Thursday, May 5, 2011

Obama refuses to release bin Laden photos

Obama refuses to release bin Laden photos
By Stephen Collinson | AFP News – Thu, May 5, 2011

President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse, citing national security risks and saying the United States should not brandish "trophies" of its victory.

Obama's war cabinet had been debating whether to publish gruesome post-mortem photos of the Al-Qaeda terror chief, who was gunned down by US special forces in a covert raid inside Pakistan on Sunday.

"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool," Obama told the CBS show 60 Minutes.

"That's not who we are. You know, we don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama said, arguing that DNA and facial recognition testing had established beyond doubt that the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks was dead.

Focus: Secrecy was bin Laden's protection

"There's no doubt among Al-Qaeda members that he is dead. The fact of the matter is, you will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again."

A Pakistani intelligence official said one of bin Laden's children, now in custody along with a Yemeni wife of the Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader, saw her father shot dead.

His daughter, reported to be 12 years old, "was the one who confirmed to us that Osama was dead and shot and taken away," said the Pakistani official.

Obama's top security aides had debated whether to publish a photo of bin Laden to prove he had been killed, but feared a backlash in the Muslim world, possibly targeting US troops or interests.

Some senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they had seen the pictures, and described them as graphic, but later reports suggested the images circulating on Capitol Hill were not authentic.

Three US senators retracted their claims of having seen a graphic photograph of Osama bin Laden's corpse, apparently the victims of a fake picture of the slain Al-Qaeda chief.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, had told reporters he had seen photos from the raid inside Pakistan, which led to the death of the terrorist mastermind by US special forces commandos.

Focus: White House calls halt to bin Laden disclosures

"They're what you would expect from somebody's been shot in the head. It's not pretty," he said, hours before it became clear that inauthentic photos had circulated among US lawmakers.

Asked whether Chambliss, who is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had in fact seen an official photo, spokeswoman Bronwyn Lance-Chester told AFP late in the day that "he has been very clear about this: He has not seen the official photo."

Two other members of the armed services committee, Republican Senators Kelly Ayotte and Scott Brown, also backed off claims that they had seen gruesome photos of bin Laden's corpse.

Three days after a team of elite US Navy SEALS avenged the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, national security experts combed a haul of evidence from the Pakistani mansion that served as bin Laden's lair.

The trove, including about five computers, 10 hard drives and 100 storage devices, represents a dramatic intelligence breakthrough for the United States in its fight against Al-Qaeda, said the experts.

"I'll be very surprised if this isn't a gold mine for us," said John McLaughlin, a former CIA deputy director.

"I think we're probably going to find reports of potential plotting.

"We'll probably find something about funding. We may learn something about whatever relationship he did or didn't have with Pakistan. We'll learn about key aides," he told CNN.

The top US law enforcement official defended the legality of the special forces swoop, after it emerged on Tuesday that bin Laden had been unarmed at the time he was shot.

Focus: Bin Laden computers a 'gold mine' for US

The operation "was lawful and consistent with our values," Attorney General Eric Holder told Senate lawmakers.

Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether a Navy SEAL "had to believe" the world's most wanted man "was a walking IED" or bomb.

"Exactly," Holder agreed.

US authorities insist US commandos were not on a kill only mission but have come under pressure to explain the apparent contradiction that bin Laden "resisted" capture but was unarmed.

"If he had surrendered, I think -- attempted to surrender -- I think we should, obviously, have accepted that," Holder said. "But there was no indication that he wanted to do that. And, therefore, his killing was appropriate."

And Senator Dianne Feinstein said she was told bin Laden was about to grab a weapon when he was shot dead.

"I believe he was preparing to resist. And that's why the shots were taken," she told CNN in an interview.

"There were arms directly near the door and my understanding is he was right there and going to get those arms. So, you know, you really can't take a chance. This is the number one target.

Scene: Shrine to bin Laden victims

"This is the mastermind that killed 3,000 of our citizens. And there had to be justice. And the only way to achieve that justice is a life for a life in this case," the California senator added.

The White House released more details of the president's Thursday trip to the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center towers, which nearly ten years ago were turned into an inferno and toppled by airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda operatives.

Obama will lay a wreath in memory of the victims and meet relatives of those who perished, but will not make a speech, in an apparent sign he is wary of his visit being seen as an overtly political affair.

New opinion poll data Wednesday showed Obama is enjoying a boost in popularity after hunting down America's public enemy number one.

His approval rating surged 11 points to 57 percent in a CBS/New York Times poll while 72 percent approved of the way he is handling terrorism.

Pakistan, meanwhile, sought to deflect some of the embarrassment of bin Laden being found on its soil -- and of its failure to heed US calls to find him in a purpose-built garrison.

Officials said the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had no idea bin Laden was holed up in the compound in Abbottabad, home to Pakistan's equivalent of the West Point and Sandhurst military academies.

But Salman Bashir, the top civil servant in Pakistan's foreign ministry, told the BBC Wednesday the ISI had alerted the United States to its suspicions about the imposing compound "as far back as 2009".

But it was not known at the time that bin Laden was there and there were "millions" of other suspect locations, Bashir said.

Pakistani intelligence officials said agents raided the bin Laden compound in 2003 when it was still being built, looking for then Al-Qaeda number three Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who escaped and was eventually captured two years later.

In Pakistan itself, conspiracy theories have proliferated after bin Laden's body was buried at sea off a US warship to forestall the prospect of a grave on land becoming an extremist shrine.

Police on Wednesday sealed off the Bilal suburb of Abbottabad, after crowds gathered outside the bin Laden compound, with hundreds of officers stationed around the area.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Behind the Osama Operations - (Joint Special Operations Command - CIA)

By National Journal– Mon May 2, 10:59 am ET


By Marc Ambinder
National Journal

From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap -- boom, boom -- to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.

Were it not for this high-value target, it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.

This HVT was special, and the raids required practice, so they replicated the one-acre compound at Camp Alpha, a segregated section of Bagram Air Base. Trial runs were held in early April.

[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]


(U.S. Military Photos of bin-Laden's hideout)

DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives. Though the general public knows about the special SEALs and their brothers in Delta Force, most JSOC missions never leak. We only hear about JSOC when something goes bad (a British aid worker is accidentally killed) or when something really big happens (a merchant marine captain is rescued at sea), and even then, the military remains especially sensitive about their existence. Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story -- generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That's the code.

How did the helicopters elude the Pakistani air defense network? Did they spoof transponder codes? Were they painted and tricked out with Pakistan Air Force equipment? If so -- and we may never know -- two other JSOC units, the Technical Application Programs Office and the Aviation Technology Evaluation Group, were responsible. These truly are the silent squirrels -- never getting public credit and not caring one whit. Since 9/11, the JSOC units and their task forces have become the U.S. government's most effective and lethal weapon against terrorists and their networks, drawing plenty of unwanted, and occasionally unflattering, attention to themselves in the process.

JSOC costs the country more than $1 billion annually. The command has its critics, but it has escaped significant congressional scrutiny and has operated largely with impunity since 9/11. Some of its interrogators and operators were involved in torture and rendition, and the line between its intelligence-gathering activities and the CIA's has been blurred.

But Sunday's operation provides strong evidence that the CIA and JSOC work well together. Sometimes intelligence needs to be developed rapidly, to get inside the enemy's operational loop. And sometimes it needs to be cultivated, grown as if it were delicate bacteria in a petri dish.

In an interview at CIA headquarters two weeks ago, a senior intelligence official said the two proud groups of American secret warriors had been "deconflicted and basically integrated" -- finally -- 10 years after 9/11. Indeed, according to accounts given to journalists by five senior administration officials Sunday night, the CIA gathered the intelligence that led to bin Laden's location. A memo from CIA Director Leon Panetta sent Sunday night provides some hints of how the information was collected and analyzed. In it, he thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for their help. NSA figured out, somehow, that there was no telephone or Internet service in the compound. How it did this without Pakistan's knowledge is a secret. The NGIA makes the military's maps but also develops their pattern recognition software -- no doubt used to help establish, by February of this year, that the CIA could say with "high probability" that bin Laden and his family were living there.

Recently, JSOC built a new Targeting and Analysis Center in Rosslyn, Va. Where the NationalCounterterrorism Center tends to focus on threats to the homeland, TAAC, whose existence was first disclosed by the Associated Press, focuses outward, on active "kinetic" -- or lethal -- counterterrorism-missions abroad. Its creation surprised the NCTC's director, Michael Leiter, who was suspicious about its intent until he visited.

That the center could be stood up under the nose of some of the nation's most senior intelligence officials without their full knowledge testifies to the power and reach of JSOC, whose size has tripled since 9/11. The command now includes more than 4,000 soldiers and civilians. It has its own intelligence division, which may or may not have been involved in last night's effort, and has gobbled up a number of free-floating Defense Department entities that allowed it to rapidly acquire, test, and field new technologies.

Under a variety of standing orders, JSOC is involved in more than 50 current operations spanning a dozen countries, and its units, supported by so-called "white," or acknowledged, special operations entities like Rangers, Special Forces battalions, SEAL teams, and Air Force special ops units from the larger Special Operations Command, are responsible for most of the "kinetic" action in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials are conscious of the enormous stress that 10 years of war have placed on the command. JSOC resources are heavily taxed by the operational tempo in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials have said. The current commander, Vice Adm. William McRaven, and Maj. Gen. Joseph Votel, McRaven's nominated replacement, have been pushing to add people and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technology to areas outside the war theater where al-Qaida and its affiliates continue to thrive.

Earlier this year, it seemed that the elite units would face the same budget pressures that the entire military was experiencing. Not anymore. The military found a way, largely by reducing contracting staff and borrowing others from the Special Operations Command, to add 50 positions to JSOC. And Votel wants to add several squadrons to the "Tier One" units -- Delta and the SEALs.

When Gen. Stanley McChrystal became JSOC's commanding general in 2004, he and his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, set about transforming the way the subordinate units analyze and act on intelligence. Insurgents in Iraq were exploiting the slow decision loop that coalition commanders used, and enhanced interrogation techniques were frowned upon after the Abu Ghraib scandal. But the hunger for actionable tactical intelligence on insurgents was palpable.

The way JSOC solved this problem remains a carefully guarded secret, but people familiar with the unit suggest that McChrystal and Flynn introduced hardened commandos to basic criminal forensic techniques and then used highly advanced and still-classified technology to transform bits of information into actionable intelligence. One way they did this was to create forward-deployed fusion cells, where JSOC units were paired with intelligence analysts from the NSA and the NGA. Such analysis helped the CIA to establish, with a high degree of probability, that Osama bin Laden and his family were hiding in that particular compound.

These technicians could "exploit and analyze" data obtained from the battlefield instantly, using their access to the government's various biometric, facial-recognition, and voice-print databases. These cells also used highly advanced surveillance technology and computer-based pattern analysis to layer predictive models of insurgent behavior onto real-time observations.

The military has begun to incorporate these techniques across the services. And Flynn will soon be promoted to a job within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he'll be tasked with transforming the way intelligence is gathered, analyzed, and utilized.

By National Journal– Mon May 2, 10:59 am ET
By Marc Ambinder
National Journal

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20110502/pl_yblog_exclusive/the-secret-team-that-killed-bin-laden

What is the JSOC? (wikipedia)

The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is a component command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is charged to study special operations requirements and techniques to ensure interoperability and equipment standardization, plan and conduct special operations exercises and training, and develop Joint Special Operations Tactics. It was established in 1980 on recommendation of Col. Charlie Beckwith, in the aftermath of the failure of Operation Eagle Claw.[1] It is located at Pope Army Air Field and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, USA. JSOC is credited with coordination of Operation Geronimo that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011 near Islamabad, Pakistan

Overview

The JSOC is the "joint headquarters designed to study special operations requirements and techniques; ensure interoperability and equipment standardization; plan and conduct joint special operations exercises and training; and develop joint special operations tactics."[3] For this task, the Joint Communications Unit (JCU) is tasked to ensure compatibility of communications systems and standard operating procedures of the different special operations units.

The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) also commands and controls the Special Mission Units (SMU) of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). These units perform highly classified activities.[4][5][6] So far, only three SMUs have been publicly disclosed: The Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta, the Navy's Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron.[7] The Intelligence Support Activity (ISA) is also under JSOC.[8] The ISA collects specific target intelligence prior to SMU missions, and provides signals support, etc. during those missions. The ISA often operates under various cover names, the most recent one being Gray Fox. The army once maintained the ISA, but after September 11 attacks the Pentagon shifted direct control to Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, NC.[9] If needed, Army Rangers and Night Stalkers can be transferred under the JSOC command. JSOC’s primary mission is believed to be identifying and destroying terrorists and terror cells worldwide.[10]

JSOC has an excellent relationship with the CIA's elite Special Activities Division and the two forces often operate together.[11] The CIA's Special Activities Division's Special Operations Group often selects their recruits from JSOC.[12]

Security support

JSOC has provided support to domestic law enforcement agencies during high profile or high risk events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, political party conventions and Presidential inaugurations. Although use of the military for law enforcement purposes in the United states is generally prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act, Title 10 of the US Code expressly allows the Secretary of Defense to make military personnel available to train Federal, State, and local civilian law enforcement officials in the operation and maintenance of equipment; and to provide such law enforcement officials with expert advice.[13] Additionally, civilian and uniformed military lawyers said provisions in several federal statutes, including the Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Department Authorization Act, Public Law 106-65, permits the secretary of defense to authorize military forces to support civilian agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the event of a national emergency, especially any involving nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.[14]

In January 2005, a small group of commandos were deployed to support security at the Presidential inauguration. They were allegedly deployed under a secret counter-terrorism program named Power Geyser. The New York Times quoted a senior military official as saying, "They bring unique military and technical capabilities that often are centered around potential WMD events," A civil liberties advocate who was told about the program by a reporter said that he had no objections to the program as described to him because its scope appeared to be limited to supporting the counterterrorism efforts of civilian authorities.[14]

Operations in Pakistan

According to The Washington Post, JSOC's commander Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal operated in 2006 on the understanding with Pakistan that US units will not enter Pakistan except under extreme circumstances, and that Pakistan will deny giving them permission.[15]

That scenario happened according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), in January 2006, JSOC troops clandestinely entered the village of Saidgai, Pakistan, to hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Pakistan refused entry.[16]

According to a recent report in The Nation, JSOC, in tandem with Blackwater/Xe, has an ongoing drone program, along with snatch/grab/assassination operations, based in Karachi and conducted both in and outside of Pakistan.[17]

In a recent leak published on the Wikileaks website, US embassy communication cables from the US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson states the Pakistani Army approved the deployment of U.S. Special Operations Forces, which include elements from the Joint Special Operations Command were embedded in the Pakistani Army's 11th Corp to provide support for operations targeting militant groups in north and south Waziristan and other areas of Pakistan. The extent of these actions would include assisting in training but also to conduct 'offensive combat operations'. These actions by JSOC elements would be mainly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets such as drone UAV aircraft.[18]

On May 1, 2011, it was reported that a special JSOC unit was responsible for killing Osama Bin Laden in his hiding place in Pakistan.[19]

Operations in Iran

On January 11, 2007, President Bush pledged in a major speech to "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."[20] The next day, in a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Senator Joseph Biden (Delaware), informed United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Bush Administration did not have the authority to send US troops on cross-border raids. Biden said, "I believe the present authorization granted the president to use force in Iraq does not cover that, and he does need congressional authority to do that. I just want to set that marker."[21]

Sometime in 2007, JSOC started conducting cross-border operations into Iran from southern Iraq with the CIA. These operation included seizing members of Al-Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, as well as the pursuit, capture, and/or execution of “high-value targets” in the “war on terror”. The Bush administration allegedly combined the CIA's intelligence operations with JSOC covert military operations so that Congress would only partially see how the money was spent.[22]

Osama - Who was he?

LONDON (Reuters) - Challenging the might of the "infidel" United States, Osama bin Laden masterminded the deadliest militant attacks in history and then built a global network of allies to wage a "holy war" intended to outlive him.

The man behind the suicide hijack attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and who U.S. officials said late on Sunday was dead, was the nemesis of former President George W. Bush, who pledged to take him "dead or alive" and whose two terms were dominated by a "war on terror" against his al Qaeda network.

Bin Laden also assailed Bush's successor, Barack Obama, dismissing a new beginning with Muslims he offered in a 2009 speech as sowing "seeds for hatred and revenge against America".

Widely assumed to be hiding in Pakistan -- whether in a mountain cave or a bustling city -- bin Laden was believed to be largely bereft of operational control, under threat from U.S. drone strikes and struggling with disenchantment among former supporters alienated by suicide attacks in Iraq in 2004-06.

But even as political and security pressures grew on him in 2009-2010, the Saudi-born militant appeared to hit upon a strategy of smaller, more easily-organised attacks, carried out by globally-scattered hubs of sympathisers and affiliate groups.

Al Qaeda sprouted new offshoots in Yemen, Iraq and North Africa and directed or inspired attacks from Bali to Britain to the United States, where a Nigerian Islamist made a botched attempt to down an airliner over Detroit on Dec 25, 2009.

While remaining the potent figurehead of al Qaeda, bin Laden turned its core leadership from an organisation that executed complex team-based attacks into a propaganda hub that cultivated affiliated groups to organise and strike on their own.

With his long grey beard and wistful expression, bin Laden became one of the most instantly recognisable people on the planet, his gaunt face staring out from propaganda videos and framed on a U.S. website offering a $25 million bounty.

Officials say U.S. authorities have recovered bin Laden's body, ending the largest manhunt in history involving thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers in the rugged mountains along the border.

Whether reviled as a terrorist and mass murderer or hailed as the champion of oppressed Muslims fighting injustice and humiliation, bin Laden changed the course of history.

ASYMMETRIC WARFARE

The United States and its allies rewrote their security doctrines, struggling to adjust from Cold War-style confrontation between states to a new brand of transnational "asymmetric warfare" against small cells of Islamist militants.

Al Qaeda's weapons were not tanks, submarines and aircraft carriers but the everyday tools of globalisation and 21st century technology -- among them the Internet, which it eagerly exploited for propaganda, training and recruitment.

But, by his own account, not even bin Laden anticipated the full impact of using 19 suicide hijackers to turn passenger aircraft into guided missiles and slam them into buildings that symbolised U.S. financial and military power.

Nearly 3,000 people died when two planes struck New York's World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers rushed the hijackers.

"Here is America struck by God Almighty in one of its vital organs," bin Laden said in a statement a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, urging Muslims to rise up and join a global battle between "the camp of the faithful and the camp of the infidels".

In video and audio messages over the next seven years, the al Qaeda leader goaded Washington and its allies. His diatribes lurched across a range of topics, from the war in Iraq to U.S. politics, the subprime mortgage crisis and even climate change.

A gap of nearly three years in his output of video messages revived speculation he might be gravely ill with a kidney problem or even have died, but bin Laden was back on screen in September 2007, telling Americans their country was vulnerable despite its economic and military power.

MILLIONAIRE FATHER

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, one of more than 50 children of millionaire businessman Mohamed bin Laden, he lost his father while still a boy -- killed in a plane crash, apparently due to an error by his American pilot.

Osama's first marriage, to a Syrian cousin, came at the age of 17, and he is reported to have at least 23 children from at least five wives. Part of a family that made its fortune in the oil-funded Saudi construction boom, bin Laden was a shy boy and an average student, who took a degree in civil engineering.

He went to Pakistan soon after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and raised funds at home before making his way to the Afghan front lines and developing militant training camps.

According to some accounts, he helped form al Qaeda ("The Base") in the dying days of the Soviet occupation. A book by U.S. writer Steve Coll, "The Bin Ladens", suggested the death in 1988 of his extrovert half-brother Salem -- again in a plane crash -- was an important factor in Osama's radicalisation.

Bin Laden condemned the presence in Saudi Arabia of U.S. troops sent to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait after the 1990 invasion, and remained convinced that the Muslim world was the victim of international terrorism engineered by America.

He called for a jihad against the United States, which had spent billions of dollars bankrolling the Afghan resistance in which he had fought.

TRAIL OF ATTACKS

Al Qaeda embarked on a trail of attacks, beginning with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six and first raised the spectre of Islamist extremism spreading to the United States.

Bin Laden was the prime suspect in bombings of U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996 as well as attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed 224.

In October 2000, suicide bombers rammed into the USS Cole warship in Yemen, killing 17 sailors, and al Qaeda was blamed.

Disowned by his family and stripped of Saudi citizenship, bin Laden had moved first to Sudan in 1991 and later resurfaced in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996.

With his wealth, largesse and shared radical Muslim ideology, bin Laden soon eased his way into inner Taliban circles as they imposed their rigid interpretation of Islam.

From Afghanistan, bin Laden issued religious decrees against U.S. soldiers and ran training camps where militants were groomed for a global campaign of violence.

Recruits were drawn from Central, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and even Europe by their common hatred of the United States, Israel and moderate Muslim governments, as well as a desire for a more fundamentalist brand of Islam.

After the 1998 attacks on two of its African embassies, the United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at Afghanistan, targeting al Qaeda training camps. Bin Laden escaped unscathed.

The Taliban paid a heavy price for sheltering bin Laden and his fighters, suffering a humiliating defeat after a U.S.-led invasion in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

ESCAPE FROM TORA BORA

Al Qaeda was badly weakened, with many fighters killed or captured. Bin Laden vanished -- some reports say U.S. bombs narrowly missed him in late 2001 as he and his forces slipped out of Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains and into Pakistan.

But the start of the Iraq war in 2003 produced a fresh surge of recruits for al Qaeda due to opposition to the U.S. invasion within Muslim communities around the world, analysts say.

Apparently protected by the Afghan Taliban in their northwest Pakistani strongholds, bin Laden also built ties to an array of south Asian militant groups and backed a bloody revolt by the Pakistani Taliban against the Islamabad government.

Amid a reinvigorated al Qaeda propaganda push, operatives or sympathisers were blamed for attacks from Indonesia and Pakistan to Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Spain, Britain and Somalia.

Tougher security in the West and killings of middle-rank Qaeda men helped weaken the group, and some followers noted critically that the last successful al Qaeda-linked strike in a Western country was the 2005 London bombings that killed 52.

But Western worries about radicalisation grew following a string of incidents involving U.S.-based radicals in 2009-10 including an attempt to bomb New York's Times Square.

In a 2006 audio message, bin Laden alluded to the U.S. hunt for him and stated his determination to avoid capture: "I swear not to die but a free man."

(Editing by William Maclean)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/osama-9-11-author-defied-bush-obama-041124566.html

Osama's Death - As It Happens


Death of Bin Laden: Live report
Agence France-Presse, Updated: 03/05/2011

0100 GMT: Before we conclude AFP's Live Report on the killing of Al-Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan, here is a recap of the main events:

0100 GMT: Before we conclude AFP's Live Report on the killing of Al-Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan, here is a recap of the main events:

- A team of Navy SEALs, following up on detective work by the US intelligence services, helicoptered in to bin Laden's secret compound deep inside Pakistan overnight Sunday and shot him dead. The operation lasted less than 40 minutes.

- The news was announced to a stunned world by US President Barack Obama.

"Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Obama said in a late night White House address.

Obama said he had directed the covert attack against a heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad, near Islamabad, in the early hours of Monday morning, Pakistan-time, acting on a lead that emerged last August.

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability," Obama said. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

Speaking of those who had lost loved ones on 9/11 and in other Al-Qaeda attacks, Obama said: "Justice has been done."

- World leaders welcomed the news but warned that Al-Qaeda's willingness to wreak havoc was undimmed and that the possibility of reprisal attacks meant vigilance was more important than ever.

- Pakistan's main Taliban faction threatened to attack Pakistan and the United States, calling them "the enemies of Islam." Hours later hundreds took to the streets of Pakistan's western city of Quetta to pay homage to bin Laden, chanting death to America and setting fire to a US flag.

- Bin Laden's body was buried at sea after Islamic rites were performed. "We wanted to avoid a situation where it would become a shrine," a US official said.

- Governments of Western and moderate Muslim countries from Britain and France to Turkey and Indonesia have broadly welcomed the news of bin Laden's death, as a fitting end to a man blamed for inspiring the 9/11 and multiple other attacks.

- While lauding the killing, Western governments have urged their people to be vigilant because of the risk of reprisal attacks.

- And, while acknowledging the wrongs carried out by Al-Qaeda, the governments of moderate Muslim countries have urged the west to recognise that Al-Qaeda is not representative of Islam and to refrain from linking the two.

- Iran and Hamas have said that the death of bin Laden removes "the last excuse" for western forces to remain in the region and urged them to withdraw.

- Meanwhile, India and Afghanistan have pointed the finger at Pakistan over its role in, witting or not, in providing bin Laden with "sanctuary" in the country for up to ten years since 2001.

The main events, disclosures and reactions follow in real time below:

0026 GMT: Rudy Giuliani, who was New York's mayor at the traumatic time of the September 11 terror strikes, tells ABC television he felt a "sense that revenge" after hearing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's death.

2337 GMT: The White House announces that US President Barack Obama is to visit Ground Zero on Thursday -- a bitter-sweet moment for Americans as they will no doubt rejoice at the killing of Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan but remember the nearly 3,000 people who died at his hands on September 11, 2001.

2254 GMT: Pakistan's US envoy promises a "full inquiry" into how Pakistani intelligence services failed to find bin Laden in a fortified compound just a few hours drive from Islamabad.

"Obviously bin Laden did have a support system, the issue is was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan?" ambassador Husain Haqqani tells CNN.

"We all know that there are people in Pakistan who share the same belief system and other extremists.... So that is a fact that there are people who probably protected him," he says.

"We will do a full inquiry into finding out why our intelligence services were not able to track him earlier."

2230 GMT: Reports suggest it is only a matter of time before bin Laden's killing by crack US forces is made into a Hollywood film -- and one Oscar-winning director could be ahead of the game.

Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Academy Award for her 2008 film "The Hurt Locker," was already working on a movie about the Al-Qaeda leader's death -- which she could still re-think after Sunday's covert operation in Pakistan.

According to the Hollywood Reporter industry daily, Bigelow has already been discussing a project provisionally entitled "Kill Bin Laden," based on a previous botched attempt to get the Al Qaeda chief.

She and her screenwriting collaborator Mark Boal -- who worked with Bigelow on "The Hurt Locker" -- have been meeting with actors for the action thriller project, when Sunday's shock development occurred.

"But now that Bin Laden has been killed, what happens to the Kill Bin Laden project?" it said, adding that the original project was based "on a failed Black Ops mission by the US military to capture the Al-Qaeda leader."

The actual killing could help the project, although "we can't imagine the events surrounding Bin Laden's ultimate killing not being incorporated into the script in some fashion," it added.

2210 GMT: CIA chief Leon Panetta will brief lawmakers behind closed doors on Tuesday on the special forces raid that killed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, officials say.

2204 GMT: Analysts say that by killing instead of capturing bin Laden, the United States avoided a courtroom spectacle that could have given Al-Qaeda's chief a propaganda boost and created a political headache for President Barack Obama.

Although he was officially wanted dead or alive, leading Bin Laden away in handcuffs would have opened up a whole new set of legal and political dilemmas for Washington, fueling controversies about how to treat and try terror suspects.

"I think the White House is probably breathing a sigh of relief that he was actually killed rather than captured," says Andrew Exum, a retired Army officer and fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"There was a real danger if he had been captured, the trial would have been a circus, the incarceration would have been a circus," Exum told AFP. "How we would have brought him to justice through the legal system would have been complicated."

2126 GMT: The UN Security Council hails the death of bin Laden, which it called a "critical development" in the fight against terrorism.

In a rare occasion where it "welcomes" the death of any person, the 15-nation council says the US military operation means bin Laden "will never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism" as the September 11, 2001 attacks.

2105 GMT: The White House says it is weighing whether to release photographs of bin Laden's corpse amid calls from some key lawmakers to do so to prove the Al-Qaeda chief is truly dead.

"We are going to do everything we can to make sure that nobody has any basis to try to deny that we got Osama bin Laden," President Barack Obama's gruff counter-terrorism chief John Brennan tells reporters.

2025 GMT: The US Muslim community rejoices at the news. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR), says bin Laden "received justice yesterday" and stresses that the Al-Qaeda leader "never represented our community of Islam or the Muslims."

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) greets bin Laden's death with "an immense sense of relief."

"We hope this is a turning point away from the dark period of the last decade, in which bin Laden symbolized the evil face of global terrorism," MPAC president Salam Al-Marayati says.

2000 GMT: The French government has stepped up security at its embassies and schools "in the appropriate countries" following the death of Osama bin Laden, Prime Minister Francois Fillon says.

Fillon said the government had given instructions to its embassies and schools to increase security.

"It is not the end of the war against terrorism and we have had a high threat level for a number of years," he says in interview on France 2 television.

1946 GMT: Top Muslim scholars say Islam is opposed to burials at sea like the one bin Laden received on Monday after being shot dead in a US operation in Pakistan.

The United States says bin Laden received Muslim religious rites but his body was "eased" into the Arabian Sea so that no one can build a shrine on his grave.

"If it is true that the body was thrown into the sea, then Islam is totally against that," says Mahmud Azab, an adviser to Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority.

1922 GMT: Twitter says news of bin Laden's killing triggered an unprecedented wave of messages on the microblogging service.

The messaging frenzy reached 5,000 "tweets-per-second" at times during a surge that lasted more than four hours.

1915 GMT: The killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is a "victory for the forces of peace," but his death does not mean extremism has been defeated, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

"Last night the forces of peace achieved a victory. But this does not mean that international terrorism has been defeated yet. We must all remain vigilant," her statement says.

1900 GMT: President Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney wraps up a White House briefing featuring senior US officials. Here is a recap of the information they disclosed about the operation that killed bin Laden:

- Top US counter-terrorism official John Brennan says it his understanding that one of Osama bin Laden's four wives served as a human shield in an unsucessful bid to save his life.

- Brennan calls the Al-Qaeda terror network a "mortally wounded tiger" and warns that it remains dangerous.

- He refuses to rule out official Pakistani backing for bin Laden and says Islamabad was only told of the raid that killed the Al-Qaeda leader after US forces left Pakistani airspace.

"We are looking right now at how he was able to hold out there for so long and whether or not there was any type of support system within Pakistan that allowed him to stay there," Brennan says.

"It is inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country to allow him to stay there for an extended period of time. I won't speculate on what type of support he would have had on an official basis, and we are talking to the Pakistanis right now."

Pakistan's powerful military intelligence services have been accused by US officials of covertly supporting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks fighting American troops in Afghanistan.

1810 GMT: The latest reaction from a world leader comes from French President Nicolas Sarkozy who congratulates Obama on his determination in hunting down bin Laden and agrees both countries must fight on against Al-Qaeda.

1742 GMT: Arab and Muslim Americans celebrate the death of bin Laden as 'justice served", but express fears of possible retributions by Al-Qaeda and say the scars remain.

"We are very happy to hear the news that he has been eliminated," said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, tells AFP in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the biggest concentrations of Arab Americans.

"This man is not a Muslim. This man has killed more Muslims than Americans - tens of thousands of people," Siblani says. "People are very excited that this happened because they want this sad chapter to be closed. They understand more than anyone else how much damage this man has done to the Muslim world and to the Arab world."

1705 GMT: Relatives and survivors of attacks carried out in the name of Al-Qaeda in Europe and Africa express joy and relief at Osama bin Laden's death, but some warn he may become a martyr who continues to inspire terrorists.

Pilar Manjon, whose 20-year-old son was one of 191 people killed in the bombings of four packed Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004 in Europe's worst Islamic terror attack, says Bin Laden's death "serves us little."

"A monster has died, but they have killed a martyr, they are going to transform him into a martyr," he says.

1658 GMT: Speaking for a second time on the momentous US raid in Pakistan, President Barack Obama hails a "good day for America" and says the world is a better place.

"I think we can all agree this is a good day for America. Our country has kept its commitment to see that justice is done," Obama says. "The world is safer, it is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden. Today, we are reminded that as a nation, there is nothing we can't do when we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together."

Obama was speaking in the East Room of the White House at a ceremony posthumously awarding the Medal of Honor, America's highest award for military valor, to two soldiers of the 1950-53 Korean War.

1637 GMT: US officials tell reporters that US forces administered Muslim religious rites for bin Laden aboard an aircraft carrier Monday before his body was "eased" into the Arabian Sea.

"Today religious rights were conducted for the deceased on the deck of the USS Carl-Vinson which is located in the North Arabian Sea," a senior defense official says.

"Traditional procedures for Islamic burial were followed. The deceased's body was washed and then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag.

"A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat-board... (and) eased into the sea."

The ceremony began at 0510 GMT and ended some 50 minutes later aboard the aircraft carrier, which is stationed off the coast of Pakistan to help US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

1625 GMT: Hundreds take to the streets of Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta to pay homage to bin Laden, chanting death to America and setting fire to a US flag, witnesses and organisers say.

1623 GMT: The US special forces that killed bin Laden took no prisoners in the raid on the Al-Qaeda leader's fortified compound in Pakistan, a senior defense official says.

1620 GMT: The United States says bin Laden's death could trigger retaliatory attacks in the United States and Europe, and against Western targets around the world.

"The Intelligence Community assesses the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could result in retaliatory attacks in the Homeland and against US and Western interests overseas," warns the US Department of Homeland Security.

1605 GMT: Casting doubt on reports that US special forces had been on a "kill mission," a US official tells AFP on condition of anonymity that the Navy SEALs had been prepared to take him alive.

"He resisted during the firefight. As a result, the operators on the ground killed him. They were prepared in the event of his surrender to take him alive," the source says.

1550 GMT: In New York, UN leader Ban Ki-moon calls bin Laden's death a "watershed moment" in the fight against terrorism.

The UN secretary general says Al-Qaeda's crimes had touched nearly every continent of the world. "This is a day to remember the victims of terrorism here in the United States and everywhere in the world," Ban says.

1545 GMT: Former US vice president Dick Cheney congratulates President Barack Obama on the killing of the Al-Qaeda chief but warns: "Al-Qaeda remains a dangerous enemy."

"Though bin Laden is dead, the war goes on. We must remain vigilant, especially now," he says.

Praising the work of a president he has previously criticized, he declares: "Today, the message our forces have sent is clear -- if you attack the United States, we will find you and bring you to justice." As vice-president, Cheney was considered one of the most hardline hawks in the administration of former President George W. Bush, and has been a strident critic of Obama.

1535 GMT: DNA tests carried out by US officials on the body taken from the compound in Pakistan have confirmed it is that of bin Laden, a senior US official tells AFP.

"Bin Laden's DNA has been matched to several family members. And there is at least 99 pecent certainty that the DNA matches that of Osama Bin Laden," the official says.

Online supporters of the late Al-Qaeda leader have also confirmed their belief that he is dead.

1515 GMT: In Brussels, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator has urged extra vigilance, saying that, while Al-Qaeda was "no longer in a position to organize another 9/11", in the short-term, bin Laden's death "might inspire some individuals to retaliate."

Gilles de Kerchove welcomes the operation by US special forces but urges vigilance in the coming weeks, where "reinforced security is necessary."

1512 GMT: Bin Laden's British step-grandson says he found out about the killing through a text message which read: "Your grand-dad is dead. Watch the news."

Bin Laden's fourth son Omar, 30, married British woman Jane Felix-Browne, 54, in 2007. Married several times before, she is now known as Zaina Alsabah-bin Laden

1415 GMT: In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urges the Taliban to abandon Al-Qaeda and participate in a peaceful political process.

"Our message to the Taliban remains the same, but today, it may have even greater resonance," Clinton tells reporters.

"You cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon Al-Qaeda and participate in a peaceful political process," she says.

1412 GMT: A brief summary of the early morning US press reactions.

- The tabloid New York Post trumpeted: "We Got Him!" in its headline Monday, while the New York Daily News posted: "ROT IN HELL!" in oversized print, across a photo of bin Laden.

- The Boston Globe wrote on its editorial page that: "Bin Laden's name will go down on a very short list of global villains who presented a serious threat to the lives and liberties of Americans."

But it said that, if his death was a cause for celebration: "the movement he led will continue. Al-Qaeda is not defeated. Other extremist groups will step forward."

- The Los Angeles Times concurred. "Bin Laden's death will not end terrorism, do away with Al-Qaeda or conclude the global war that began after 9/11 because too many people in too many nations accept his delusion that the United States is implacably at odds with the values of Islam," the paper's editorial board wrote.

- The Detroit Free Press wrote that global terrorism's most iconic figure is now gone, but stressed that the Al-Qaeda leader's demise should not be viewed as a purely symbolic event.

"Bin Laden's death should mean a palpable disruption to the operation of Al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the attacks and remains one of the most pernicious global threats," the Free Press wrote.

1400 GMT: US officials say bin Laden's body was buried at sea "to avoid a situation where it would become a shrine." A spokesman for Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority, says that Islam is opposed to burials at sea.

1355 GMT: Bin Laden was killed with a shot to head by US Navy SEALs, a US official tells AFP.

The SEALs, which stands for Sea, Air, Land, are elite troops used for some of the riskiest anti-terrorism missions, as well as behind-the-lines reconnaissance and unconventional warfare.

The SEAL team launched the assault from helicopters on the orders of CIA chief Leon Panetta, the official adds. "Responsibility for the raid is Leon Panetta's; it was executed by Navy SEALs."

1330 GMT: On of the recurring themes in the reaction to bin Laden's killing is the vigilance needed against reprisal attacks.

In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta has added to this, warning that terrorist groups will "almost certainly" try to avenge his death, but saying the US would remain prepared.

"The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must -- and will -- remain vigilant and resolute," he says.

1325 GMT: In another moderate Muslim state, Malaysia's premier has spoken out, criticizing Al-Qaeda but warning that despite bin Laden's death, the late Al-Qaeda leader will likely remain a figurehead for jihadists.

"This does not mean that Al-Qaeda will be destroyed as they are capable of reorganising and he will remain an inspiration to such militants," Najib Razak tells reporters.

"I hope that people realise that terrorism is not how you change things for the better as it only gives a bad name to Islam. As an Islamic country, we must show that such actions are unacceptable," he says.

1255 GMT: Another interesting reaction from the moderate Muslim world. The government in Ankara voices "great satisfaction" at the killing of bin Laden, while renewing an appeal against linking terrorism and Islam.

"I welcomed his death with great satisfaction," President Abdullah Gul tells journalists at the Ankara airport ahead of a state visit to Austria.

1230 GMT: In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, a radical Islamist group hails bin Laden as a "martyr".

"If it's true Osama bin Laden is dead, then he died a martyr. He fought for Islam and he fought for the lands colonised by America," Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid spokesman Son Hadi tells AFP.

"Al-Qaeda didn't die with him. Jihad will not be dampened just because he's dead because jihad is a command of the religion, not of individuals," he adds.

JAT was founded in 2008 by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has long been known as the spiritual leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network.

1220 GMT: In Saudi Arabia, a country where bin Laden had many family links, officials are reported saying they hope his death will boost anti-terror efforts.

"Saudi Arabia hopes that the elimination of the leader of the terrorist Al-Qaeda organisation will be a step towards supporting international efforts aimed at combating terrorism and dismantling its cells," the state-run SPA news agency has quoted an unidentified official as saying.

1205 GMT: So in my 1110 entry, I promised more on that statement from Ismail Hamiya, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza. Here it is:

"We condemn any killing of a holy warrior or of a Muslim and Arab person and we ask God to bestow his mercy upon him," Haniya told journalists.

"If the news is true, then we consider it a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and bloodshed against Arabs and Muslims," he said, condemning bin Laden's killing "despite the difference in interpretations between us."

1155 GMT: And in Tehran, authorities are picking up the same theme as the Muslim Brotherhood, (see 1147 GMT) that the death of bin Laden means it is time for the US to leave.

Bin Laden's killing had removed "any excuse" for the United States and its allies to deploy forces in the Middle East, the Iranian government has said.

The "US and their allies have no more excuse to deploy forces in the Middle East under (the) pretext of fighting terrorism," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying on the website of Iran's English-language Press TV channel.

He said Iran hopes this development will help to "establish peace and security in the region," adding that it is Iran's policy to "strongly condemn terrorism all over the world."

1147 GMT: In Cairo, a city at the centre of much change of late, an important point being made by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

"Islam is not bin Laden," Mahmud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's number two, told AFP.

"After September 11, there had been a lot of confusion. Terrorism was mixed up with Islam," he said. "In the coming phase, everyone will be looking to the West for just behaviour," he added.

This meant that, with bin Laden dead, the western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, he added.

1145 GMT: In London, where 52 people were killed in 2005 by a string of bombings by Al-Qaeda supporters, relatives of the victims have given a mixed reaction to the death of bin Laden, warning that Islamist extremists might now try to perpetrate further atrocities.

"There will be relief and comfort for victims of Al-Qaeda all around the world," John Falding, whose partner Anat Rosenberg died in the attacks, told the BBC. "But I think also it's a short-lived victory, in a way, because we now have to be on our guard."

"I think there will be reprisals -- if only so that people can demonstrate that the organisation... still has potency," he said. And Kim Beer, whose hairdresser son Philip, 22, was killed in the London attacks, said simply: "I am not pleased for anyone to lose their life."

1135 GMT: It's clear that a lot of the focus from world leaders now is going to be what exactly Pakistan knew, and when, about bin Laden's presence in the compound, and about the US raid.

And it is not just India saying this.

Afghan's President Hamid Karzai is also making the point that bin Laden appeared to have found refuge in Pakistan - not Afghanistan.

"Again and again, for years and every day, we have said that the war on terror is not in Afghan villages, not in Afghan houses of the poor and oppressed," he has told a meeting of tribal elders. The war is in Pakistan, he said.

And Karzai appealed to the Taliban now to stop fighting: "Talib, come to your country and stop the fighting and leave the weapon that the foreigners have put on your shoulders," he said.

1130 GMT: As Gilani was talking, Pakistan's main Taliban faction on Monday threatened to attack Pakistani government and US interests following the killing.

"If he has been martyred, we will avenge his death and launch attacks against American and Pakistani governments and their security forces," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Taliban spokesman said the militia had not itself managed to confirm bin Laden's death, which was announced by US President Barack Obama. "If he has become a martyr, it is a great victory for us because martyrdom is the aim of all of us," he added.

1125 GMT: In Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has told AFP in an interview that the killing of bin Laden was a "great victory" but admitted he was not well informed about the details of the operation.

"We will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism and therefore I think it's a great victory, it's a success and I congratulate the success of this operation," he said.

Asked about the extent to which Pakistan cooperated in the operation he said: "I don't know the details, I don't know minute details, but in short we have intelligence cooperation". More on this interview later.

1115 GMT: Back to India first, where Home Minister P. Chidambaram said India noted with "grave concern" that bin Laden had been killed by US special forces at a fortified compound not far from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

"This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan," Chidambaram said.

India has long accused Pakistan of providing shelter and support to militant groups planning attacks on Indian soil and has repeatedly pushed the global community -- the United States in particular -- to censure Pakistan accordingly.

In Washington, Obama said the operation to kill bin Laden was the result of cooperation with Islamabad, but Chidamabaram chose to focus on India's belief that perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks continue to be sheltered in Pakistan. Many questions remain for Pakistan, clearly.

1110 GMT: Among the voices criticising the killing, Ismail Haniya, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, has condemned the strike against bin Laden.

More on his comments in a minute.

1107 GMT: A member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Osama bin Laden's network in Yemen, said he had confirmed the news of the killing, calling it a "catastrophe."

"This news has been a catastrophe for us. At first we did not believe it, but we got in touch with our brothers in Pakistan who have confirmed it," a member reached by telephone told an AFP correspondent in Yemen.

Yemen is bin Laden's ancestral homeland. Saudi and Yemeni Al-Qaeda branches in January 2009 announced they had merged to form the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

1105 GMT: An interesting detail in the reaction from Moscow is an appeal for greater cooperation with the US on anti-terrorism operations.

"Only a joint and united fight against global terrorism can achieve substantial results. Russia is ready to step up this type of cooperation," the Kremlin statement said.

Of course, Russia itself has seen significant conflict over many years with Muslim separatists in the Caucasus regions, and labels its opponents "terrorists".

1100 GMT: A poignant reaction from Kenya, where more than 200 people - most of them Kenyans - died in a bombing in 1998 thought to have been inspired by bin Laden.

"The killing of Osama has taken place nearly 13 years after the terrorist bombings in Nairobi that led to the death of over 200 people," Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said in a statement.

"His killing is an act of justice to those Kenyans who lost their lives and the many more who suffered injuries," he said.

1050 GMT: And in the country where the raid took place, the government of pakistan hailed the strike as providing a blow against terrorism.

"Osama bin Laden's death illustrates the resolve of the international community, including Pakistan, to fight and eliminate terrorism," the foreign ministry said.

"It constitutes a major setback to terrorist organisations around the world."

The ministry made no comment on what the strike revealed about the Pakistani role. (See India's comments in my first post at 1000 GMT)

1045 GMT: Russia, often a critic of US military actions overseas, has praised the US strike against bin laden.

"The Kremlin welcomes the serious success the United States achieved in the war against international terrorism," President Medvedev's press service told Russian news agencies.

1035 GMT: Among the reactions of more interested parties, there's this from Afghan President Hamid Karzai:

"The American forces yesterday killed Osama Bin Laden and made him pay for his deeds," Karzai told a gathering of tribal elders at his palace in Kabul.

"He was made to pay for his actions," added the president of the country that for several years hosted the Al-Qaeda leader.

1025 GMT: According to the US monitoring group SITE, an online forum used for official messages from Al-Qaeda has been deleting posts from supporters enquiring about bin Laden's death, pending confirmation by "mujahadeen (holy fighter) sources."

Messages posted on the forum included vague threats that "America will repeat the same if the news is true," and said his supporters "will continue moving in the footsteps of Osama".

1015 GMT: In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned that the death of bin Laden had hurt but not finished the organisation he led.

"Whilst Al-Qaeda has been hurt today, Al-Qaeda is not finished. Our war against terrorism must continue," she said.

1000 GMT: Reaction is coming in from world capitals to the news. I'll try to run through a few of them here:

President Obama's predecessor George W. Bush congratulated the man who succeeded him in office and called the death of bin Laden a "victory for America".

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the news would bring "great relief to people across the world".

Israel and India joined the congratulated, with India suggesting however that the fact that bin Laden had been hiding in Pakistan showed the country was in fact a "sanctuary" for his organisation.

In leading European capitals, the operation brought praise. Italy called it a "victory of good over evil", Germany "good news for all free-thinking men" and France a "victory for all democracies."

But the countries all also warned about the need for vigilance in the face of possible retaliatory attacks by bin Laden supporters.


Channel News Asia - 3/5/2011

SINGAPORE: Singapore has heightened all security measures at its borders and checkpoints in light of Osama bin Laden’s death.

In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said this was to guard against the entry of terrorist operatives as well as regional elements affiliated with Al—Qaeda.

It added that security presence and alert level have also been increased within Singapore at key establishments, and that the situation would be kept under review.

The ministry said Osama’s killing by the US could be expected to draw retaliatory attacks from jihadist terrorists from or close to the Al—Qaeda Core and other jihadist terrorists who are keen to avenge his death.

To this end, the possibility that regional groups affiliated to Al—Qaeda, like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), might carry out retaliatory attacks against US assets in this region, including those in Singapore could not be discounted.

Such groups might also act against allies of the US, and countries seen to be close to the US.

In view of the recent evidence that JI—related terrorist elements in Indonesia and this region pose an active and persistent threat — including the finding of large bombs in Indonesia on Good Friday and grenades in Kuala Lumpur a couple of weeks ago — the ministry said it would be prudent for Singapore to be extra vigilant to guard against this threat.

It added that other governments have also announced tighter security measures.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said: "Our checkpoints are a key area where we must have stepped up vigilance and extra security. On the lookout, and particularly taking a bit of time, Singaporeans and other travellers may be slightly inconvenienced as a result of that."

— CNA/de/al