted Bin Laden's death will not bring about an

immediate end to the heightened terrorism risk the United States has faced since the

attacks of September 11, 2001.

"Without a doubt, the U.S. will continue to face terrorist threats. We have always

understood this is a marathon not a sprint," a senior U.S. official told journalists shortly

after Obama addressed the nation with the news of Bin Laden's death. Still, the official

noted that Bin Laden's death "is the single biggest victory" in the war against terrorism to

date, "and a major step in bringing about al Qaeda's eventual destruction." (You can

watch President Obama's description of the operation in the video clip above, courtesy of

the AP.)

In their initial reconstruction of the dramatic raid, the officials explained that the United

States got intelligence four years ago about the identity of a particular al Qaeda courier

who enjoyed Bin Laden's trust and confidence. After months of painstaking effort by the

CIA, National Security Agency, and other national security agencies, the U.S.

government was eventually able to track this courier, as well as his brother, and further

determined that the two brothers seemed to be sharing their residence with another family

of extremely high importance to al Qaed

U.S. officials said they were stunned to discover the extreme security measures in play at

the compound. It was surrounded by walls between 12 and 18 feet high, topped with

barbed wire; there were also interior security walls; and it was eight time larger than

other residences in the area. What's more, officials on Sunday's call explained, the

families living on the compound burned their trash, while all the other households in the

area put their trash out for collection on the curb.