As the world learned late night, the long arm of the law finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden over the weekend, as he was killed by the navy seals team. With swift DNA confirmation, the body of bin laden was then buried at sea from the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, with a muslim sailor reading El-Quran as part of the burial service. There will be lots of speculation about this matter, as things were done so swiftly, it makes your head spin. Whether actual photos will ever be released for the general public to view remains to be seen as the days go by. With Bin Laden out of the way, how long could it possibly be before an act of revenge for this knuckleheads death comes knocking on our door step? I'm thankful the naval seals were able to take care of business pertaining to this guy without any major incident, like many other citizens, I wonder what's going to happen next.
Acting on direct orders from President Barack Obama, an elite team of Navy SEALS shot and killed Osama bin Laden on Sunday. The government has acknowledged it believed it likely that the al-Qaida leader would die in the attack, calling it a "kill operation."
The death of bin Laden was the result of years of work on the part of intelligence teams from many different government agencies. In the end, however, taking out the world's most wanted fugitive reportedly came down to a handful of men, a helicopter, and a drone.
Although exact details of the kill operation have not officially been released, information leaked to the media suggests that the SEALS who went after bin Laden that last time were aided by a stealth drone, a Lockheed-Martin RQ-170 Sentinel nicknamed the "Beast of Kandahar." The drone flew over the area where bin Laden was suspected to be hiding, gathering intel later used to go in after the al-Qaida leader.
The government has insisted that they would have obeyed what are known as the Rules of Engagement (ROE) and merely arranged for his safe capture had bin Laden chosen to surrender, but it was widely assumed by all involved given his previous actions and verbal assertions that he would not. This turned out to be the case, and while no Americans were injured in the attack, it is now known that 4 others were killed along with bin Laden when they were reportedly used as human shields either by bin Laden himself or others in the compound.
The SEALS, reportedly the uber-elite group known as Team Six, were acting on information gathered through various intelligence agencies over the past few years at least. The orders to proceed with practice drills in advance of the actual operation were only reportedly granted in March, after two years spent trying to infiltrate the system of couriers that bin Laden was using to get information both in and out of his compound. Some government officials were briefed as far back as December that bin Laden may have been located, but before the SEALS could be sent in, there had to be no question that the al-Qaida leader was in residence.
Facebook pages for several branches of the U.S. military-Navy, Army, and SEALS-have seen markedly increased traffic in the wake of bin Laden's death. Wall Street saw a boost from the news as well, as the stock market opened at 12,810.16 and skyrocketed upwards throughout the day on Monday.
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