全方位剖析本拉登的死

For almost 10 years now, the question has been asked angrily and then with growing frustration over the years with waning hope where is Osama Bin Laden? Why hasn't he been caught?

This was a raid literally, years in the making. US intelligence painstakingly pursued a trusted courier used by Osama Bin Laden. And the courier's pseudonym came from detainees being held at Guantanamo Prison. It took six years then to uncover his real name, two more to learn his area of operations and finally almost nine years after the September 11th attacks, the US identified the areas in Pakistan where the courier and his brother lived and worked.The courier was tracked to the compound in Abbottabad about 100 kilometers, north of the capital, Islambad.

A mansion on three floors, high security walls, a place built to hide someone important, planning intensified within the past few weeks, with the president chairing five national security council meetings, the final one, Thursday last week. The following day at 8:20 am, as the president prepared to leave the White House for Alabama. President Obama gave the go-ahead for a mission that had been rehearsed for months.

The end began with four US military helicopters and two dozen commandos arriving overhead. When some of the Navy SEALs landed on the ground, the assault teams stormed the compound. CIA director Leon Panetta was quarterbacking the mission, in secure radio contact with the assault team commander. But back at the White House,the president's national security team was anxiously watching video from the site.

This ABC news video shows the aftermath inside the compound. One woman died in the firefight. The SEALs shot and killed the two brothers and Bin Laden's son. And with a shot to the chest and one to the head, the SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden. They identified his body and took it with them as they left the compound.

The operation lasted about 40 minutes. Though a US helicoper crashed due to mechanical reasons, there were no US casualties.

"The minutes passed like days and the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel."

And a senior official says there were two dramatic moments on Sunday afternoon in the White House situation room. First of all, when the president and his top aides heard the code Geronimo EKIA, as in Geronimo, code for Bin Laden, enemy killed in action, then there was a great debate around the conference table about whether or not it really was Bin Laden as they went through the various tools, facial recognition, a report on the ground. There was a big debate. Everyone wanted to be cautious. Is this really Bin Ladent? Make sure of that before they told the world. We were told, finally. It was the president who made the call by simply saying, "we got him."

After the killing and burial at sea with ritual and prayer, strictly adhering to Islamic requirement, we are told, according to White House officials, a burial at sea so there will be no shrine for his followers to visit.

The man who killed 2,752 people at the World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Shanksville, Pennsylvavia. The man who inspired deadly attacks in London, Madrid, and around the world. Osama Bin Laden is gone. And the president of the United State summed it up in four words; words that Americans and people all around the world have waited  almost 10 years to hear.

Justice has been done.