Issues Raised by the Assassination of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011 in Pakistan

Chicago, IL, May 1, 2011, 11:38 PM (ET) As I watched the celebrations of the death of Osama Bin Laden taking place at both the White House and Ground Zero (still ongoing at 2 a.m. Eastern time), these thoughts emerged..

Obama's Re-election in 2012:

During his televised remarks, Obama had a "Mission Accomplished" moment. Rather than pure theatrics when the job was really far from accomplished, tonight we saw young people chanting, in an impromptu fashion, "Yes we can! Yes we can!" The celebratory chants of "U.S.A." and the fact that this sitting president successfully brought justice for the 9/11 families should help Barack Obama's re-election prospects.

Let's not forget that George W. Bush won re-election primarily because of continual promises to "keep this country safe" and his assertion that he was the only presidential candidate who could deliver on that promise. There is no single act that could have reassured citizens more that our current Administration is working successfully to keep U.S. citizens safe than the death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of United States Special Forces. It was former President George W. Bush who had declared that capturing Osama Bin Laden was a top priority. Bush declared that Bin Laden was to be captured "dead or alive." But it was President Barack Obama who got the job done. It was no easy job, as we know from the nearly ten years it took to accomplish the task. No Americans were killed during the attack, which is also remarkable. John Brennan, Assistant to the President on Counter-Terrorism, called Obama's decision to go in on circumstantial evidence "one of the gutsiest calls of any President in recent memory."

Historic moment:

How historic will this moment prove to be? As David Gergen pointed out, there seems to have been a spontaneous eruption of American patriotic feeling, expressing the emotion, "Finally, we won one!" But, after this, how bright is the future for America? We certainly still have problems at home that are going to require non-partisan cooperation to solve, and the President seized the moment to talk about "the images seared into our brains" of 9/11 and of how, as a nation, "We reaffirmed our ties to each other -- we were united as one American family." New Yorkers commented on the "sense of closure" for 9/11 victims' families.

The idea of working together in harmony as one unified nation is possibly the most important message that legislators of either party should take away from the successful assassination of Osama Bin Laden nearly 10 years after the attack he engineered on the World Trade Center which caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 American citizens. It has been 15 years since Bin Laden declared war on the United States.

As Obama said during his speech on live television at 11:38 PM (ET): "We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad -- .Justice has been done." His Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "This is a good day for America and Americans. The fact that we were able to accomplish this says a good deal about our country,. The victims of 9/11 were not Democrats or Republicans; they were Americans. Those who carried out the mission yesterday, the same could be said about them." (MSNBC, May 2, 2011, 2:45 PM, ET).

Succession:

What happens now to Al Quaeda? With Bin Laden's death, one of the heads of the Hydra monster has been successfully cut off, but what happens to the organization itself? Who steps up to lead it? Do we know where that terrorist is, and are we close to capturing or killing him?

Retaliation:

There are no indications that the now-2-level threat system (which replaced Bush's elaborate color-coded one) has been escalated, but there is always the thought that the followers of Osama Bin Laden will attempt a reprisal. "I think we'll hear from them very quickly," said Peter Bergen on CNN. (Bergen was a journalist who had actually interviewed Bin Laden.) Bergen said Bin Laden popularity had receded to 20% in recent years, but, according to a Guantanamo detainee, if we captured or killed Bin Laden, a reprisal would happen sooner rather than later. Bergen also commented that the body, under Islamic law, must be buried within 24 hours and it would be buried at sea to prevent his grave from becoming a terrorist shrine, as happened with the gravesite of Saddam Hussein after his execution. All sorts of confirmation methods must first take place, starting with DNA matches with other Bin Laden family members, and including an autopsy. There would need to be photographic evidence of the identity of the corpse. Supposedly, Bin Laden was shot in the head, while 3 men and a woman inside were also victims. "We are taking the necessary security measures," said John Brennan. Bin Laden/Al Quaeda, old news. With the winds of democracy blowing through the Middle East, we are hoping that this is the time to move forward. This is a strategic blow to Al Quaeda. It is a necessary blow to destroy that organization, create fractures within it. The Number Two is not charismatic. He has a lot of detractors within the organization. I think you are going to see them start defeating themselves from within," said Brennan. "Needless to say, when they hit that compound, they had already trained against it (via models) numerous times. The outer pictures of the compound were studied intensively. The raid was created based on certain studies of the compound."

Pakistan:

President Obama thanked the Prime Minister of Pakistan publicly during his speech, yet no Pakistanis seem to have assisted with the raid. The President's Assistant on Counter-Terrorism, John Brennan, commented on CNN at 1:30 PM (CT) during a news conference, that there was no engagement with Pakistani forces. Andrea Mitchell reported on CNN that there was momentary anxiety when the Pakistani Air Force nearly shot down the one operative helicopter leaving the scene of the raid (the other faltered and was destroyed by U.S. troops). By August 2010, the residence had been found, complete with 12 to 18 feet walls with barbed wire atop the walls, and no Internet or television service. The residents within the compound even burned their trash, rather than taking it curbside, to prevent intelligence agents from going through the trash and finding evidence that this was, indeed, Bin Laden's hideout. Because it was so remote, couriers had to be used to bring supplies in and out. A courier may have given up Bin Laden as CIA agents worked to discover the courier's nom de guerre and his real name and to follow him as he serviced the mansion. CNN reported that CIA agents within secret prisons also helped uncover Bin Laden's whereabouts. The courier, his brother, one of Bin Laden's sons and a woman thought to be his wife were killed in the raid. President Obama took part in 5 National Security Council meetings in March and April, which were kept top secret, before he made the decision to go in by helicopter. There were alternative plans, one of which would have been to capture Bin Laden alive if he did not resist. However, Bin Laden did resist and also used a female as a human shield. The plan that was selected was designed to minimize civilian losses. There was a firefight. A $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest or capture of Osama Bin Laden had been offered. (Does anyone qualify to claim it?) The Pakistani government is claiming Pakistani Intelligence community members helped and were involved in the operation, but this is debatable. Many comments were made about the difficulty of the operation, given the heavily populated nature of the area where the compound was located. "In this whole operation, I don't know if it could have been better led," said Chris Matthews on CNN, talking about the precision with which Obama led the team. Obama sat in personally on planning meetings and even observed the operation in progress from a private briefing room. There was a live feed of the operation routed back to the United States and the President and the Directors in command watched it in progress, as narrated by the General in command. A camera was thought to have been mounted with the Navy Seals

"Osama Bin Laden was not only the most hated man since Hitler, but he was also the most hunted man." Calling it "the best night of his (Obama's) presidency" Gergen raised the questions of what has gone on inside Pakistan. Bin Laden had been living there since August, said Gergen. "If he's been there for that long a time, is there any doubt that officials in Pakistan had to have known?" Gergen expressed the opinion that a lot of questions about what Pakistan knew and when they knew it would be raised. However, Abbottabad has about a million people living 30 miles north of Islamabad and yet Pakistan constantly suggested Bin Laden was in the mountains of Afghanistan in Wizirikstan, a tribal area, when he was not there at all. Wolf Blitzer (who, earlier, had announced that the World Trade Center bombing took place on September 11, 2011) did not seem to know that President Obama had publicly thanked the Pakistani prime minister for the cooperation of the Pakistan government.

Martyr effect?

How much of a martyr effect will the assassination of Bin Laden have in helping remaining Al Quaeda recruit additional fighters? "We will continue to have to fight in chaotic places -- The war on terror is not over, but this is a significant victory," said a CNN analyst in conversation with Wolf Blitzer.

Criticism?

Will there be criticism of us, at home or abroad, for celebrating the death of a monster? John Brennan on CNN detailed how Osama Bin Laden's remains were buried in strict accordance with Muslim law. The COA (course of action) took into account the fact that Saddam Hussein's grave has become a rallying point for terrorists, so that was ruled out as an option. "It was determined that it was in the best interests of all involved that this take place in accordance with Islamic law (burial within 24 hours), with the burial taking place at sea with the appropriate religious officials present." Brennan said that to remove the body might have taken too long for an appropriate Islamic burial. Reports said Bin Laden was wrapped in a weighted white garment. "That burial was done appropriately," said John Brennan. "We can say with 99.99% confidence that this was Bin Laden," said John Brennan, special assistant to President Obama on counter-terrorism. Bin Laden was killed at 3:55 p.m. on Sunday, May 1, 2011.