CIA "live-tweeted" Osama bin Laden raid to mark 5th anniversary

The CIA marked the five-year anniversary of the Osama bin Laden raid by live-tweeting the operation as if it were happening on Sunday.

President Obama authorized the operation on April 29, 2011 and on May 1, 2011 U.S. time, the president, CIA Director Leon Panetta and Joint Special Operations Commander Admiral William McRaven approved the operation that sent Navy SEALS into the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 35 miles north of Islamabad.

The compound, which the U.S. intelligence community discovered in August 2010 after linking a courier with the hiding place, was heavily fortified with high walls, barbed wire, double entry gates and the CIA said all trash was burned.

U.S. helicopters left from Afghanistan and as they landed within the compound, one crashed. The CIA posted the iconic photo of Mr. Obama and his team watching the operation unfold from the White House Situation Room.

Among the 14 people seen in the photo were then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, then-Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, Bill Daley, Mr. Obama's chief of staff at the time, and James Clapper, director of national intelligence.

Only nine minutes after the helicopters landed, bin Laden was found on the third floor and killed.

Mr. Obama later received "confirmation of high probability" that bin Laden had been identified. He spoke to the nation that night from the East Room to deliver the news to the American people. Bin Laden's body was buried at sea from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the north Arabian sea a day later.

The Twitter reenactment by the CIA was questioned and criticized by some social media users.

The live-tweeting reminded some users of the man who really was live-tweeting about the bin Laden raid without knowing who was being targeted, a software consultant named Sohaib Athar.

In:
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Osama bin Laden