For over nine years, the riddle of Osama Bin Laden had gone unsolved. For a few years, some thought the leader of Al Qaeda was dead, but that faded. Finally, U.S. forces caught up with him on Sunday at a secret compound outside of the Pakistani city of Islamabad.
"Osama bin Laden is now no longer a threat to America," one senior Obama Administration official told reporters on a conference call early this morning.
The big break came last August, when U.S. Intelligence agencies figured out where a trusted courier of Bin Laden lived in Pakistan with his brother.
"When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw -- an extraordinarily unique compound," said another senior official.
The compound was "roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area," and featured "12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire."
While intelligence analysts couldn't figure out who was living there, they found that the people living at the compound burned their trash, instead of putting it out for collection like others who lived nearby.
"It’s also noteworthy that the property is valued at approximately $1 million but has no telephone or Internet service connected to it," a senior official said.
"Intelligence analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance," the official told reporters.
The bottom line was simple.
"We had high confidence that a high-value target was being harbored by the brothers on the compound, and we assessed that there was a strong probability that that person was Osama bin Laden."
The actual military operation was authorized last Friday by President Obama, while the order to go was given on Sunday.
"Our team was on the compound for under 40 minutes and did not encounter any local authorities while performing the raid. In addition to Osama bin Laden, three adult males were killed in the raid. We believe two were the couriers and the third was bin Laden’s adult son," said a senior official.
That raid was conducted without any tip off to the Pakistanis.
"We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan," said one official, who said "only a very small group of people" knew about this operation in advance.
The operation on the Pakistani hideout that killed Bin Laden obviously drew strong praise from both parties.
"We've been watching this place for months," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Chambliss described the decision by the President as a "gutsy call."
"Our guys did one hell of a job."
