Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind al-Qaida, is dead, President
Obama announces from the White House
Richard Adams in Washington and Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Monday May 2 2011
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-obama
Osama bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind al-Qaida and the
world's most sought-after terrorist since the attacks of 11 September
2001, has been killed by a US operation, President Barack Obama has
announced.
In an address to the nation, President Obama said Bin Laden was killed
in a "targeted operation" in Abbottabad, a highland town north of
Islamabad, last night.
The operation started with an intelligence lead last August, and
culminated in an operation involving a "small team of Americans".
"After a firefight they killed bin Laden."
None of the Americans were killed. Pakistani cooperation "helped to
lead us to him" he said.
Osama's body is in possession of the US, according to the first leaks
of reporting from the US television networks.
As the news spread, crowds gathered outside the gates of the White
House in Washington DC, singing the national anthem and cheering.
President Obama made the highly unusual Sunday night live statement to
announce the news, around 11.30pm eastern time.
The news comes eight years to the day that President George Bush
declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq. As president, Bush declared
he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" ? but it is now the unlikely
figure of Barack Obama who announces the final triumph as the US
commander in chief.
This is a turning point in the global "war on terrorism" that has been
waged since 9/11 ? and the news will reverberate around the world.
The news comes as an unparalleled boost for US foreign policy, the key
aim of which since 2001 has been the disarming and dismemberment of al-
Qaida, and coincidentally probably insures the re-election of Obama in
the 2012 presidential contest.
As a candidate, during the 2008 election campaign Obama repeatedly
vowed: "We will kill Osama bin Laden." And so it proved.
The Obama statement was originally scheduled for 10.30pm, but the need
to inform US congressional leaders caused the delay.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, one western diplomat described
the news as a "game changer" ? not just for al Qaida, but also for US
foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region embroiled in
turmoil and violence since 2001.
"I'm overjoyed," said the diplomat. "But what this exactly means is
really not clear."
Some analysts fear bin Laden's death could spark a precipitous US
withdrawal from the region, with the war against the Taliban in
Afghanistan still unresolved.
It will likely also reconfigure relations with Pakistan, where the CIA
is engaged in an controversial assassination campaign against senior
al Qaida figures using Predator and Reaper drones.
"He's dead," said an official with Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence, declining to give another other details other than to
say that it was "highly sensitive intelligence operation."
The official said he was "not at liberty" to give more details on the
killing, including on reports that Pakistani intelligence was involved
in the operation. "We'll release more information later this morning,"
he said.
Abbottabad is about a two hour drive north of Islamabad, in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province. It is not part of the tribal belt, where the CIA
drone strike campaign has been concentrated, but is home to the
Pakistan military's main training institution, the Pakistan Military
Academy at Kakul.
The fact that bin Laden was killed outside the tribal belt in Pakistan
will raise questions about how the six-foot-four fugitive, one of the
most famous faces in the world, managed to escape justice for so long.
Pakistan's intelligence services have largely cooperated with the US
in capturing al Qaida fugitives - some of the most notorious figures
captured since 2001 were caught in Pakistan's cities such as the 9/11
architect Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.
But in recent months US military and intelligence officials have
publicly complained that the ISI has been assisting the Haqqani
network, an al Qaida-linked militant network that straddles the
Paksitan-Afghanistan border.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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