Sunday, May 1st, will forever mark a historic day for both the US and Pakistan/Afghanistan nations. For nearly ten years, one of the US’s top priorities had been to hunt and capture the face of global terrorism and constructor of the September 11thattack. Finally, we succeeded.
Within 40 minutes, Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida organization, had been killed. In a firefight with the American Navy SEALS and a team of CIA officers, Osama was shot in the head and died shortly along with one of his sons and facilitators. One of his wives was injured.
This middle of the night raid was located in a compound, with walls as high as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire, in the town of Abbottabad, near the Pakistani Military Academy and Pakistani Capital. For many years, he had been hiding in the mountain ranges of Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan.
U.S. officials reported that the information which ultimately led them to bin Laden’s capture came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe. Here, agency interrogators were then told of an alias used by a courier whom bin Laden trusted.
After he was killed, Osama was quickly buried at sea. His remains were flown to the USS Carl Vinson, and then lowered into the North Arabian Sea. The burial was handled by a Muslim priest and followed Islamic tradition according to President Obama and officials, but some Muslim clerics do not believe so.
Obama declared hours after the incident:”The world is safer. It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.”
All over the US, especially outside the Capitol, people were cheering and setting off fireworks, celebrating this great defeat that had been a huge challenge over the years. It is a big accomplishment in US history, but what about the fact that there might be an act of retaliation? Not everybody feels safe about what possibly could happen in the future.
“Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is not,” CIA Director Leon Panetta states.
The murderer of thousands of innocent men, women, and children is now gone. Osama bin Laden’s long run of power is finally over. Should we rejoice, or should we be cautious? The remaining Al-Qaida group could still stir up trouble with new people advancing to replace bin Laden. This will remain an unending controversial topic for quite some time.