Osama Bin Laden is Dead
 

At least that's what I'm hearing. Pretty damn cool if you ask me!!

Fantastic news!!!! I guess we should gear up for some Muslim riots after their hero bit the dust.

Those dang drones. I thought we were evil for using those against them? The Arab world is changing.

Good! Wonder if he is with 17 virgins right now. Someone will be right there to replace him. We need to wipe them all out and be done with it!

Fantastic news! I am so glad he is dead vs captured. Plus, I am thrilled that we killed the effer.

Usa usa usa!!!!!

It wasn't drones; we have the body. It was special ops - pretty cool. I'm in Manhattan right now - there are lots of happy people in the streets.

Awesome news, this is a big day. Great speech by Obama. Awesome that it was Special Ops. Badass.

I'm not an Obama fan....by any means, but I agree. That was a pretty good speech

I would imagine that my parents/grandparents felt this happy when Hitler was killed. I am home alone and still tempted to bust out some champaign.

I found this article http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-...ry?id=13505703

Yeah, he seemed to strike a pretty good balance between delivering kick-ass news and not celebrating it too much. Good tone.

That's effin great news!! So glad that coward is finally dead!!! NOW CAN WE LOWER THE GAS PRICES PLEASE!!!???

The U.S government can fly over your house doing mach 3 at 30,000 feet and read the newspaper you're holding, but they can't find a insulin dependent, dialysis patient in Pakistan?


Mkay.. he's dead. Go USA!

They revised the story. I hope they bury him with bacon.

I just read they buried him at sea. So happy that we finally got him!

Yea I to thought that Obama's speech was very good and very American.
A great day for the Armed Forces. I cant wait to see a film or Time line that would out line how this whole thing went down. Huge Props to the men and women who are in the Military, "ALL Branches"

timeline of the OP is on msnbc

There is a growing outcry for photos.
I work with someone that said and India site had a photo this morning that got pulled.
I presume we WILL get photos like we did with Saddam.

I checked the darkest corners of the Web of which I know. The sites that are quickest to publish the grossest stuff, legal or not. And I found nothing.

heres what I found.....
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...hoto-is-a-fake

I wonder if we'll hear of attempted terrorist attacks on U.S soil because of this in the very near future.

They are wondering if the pictures are to graphic????
Umm I have to say NO we wanna see the dead POS. If people don't wanna see they can choose to not look. When Nick berg got his head chopped off, That was graphic!

Too graphic to release a photo? You want graphic, look at the national debt and figure out how many generations of American kids lives will be detrimentally affected because of it. In any event, the quicker they release it the quicker everyone accepts he's dead. Good riddance, but celebrating this is retarded. We lost the war a long time ago. Call me when I can fly on a plane without being molested.

One to the body, one to head.....sounds like an execution mission. Job well done.

Now that more comes out, you really see what a BITCH he was. He held a woman up as a shield!

I am thrilled that OBL is DEAD. I am also thrilled with the way it was implemented -- our special forces are the best in the world.

Yet, am I the only person who thinks maybe BUSH de-emphasized nailing OBL because it would erode support for the Iraq war?

Nah, I think there was always a hunt, but I think he saw him as impotent. Moral/psychological victories wasnt going to mean much if the organization was still active. I think much of our national security since WWII was based on the perception of being inpenetrable. The US was able to maintain that facade for decades and citizens walked around freely because of it. 9/11 showed the world that anyone who puts any forethought into hitting us could do it. If some 3rd world countrymen with no real resources can walk right in to the US and train on our soil to attack us, why couldnt someone with real resources or real soldiers do the same? In Bush's mind, it put blood in the water. I think the facade came down on his watch and he was desperate to recreate it. He needed to show the world immediate action, so he picked an easy target with UN sanctions already in place and violations on record. The resistence was unexpected and proved how the worlds view of us had changed. Backing away would just solidify that view, so he couldnt un-ring that bell.

Thats called the double tap.



and anyone that thinks Pakistan is our friend is crazy. He was "hiding" in a multi million dollar compound in close proximity to a military base and in a neighborhood full of top generals. they knew exactly where he was.

IMO, killing OBL was/is hugely important. Figuratively, we need to tell anyone out there, you will be hunted down and killed. In addition, great leaders are not a dime a dozen while great followers are a dime a dozen. So, we may see that OBL's shoes are hard to fill. We have killed #1 and #3. So, if we can kill #2, that organization could suffer to function for a while. Also, people say the #2 guy is not nearly as charismatic as OBL so he may not be well suited to be #1. Hopefully, we got some good intel from OBL's hide out that will allow us to kill some more of this human trash.

I am almost certain Pakistan has been hiding him for years. but as far as a "Multi Miilion dollar" compound is concerned, I doubt that place was worth more than a couple hundred thousand. that place looked like a POS in a POS part of town. either way, I am glad he is dead, and I cant wait till we kill more of those terrorist nutjobs.

MIssion Accomplished #2. Seems like a good time to get out of Afghanistan.:rolleyes:

We do need to stop thinking "fix the middle east" and instead think "do what is best for the USA".

IMO, we should pull out of Afganistan so we are no longer trying to fix Afganistan but instead simply giving ourselves a base to strike Al Quida.

Unfortunately, pulling out of Afghanistian should not be an option. IMHO, if the US pulls out, the Taiban will pop back up stronger than ever. Even with our military in Pakistan, he was still living in a suburban area, and I haven't heard of any surrendor ofr peace treaty offered by the Taliban.

Anyone that thinks staying in Afghanistan is a good idea needs to look back to the Soviet invasion back in the 80's and see what that did to the USSR.

I'm just glad to see the royal wedding coverage come to a screeching halt.

This is the best time to get out of Afghanistan because our primary goal is complete. We didn't want the Taliban out, we wanted them to turn over OBL. If we leave now then no one can claim failure. If we stay and pull out later, then Afghanistan reverts back, we failed.

As it is now we can simply say that the Taliban could have avoided all the grief if they simply complied with our demand to turn him over. IMO this is a decision that needs to be made quickly to seize the opportunity. Our goal should not to be a welfare nanny for the ME. We will never succeed at that.

I thought our mission in AG was to

1)get OSL
2) kill AQ training camps and those that support them.

It doesn't appear we have completed number two yet. We should pull out of Iraq and refocus efforts.

I agree with John.

This is a golden opportunity to get out. Walk away from the card table with the money that remains in our pockets because the dealer is certain to give us band cards for years to come.

Now that we have had a few days to embrace this good news as a country, I feel I can warrant my opinion on how Obama handled the entire situation. This may be the very act that will get him reelected and under such circumstances would prove why I question our ability as a country to elect a leader that is acting in the best interest of the US Citizens. Obama's approval ratings obviously will spike, and recent polls already suggest this, but frankly he deserves little credit. Need I remind you how heavily he campaigned to close Guantanamo and cease "inhumane" forms of interrogation. The intel leading to OBL was obtain because of these very locations and methods he and his supporters wished to eliminate. Clearly I'm not insinuating that Bush deserves the credit, I just have a sick feeling in my stomach that Obama will ride the OBL train all the way through his next presidential campaign when his actions really are quite hypocritical.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110502/..._for_bin_laden

John, I have to disagree. First, I think its rather ignorant to assume that because OBL has been killed, Al Qaeda will completely dissolve. Our "Primary Goal" was not to kill OBL, it was simply one of many steps necessary in disbanding terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Additionally, the Taliban worked alongside Al Qaeda and are responsible for nearly all the acts of terrorism inflicted on Afghani civilians. You're right, we were not attempting to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan, but the goal is to disband them which is clearly why Obama supplied an additional 30,000 troops despite his anti-war agenda. There were essentially two "Primary Goals." The first was to protect our country by destroying all terrorists threats in the Middle East. The second was to provide Afghanis with the opportunity to regain control of their country from the Taliban. Fortunately we are close to completing both.

The political unrest we have seen in Libya serves as a testament to the oppression Middle Eastern states have endured for years. What the people want is a government void of political corruption that represents the nations best interest. The war in Afghanistan has not failed because the purpose was not to impose US influence on an unwilling society, it was to liberate a country and provide a foundation in which the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan could establish political structure that would offer Afghanis the freedom Taliban extremist would not otherwise permit.

Cole, disagree all you want but Bush never indicated any intention of invading Afghanistan until the Taliban refused to turn on OBL.

The political unrest in Libya and other ME countries only highlites the futality of attempting to shape govts in NA and the ME. If Al Qaeda doesn't like Afghanistan there will be plenty more countries.

It's a bigger job than we could ever hope to tackle. IMO no matter how much we bankrupt our economy attempting to play the foreign nanny we will regret it and those areas will revert to whatever form of govt that fate dictates. All it takes is a period of famine and propaganda to turn the tables on trillions of American investment. People in the US don't like our own big brother policies. You can only imagine how distasteful it is to them. Quite frankly, I don't give a s**t about paying for their freedom with the demise of America. And neither should you or any other American that cares about their country.

"First, I think its rather ignorant to assume that because OBL has been killed, Al Qaeda will completely dissolve."

Cole, I don't believe that anyone is assuming that. As much hiding as bin Laden has had to do since 2001, how crucial to the organization do you believe he was? Someone had taken his place as far as the running of the organization is concerned and I began to view bin Laden more as Al Qaeda Leader Emeritus over that past several years. I don't think that Al Qaeda will ever completely dissolve, it is simply too widespread.

work is kiling me so i haven't had a lot of time to be reading the ridiculous plethora of stuff out there, but wasn't quite a bit more accomplished here than just killing OBL as far as collecting documents and other intel about other operatives and potential plans of AQ?

John, Operation Enduring Freedom was multi faceted and sought far more compliance from the Taliban than to simply supply OBL's whereabouts. Their lack of cooperation was rightfully seen as hostile which prompted the invasion. Either way, don't forget it was supported by both sides of the isle! Ugh we can both debate this to the death. Honestly, I dont give a rat's as$ about liberating the ME, but I do think we have yet to eliminate all major terrorist threats within the region.

Seriously though I'm much more interested on what everyone's input is on Obama in regards to OBL's death and reelection.

A double tap would be two shots in rapid manner, with the second being in the general site as the first (atleast in my training). This to me sounds like a stop shot center mass, then a head shot to finish him off. Or two guys, two seperate shots. Either way, great job.

Leave the politics out of it. Just be thankful to the men & women that put themselves in these incredible situations, to protect our rights to spout our myopic opinions.

I am proud to be an American. It's that simple.

I am thrilled that they killed him. I only wish we were honest enough to say that our goal was to KILL him. He was a supreme enemy of our country. He and his officers deserve to die without trial. This is not a criminal matter. This is war.

Exactly GD. The same with Gaddafi. It's ridiculous to spend all this money helping the rebels and not be able to say this mission is to remove him from power. It hinders our efforts and gives confidence Gaddafi and his loyalists that there it a way to stay in power. The worst part is that it probably contributes to the death of many innocent people.

And I don't know why they couldn't just say we dumped OBL at sea because we don't want anyone worshiping the ground he's laid in. And we didn't give him any Islamic rites because he's caused more damage to Islam and Muslims than any man on the planet. That would be honesty, and no one would question our motives.

I hate to break it to you but OBL was probably just a front to be in Afghanistan. From what I hear from a friend in Private Military in Afghanistan now is that NASA is there and they have their own private military as well as Ratheon with their own PM soldiers and many other large companies all looking for something that has nothing to do with terrorists.

Super stealth choppers, supposedly remotely cutting/jamming cellphone and power to the building, restoring it when they left (U.S. not commenting on this ability?) - pretty 21st century badass.

LOL @ Barry's facebook pic.

You seem like a square kinda guy Mr. Williams, but I'm sorry, I have a rather hard time buying the whole thing when I consider some of the following;

Barack Hussein Obama’s speech was actually very disappointing and even a bit condescending to the United States Navy and somewhat of a slap in the face to others on the front lines of “The War on Terror” when you consider Obama’s actions of the past.

Obama’s speech gave only a fleeting mention of our great military and their sacrifice and achievements.

After all, it was the Bush policies in place (not Barack Hussein Obama’s) that made success possible, despite vicious opposition from democrats since 9/11…and Obama himself!

The Patriot Act was opposed by democrats and Obama from the start!

It would allow the CIA to tap into wireless phones giving them necessary intel to avert future attacks.

It was this policy along with intel gained from interrogation techniques (Such as water-boarding, which Obama eliminated), that gave the necessary intel, enabling the FBI to thwart an attack in Los Angeles and other plots.

For eight years the military has been impugned by the democrats campaigning and denying them the tools and technology needed to be successful.

Three elite officers of Navy Seal Team 6 faced charges, as they were court marshaled in 2009 for allegedly punching a most wanted terrorist in the gut.

I guess the story goes that four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades.

Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city.
They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Obama and Eric Holder had these Seals court marshaled for a punch in the stomach?

Barack Obama won the democrat primary by promoting his anti-war policies…promising to close Guantanamo Bay while Attorney General Eric Holder, known for representing 12 terrorists, attempted to criminalize war efforts attempting to provide Constitutional rights to terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed by pushing for trial in NYC.

Lastly, Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader opposed the surge in Iraq stating that the “war had been lost,” discrediting and no doubt greatly discouraging those serving.

The greatest military in the world, went on to win…while Harry Reid himself attempted to take credit.

All of these were efforts to dismantle, defund and demean our military heroes as well as our security.

Some in this forum have demeaned the United States Army in general, even while you Dave were commenting about Keith Lyman’s entry into the service.

I wonder if some of those pecker heads would have the guts to make disparaging comments to Lyman about the Army in this forum or to me in person, or to the both of us together?

I don't know about you Mr. Williams but I have serious doubts that they would.

Those aligning to the left to give President Obama much credit…should consider how both Obama and the democrats have fought against every policy that brought our military towards bringing Usama Bin Laden to justice.

So while Obama has taken credit for a great win for our country, the debt of honor and gratitude goes to our great military, Navy Seals Team 6, commanders, of the CIA and those who died on 911.

After all Barack Hussein Obama did not kill UBL, it was a Navy Seal that did, the same Navy Seals who just a few weeks ago were not even sure if they were going to get a monthly pay-check, due in part to the guy making the big announcement and being given so much credit if not for even making a speech, that as you say, had a good tone to it.

Best to you and your family Mr. Williams and to Mr. Lyman for having the courage to fight for his country in the United States Army.

Sincerely,
Dennie Sparkman
Master Chief United States Navy (ret.)

I never gave him credit for anything but a good speech. Given everything he's screwed up since he became president, the odds had to be in his favor for making a correct decision at some point. Like they say, even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while. I just think he did a good job on the speech. It's actually a really tough spot to be in considering he just made the call to full-on assassinate a guy (even if he was a bad guy), which would normally go against everything a liberal like him stands for. He couldn't really claim credit for it or say, "Yeah, we assassinated Bin Laden!," yet it was a great day that needed to be celebrated. There's a very fine line in there that he had to walk. I think he walked it very well, especially considering he knew he was going to get criticized no matter what he did. If I were him I'd probably shut down the victory tour he seems to be doing at every place he stops. That's a little much.

Well said, Dennis!!! I remember the Dems. slipping some hidden tax or newly funded program in with a bill that provided money for ammo and forced Bush to veto the bill, which postponed the military getting bullets, and I'm glad to hear someone else thinks his speech was condescending, Hopefully, some of the confiscated equipment will have some vital information that will be of some use.

He deserves to be criticized, as for the tough spot he is in, he has only himself to blame.
It's nothing compared to the tough spot he puts soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in everyday. He brings all that on himself.

I agree with you that he needs to shut down his so-called victory tour as you call it..

I generally understand what you are saying but unlike you I don't give him credit even for a good speech, especially when you consider he fought tooth and nail against all the policies and methods that put our forces in a position to get UBL in the first place.

As far as walking a thin line goes, he is good at talking the talk but he can't walk the walk.
He can't and wouldn't do what we ask these young men and women to do, that are engaged in combat overseas, he'd much rather be a community organizer and read from a teleprompter.

When fully taken into that context the speech is very hypocritical, very piss poor actually, especially with him acting all smooth as if all the policies and methods he fought against didn't figure into anything along with much of the media giving him so much credit that he does not deserve, not even for giving a good speech. Obama actually put it best when he said,
"Just speeches just words".

It's almost as if our guys got UBL in spite of Obama for the reasons I previously stated.

Exactly Ron!

LOL @ giving Bush any credit for killing OBL. He totally dropped the ball by ignoring his responsibilities to carry through in Afghanistan and made one of the biggest strategic blunders in our history by going to Iraq. Amazing how people can spin such a traitorous act to America into a pat on the back. You would have to go back LBJ murdering 55,000 Americans in Vietnam to match it.

John, the people who brought OBL to justice will go unnoticed but most of he Dems. did all hey could to slow the process down because they waned more taxes and social programs.

Sorry, the "t" on my keyboard is not working properly

I'm all for giving credit where it's due. But IMO Dennie is tainting the credit deserved by the unsung heros by wrapping himself in the flag and turning this into a political debate and spouting off about things he does not know.

There is no evidence that waterboarding or torture provided substantial or even any key evidence necessary to get OBL. True or not it cannot be claimed as a known fact. Anyone who starts declaring that this was a key method used by our military when they don't know it to be true is demeaning the efforts of those who risked their lives getting the job down.

And I don't recall anyone demeaning the US Army.

Ron, why would you say that "the people who brought OBL to justice will go unnoticed"? If you know any Seals, and I'm not talking about the crap you see on TV, I mean personally know any of those guys, they don't want to be "noticed". They don't want some sort of heroes parade or their names plastered all over TV. They successfully completed their mission, that's all they want.

"So while Obama has taken credit for a great win for our country, the debt of honor and gratitude goes to our great military, Navy Seals Team 6, commanders, of the CIA"

And Dennie, as a veteran of the US Navy, you know that the US president is Commander in Chief of the military.

"The chain of command runs from the President to the United States Secretary of Defense to the combatant commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands."

Jeremy, true about the Navy Seals, but what about the families who haven't seen their spouses or parent in over a year. I know two people whose sons were killed in the Middle East.They've sacrificed too. It's the same on a huge pass play at a football game. Everyone cheers the receiver, quarterback, and coach, but the linemen--by most people--go unnoticed. The public needs to be remember that we have a line too.

Sorry, I'm a terrible at typing "The public needs to remember that we have a line too."

Obama got Osama

and Obama continued every Bush policy. Bush gets a guy who campaigned against every thing you have ever done in your professional life and get him to continue every one of your policies. That is leadership. Heck, he even got the common people in a Arab country to ask for him by name to come help them. I figured it would have been either allah or Obama. Another campaign lie. The world did not hate Bush after all.

The single most important policy Obama didn't continue was nation building in another country. At least, not yet. That could happen too.

Except, he has not stopped it yet. 2 years in. We are still in Iraq and Afgahnistan and sending more and more things to Lybia.

You are the one shooting off his mouth about things he doesn't know.

What I said was accurate, what you posted above as usual is not.
You claim: "There is no evidence",... YOU ARE WRONG!
You claim: "It cannot be claimed as a known fact",... YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN
You claim: "Anyone claiming that, demeans the efforts of those who risks their lives"
AS USUAL JOHN YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN.

The director of the CIA, Leon Panetta said the following in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams:

"“We had multiple series of sources that provided information with regards to this situation… clearly some of it came from detainees [and] they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of those detainees,” he told NBC anchor Brian Williams.

So John:
IT IS A KNOW FACT
THERE IS DIRECT EVIDENCE and it CAN BE CLAIMED
AND AS USUAL YOU ARE WRONG AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.
YOU OWE ME AN APOLOGY FOR LYING JOHN.

He didn't say that the information from enhanced techniques was essential to locating OBL. That's a very vague statement. I have little doubt that they would like to suggest a justification for the waterboarding in light of the public backlash over it.

Regardless I've never criticized the Bush administration over it and if Bush had not changed his focus from Afghanistan to Iraq I doubt that it would have taken so long to get the job done. So the point remains that Bush dropped the ball. Spending a trillion dollars and military resources invading another nation when we were supposed to vanquishing Al Qaeda and OBL was incredibly stupid. Like most of your rhetoric.

Delta, I'm completely aware of what Obama has accomplished and I'm not impressed with him.

Information John claims know one can know:

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p6wVGlvp170" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...mc_id=newsmail

That's right Dennie. Not one statement in your references claimed that information from waterboarding was essential to revealing the location of Obama. Not a single statement. The statements from Panetta are crafted in such a way to lead you to draw that conclusion while at the same time he could legitimately say he never said that "enhanced techniques" did generate such information.

Now back to the claim that Obama deserves no credit.

Obama drew down troops in Iraq and increased troops in Afghanistan. Everything including the results indicates that Obama acted in a way to prioritize the capture of OBL. Regardless of whether waterboarding did or did not contribute significantly does not change the fact that your claims Obama deserves no credit in his capture is not substantiated in any way.

Now if you want to provide me with a statement from Panetta that unequivocally states waterboarding provided the info necessary then I'll agree that it's a fact. Otherwise I couldn't give a crap one way or the other.

i knew a select few of you would be arguing on the thread.... surprise surprise

Sounds like more than ever now, this was an especially good kill:

"His personal, handwritten journal and his massive collection of computer files show he helped plan every recent major al-Qaida threat the U.S. is aware of, including plots in Europe last year that had travelers and embassies on high alert, two officials said. So far, no new plots have been uncovered in bin Laden's writings, but intelligence officials say it will take weeks, if not months, to go through them."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/...s/us_bin_laden

This psycho p.o.s. really wanted a murdering spree to happen.

Well that's what John said....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43007276...-more_politics

Interesting stuff in his emails that might lead to uncovering more operative. And they found his HUGE STASH OF pr0n! Hilarious.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=21634

new product:

Just saw this story that came out today from the AP. This the most complete detail I've read so far as to how the mission transpired....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110517/...bin_laden_raid



By KIMBERLY DOZIER, AP Intelligence Writer – Tue May 17, 7:06 am ET

WASHINGTON – Those who planned the secret mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan knew it was a one-shot deal, and it nearly went terribly wrong.

The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, and predicted that national outrage over the breach of Pakistani sovereignty would make it impossible to try again if the raid on bin Laden's suspected redoubt came up dry.

Once the raiders reached their target, things started to go awry almost immediately, officials briefed on the operation said.

Adding exclusive new details to the account of the assault on bin Laden's hideout, officials described just how the SEAL raiders loudly ditched a foundering helicopter right outside bin Laden's door, ruining the plan for a surprise assault. That forced them to abandon plans to run a squeeze play on bin Laden — simultaneously entering the house stealthily from the roof and the ground floor.

Instead, they busted into the ground floor and began a floor-by-floor storming of the house, working up to the top level where they had assumed bin Laden — if he was in the house — would be.

They were right.

The raiders came face-to-face with bin Laden in a hallway outside his bedroom, and three of the Americans stormed in after him, U.S. officials briefed on the operation told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a classified operation.

U.S. officials believe Pakistani intelligence continues to support militants who attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and actively undermine U.S. intelligence operations to go after al-Qaida inside Pakistan. The level of distrust is such that keeping Pakistan in the dark was a major factor in planning the raid, and led to using the high-tech but sometimes unpredictable helicopter technology that nearly unhinged the mission.

Pakistan's government has since condemned the action, and threatened to open fire if U.S. forces enter again.

On Monday, the two partners attempted to patch up relations, agreeing to pursue high-value targets jointly.

The decision to launch on that particular moonless night in May came largely because too many American officials had been briefed on the plan. U.S. officials feared if it leaked to the press, bin Laden would disappear for another decade.

U.S. special operations forces have made approximately four forays into Pakistani territory since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, though this one, some 90 miles inside Pakistan, was unlike any other, the officials say.

The job was given to a SEAL Team 6 unit, just back from Afghanistan, one official said. This elite branch of SEALs had been hunting bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan since 2001.

Five aircraft flew from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, with three school-bus-size Chinook helicopters landing in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way to bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, two of the officials explained.

Aboard two Black Hawk helicopters were 23 SEALs, an interpreter and a tracking dog named Cairo. Nineteen SEALs would enter the compound, and three of them would find bin Laden, one official said, providing the exact numbers for the first time.

Aboard the Chinooks were two dozen more SEALs, as backup.

The Black Hawks were specially engineered to muffle the tail rotor and engine sound, two officials said. The added weight of the stealth technology meant cargo was calculated to the ounce, with weather factored in. The night of the mission, it was hotter than expected.

The Black Hawks were to drop the SEALs and depart in less than two minutes, in hopes locals would assume they were Pakistani aircraft visiting the nearby military academy.

One Black Hawk was to hover above the compound, with SEALs sliding down ropes into the open courtyard.

The second was to hover above the roof to drop SEALs there, then land more SEALs outside — plus an interpreter and the dog, who would track anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces.

If troops appeared, the plan was to hunker down in the compound, avoiding armed confrontation with the Pakistanis while officials in Washington negotiated their passage out.

The two SEAL teams inside would work toward each other, in a simultaneous attack from above and below, their weapons silenced, guaranteeing surprise, one of the officials said. They would have stormed the building in a matter of minutes, as they'd done time and again in two training models of the compound.

The plan unraveled as the first helicopter tried to hover over the compound. The Black Hawk skittered around uncontrollably in the heat-thinned air, forcing the pilot to land. As he did, the tail and rotor got caught on one of the compound's 12-foot walls. The pilot quickly buried the aircraft's nose in the dirt to keep it from tipping over, and the SEALs clambered out into an outer courtyard.

The other aircraft did not even attempt hovering, landing its SEALs outside the compound.

Now, the raiders were outside, and they'd lost the element of surprise.

They had trained for this, and started blowing their way in with explosives, through walls and doors, working their way up the three-level house from the bottom.

They had to blow their way through barriers at each stair landing, firing back, as one of the men in the house fired at them.

They shot three men as well as one woman, whom U.S. officials have said lunged at the SEALs.

Small knots of children were on every level, including the balcony of bin Laden's room.

As three of the SEALs reached the top of the steps on the third floor, they saw bin Laden standing at the end of the hall. The Americans recognized him instantly, the officials said.

Bin Laden also saw them, dimly outlined in the dark house, and ducked into his room.

The three SEALs assumed he was going for a weapon, and one by one they rushed after him through the door, one official described.

Two women were in front of bin Laden, yelling and trying to protect him, two officials said. The first SEAL grabbed the two women and shoved them away, fearing they might be wearing suicide bomb vests, they said.

The SEAL behind him opened fire at bin Laden, putting one bullet in his chest, and one in his head.

It was over in a matter of seconds.

Back at the White House Situation Room, word was relayed that bin Laden had been found, signaled by the code word "Geronimo." That was not bin Laden's code name, but rather a representation of the letter "G." Each step of the mission was labeled alphabetically, and "Geronimo" meant that the raiders had reached step "G," the killing or capture of bin Laden, two officials said.

As the SEALs began photographing the body for identification, the raiders found an AK-47 rifle and a Russian-made Makarov pistol on a shelf by the door they'd just run through. Bin Laden hadn't touched them.

They were among a handful of weapons that were removed to be inventoried.

It took approximately 15 minutes to reach bin Laden, one official said. The next 23 or so were spent blowing up the broken chopper, after rounding up nine women and 18 children to get them out of range of the blast.

One of the waiting Chinooks flew in to pick up bin Laden's body, the raiders from the broken aircraft and the weapons, documents and other materials seized at the site.

The helicopters flew back to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and the body was flown to a waiting U.S. Navy ship for bin Laden's burial at sea, ensuring no shrine would spring up around his grave.

When the SEAL team met President Barack Obama, he did not ask who shot bin Laden. He simply thanked each member of the team, two officials said.

In a few weeks, the team that killed bin Laden will go back to training, and in a couple months, back to work overseas.