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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/ ... 8777.shtml

The founder and spiritual figurehead for al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, is dead.

Several officials confirmed the report to CBS News, and say that his body is currently in U.S. hands.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that bin Laden was killed by forces in Afghanistan.

I wanted that $25M bounty for myself but never got off my lazy ass to go hunting. :-(

But hey, good for the country!


edit: Looks like it's confirmed. He's actually dead.

They're now claiming he was buried at sea. I fucking hope someone thought to take a video or something because if this is true we now don't have a body to prove he's dead!

I agree in that I hope we've got some proof to hold up. However, if it's true, I'm absolutely ecstatic. This is some great news to wake up to!

[seriousbusiness] While this is a great victory worthy of celebration, this doesn't mean the end of Al Qeada or the Taliban. Both of which are our current enemies in our campaign in Afghanistan and else where. In fact if anything, we should expect them to accelerate their operations in an attempt to hurt us back and show they're still in business. They must hit us back in the next couple of months or risk being seen as irrelevant. Something they are in high danger of due to the Arab spring. We should in turn not stop. We should keep hitting them and hit them has hard as we can. With the death of Osama, we have a chance to seize the initiative and really hammer their morale and numbers and we should. Hopefully Obama will realize and tell the military to go the mat with the Taliban.[/seriousbusiness]

WOOOO MY BOY BARRY GOT THE SON OF A BITCH, HOW YOU LIKE HIM NOW? WOOOOOO!

I love the pic Shep posted over on SDN of Obama with the caption apologizing for taking so long to release his long form birth certificate because he was "too busy killing Osama bin Laden".

Yes, that's the one.


And surprise surprise it looks like Osama was chilling in what appears to be an ISI safe house. With friends like Pakistan who needs enemies? This wasn't exactly the safest of all operations, occurring in the territory of an unreliable ally and so forth so their could have been a major shit storm if it went sideways (like it wasn't actually Osama and so forth). Credit where credit is due to Obama for making the call and for everyone on the sharp end for making it a success.

And I love that picture.

I may get it framed.

I think I'm gonna print it and slam it up on my door.

What I'm wondering is if the team that went for it was under orders to make sure that he was not captured alive. It seems to be cleaner and less hassle to just make sure it's done, and there's no issue trying to bring him into the US for a trial or what not.

The team went in with orders to kill, but if he surrendered, to take him alive.

He obviously didn't surrender.

That being said, I'm glad to see the job is finally done, and bin Laden is gone off to meet Allah. But this still pretty much changes nothing in the big picture.

Still, a very good psychological victory.

Kinda officially closes that whole reason we started the whole mess over there. Speaking of, I've not really kept up with it. How's it going with the whole Middle East war thing?

I suspect, while the end of Usama Bin Laden is a blow to A-Q, it's the head-honchos hard drive that will be their downfall. Well, that and the revolutions, which have been damning A-Q's message for ages.

Osama's death won't change a lot in the short term, but in the longer term I think it will have an impact. It's a nice psychological boost/gutpunch (for us and for them respectively), and it appears intelligence was taken during the raid which will no doubt come in handy. It will increase pressure on Pakistan to actually start pulling some more weight in this little shindig (the dance they're doing on how they didn't know where he was is somewhat amusing to me). And it does provide a welcome sense of closure to at least some of the families of the victims of 9/11. Not a military objective perhaps, but nice.

Still, this is really symbolic of a larger issue. Al Qaeda has, in the ten years we've been sparring with them, been largely destroyed. Their leadership is dead, their funds cut off (Bin Laden was reduced to begging for donations in some of his videos), their plots increasingly small-scale and ineffective. Other groups affiliated with Al Qaeda remain unbroken, such as the Taliban, AQIM, and others, but I think this will be seen ultimately as the end of one phase of the war on terror. Remnants remain to be chased down and mopped up, but Al Qaeda as it was is no more. The focus now will shift increasingly to other groups that were associated with it.

The Cleric wrote:Kinda officially closes that whole reason we started the whole mess over there. Speaking of, I've not really kept up with it. How's it going with the whole Middle East war thing?

Afghanistan's not in the Middle East. Or did you mean Iraq? We've been winding it down since last year.

Iraq is on a downturn and looks to officially end better for us then Vietnam did *knocks real hard on wood* The government is semi-democratic and semi-functional and everyone is semi shocked that it's even that. Violence is still occurring and sporadic but it's looking like the Iraqi Army and Police may be able to handle it. You might notice alot of maybes in there. There are 50,000 troops still in Iraq just in case.

Afghanistan is more... iffy. Given the Bush Administration open neglect of the war and the nation *throws another dart at em* the Taliban have had time to strengthen and get back into the game. Unlike Iraq, they have secure safe zones they can retreat into in Pakistan (Iran and Syria would let fighters into Iraq but took efforts to keep them in Iraq). They managed to carry out a number of rather daring operations to keep their profile up and maintain an image of courage and competency with the Afghani people. They can't however carry out to large or to sustained operation because if they do, they get an asskicking.

Of course, that's the old fortress he had while still in Afghanistan, Derek.

I admit I was shocked by the suddenness of the event, if it can be called that after ten years. Though that shouldn't be surprising, given the nature of the conflict.


EDIT: The title needs to be changed, I think.