Osama bin Laden

What else is there to say?

Well quite a bit, actually.
So in a big surprise, Barack Obama announced the other day that U.S. forces have killed Osama bin Laden. What, you didn't know that? Let me explain then. The other night, after months and months of careful planning, a small team of Navy SEALs flew into a large Pakistani compound by helicopter. In it they engaged in a firefight with the residents, which included Osama bin Laden, one of his adult sons, and a woman believed to be one of his wives. They all died. No Americans died. After 40 minutes, they left with the body, identified it with DNA, and buried it at sea.

Bin Laden had been hiding in this compound, complete with 8-foot high walls, for some time. However, the United States were careful and patient. The compound had no internet or telephone connections. Despite this, Bin Laden remained the military commander of Al-Qaeda up until his death; he used personal messengers to relay information around. The government found out about his location through one of these messengers. The whole operation took 40 minutes without the knowledge of the Pakistan government.

So, what does this mean? For now, it's too early to tell, but we can speculate. Personally, I think this is a big step in the right direction towards dissolving an organization such as Al-Qaeda. It is a movement led by an ideology, and according to U.S. intelligence, bin Laden was a charismatic leader. So hopefully this will create confusion and argument within the hierarchy. This will weaken the movement.

Of course, there are risks. Wikileaks leaked some documents from the CIA a few weeks ago. They pertained to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, specifically the population of the prison, the things people do there, and the information that the government has received. One prisoner, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had said that if Osama bin Laden was killed or captured, a sleeper cell would detonate a nuclear device somewhere in Europe. Now, of course you have to take statements like that with a grain of salt, especially since torture has been a notoriously bad way of getting good information (Mohammed has been waterboarded at least 183 times). But that still scares me very much. And there could be other retaliation, from stepped up fighting in Afghanistan to coordinated terrorist attacks across the United States.

Of course, nothing could happen. The "War on Terror" could keep going on as usual, slow and steady.