Transcripts For CNN CNN Presents 20110502 : vimarsana.com

hijacked planes cutting through gash. his death was an instant cause for celebration in washington and an exuberant crowd formed outside the white house singing the national anthem as president barack obama made the official announcement. it is just after 2:00 in the morning in washington and those crowds are still outside the white house. hello, i m rosemary church. and i m john vause. we want to welcome you to our special coverage. news of bin laden s death has been flashing around the al qaeda terror chief who masterminded the attacks on the united states a decade ago was killed during a u.s. operation in pakistan. his body now in u.s. custody, u.s. president barack obama confirming the dramatic news in a rare late night address broadcast around the world. tonight, i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. it was nearly ten years ago that a bright september day was darkened by the worst attack on the american people in our history. the images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory. hijacked planing cutting through a cloudless september sky, the twin towers collapsing to the ground. black smoke billowing up from the pentagon. the wreckage of flight 93 in shanksville, pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction. and yet we know 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, nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. on september 11th, 2001 in our time of grief, the american people came together. we offered our neighbors a hand and we offered the wounded our blood. we reaffirmed our ties to each other and our love of community and country. on that day, no matter where we came from, what god we prayed to or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one american family. we were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al qaeda, an organization headed by osama bin laden, which had openly declared war on the united states and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. and so we went to war against al qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends and our allies. over the last ten years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we ve made great strides in that effort. we ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. in afghanistan, we removed the taliban government which had given bin laden and al qaeda safe haven and support and around the globe woe worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al qaeda terrorists including several would were a part of the 9/11 plot. yet, osama bin laden avoided capture and escaped across the afghan border into pakistan. meanwhile, al qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world. and so shortly after taking office, i directed leon panetta, the director of the cia, to make the killing or capture of bin laden the top priority of our war against al qaeda. even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle and defeat his network. then last august, after years of paintaking work by our intelligence community, i was briefed on a possible lead to bin laden. it was far from certain and it took many months to run this thread to ground. i met repeated with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin laden hiding within a compound deep inside pakistan. and finally last week, i determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get osama bin laden and bring him to justice. today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottadad, pakistan. a small team of americans carry out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. no americans were harmed. they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a firefight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. for over two decades bin laden has been al qaeda s leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. the death of bin laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation s effort to defeat al qaeda. okay, let s see where all of this took place. not in the wilds of pakistan as many thought, but near the capital islamabad in a place called abbottadad. about 100 kilometers north of islamabad and just next door to pakistan is afghanistan. where osama bin laden launched the 9/11 attacks against the united states, a decade ago. it is from afghanistan that bin laden then fled after u.s. forces invaded that country just weeks after the attacks on new york and washington. cnn s nick peyton walsh joins us live from the afghan capital kabul. what are you learning about this operation, this successful operation in pakistan? reporter: well, what we re hearing and i stress this is through american officials hearing helicopters drop special forces into the compound. i want to explain what that means in terms of how much the pakistani would have had to know about the operation obviously to send helicopters that far into pakistani territory they would have come up on pakistani radar at some point. pakistani officials are insi insisting that they had prior knowledge of this operation and the pakistani intelligence operatives were on the ground during that although that seems to be denied by americans. a definite conflict ofopinion. one seen your intelligence officials saying he did not who pulled the trigger although it seems to be clear there were american special forces involved. there was a fire shown in the area around there. it s not clear if that is the precise compound where the attack happened but it s also key to point out this happened in a busy town in a busy city. previously al qaeda and militants, insurgents all were thought to be hiding in areas where the drones could pick them off one by one but there was a trend for them to move into karachi, big bustling city where it s easier to hide yourself and does appear bin laden ha a similar tactic hiding in abbottadad. when we look at the details. a million dollar mansion in a very poor area, 18-foot tall walls surrounding the mansion, built some time ago apparently bin laden was there with his youngest wife for some months. how is it possible the pakistani government was not aware of his presence? reporter: i think they ll be under enormous pressure to answer that. it isn t i suppose feasible nevertheless the compound if he arrived on the great secrecy and no telephone or internet access so you could conceive he was there without his knowledge although, of course, there will be that question asked again and again in the next 24 hours. the amount of trust between the two frayed because of drone strikes and the autonomous behavior of u.s. intelligence operatives within the country. remember, in the past, pakistan said the drone strikes were all run in cooperation with pakistani intelligence helping them. recently they said they were operating unilaterally. no greater evidence than today where they went straight for bin laden saying they had not informed pakistan beforehand. we have spoken to jihadists who always took great pride in the fact that bin laden was never caught, that he was still on the run and managed to evade the united states for a such a very long time. what will be the reaction of all those people from pakistan to afghanistan where you are to gaza, all of these jihadists? wrt i think there are some people who regarded hip as a figurehead, perhaps a symbol of resistance against america s presence here in this region. of course, there are many ordinary pakistanis and afghans who consider him and his like an enormous problem for them getting on with their daily lives so there will be a split opinion. i do think you have to be careful in this area and across the border in pakistan for retaliation. so many of these networks have said that when bin laden dies they will take spectacular action. there have been previously in the past few days concerns about a spectacular attack here but that obviously was not publicly linked to any operation against bin laden. i spoke to isaf, nato forces and say their status hasn t changed but concerns on both sides of the border there could be retaliation. we re just a few hours since the announcement was made by the u.s. president. what will be the impact on the taliban in afghanistan where you are right now? reporter: i think operationally it will probably have not a vast effect. taliban leadership has been changing enormously and figures like mullah omar and various individuals at the top end, are less connected with the operations on the ground which are often run by angry young insurgent, indigenous sometimes put in that position running their own units against the americans because a lot of the american activity is to take out the middle level leadership connecting them. bin laden is symbolic, a totem, a huge figurehead for insurgents here and obviously the reason why america came here in the first place, so his death certainly a blow to morale for the average insurgent here but i m not entirely sure there will be an operational impact. in fact, what we might see is an uptick to show some sort of retaliation against u.s. forces. there are still so many unanswered questions in this story. nick paton wash, thanks. former u.s. president intelligence w. bush first led the charge against bin laden, of course, here s what he said before leading the multinational attack on those who were sheltering him in afghanistan. take a listen. osama bin laden is just one person. he is representative of networks of people who absolutely have made their cause to defeat the freedoms that we take that we understand and we will not allow him to do so. mr. president, do you want him dead? i want him i want justice. and there s an old poster out west, as i recall that says wanted, dead or alive. and we ll remember that. well, after hearing of bin laden s death from president obama, bush issued a statement and i m quoting here. 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. the fight against terror goes on but tonight, america has sent an unmistakable message, no matter how long it takes, justice will be done. well, bin laden has also been linked to another attack on the world trade center back in 1993. and he has been on the fbi s ten most wanted list since 1999. that was all while former president bill clinton occupied the oval office and in a statement, mr. clinton says 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 qaeda attacks. of course, reaction coming in from around the world as well as australia s prime minister did weighing in. here s what she had to say moments ago. osama bin laden declared war on innocent people and today he has paid the price for that declaration. osama bin laden was directly responsible for despicable acts of violence against innocent people. and he inspired acts of violence by others. today of all days we remember the lives lost. also getting reaction from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying the state of israel joins in the joy of the american people on this historic day when osama bin laden was killed. this is a resounding victory for justice, freedom and for the joint values of all the countries that fight side by side determinedly against terror. our chris lawrence is following developments at the pentagon. he joins us live now with some new information on that operation. so, chris, what are you learning? reporter: yeah, rosemary, we re learning now from a u.s. official that in terms of finding out exactly that it was osama bin laden, we re told that the assault team that went into that compound said that they thought just by visual recognition that they thought the description matched bin laden but also did some facial recognition technology among other things to positively identify him as bin laden. we re also hearing that emphatically that the body of osama bin laden will not be brought back to the united states. they say it will the disposition of the body will be done under islamic law but the exact details of that are still being worked out. we re also getting some new information about this whole idea and this real controversy that is starting to come out about the relationship of the pakistani officials to this mission. as nick paton wash was reporting pakistani officials say they were on the ground as this was taking place. u.s. officials have been emphatically saying, no, that is not true. they did not inform the pakistani officials until after the raid took place. one official told is now telling us that the pakistanis may have been helpful and instrumental in terms of piecing the mission together but that the pakistanis did not know that the u.s. was directly targeting osama bin laden in that compound. rosemary. all right, chris lawrence with that new information. appreciate that. well, of course, as we heard news of bin laden s death spread rapidly around the world and heard specifically from the israeli prime minister. let s go to phil black who is live in jerusalem. so, phil, explain to us what is the feeling there now as this news spreads, as people sort of absorb this and try to digest what exactly this means globally and certainly in that part of the world? reporter: yeah, rosemary, here in israel it is holocaust memoriam day which is normally a somber reflective day for people to think about and remember the millions of jews who were killed in the holocaust. normally television program, well, a lot is suspended entirely. much of it is dedicated to the somber reflective programming on that piece of very significant jewish history. today we have television, radio programs dedicated to rolling coverage of the death of osama bin laden. what it may mean for this region. the israeli foreign minter this morning has said in many ways it is symbolic this has taken place on israel s holocaust memorial day and we ve had that statement that john mentioned a few moments ago from the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu in which he spoke of israelis joining in the joy of the american people on this historic day and he also spoke of this being a resounding victory for all countries that fight side by side determinedly against terror. he was very much referring to itself in the statement and israel will tell you that operating in the palestinian territories, gaza specifically, it believes there are al qaeda affiliated groups, the reality is they re generally quite small. their influence is not great and they re as much an irritant to israel as they are to the governing authority in gaza, hamas, which is although an enemy of israel, also very much in a daily struggle, if you like, against the smaller extremist groups in gaza itself but israel will be very much looking to see what reaction comes out of the palestinian territories here today from groups that may claim direct linkage to al qaeda but also more broadly, you may remember that the wake of september 11th, there were images, video images of palestinians celebrating the fall of the twin towers and over the years, the palestinian situation has been very much a rallying point for islamic groups around the world, something that al qaeda, bin laden himself has spoken about in recordings over the last ten years or so, so very much looking to see what the reaction will be from those palestinian territories today, rosemary. indeed. phil, how likely is it? are we likely to see this as a unifying day or a divisive day, do you think, once everyone does start to absorb this news? well, difficult to say. within the palestinian territories itself, you re not going to see strong gestures of anger or sadness among the broader population certainly. the territories are very different place today than they were ten years ago. we will be looking to see if some of the more extremist groups do perhaps react in a more violent, physical, angry way in itself, certainly here in israel when you talk to people, there is very much a sense of satisfaction about this news. but interestingly for many of the people i ve spoken to already this morning the reaction from israelis is it s about time. this has taken far too long and many people here have made the point that if this was a terror leader of this scale that had attacked sheila bellush in the same way they believe it s something this nation would have taken care of in a much shorter time frame, rosemary. it goes without question, here in the united states, wall-to-wall coverage. what is the situation there on the television and, of course, it s way too early for newspapers but certainly radio and word of mouth. reporter: yeah, very much so. it is the number one talking point in this country today as i say. rolling coverage on radio, on television and it is unusual given what is usually the nature of this day. holocaust memorial day is a somber reflective day for jews to reflect upon that most significant of events in their history, the holocaust itself and normally television programming is something that dies away entirely to the point where as i mentioned a lot of programs cease broadcasting on this day in its entirety but so far, this is what everyone is very much talking today from people on the street to the government across radio and television, as well. people here are digesting the news that osama bin laden has been killed. rosemary. phil black reporting there from jerusalem. thanks so much. john? it is still early in the morning in the united states but yet they are still outside the white house celebrating the news that osama bin laden is dead. these are live pictures of the crowd that gathered outside chanting usa and singing the national anthem. all of this since word started to spread about four hours ago now before the president made that official announcement that osama bin laden had, in fact, been killed an hour after that around 11:30 p.m. eastern time the united states president barack obama made that statement, jubilant crowd then cheering that news that the most wanted man in the world had, in fact, been killed by special operation forces inside pakistan. there are still so many unanswered questions about what comes next and to try to answer some of those question, peter bergen joins us live to talk about some of those issues. does anyone take over from osama bin laden? is it possible that he ll have a successor? well, there will be a successor. the question is how effective will that successor be and in my view, and i interviewed many people who know bin laden who have been part of his organization, no one could really replace him. you know, when you join al qaeda you don t swear an oath of allegiance to al qaeda but a personal oath of allegiance to bin laden and while comparisons with the nazi is not what i like to do, when you join the nazi party you didn t swear an oath of allegiance to nazis but to adolf hitler and if adolf hitler died in 1944 with a bomb placed under the conference room table by a group of army conspirators on july 20th, 1944, world war ii would certainly have ended earl yes but since it was so much essentially hitler decided to put that war in motion, similarly with bin laden, bin laden founded al qaeda. bin laden was the intellectual author of 9/11 and there is no one he does have a depu depu ayman al zawahiri. people that i ve interviewed or in court cases when you look at these cases they describe feelings of love. love is a very strong verb. they don t describe feelings of love for ayman al zawahiri or other people in the movement so, yes, there will be a successor but the question is how useful will that successor be for the organization and i think his successor will be nothing fortunately on the scale of what we ve seen of osama bin laden, john. it s important to remember that al qaeda is still operational in more than 60 countries around the world. given that can we see a splintering of the group, freelancing among al qaeda in the arabian peninsula or in afghanistan? could we see a period of instability if you like. as you know, john, there are plenty of al qaeda affiliates. we were together in pakistan where there are groups that don t even call themselves al qaeda, yet operate with an al qaeda-like agenda, take, for instance, the pakistani taliban, one of osama bin laden s great unfortunate gifts to humanity is that he was able to influence other groups, the pakistani taliban sent a suicide bomber to times square on may 1st, 2010. lucky he didn t succeed and they have sent sue died bombers to barcelona. luckily they didn t succeed. it s not just the affiliates in the arabian peninsula which almost succeeded in flying up flight 203 over detroit but also ir al qaeda in iraq and a couple of dozen people were killed in morocco and you could go on. al shabaab and his demonic gift to the world his ideology has been taken up by sufficiently large number that it will continue without him killing a person is a lot easier than killing an idea, bin laden has been losing the war of ideas in the muslim world. support for him, for al qaeda, suicide bombing has been dropping precipitously but it doesn t require a very large group of people to inflict the kind of terrorist attacks that we ve seen in indonesia and iraq and jordan and, of course, in the west and this is a great victory today not only for the united states but for all the victims of al qaeda. the largest attack in british history on july 7th, 2005 was carried out by al qaeda and thousands of victims of al qaeda died in iraq because of suicide bombers and the several dozen people who died at a wedding in amman, jordan, in 2005 because of al qaeda and i the list goes on and on, john. if we look at the warnings that are coming out now from the state department for u.s. citizens, in fact, the warnings now around the world essentially for people to be careful at airports and hotels because of this concern for some kind of retaliation, but is it possible for some kind of grand retaliation by al qaeda because it seemed to have in recent years been getting away from big gestures to small lone wolf kind of attacks. they don t have the capacity to do a 9/11 or anything close. that said if northwest 253 blown up over detroit and killed most of the americans on board more people on the ground in detroit would have had an effect on tourism and international business and probably would have been a crippling blow to the obama presidency. lucky it didn t happen but the point is is that, you know, these groups do retain residual capacity and can get lucky. and certainly the death of bin laden is something that a number of people around the world will try and take revenge, particularly in a country where he s just been killed, because the people motivated by these ideas regard the united states not only as an enemy but the pakistani government itself, 3,000 pakistani civilians have been killed by groups motivate the by al qaeda s ideology in the past several years and bin laden and his number two ayman al zawahiri have made it a point to attack the pakistani state and military in the last several year. one last quick question, did who knew in pakistan within the pakistani government that bin laden was where he was? i don t think we know the answer to that, john. okay. peter, thank you very much. peter bergen live for us this evening in washington. we appreciate it. thanks. all right. we want to take a step back for just a moment with some background on osama bin laden s life before the 9/11 attacks on the united states back in 2001. and he was born in 1957 in riyadh, saudi arabia. the 17th of 52 children fathered by mohamed bin laden. in 1979 bin laden graduated with a degree in civil engineering from a saudi university. after the soviet invasion of afghanistan, that same year, he joined the afghan resistance known as the mujahadin. now, for most of the 1980s bin laden supported and at times even fought alongside the afghans. in 1988 he founded al qaeda with the mission of providing men and money for the mujahadin. now, after the u.s. invasion of kuwait back in 1990, bin laden turned his attention to the united states for its presence on saudi soil near the muslim holy sites of mecca and medina. it began a series of terror attacks that would last for years. in 1993 he was assumed to have been behind the first attack on the world trade center in new york. in 1998, saw a pair of truck bombs at u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania and in 2000 bin laden is linked to the bombing of the u schss cole in yemen leading up to the 9/11 attacks that tried the world trade center in new york and damaged the pentagon in washington. for more on this historic event nearly a decade after the terror attacks of 9/11, we are joined by cnn s homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve. of course, this is just a huge day for the united states, but not only the u.s., right across the globe people are marking this day, not everyone necessarily celebrating, but what are the consequences? what are the ramifications now of this in terms of these alerts that are now being issued across the globe for u.s. citizens and for others. reporter: of course, great concern about the possibility of some sort of retaliation from al qaeda, from sympathizer, from an affiliate and so as you mentioned there has been this worldwide alert to exercise caution, here in the united states, officials are saying they are not aware of any specific threat information but it is clear that in certain respects, security is being stepped up. we know that the new york city police commissioner ray kelly sent out an alert to all of his commands urging them to be at increased vigilance in addition to new york city police official told me that you will see additional police presence in places like times square and other iconic sorts of places around new york, transportation hubs and the like. in addition in philadelphia we know that the police chief has stepped up patrols around synagogues and around mosques, that s going to be done on an hourly basis according to him. the department of homeland security says it will continue to protect americans with measures seen and unseen. they are not giving us any specifics, but i have talked to a former department of homeland security official who says there is a game plan on the shelf that they were able to pull out that has to do with protection of transportation hubs, critical infrastructure and the like. but this isn t just about protection. the other thing that s really ramping up here is intelligence gathering. clearly bin laden has had ten years to prepare for the possibility of his death. there s always been concern that he might be dispatching people to the u.s. they may already be here. they may be sleepers and that perhaps his death would be a trigger to take some kind of an action. so we can anticipate that the intelligence community is looking very carefully at everybody, everybody, everybody who has been on their radar to see if they see any indications of any call to action. one of the worries is that some of these people may work as lone wolves as opposed to parts of cells, cells, of course, being much easier to detect. another big concern among some of the counterterrorism officials i ve spoken to is what happens next. you were talking about this with peter a few moments ago. there is a real sense that at least under osama bin laden you sort of knew what you were dealing with. there was oddly enough a sort of stability in the situation. and the question now is, who does take over that organization? does it become more radical? does it become less stable? those are all the sorts of questions being considered right now, but, again, at this point in time officials saying no specific threat information. they do say, however, that they are carefully monitoring all kinds of intelligence. it is possible that in the days and weeks ahead, of course, that situation will change significantly as people affiliated with al qaeda or sympathizing with them may decide to take some action in retaliation. jeanne meserve, many thanks, john. let s stay in washington. joe johns is live at the white house where there is still a huge crowd gathered outside. joe joins us now live with the mood there. joe, is it just pure jubilation or is there a moment to pause to remember what happened on 9/11? reporter: well, it s interesting. here at the white house, a lot of jubilation quite frankly, john vause, you re right. hundreds, perhaps thousands of people in front of the white house, a very young crowd, at least of the people i ve seen, a lot of college students, apparently a lot of people recently graduated from college and you kind of wonder why many of them it seems came with just cameras and a lot of people grabbed something that was red, white and blue, the colors of the u.s. flag and i talked to one person who said, this is the vj day of our generation. now, to that end, i d like to talk at this time to a veteran actually of afghanistan and iraq, alicia watkins and september 11th. you heard about this. you were in frederick, maryland, which is about 60 miles outside of the city. you came down here and i guess this takes you back to 9/11 when you were at the pentagon. yeah. reporter: talk to me about that. well, i just my life forever changed. i lost a lot of good people on that day, and my life forever changed, so when this happened, i, you know, just hauled tail down here just to be a part of it. it feels such and the brilliance and the feeling that i felt after all the turmoil on that day, i remember our flag being flown over the pentagon. i remember so much and i got that feeling back. reporter: you also found yourself in afghanistan and iraq. yeah. reporter: and you were injured. yes. reporter: and all of this i suppose comes flooding back tonight. i know and it almost it almost feels like it was worth it, you know. i ve been through so much since september 11th, and to see all these people who i never met before take pictures and slap my hand and everything else, it brings back that feeling i felt when we draped that flag over that pentagon that day. it really does. reporter: and you were talking to me earlier about how it seemed to you as if a cloud had been lifted off the white house. it is. i m from d.c. i ve been in d.c. i ve seen the white house so many times. it looked so different. it looked so powerful so hopeful and i don t know what it is, it looks difference. it s a new white house. i really do feel that. reporter: so tell me a little bit about your own story. you as i said were injured in afghanistan. yes. reporter: you have spent a long time recovering from essentially the effects of september 11th, 2001. and i didn t even know that it started september 11 and it s just been a buildup. as i ve gone to iraq and afghanistan and i ve lost so much, i feel like i can now start to rebill. it s almost like, you know, a parent who loses a child and the killer is brought to justice. i feel like this has been a cold case for a long time and they solved it and i just feel so emotional. my heart is just so light right now. it really is. reporter: thank you so much, alicia watkins, so that s one story from in front of the white house, lafayette park at this hour. here in washington, d.c., and i can tell you there s certainly thousands of others. john vause, back to you. joe johns, there for us live at the white house. that was amazing stuff. thank you, joe. it certainly was. we do want to recap now for just a moment, in the past few hours a major announcement from u.s. president barack obama. yes, osama bin laden was killed by a small group of american forces inside pakistan. today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottadad, pakistan. a small team of americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. no americans were harmed. they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a firefight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. it s an announcement ten years in the making. bin laden s been blamed for thousands of death in countless attacks around the world most notably the attacks on new york and the pentagon an september 11th, 2001. president obama says the operation was carried out with pakistan s coop rag. all right. we do want to get reaction from across the middle east region and we have a woman standing by at cnn abu dhabi. what are you seeing in terms of reaction to the death, the news that we ve heard now of the death of osama bin laden? well, rosemary, it s a top headline news. important news for the region. he comes from this region and has a lot of supporters but also he has a lot of people who hate him and denounce al qaeda. first of all, we don t have at this point any official reaction for any arab government at this stage. everyone is waiting to see, they re assessing the information and may give official statements. they may not. most importantly in this region is saudi arabia. as we know, bin laden is saudi and saudi arabia has been a victim of many explosions and attacks over the past year, so bin laden has been a threat to the saudis and the rest of the arab world in as much as he has been to america and the western world. we are waiting for more reactions. we know for a fact some people will be very happy for the death of bin laden and for his killing, but other people will be sad. rosemary. yeah, certainly and that s what we re seeing on social media. certainly i ve been receiving a number of tweets from people saying is this justice and other comments, certainly implying they are not celebrating on this day. rima, it is morning there across the middle east. so presumably there s just a delay in officials there in some governments perhaps pulling together statements because this is a very delicate issue. the wording that they put in statements, they would need to be very careful what they say here. indeed, rosemary. the words have to be chosen really well by arab governments, on the one hand, they have been part of the battle against al qaeda. we know there has been massive efforts by the uae governments and officials to curb al qaeda s presence and influence in the region. we know that saudis have started schools and programs to clear the minds of the young people in saudi arabia and the muslim world from the islamist/extremist ideas so there have been efforts, however, any celebration of the killing of bin laden, the head of al qaeda, will be it will have any retaliation against governments and this is what they re careful of. they are worried that there will be operations in the arab world just as much as the u.s. is and even arab threat works, they re very careful about how they air the news, what analysts they host and how they are tackling this topic. rosemary. all right, rimamaktabi reporting from abu dab di. reaction has been pouring in heralding justice for the victims of 9/11 and a little earlier our wolf blitzer spoke with a new york city firefighter, one of the first responders to the 9/11 attacks on the world trade center. take a listen. as a new york sit firefighter i think i speak for all new york city firefighters when a give a heart felt thanks to members of the u.s. military who took on this very danger oous task. i think the most important news we ve heard tonight, much more important than bin laden is the attack that we lost no troops. no american soldiers were killed. very the situation room that they put themselves in harm s way to do the business of the country. i think we re a lucky country and as a new york city firefighter who survived both september 11th and illness diagnosed from my time at september 11th, i m proud to be an american and the service and american operations and i know i spoke for every member of the new york city fire department when i say i hope to god he rots in hell. new york mayor michael bloomberg says he hopes bin laden s death brings some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on september 11, 2001. case e jason carroll is there. i asked joe johns this question. the celebration but is there a moment of reflection, as well? reporter: well, the way to describe it down here, john, it s jub lapse. the people have been coming down with each passing hour, more and more folks coming down here and bringing their flags, they ve been singing songs, reciting, you know, pledge of allegiance. singing i. it s really been incredible to see what s been happening down here. sort of makes you wonder what s going to happen as each hour continues to pass and when the morning comes and more folks are going to start to wake up and realize what s happening down here, i want to bring in someone very important to talk about the significance of this day. this is lieutenant dan joye. he is a veteran of the war in iraq and you remember what happened during the 9/11 you were at west point at that time. tell me exactly what this night means for you. tonight means that we re all american. whether we are christian americans or muslim american, gay americans or straight americans, we are all americans and that s what we re celebrating here tonight. i don t think we have anything else that we need to celebrate than that. reporter: you know, as i ve been down here for the past few hours i think a lot of people said to me, this is a night, this is a day that we thought would never come. we were wondering when it would come. does it finally seem real to you. well, there s been a lot of things in my journey that i ve wondered when that victory or when that vindication would come. for me, i had sometimes lost hope in my personal journey but i know that so long as we tell ourselves from the very first moments of stepping up to serve our country that we will never give up until we accomplish what it is we set out to achieve, then we re going to be all right. reporter: you know, i think a lot of people i speak for a lot people who thank you for your service to the country and for what you ve done for the united states and i think a lot of people are now finally feeling a sense of closure. are you feeling that, as well? i am. and i would like to say that there are many times in our journey where we didn t think that there would be a victory that could pass over all of and calm all of our nerves, but what we learned throughout this past decade is that the only antidote to victimization is confrontation, a confrontation of our fears, of our own inadequacies that knows no compromise when our values are at stake and the values of integrity, courage and serving one another will lead us forward after this. lieutenant dan choi, i want to thank you for coming down here and being with us this evening. it s not just folks like lieutenant dan choi who have come down here but calvin roy. he s from texas that s right. reporter: living here now. living here now. reporter: came down. i came down. i was watching cnn, wolf was talking about reporter: we were glad you were watching cnn. i like cnn. i remember when the towers came down and 20 minutes later they said we was under attack and now we felt like we was together like a family. ten years later, things have changed and now i remember where i was at when the newscast came on, they caught him and killed him and i feel again we re one family, we re one people. we re all americans like lieutenant choi said. reporter: people watching now, it s hard for them to get a sense of what it feels like to be down here. it does feel like you re taking part. it s closure. it s a chapter in our american history that s over and what we need to send the congress, the senate, the house and the president that it s over now. the wars in iraq and afghanistan, we can bring the troops home because we ve won. reporter: calvin roy from texas, want to thank you very much for being here. very quickly before we go, john and rosemary, i want to bring in steve feldheim. you helped clean the area when it was all hands on deck to get as many down here to help. what does it feel like ten years later to have a night like tonight? i feel like it s a little bit of a closure for the friends and family i lost and they can pick up, they ll never bring anybody back but it will be some sort of closure and all these people coming together and reuniting and reminiscent of what it was like right after 9/11 when the whole city came together. this is what the country need, some healing and everybody coming together will help spread the word we are united. a great country and this is what freedom is. reporter: i want to thank you for your efforts during 9/11 and, again, john, rosemary, i think that s what is really happening. more and more are turning on their tv sets and they re hearing what s happening down here. they re coming down here to sort of take part in this celebration and really that s what you have to call it. people have their flag, little mini flags bringing them down here and singing and taking part in history. john, rosemary? jason, just very quickly, compare this to the anniversaries that you have seen at ground zero over the years because it just seems to me that the mood and everything has just done a complete 180-degree turn. this is now a different place. reporter: it really is. it s incredible because i think as i was walking down here, i heard one woman say, i never thought i would i would be taking part in a celebration at ground zero. and that is exactly what s happening down here now. we ve seen the neighborhood change. for those who have been in the new york for a period of time now, some of us thought, you know, maybe this area would never come back and slowly but surely over the years we ve seen it come back and now to have people come down here and take part in a celebration, it s really quite moving. it s moving and it s something that s special to be a part of. jason, you were there for 9/11. i was there a few hours after you. it really is an incredible day. jason carroll live in new york. it is and world reaction to the news of bin laden s death came quickly on social media. pauline c pauline chiu is watches. the buzz about bin laden began well before official word arrived and this was one of the first tweets breaking it about half an hour ahead of president obama s speech. now this tweet came from the chief of staff to former u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld. he posted so i m told by a reputable person they have killed osama bin laden. then take a look at how the white house brought together social media with the president s historic address on their facebook page. live video of the speech appeared alongside a stream of status updates from users comments and when big news breaks we seen twitter light up. since most people experienced this event at home in front of their televisions, they re posting photos of that moment. take a look. this one is from singer wi will.i.am and you see others from around the world as they tried to capture the moment when they heard the news. some posted photos. others posted their reaction. for example, boxer oscar de la hoya stweetd may 1st hitler died in 1945. may 1st, osama died in 2011 and from neil patrick harris, he tweeted everyone is sitting around my living room mouths agape. wow! what a night. thank you, mr. president, for such an eloquent speech. and we re seeing some people suggesting it may be time to reconsider some post 9/11 security measures. john dresdner tweeted if osama bin laden is dead can we please have our rights back so, rosemary, the tweets are moving at a pretty rapid clip and have much for you in the next hour. they most certainly will. pauline chiou, thanks for keeping an eye on that. the afghan president is speaking at this minute, hamid karzai and will get a translation and bring you the details as they come in to us. we re keeping a very close eye on that. his reaction to the news today that osama bin laden is dead. yes shg, they ve had a very e relationship between mr. karzai and mr. obama after the events. let s talk more about the successful operation. we re joined now by a retired brigadier mark kimmet for political military affairs live in our washington bureau. we appreciate it. if you can just walk through how this operation played out. it started with intelligence. back in august and then it s gone through a series of months, finally the president authorized action and then they got bin laden. that seems like an awfully long time frame. it s really not. if you take a look at the intelligence cycle going from information to intelligence to targetable intelligence to actionable intelligence, it takes a long time to develop that intelligence to where you can actually target and act upon it. so i m not surprised it took that long. and i think the success of the mission indicates it probably was time well spent in developing the target set? talking of time, what is extraordinary is the whole operation apparently took 40 minutes. run us through what would have happened, you know, from this helicopter raid to the point at which the bullets went through the head of osama bin laden as we re hearing. well, it s not always helpful to talk about tactics, techniques and procedures but as you can imagine they probably isolated the compound with a force both outside and then you brought in some very specialized forces, either navy s.e.a.l.s or joint special operation forces to do what is in the vernacular called door kicking, went in, subdued the target, got the target set out of there and they got out of there as quickly as possible before any potential reinforcements or other assistance could be brought in to fight the americans. the fact that there were no casualty, the fact that there were no injuries at all among the americans as i understand is testimony to how well-trained and frankly how well-experienced these forces are. when we look at the intelligence and all the information which is slowly coming out about this compound where bin laden was living, it was a massive compound built maybe five years ago. huge tall fences and bin laden had been there with his youngest wife maybe since late last year. could there be any doubt that the someone within the pakistani government or within the pakistani intelligence knew that bin laden was there? well, i certainly don t know that to be the case. it would be hard to believe that a person of such significance such as osama bin laden who also travels with a fairly large entore raj that they could be inside that compound without some local knowledge, local official knowledge, but i don t know that to be the case but it would be hard to believe that wouldn t be the indication. and what do you make of the fact that he was actually they got him in a mansion as opposed to in a cave in the frontier area. well, i think it goes back to your earlier comment about whether he was getting external support or not. all indications, the fact that he was not living in a cave would mean that he was not operating independently but that he was getting assistance and aid and comfort from others either in that area or from abroad. and so a lot of people celebrating, certainly in the united states and across the globe, not everywhere, of course, but is this the beginning, is this the end, i mean really can people be celebrating at this point because this isn t the end of what al qaeda promises for the futu future, is it. no, certainly isn t and in many ways we felt the same way when saddam was captured. we recognize that was an important day and recognized it was cause for some measure of celebration, it was cause to be proud of those soldiers that put their lives on the line to accomplish this mission. but we also understood the day after saddam was captured that there would be a next day and a day after that and a day after that. so congratulations to those that planned and executed this mission, i think as many have said, there is a reason to have a sense of closure but there s still a lot of work to be done. this is an organization that has affiliates around the world and until those affiliates are destroyed i don t think we can rest soundly. okay, general mark kimmitt live for us in washington. all right. it is just five minutes away from 3:00 in the morning here in the united states so let s check those crowds. even at that early hour, they are still gathering, celebrating outside the white house there and at ground zero if we can bring that shot up, as well. so people across the united states very happy to hear this news. they heard it some hours ago, about five hours ago now, but people slowly started to gather at the white house, now the crowds are there, it s going to be interesting to see what happens the next morning. what i think is truly extraordinary, when i cast my mind back to all those anniversaries we have seen at still someone being thrown in the air then, all of those anniversary, those somber memorials that have taken place at ground zero and all the controversy over the site and rebuilding and all the heartbreak and anguish over the last almost ten years now, to see these scenes of jubilation is really is something historic and something special to be watching here live on cnn. that is right. as it starts a new day, this monday, the start of a new week in the united states. it s going to be interesting to see how those people go starting their working day. all right. well, just moving on now, some more details about the u.s.-led operation in the pakistani city of abbottadad. cnn s gloria borger tells us about the compound where the world s most wanted terrorist was hiding. take a listen. reporter: this compound in abbottabad was apparently built in 2005. the physical security of it was extraordinary. it has 12 to 178-foot walls with barbed wire around it. access had been restricted by two security gates. one official said they had been paying attention to the couriers going in and out of this building. one of the couriers apparently attracted their attention. another thing was that residents burn their trash as opposed to neighbors who just put their trash out for collection. one would think that that might raise a few eyebrows. so and the property is apparently valued at 1 million but it had no internet or telephone service. so this was something that they were clearly looking at and that this operation had been monitoring for quite some time before the president gave the go ahead on this on friday. so and that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and the families who are peopled to be living there. and there was one whose size and makeup matches osama bin laden. and we re going to take a quick break now. we ll have more of our breaking news coverage after this. yes, stay with us. you re watching cnn.