Obama Confirms Bin Laden Is Dead And In U.S. Hands
WASHINGTON (AP/WJZ) -- Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is dead, President Barack Obama says.
President Obama says bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in an operation led by the United States.
The president said the operation marks the most significant achievement so far against Al-Qaida. But Obama said the U.S. must and will remain vigilant at home and aboard.
President Obama addressed the nation Sunday night:
"Shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against Al-Qaida," Obama said in his address to the nation Sunday night.
"Then last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community," Obama continued. "I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain. It took many months to run this threat to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside Pakistan. And finally, last week I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."
Maryland politicians are sharing their reactions to the news.
"First off, if you want to kill a snake you got to cut his head off," said Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. "And I think we got the snake and cut the head off with the death of bin Laden."
Congressman Ruppersberger (D-MD) shares his reaction with WJZ:
Senator Barbara Mikulski called bin Laden's death "historic justice."
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) released this statement:
"The death of Osama bin Laden is an important milestone in the fight against terrorism and a relief to millions of Americans and others around the world who have felt his murderous destruction. Osama bin Laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of freedom, democracy and our way of life. Tonight all Americans can feel safer knowing that bin Laden is dead, but we must remain vigilant in the continued fight against Al-Qaida and any terrorists who seek to harm our nation. I join the president and all Americans in thanking the military professionals who carried out this mission. We depend on them and owe them our gratitude and our prayers."
A jubilant crowd gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death after a global manhunt that lasted nearly a decade.
"Justice has been done," the president said.
The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's Al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.
The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.
Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
