core sector communique

Obama Calls Death of bin Laden an Act of Justice

 

 

By Jeff Baron

Staff Writer

 

Washington - President Obama says the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden allows the world to tell the families of bin Laden's victims: "Justice has been done."

 

U.S. forces killed bin Laden in a firefight, part of a raid on his compound in Pakistan early on May 2, Pakistani time. In announcing the death, Obama called bin Laden "a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children."

 

Obama recalled the images of September 11, 2001: hijacked planes, the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia, just outside of Washington, and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. But he said that "the worst images are those that were unseen to the world: the empty seat at the dinner table; children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father; parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace."

 

On Monday, the president said it was "a good day for America." Speaking at a Medal of Honor ceremony for two soldiers killed in the Korean War, the president made reference to bin Laden: "Our country has kept its commitment to see that justice is done," Obama said. "The world is safer; it is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden."

 

Capturing or killing bin Laden had been a U.S. goal even before the 2001 attacks. He declared war on the United States and its allies in 1996, and al-Qaida was considered responsible for the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 suicide attack against the USS Cole in Yemen. Obama said he made the capture or killing of bin Laden the top priority for the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

The president said the fight against the Islamist extremist group will continue, but that "the United States is not - and never will be - at war with Islam." "Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims," Obama said.

 

Although the move against bin Laden went ahead without prior word to the Pakistani government, Obama said that Pakistan's cooperation "helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding." The president, who called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari after the raid, added that Pakistani officials were pleased that bin Laden had been found and killed.

 

John Brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism adviser, said bin Laden clearly must have had a "support system" in Pakistan to live comfortably there with his family. Brennan said the United States will take up the issue with Pakistani officials.

 

Senior administration officials offered some details of the early morning May 2 raid on the compound, about 35 miles from Islamabad. It involved two helicopters with members of the U.S. Navy special forces who entered the large compound, which was thought to house three families: those of bin Laden and two brothers who were his trusted aides. In the gunfight that followed, five people died: bin Laden, the two aides, bin Laden's grown son and one of bin Laden's wives, who was used as a shield by one of the men who died. No Americans were injured.

 

At the end of the attack, one of the two American helicopters could not take off and was destroyed. The attack force left with bin Laden's body in the other helicopter. They had been in the compound for less than 40 minutes.

 

U.S. officials said bin Laden's body was positively identified and was treated in accordance with Islamic custom before being buried at sea within 24 hours of the raid.

 

Obama and the senior officials praised the teamwork and effort that went into the operation against bin Laden: four years ago getting information from captured al-Qaida members identifying an aide who served as a courier for bin Laden, then in August 2010 finding the compound where he and his brother lived. Months more of intelligence-gathering showed that the compound also sheltered "a high-value target," probably bin Laden.

 

The killing of bin Laden brought praise from U.S. lawmakers of both parties, both for Obama and for the intelligence services and Navy SEALs involved in the operation.

 

A statement from Senator John McCain of Arizona, Obama's Republican opponent in the 2008 election, said he was "overjoyed" with the news. "The world is a better and more just place now that Osama bin Laden is no longer in it," McCain said. "I hope the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will sleep easier tonight and every night hence knowing that justice has been done."

 

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, said in a statement that the 10-year manhunt for bin Laden "was in search of justice, not revenge."

 

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also offered statements of praise and congratulations. "This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001," Bush said. Clinton said, "I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaida attacks."

 

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. )