Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the New York and Washington.

Obama said U.S. forces led the operation that killed bin Laden. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

“The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children,” Obama said…

U.S. officials said that after searching in vain for the al Qaeda leader since he disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Saudi-born extremist was killed in the Pakistani town of Abbotabad and his body recovered.

Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

This death alone does not mean victory. But, this death is a significant moment and hopefully may be the beginning of an end to a deadly chapter.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the IT geek’s tweets – Sohaib Athar – @ReallyVirtual – who liveblogged the raid without knowing what he was watching. Getting away from the city for the day, relaxing in the mountains.




  1. GregAllen says:

    tjspiel,

    Doesn’t it make your head hurt to hear these conservatives accuse Obama of all the worst traits of Bush?

    Obama is low-key and self-deprecating to a fault. I wish he would take more credit than he does, but it’s clearly not in his personality.

    Compare this to Bush who constantly strutting around and blowing his own horn, even about imagined or half-assed “victories.”

  2. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    #34–Greg==these knee jerk nay sayers are not conservatives, they are Republicans. Not the Republicans of 20 years ago, the Republicans we have TODAY! Afraid of the religious right, afraid of taxing the rich, afraid of regulating businesses. Yes, a group that needs to be voted out of office until the DO return to their conservative roots.

    The quality of an individual candidate is lost in our two party structure.

    Wise up Fools. Vote Dumbo until the PUKES clean out their ranks, then, only THEN, vote the best man.

  3. Somebody says:

    Congratulations to the United States government on spending only ten years and a few trillion dollars to kill one old man. — Darien Sumner

  4. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    “[Updated, 12:54 a.m. ET] A senior administration official told reporters that U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration did not share intelligence gathered before the attack on bin Laden in Pakistan with any other country – including Pakistan – for security reasons.”

    From the link in the first post on subject below from KD Martin ((I guess video does rule?)):

    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/02/obama-to-make-statment-tonight-subject-unknown/

    It will be “informative” to gauge Pakistan’s reaction to this. They are famous for their coffee (?)–they have one last chance to smell it.

    PedoBear–name one thing I said that is incorrect. You can’t. You just don’t like the truth, which is why I post it, for people just like you. I know, small group, but nonetheless. A wider audience not as brain dead as yourself see the humor, and the wisdom.

    Animby?

  5. BigBoyBC says:

    Yeah, he’s dead, so what?

    Did it improve anything in this country? No!

    It does become an excuse for every loonie nut-job to do something bad. Gives the lame-stream media a new distraction from real issues.

    People are still broke, jobless, and losing their houses. National debt still high. Our civil rights are still being violated.

    But, Damn! We got him! Mission Frick’n Accomplished! Barry!

  6. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    BigBoy–stop the pedobear!==Killy Osama will NOT be cause to bring our troops home immediately, but it will be a strong argument not to extend our troop presence and actually bring them home “eventually.”

    I’m sure you agree that would be a good thing? And what do you think dictator’s/terrorists want to be’s around the world think of this? Gee, a small US Team can go into a country and hit otherwise host country protected enclaves.

    Yes, only one thing is “the most important thing that can be done” but below that one thing, is many other supporting elements.

    Don’t be a PedoBear. Think for yourself.

  7. Somebody says:

    #21

    You mean, why don’t I just shut up and support “The Leader” like a good German?

    OK, fine. Sieg Heil!

    Happy now?

  8. honeyman says:

    Bah. Who cares. Everyone knows that you cant kill the boogyman.

  9. chris says:

    Look at the randomness of this thread. How things have returned to a welcome but ignorant normal.

    Outstanding job to the US military and defense agencies. Often the butt of jokes, they brought home the bacon today.

    There is big importance off of getting him personally, rather than with a drone.

    Lazy evil bastard meets a long delayed end. Mastermind Fail.

  10. MikeN says:

    Abottabad is a city of 80,000 people. Good thing to see this finally done. Disappointing that Obama was intent on seeing him brought to justice. He just can’t drop the law enforcement mentality instead of the military one. Would he have gotten Bin Laden a lawyer?

  11. Somebody says:

    #23

    Good luck with that.

    Got COLA?

  12. MikeN says:

    I wonder if maybe John Kerry was wrong about Tora Bora.

    Lesson for certain members of the Left in the future. If you are applauding this action now, then you cannot criticize Israel for the deaths of civilians when the enemy is deliberately hiding behind civilians, sometimes inviting the destruction so they can bash Israel in the media.
    One of the dead here was a woman being used as a shield, and there were many other women in the compound as well who they managed to avoid killing

  13. MikeN says:

    He shouldn’t be handled with Islamic practice, he should be buried with pigs.

  14. Somebody says:

    Obama is just the smooth face of the corporate war machine.

    They are going to spend every dime that does not go to Goldman Sachs on the Military Industrial Complex.

    But hey, we got Bin Ladin! Woot!

  15. Cephus says:

    Who cares? It took the biggest military on the planet, with access to the most extensive intelligence network in all of human history, almost ten years to catch one old, tired, sick man.

    And we’re celebrating this?

  16. howard beale says:

    #7
    Bush contacted and congratulated Obama. Class move.

    no, Obama called Bush to let him know before the press conference class move

    yes Bush congratulated him and the rest of the network that got it done class move

    it took a dozen years and 3 US Presidents with big boots to stomp this guy out what a cockroach

  17. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    #41–Oh PedoBear==I’m “this close” to not responding as you don’t include the name of the person you are responding to, but for a real change, you actually offer up some substance. Totally incorrect substance, but substance nonetheless. So unusual, its worthy of a parse:

    #38 Is not about being correct or not. /// Ha, ha. Spoken like a true Puke. OF COURSE, being correct is important. Very telling the concept of the truth is irrelevant in your dogma.

    Is your stupid fixation on that “pukes, pukes, pukes” loon attitude. /// but I’m not fixated at all. Look at the reasoning. Oh, I’m sorry, I have to assume that reasons are as irrelevant to you as being correct or wrong?

    This thing was started by Bush. Paneta & Petraeus are carry-overs from Bush. Obama did his part by doing what had to be done to finish what was started. /// No–Obama should have brought the troops home asap on assuming office. This is NOT like the financial ruin left by BushtheRetard onto Obama. More reason/cause and effect/right-wrong that is completely irrelevant to you. Ha, ha.

    Clearly, your copy/paste is eloquent into assuming that everytime something was to be done in Pakistan regarding Bin Laden, they informed the Pakistan Government whom then alerted or even moved Bin Laden somewhere else, so good for Obama by deciding to go in without telling the Pakistanis. /// Yes, thats the obvious implication. Plus one Pedobear–at least you can do “some” abstract thinking.

    Was an American victory. Not a republican nor a ddemocrat one. Just American. Maybe a long time overdue, but job done nonetheless. /// Gee, too bad there PedoBear==you had a streak of One going there. Yes, the victory was American. The Puke analysis goes to the criticisms against Obama. Surely you can tell the difference?—or maybe not.

    And, as I say, you’re as stoopid as those saying something against Obama on this. /// Ha, ha. The only ones saying something against Obama are your fellow travelling PUKES. Do you never feel the burn? Ha, ha. Poor sprcha vrece. Unbounded by logic or relevance, wandering, looking for any hook of reality.

    VOTE ALL PUKES OUT OF OFFICE UNTIL SANITY RETURNS TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Then we can start of the Dumbo’s by voting for the best man.

  18. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    53–y

  19. Glenn E. says:

    I’m not sorry that Bin Laden was killed. But if only justice were so simple. The thinking that allowed a reclusive millionaire to function as he did, for a decade or more, virtually unencumbered, still exists. If Donald Trump were to go power mad, how long would we let him do it, before finally stopping him. In past wars, the leaders are always the last to go. And nobody tries stopping them before they get to powerful. We do more to hunt down citizens with too many traffic tickets. The rich and politically powerful get a free ride, until they run out of rope. But by then, millions of others had to lose their lives and livelihoods in the process.

    I’m not sad that Bin Laden died. Good riddance. But I am sad that this is how we come to think all the world’s problem will be fixed. What’s next? Too many pothole in the roads? Kill the guy in charge of fixing them. Yeah, a military solution works for everything. So up their budget this year, and next. Cause they’re obviously getting “results”. Or at least the kind of results that they’ve convinced us we need. Didn’t the Roman Empire do basically the same thing?

  20. nightstar says:

    Just one question.

    Did they kill Fat Osama or Skinny Osama?

  21. Glenn E. says:

    Osama was in Abbottabad? Maybe he was told that the women there were really hot. And he decided living in caves, in the mountains just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Smooth move, for the counter-intelligence folk. Now if we can set more of that kind of trap, for the rest of the world’s death merchants.

  22. Buzz Mega says:

    Trump that!

  23. bobbo, change only comes by voting the worse of two parties OUT OF OFFICE says:

    #55-Glenn==you ask if thru the miasma of history we cannot learn: “Didn’t the Roman Empire do basically the same thing?” /// And the answer is no. Nations, as Rome did, “succeed” when they invade, conquer, loot their neighbors according to the will of their own people in agreement. They start their decline when the citizens do not support the military policy of their country and they turn to paid mercenary troops as in an all volunteer army with twice as many BlackWater Mercenaries for Hire on the Open Market. USA is just about on that cusp.

    Sadly, the military option has gone mercantile, if indeed, that wasn’t always the case. A strong military is only possible when support by a strong economy–or by the plunder they seize which for some reason we aren’t doing. Yep, change is coming.

  24. Buzz Mega says:

    Y’know, this guy Obama is pretty good.

    We should have people like that in government. He’s not stupid. He’s funny sometimes. He gets things done 336+% faster than the previous guy (math: 7.4 years of no results vs. 2.1 years of resolved effort). When he talks, you can see that there’s a light on and somebody’s home…

    Too bad the only thing that got him into Columbia and Harvard are spurious “affirmative action” programs. That alone should disqualify him for the presidency.

    Trump: You are soooo fired.

  25. foobar says:

    Mr Beale, I stand corrected. Thank you.

    I love the conspiracy theorists who think Obama timed this. BTW, Somebody. Watch oil futures drop in price tomorrow. As for the long term price, the US is just going to have to pay the same price as everyone. No free passes anymore.

  26. Charlie says:

    So someone sought for many years is buried at sea after taking some grainy photos and DNA samples. Mmkay…

  27. nicktherat says:

    i dont think this is going to change much at all. also, people celebrating this like a sports game is strange. there is only one photo of him with a very dark beard and hes already tossed in the water? that sucks 🙁

  28. interglacial says:

    The only picture of the dead body looks like the lower part of Osama’s face has been badly photoshopped onto another body. The skin tones don’t even match!? And this story so soon after the Obama birth certificate with a very odd looking document.

    Regardless of the underlying truth behind both news stories, I’m left wondering why the use of pictures that look so fake as primary supporting evidence. Makes me think of those hypnotist stage-show acts that select members from the audience by testing how suggestible you are before the show starts.
    Is the old left/right paradigm now dead and we are being shepherded into groups that either blindly believe or disbelieve?

  29. Azure says:

    #7 – No, Obama called Bush AND Clinton personally before he made his speech. Bush’s response was probably written by someone else since it was polite, coherent and devoid of any tough talk.

    Face it, President Obama inherited a crapload. He has had to try and sort out the mess that Bush left in his wake. I think he has done an admirable job so far. It is unfortunate that some people will never be satisfied. You let Bush get away with murder, literally.

    This really was a Mission Accomplished moment but you don’t see Obama in a flight suit that exaggerates his “package” proudly strutting like a peacock…do you? Can you imagine how Bush would have played this? Oh wait…Bush had stopped caring about bin Laden after using him to get us into 2 wars. I shudder at the thought of his smirky little face.

  30. Charlie says:

    Curious how he was discovered: A million dollar mansion in a poor neighborhood next to a military academy, eight times bigger than any property in the area but with no physical communication connections.

    Still, humbling to see Barry being so magnanimous in taking all the credit in his valedictory speech.


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