President Obama was watching on a TV screen as a commando gunned down Osama Bin Laden. Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye.
The Seal then carried out what is known in the military as a ‘double tap’ – shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead. The footage of the battle in Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout – relayed to the White House by satellite – is said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle.
She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden’s sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader’s body was buried at sea.
Despite President Obama claiming the master terrorist’s death made the world a ‘safer, better place’, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency declared that terrorists would ‘almost certainly’ respond.
The warning came on a day when:
- Relations between Pakistan and the West were under intense strain amid disbelief that intelligence chiefs in Islamabad had no idea Bin Laden was living in a compound only 800 yards from the country’s leading military academy.
- U.S. officials sought to justify the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by claiming it provided the crucial breakthrough in hunting down Bin Laden.
- It emerged that a terror operative captured in Pakistan in 2004 said Al Qaeda would detonate a nuclear bomb in the U.S. if Bin Laden were killed or captured.
David Cameron said Bin Laden’s death would be ‘welcomed right across our country’.
But security was stepped up as he warned: ‘It does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist terrorism. Indeed, we will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead.’
Last night the Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Government’s emergency planning committee Cobra to assess the implications for the UK. Security sources have been told of specific threats against targets in North Africa and Europe.
Officials in Britain fear a ‘lone wolf’ – currently off the security services’ radar – could be inspired to take revenge.
There is no specific intelligence pointing to any attack in response to Bin Laden’s death, but it is ‘common sense’ to be on guard, Whitehall officials say.
Possible targets include popular tourist and business locations including the Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf and the London Eye, say security experts.
President Obama announced Bin Laden’s death in a televised statement shortly after 4am British time yesterday
He recalled the images from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 which were ‘seared into our national memory’.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed – including 67 Britons – when four jets hijacked by Al Qaeda extremists crashed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The attack left ‘a gaping hole in our hearts’, said the President.
Last night pictures were released of Mr Obama and his security team – including Hillary Clinton – watching the mission to kill Bin Laden in the White House’s Situation Room.
Describing the scene, President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said: ‘It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods in the lives of the people who were assembled.
‘The minutes passed like days and the President was very concerned about the security of our personnel.’
The President’s announcement sparked jubilant celebrations, with crowds gathering outside the White House and at Ground Zero where the Twin Towers had stood in New York.
Former President George W Bush, who was in the White House when the attacks took place, described the news as a ‘momentous achievement’.
‘America has sent an unmistakable message: no matter how long it takes, justice will be done,’ he said.
But the euphoria was tempered by warnings that Bin Laden’s supporters would carry out a wave of reprisal attacks against Western targets, including the UK.
CIA director Leon Panetta said: ‘Though Bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda is not. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must – and will – remain vigilant and resolute.’
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: ‘This is a very serious blow to Al Qaeda but, like any organisation that has suffered a serious blow, they will want to show in some way that they are still able to operate.
‘We will still have to be even more vigilant in the coming days about the international terrorist threat.’
Some 50 people living in Britain are believed to have attended terror training camps in Afghanistan. One suggestion is that Al Qaeda supporters who are not known to the security services could be emboldened to strike.
Another possibility is that terror cells already plotting attacks in the UK could bring forward their plans.
It also emerged last night that the timing of the U.S. mission may have been triggered by Wikileaks.
Although the CIA has thought since September that Bin Laden was in Abbottabad, the attack on his fortress came only days after the website published fresh secret documents.
These made reference to named ‘couriers’ carrying Bin Laden’s message to his followers, and also to Abbottabad as a possible Al Qaeda bolthole.
America has already revealed that it was led to Bin Laden by tracking a man identified as his key courier. When that courier was found in Abbottabad, the CIA began surveillance that led to the raid.
Last night it was said the operation had to be launched before Bin Laden knew the game was up. The theory is based on a leaked U.S. Defence Department assessment of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Abu Faraj al-Libi, 40.
This information identifies al-Libi as a chief of Al Qaeda who fled to Pakistan in 2001. He lived in Abbottabad for a year before being caught in 2005. He was then handed to the U.S., who continue to detain him.
We've got him, said the President
This was the dramatic moment that President Obama and Hillary Clinton watched Osama Bin Laden being shot dead.
Photos released by the White House late last night show Mr Obama and his Secretary of State in similar poses, their hands clamped over their mouths.
Together with the President’s national security team they are watching a crew of Navy Seals storm the terror chief’s hideout in Pakistan.
While the men in the room, arms folded, remain largely expressionless as they stare at the live feed streamed from the helmet camera of a U.S. commando, it is the expression on Mrs Clinton’s face that clearly shows the tension that they all felt.
She was unable to hide the emotion of the moment for which they had waited more than a decade.
Mr Obama, with his eyes intently focused on the scene unfolding and with his fist clenched to his mouth, was said to be ‘stony faced’ through the transmission, even at the point when a voice came over the speakers stating: ‘We’ve ID’d Geronimo’ – a code name for Bin Laden.
After the terrorist was shot, Mr Obama was said to have turned to the room and said: ‘We got him.’
With the, mission accomplished, those present were able to breathe a sigh of relief.
With Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton as the tense operation unfolded were Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and White House Chief-of-Staff Bill Daly.
CIA Director Leon Panetta wasn’t in the photo but was at the White House at several points during the day.
The President was also seen on the phone talking to the heads of Allied countries, including British Prime Minister David Cameron.
We're 99.9% sure it's him
American officials said last night they were ‘99.9 per cent confident’ that DNA evidence proved Osama Bin Laden is dead.
Scientists compared forensic samples from the body in the Pakistan hideout with those taken from the brain of the terror mastermind’s late sister who died in a Boston hospital several years ago,
Photos of the corpse have also been passed to experts in facial recognition, who are comparing them to previous indisputable images of the Al Qaeda leader.
The apparent speed of the Bin Laden tests raised yet more questions last night. Merely transporting samples to laboratories where DNA profiling can be carried out usually takes time, as does the process itself.
However, new technology means that the process can be speeded up and it is possible that the Americans kept a Bin Laden family DNA profile at a base in Afghanistan. Indeed, one report yesterday was that the DNA test had already been conducted on the fresh corpse.
Samples from siblings alone could not, however, prove 100 per cent certain. Close similarity of the corpse’s DNA profile with those of siblings could only show that a member of the Bin Laden family had been killed.
Further circumstantial evidence – including photos, perhaps his height (up to 6ft 6in), and location in an Al Qaeda hideout – might then be added to provide all the proof the Americans feel necessary. A U.S. official said last night that as well as being identified by troops, a woman believed to be one of his wives, had confirmed Bin Laden was the dead man.
Pentagon officials said that photos of the body and a videotape of the sea burial may be released soon to answer any doubts that Bin Laden was actually killed.
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