Osama Bin Laden is dead

[Phoenix]

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, is dead, and the U.S. is in possession of his body, a person familiar with the situation said late Sunday.

President Barack Obama was expected to address the nation on the developments Sunday night.

Two senior counterterrorism officials confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan last week. One said bin Laden was killed in a ground operation, not by a Predator drone. Both said the operation was based on U.S. intelligence, and both said the U.S. is in possession of bin Laden's body.

Officials long believed bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president.

The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.

The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.

Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110502/ap_on_re_us/us_bin_laden

[Matt Logan]

Obama speech to the nation

[utube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSkudkUPl4[/utube]

CNN

May 2nd, 2011
12:35 AM ET

[Updated, 12:35 a.m. ET] The U.S. State Department warned Americans living abroad of "enhanced potential for anti-American violence" following the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The announcement was made in a worldwide travel alert issued early Monday.

[Updated, 12:24 a.m. ET] A team of U.S. Navy SEALs carried out the operation in Pakistan that ended in the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CNN's Chris Lawrence reported. The operation lasted about 40 minutes, and the team had practiced the raid a few times.

Earlier, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, citing a senior Pakistani intelligence official, reported that members of Pakistan's intelligence service - the ISI - were on site in Abbotabad, Pakistan, during the operation that killed bin Laden. The official said he did not know who fired the shot that actually killed Bin Laden.

[Updated, 12:11 a.m. ET] Members of Pakistan's intelligence service - the ISI - were on site in Abbotabad, Pakistan, during the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports, citing a senior Pakistani intelligence official. The official said he did not know who fired the shot that actually killed Bin Laden.

[Updated, 12:06 a.m. ET] The crowd celebrating bin Laden's death outside the White House has grown significantly. Lots of cheering and waving of the U.S. flag.

[Updated, 11:59 p.m. ET] - More detail on where Osama bin Laden was killed: Forces killed him at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after a firefight, U.S. President Barack Obama said.

Cooperation with Pakistan helped lead U.S. forces to Osama bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding, President Barack Obama said.

Obama said he ordered the attack after he decided last week that the United States had actionable intelligence that bin Laden was in the compound.

[Updated, 11:56 p.m. ET] U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world were placed on high alert following the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death, a senior U.S. official said. The U.S. State Department should be sending out a new "worldwide caution" for Americans shortly.

[Updated, 11:44 p.m. ET] Bin Laden was killed in a military operation in Pakistan that U.S. President Barack Obama ordered today, Obama said.

Obama said he was told last August that the United States had developed a possible lead on bin Laden - intelligence on bin Laden hiding in a compound in Pakistan. Obama said he determined last week that the United States had actionable intelligence.

"Today at my direction, the United States directed a targeted operation against that compound," Obama said.

[D-Will]

And to whoever takes over Bin Laden's spot in Al Qaeda, in the words of Booker T "We comin' for you, nigga!"

[Matt Logan]