Transcripts For CNN World One 20110502 : vimarsana.com

welcome our viewers in america and around the world. hi, ali. hi, kiran, kris dean, i m here at ground zero where crowds have been gathering since the news trickled out. i ll be bringing you the news. here s what we know about the secret mission that took out the notorious terrorist osama bin laden. the al qaeda commander shot in the head in a fire fight with american forces sunday morning. one of bin laden s sons and two of his couriers were killed. along with a woman described as a human shield. the operation was carried out with the cooperation of pakistani official. perhaps most amazing, osama bin laden was not found in a cave on a mountain in that border region with afghanistan. he actually met his end in a million dollar mansion in a compound in abbottbad, pakistan, an hour north of islamabad and a major city. the cia had been monitoring this location, we re learning now, for months. this is video from geo news in pakistan showing the compound engulfed in flames after u.s. helicopters and about two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s. took out the 911 mastermind with pretty amazing precision. i m down here at ground zero where people started gathering when the news started to trickle out. this is where americans died. you can see the jubilation in the crowd. they numbered in the thousands, probably a couple thousand people at the height, started to dwindle down as the police started to push the crowd back a little bit. they re around the corner from me in the hundreds. you see revelers, people chanting usa reciting the pledge of allegiance. i ran into a couple students who were at scranton a couple hours away from here, they said some celebrations began to break out on campus, they got in a car and drove straight to new york. my producer brian was one block down the road where it was a lot more subdued, people who were actually on their knees, praying. there was a somber side to this as well. we ll see as the morning develops who else starts to show up at ground zero. back to you guys. the news has only been known about six hours or so and how people are reacting is different. thanks. it s believed bin laden had been hiding out in the compound in abbottbad since last summer. it s confirmed by u.s. officials his body has been buried at sea according to islamic tradition. last night, president obama went on national television to tell the world a man responsible for so many thousands of deaths had finally been eliminated. today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottbad, 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 fire fight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. barbara starr is live at the pentagon for us this morning. as we know, the u.s. spent a long time hunting this man down, some nine years, eight months, many americans when polled thought this day would never happen. how did it go down? well, kiran, as you said earlier, apparently the u.s. intelligence community and the u.s. military had been following this trail for some time, keeping an eye on this compound north of the capital of islamabad in pakistan. you know, they say that originally when they saw this compound, it was fairly difficult to reach, perhaps just down a dirt road. they started seeing improvements being made and a lot of security being installed and began to believe that was the place osama bin laden was hiding out. the compound by all accounts had something like 18-foot walls, inner partitions, heavy security, and they felt it became extraordinarily clear to them that it could only be bin laden who was hiding there. now i have to tell you, over recent months, there had been a lot of talk amongst the kinds of sources that we talk to, intelligence officials, military officials, that bin laden probably wasn t hiding in a cave as ledge woonds have it, that he probably was in fairly comfortable circumstances. this would seem it to indicate that. a surgical strike, u.s. helicopters, u.s. special forces, including navy s.e.a.l.s. killing bin laden in that fire fight. a u.s. official says his body has already been buried at sea. they want to ensure there is no physical shrine to him where he would have been buried on land. and this will develop during the day. we expect to learn a lot more, the details still being closely held, kiran. we know that osama bin laden resisted and we know he was shot by u.s. forces. what can you tell us about those final moments of that part of the operation? you know, i think that s really interesting, because over the years, there had been a lot of talk and we followed this very closely, you know, sort of about that last hundred yards to osama bin laden. there had always been talk he had cyanide or poison with him, that he would take that, that he had weapons, of course, and he would commit suicide before he would allow himself to be taken. by ougaccounts, u.s. forces sho him in the head as he was resisting. other people killed at the compound. we don t really know. it may be a great mystery whether he would have allowed himself to be taken alive but he was killed in this fire fight by a shot to the head. sources also telling us that they are so positive it s him, because of what they call facial recognition. so, you know, bin laden was a very unique presence, a very tall, thin man. that is not something, even if he tried to disguise himself, he could have disguised. by all accounts they knew it was him when they killed him, had the body in hand, had absolutely no doubt they got osama bin laden and, of course, here at the pentagon in the early morning hours, this news being greeted very soberly but for the 184 souls that were lost here that morning, at least for their families there is going to be some closure. a little later, when we check back in with you, we ll ask a few questions about you said they have no doubt, will the public, will the world have any doubt about the authenticity of what is being said? we ll talk more about what they will be releasing proof in a little while. thanks. more about the compound and the big walls and no internet, no phone and how it was that u.s. intelligence began to be suspicious about that compound that led them to osama bin laden. he left a life of wealth and privilege to wage a holy war on the west from the remote mountain caves but spent the final months of his life hiding in full view in the million dollar mansion. this was a mansion located in the pakistani city of abbottbad. it s a major tourism hub. let s bring in reza sayeh on assignment in libya but has covered this story extensively as well. we re talking about this city, startling to some seem, because there was a pakistani military presence in that city. how could they not have known that s where bin laden was choosing to hide? yeah. i think that s a question that the military officials in pakistan are going to be asked in the coming days and weeks. abbottbad is a garrison city, a military city, lot of military facilities there, military academies, this is a place many military officials go to retire and the civilian population who lives there is a population that caters to the military, so there s going to be a lot of questions, if, indeed, someone came in and built a large facility like this, with huge walls, and huge security, how could it be possible that no military officials were aware of what s happening in there. that s a question that s going to be asked in the coming days and coming weeks. there s been a lot of speculation over the past decade ever since 9/11 where osama bin laden was hiding, a lot of speculation focused on the pakistan/afghanistan border. pakistani officials both civilian government and military officials, had repeatedly denied that osama bin laden was in pakistan and they called on to the u.s., look, if you know where he is, tell us and we ll help you find him. so ultimately, indeed, it does look like he was hiding in pakistan, not where most people thought he would be in the mountainous areas along the afghanistan border, but in a relatively modern affluent, garrison town of abbottbad. reza sayah, osama bin laden has supporters in pakistan and no surprise there. we ll talk to reza later throughout the program about how long he might have been there, what his movements have been over the past ten years and we re learning now. fascinating. it s fascinating nine years, eight months the search going hot and cold, the closest they got was tora bora and to have it be in this, as he said, a garrison city a huge military presence. we would like to bring in hala gorani from cnn international joining us. we re broadcasting on international and you re joining us. welcome. thank you very much, good to be with you. of course the news of osama bin laden s death sparked reaction and in the case of washington, d.c., celebration and new york as well with the twin towers to the gates of the white house where people waved flags, sang the national anthem and chanting usa usa. listen. oer the land of the free and the home it gives you an idea outside the gates of the white house what the reaction was after president obama announced a u.s. military operation had killed osama bin laden. a two-hour car drive away from islamabad, not at all a cave in the tribal region or in pakistan or afghanistan. let s go to the white house north lawn, that s where brianna keilar is now. brianna, i know you were sort of in and around that crowd of people chanting. what was the atmosphere like? what were people telling you about why they were celebrating so publicly? they were here to witness history, hala. that is what they said. i should tell you that the last of these, we heard people chanting, singing, i heard someone playing a trumpet, here to witness a piece of history and it struck me the contrast toward towards compared to what we would have seen ten years ago on 9/11, you saw people running away from the white house. last night, shortly after president obama made his remarks, i saw people outside and they were running, walking, cabbing, biking, just scores of them, pouring down the street toward the white house, some of them carrying american flags, and they were here, many of them college students, i should say, because we re near a college campus, here to witness history like this man who brought his son to the white house. i feel that finally some vindication has been done. there s still a lot more to be done, we know that, and the threat is not over, we know that. but at least this is a big step. i came all the way up from woodbridge. i had to be here. this is where i had to be tonight. i had to bring my son with me to share this time together. so he came in from a suburb outside of washington, d.c., but it really struck me, like i said, how many college students there were because these are young people who were in elementary school when 9/11 happened. as i walked in this morning at about 4:30 a.m. the image i know i ll hold with me, as i walked towards the white house i could still see some people outside chanting, playing music. i saw, hala, a marine in uniform walking toward me and i stopped him and i said, obviously you came down here for this, tell me about it. he said he was in bed last night, he got a call from some friends, they said you have to turn on your tv. when he saw what had happened he got in his uniform, hours ago, and he came down to the white house to witness a piece of history. he has served overseas and he said he needed to see his for himself. i was struck as well, brianna, by the age of the people outside of the white house gates there in the early 20s, some looked like they were even in their teens. i mean the memory they have of 9/11 is not the same as people who are now adults. so what were they telling you about why this was important beyond witnessing history? you could hear this as you walked down the street. they just said, this is something amazing to be a part of and they wanted to celebrate, but it certainly did strike me because they were so much younger during 9/11, their reaction to it was very different. if you talk with someone like they, they may have been 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 when 9/11 happened. talk to someone who s a little older they have more conflicted emotions. they want to celebrate, but they also realize the more somber nature of this and what we saw last night was very celebratory, especially among those people who were younger and it s really their whole entire life has been punctuated by this face of terrorism, osama bin laden. and we have had very interesting international reaction. brianna keilar, at the white house, thanks very much. i ll be back with that later. world leaders and ordinary country, closure for the families of 9/11 victims. president obama delivering the news of bin laden s death and remembering the thousands of men and women who lost their lives almost ten years ago. let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11, that we have never forgotten your loss, nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores. and tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. i know that it has, at times, frayed, yet today s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the american people. the families of the heros on flight 93 also responded to the news. the united airlines plane hijacked by four al qaeda terrorists on 9/11 and you may remember it was the heroics of the people on board, they actually crashed that plane into a field near shanksville, pennsylvania, saving untold other lives as that plane, some say, was headed perhaps to the capitol. gordon felt, the president of the families of flight 93 released this statement. this is important news for us and for the world. it cannot ease our pain or bring back our loved ones. it does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the september 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil. again, those are some of the reactions from people hardest hit and closest to the tragedy. ali, i know there s going to be a lot of people like that down at the site of ground zero as well today. kiran, the flavor of the people who have come down here is going to change. they started coming out late sunday night when they first heard the news. and there was jubilation. there were also some people here, one woman, in fact, who had lost her husband in the site of the twin towers about 50 feet over to my left. let s go to jason carroll who s just around the corner from me now. police have moved the crowd to that location. jason has been here for several hours. what have you been seeing overnight? you know, ali, you ve been down here, it s been incredible to witness what s been taking place down here in the streets of ground zero for the past several hours. you know it started out coming down, a makeshift celebration, people carrying flags, some of them carrying signs like this one here, we got him. that s what we ve been experiencing. if you take a look over here, some folks have been here since 11:00 last night, heard about it on the news, more and more people sort of coming down, some of them are veterans, some of them are first responders. spoke to a woman, diane masaroli, lost her husband on the 101st floor of one of the towers that went down. want to bring in this gentleman here in the white t-shirt, this is chris, 19 years old. you re a student at fordham university. this happened when you were just 9 years old. you were telling me you remember it happening, you were on the school bus in the fourth grade. my sister told me on the way home in the fourth grade. at first it didn t seem like much. i got home and saw it on the news and it was shocking. so this happened when you were so young. now that this historic moment has happened, how does that make you feel? do you have a point of reference? how do you sort of celebrating this particular moment? we re celebrating the death of a major threat to america, but also, remembering all the lives they took with them and now it really legitimizes everything we ve done and it means that people have not died in vain. you know, i ve been hearing from a lot of folks out here all night, in some ways tonight it gives them some sort of a sense of closure and i m wondering do you feel that as well? do you sense that as well? absolutely. it s not over, but it s a giant hurdle. chris, want to thank you very, very much. again, some of the other folks that have come out here as well, you can see they still got the flags, ali. you know, some of them i ask how long do you plan on hanging out here? terrific to. usa from ghana! from ghana, from the bronx, from long island, we spoke to another gentleman from texas, i m hearing jersey, a lot of folks wanting to celebrate, be a part of history being made. ali? all right. jason, we ve also got coverage throughout the northeast in places where people lost families. there s a gathering of people in times square right here in new york, alina cho is standing by. what s going on in times square right now? hey, ali, good morning to you. we are about 60 blocks north of ground zero. times square is the crossroads of the world, about 1.5 million people pass through here every day. and there is no shortage of opinion. cially in new york city. joining me now is linda and annie morales, here on vacation from orange county, california. thank you for joining me. i actually ran into you in the coffee shop this morning and noticed your american flag there. you were actually asleep when this was all breaking. how did you hear the news? well, we ended up getting contacted by friends and relativeps on the west coast to let us know if we knew osama bin laden had been killed. so initially we were thinking oh, my god, this is very, very big news, especially in the city. probably couldn t believe your ears. yeah. so we turned on the television and thought, where should we end up heading to? we thought going to the world trade center, to ground zero first, but there s only really one train that goes there. we came down to this was closer to your hotel. it takes a lot to sort of get up out of bed, still in your pajamas, and come down here. let s go down. i said i don t know, i m really scared me said we have to go down there. we did. and it was i was overwhelmed by what i was seeing. are you glad you re here? very much so. yeah. it means a lot to the people of new york city, especially every american, ten years ago everyone remembers where they were, but even more so, here in new york, where it took place, you have a lot of, you know, new york s bravest and finest and they lost a lot of people and there are generations of them, fathers, sons. quickly, two-thirds of americans had given up hope that they would ever capture or kill osama bin laden. had you? yeah. at this point, it s kind of amazing, like we would never have thought that maybe he would show up. i hear now that was hiding in plain sight, maybe just in his mansion and that s where they had taken him down. it was a navy seal operation, something like that. this is a sav on a 10-year-old wound for these new yorkers. they ve been waiting to hear something like this. with the california mentality versus a new york mentality, we would be happy if we found out that osama bin laden is eviscerated, couldn t see the body, but i think the new yorkers really wanted to see a body. more than 2600 people killed here in new york city. i m certainly glad to be here in new york city. i m sure you are too, when this news came down. thank you so much. linda and andy morales from orange county, california, for joining us. and ali, everyone certainly remembers where they were on 9/11. everyone in new york city certainly remembers the collective shock and silence in this city that is usually bustling, but no shortage of celebration in the streets of and certainly no shortage of celebration here in times square. back to you. . all right. alina, we ll keep checking in. things are getting busier in times square, even though there s a big gathering where you are, we re about an hour away from the workers coming in to this part of new york city and that is going to change a little bit of what s going on behind us. right now, jason carroll around the corner with me with the celebrants who are down here at ground zero. back to you, kiran and christine. thanks so much. we ll be checking in in a couple minutes. just tuning in, osama bin laden is dead in a daring operation in a compound in pakistan. not found in a cave, but actually behind 12-foot concrete walls. we want to bring in now cnn terrorism analyst paul crookshank. your initial reaction, short-term danger for americans, perhaps, around the world. but longer term, this is the end of the war on terror? in a short time, there is a period of danger, bin laden is a martyr and al qaeda may seek revenge or an individual not linked to al qaeda may seek an attack. this is a huge blow against al qaeda. bin laden was providing the strategic direction still. he can t be replaced. he s irreplaceable, no one within al qaeda, someone like amman al zawahiri the number two, will take on the number one role, doesn t have the charisma, he s a polarizing figure. the moral authority of the movement, but also the tactical, ability to take together all of these different groups, and factions, and make them al qaeda. that s absolutely right. bin laden was always a unifeig figure for al qaeda. this organization has a lot of forces, a lot of rivalries, different ideologies, different agendas. bin laden was able to unify al qaeda by launches this jihad against the united states. he was able to say it was he wanted to get back to a seventh century muslim empire which was borderless, which was extremely, you know, apparently attractive to many people. what i want to ask you about, paul, we ve covered this so long, nine years, eight months, you know, since 9/11, trying to get our hands on him, how surprised are you this is where he ended up, abbottbad, a military, garrison city as reza describes it, not in the border of afghanistan as people talked about. there s increased surprise that officials had indicated he could be in pakistan proper, hinting elements have known where he was. the fact that he was killed in this settled area of pakistan in this compound, this million dollar compound, is something which is deeply embarrassing for pakistan. there will be a lot of questions they have to answer. how could they not know where he was. and that s the other question. i mean, there was conflicting reports, u.s. officials, defense officials, saying this was kept very close to the vest, very few people even in the u.s., you know, powers knew about it. pakistan saying they were in on it, the entire time. little bit of a conflicting situation there. absolutely conflicting and cnn has not been able to resolve that conflict. perhaps we ll hear more about it today and there will be lots of questions that can be asked of pakistani military authorities today. paul, thank you so much. so much to talk about, so many more questions about this and where we go from here on that. we have breaking news coverage that continues in just moments, including the spontaneous celebrations that are taking place across the u.s. and the world after news, after nine long years and eight months, osama bin laden killed by u.s. forces. and as paul suggested there s short-term danger for american, american interests and that s something that embassies and american facilitisies around the world are taking seriously. new security warnings after the death of bin laden. what the state department says about possible reprisal attacks. we ll tell you what s next right after the break. well-being. we re all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. we get double miles on every purchase, so me and my lads earned a trip to san francisco twice as fast! we get double miles every time we use our card. i ll take these two. .no matter what we re buying. .and all of those. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it s hard to beat double miles! whoa dude [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one, money magazine s best rewards card if you aim to rack up airline miles. what s in your wallet? 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[ female announcer ] try 24-hour zyrtec for prescription strength relief from your allergy symptoms. indoors.and out. and right now when you buy a zyrtec 45 count, you can get a 14 count free. at walgreens. you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat welcome back. 28 minutes past the hour. we re following breaking news for you on this american morning coming to you a little early today because of it. osama bin laden is dead and his body already buried at sea according to u.s. officials. the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks was killed in a fire fight with u.s. forces in pakistan sunday. in a late night speech from the white house president obama announced the leader of al qaeda was shot to death in a compound about 60 miles from islamabad in the city of abbottabad. the president spoke, crowds waving u.s. flags gathered outside the gates of the white house and cheered usa and sang the national anthem. word of bin laden s death spread quickly between a game of the new york mets and the phillies, the crowd chanted usa at the top of the ninth and continued throughout the inning. that was a came that was actually in philadelphia. also an i-report from penn state university, what looks like hundreds of students cheering and singing the national anthem. i mean we were remarking these were kids basically 8, 9 years old, ten years old, when 9/11 happened. also at the university of delaware, a similar scene as students poured into the street at the university of delaware, celebrating as well. listen to them chanting usa. usa, usa, usa. news of bin laden s death providing a financial boost to markets overseas. japan s nikkei closed and in europe, markets in germany and france, both higher. in the u.s. where the 9/11 attacks shut down the new york stock exchange for four days, the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 futures are all positive. we want to mention the u.s. dollar is up from a three-year low this morning. there s also fascinate degree tails emerging about how exactly our u.s. forces got him, got their hands on osama bin laden after really, as you point out, decades. after 9/11, of course, we ratcheted it up, but he s been on the run, and we ve been looking for him for a very long time. bombing his compounds even in the late 1990s. president clinton, three presidents now have had concerns about osama bin laden ratcheting up bin laden over the years, and now how did they do it? he is dead. new warnings after his death that may have many americans on edge. we ll tell you about concerns in the short term about potential reprisals on americans. . 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 s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. he had the blood of thousan s s of americans on his hands. now osama bin laden blood has been killed at the hands of america. it s may 2nd, a special edition of american morning. i m christine romans. i m kiran chetry. want to welcome our viewers watching from around the world this morning. ali? i m down at ground zero where people have been gathering in the last seven hours since the news broke at the white house in times square and here at ground zero. i ll be covering the crowds that are here and what they re saying about this. all right. the latest on the u.s. mission that eliminated the world s most wanted terrorist, osama bin laden. the al qaeda chief was killed yesterday, shot in the head during a fire fight with american forces in pakistan. one of his sons, two of his couriers were also killed, along with a woman described as a human shield. the operation was carried out with the cooperation of pakistani officials. bin laden was hiding in a million dollar mansion in a compound in abbottabad, that s in pakistan, about 60 miles north of islamabad. cia had been monitoring this location for months. the president said he got word this past august about the potential lead of where osama bin laden may be. you re looking at video now from geo news out of pakistan. it shows the compound in flames after u.s. helicopters and about two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s. shot the mastermind in the head. the mission took 40 minutes, the compound where bin laden was found was surrounded, they say, by seven-foot walls. u.s. helicopter a u.s. helicopter did crash during that raid. mechanical problems are being blamed for that. that helicopter was destroyed by u.s. troops for security reasons, but again, no u.s. forces were killed in that very daring and very, very difficult operation. ali? all right. kiran, we ve been gathering our people in the united states and several locations and around the world where people have been gathering, as soon as they heard the news starting late sunday night. here at ground zero, i m just a few feet away from where the buildings were standing. around the corner is a gathering of people, though. you can see here on this video, this gathering is quite large and quite jubilant through the course of the night. what s happening right now, behind me, is we ve got street sweeping machines, busses having rolled through. the police have set up barricades, moved the folks who are here celebrating around the corner a little bit, and preparing for workers to start coming in. there s also a crowd that s been gathering in times square in new york, alina cho is there. crowds gathering outside the white house. there is a spontaneous celebration. the crowd has mostly been younger people and students some of whom would have just been in school when 9/11 happened, but they ve got some sense that this is a momentous, momentous occasion. they ve been coming out, as i said, those crowds are starting to thin. we ll see what starts to happen as workers come in, as the sun starts to rise down here at ground zero. it is definitely a celebratory sense a sense this is a historic day for at least new yorkers. kiran, christine? all right. ali velshi at ground zero, we ll be checking in with you throughout the morning. fears of retaliation and americans on guard, with bin laden the state department is sending out a strong warning that bin laden sympathizers may target americans. there are particular security concerns at u.s. embassies abroad. we re going to bring in foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty live at the state department. so in the short term, i guess there are fears of reprisal attacks. what is the state department saying about that this morning, jill? yes, definitely. not only at the embassies around the entire world but also for u.s. citizens and they ve issued a very broad warning for the entire world, you could say. here it is. i ll read it for you. the u.s. department of state alerts u.s. citizens traveling and residing abroad to the enhanced potential for anti-american violence, given recent counter terrorism activity in pakistan. given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, u.s. citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-american violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gathers and demonstrations. u.s. citizens, they say, also in this u.s. state department warning, are encouraged to enroll in the department of state s smart traveler enrollment program, called step, on the web side and you can receive all sorts of travel information, latest updates on the security issues. so that is definitely the warning. and you know, i would have to say here at the state department, secretary clinton is one person who was affected. remember she was u.s. senator from new york. she has a personal remembrance of this and has spoken out about it a lot. in fact, she was one of the officials who a while ago, was warning and saying that in the pakistani government, there had to be people who knew where osama bin laden was. so, we ll look forward, perhaps, a statement some type of comments today, but certainly secretary clinton, who was involved in all of the meetings, planning this operation against bin laden, will take it very personally, it s important to her. that s a good point. six days after september 11th when the stock market reopened it was hillary clinton who was on the floor of the new york stock exchange, a lot of people including john mccain and others, who were visibly shaken by the events that had happened here in new york and you just think of how much time has passed and this event now and there she is running the state department and you re right, how personal it must be for so many american officials involved in this. it s true. she s spoken out on it. i think you to say she s taken a pretty hardline all along and, you know, the fact that he is now gone, must be of great satisfaction to her because of the constituents whom she represented back then. jill, one other quick question about u.s./pakistan relations. is this something that s going to be discussed in the coming days? i mean the fact that he was found basically in the midst of a very heavily populated military city? absolutely. i mean, this is one thing that is a gigantic question mark. i think you would have to say. relations between pakistan and the united states already have been on edge. there have been a number of incidents. you would have to say on many levels, a lack of trust between the two sides. and to have this happen, will open up all sorts of questions, quoting hillary clinton again, they must have known. all right. thanks so much. an interesting contrast in events over the weekend. while president obama was delivering one liners at the white house correspondent s dinner on saturday night, behind the scenes he was directing the special mission to track down osama bin laden. his demeanor at that annual event calm and lighthearted, relaxed even, no one would have known the historical event that was set to play out thousands of miles away, except for the president and a few others. it s interesting, too, because he authorized the mission on friday, went down south to look at some of the tornado damage, so all of this is under way on a pretty big news weekend and the president and a few other people were the only ones who knew it was about to unfold. it s quite notable to think he walks and chews gum at the same time. a lot going on. inside the in igs to get bin laden mission to get bin laden, a former commander who led the 2001 attack that almost nabbed the terror leader is going to be joining us live with more details about how this successful mission went down. and it s been about seven hours since the news became public and now traveling with lightning speed around the world, world leaders speaking out about osama bin laden s death. we re going to tell you what the reaction is around the world straight ahead. oh! [ both slurping ] [ female announcer ] the irresistible taste of cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares. 45 minutes past the hour. welcome back to a special edition of american morning coming an hour early this morning and from around the world. we would like to welcome hala gorani from cnn international joining us throughout the morning as well. good morning, hala. good morning to you. we ve been getting international reaction from officials from world leaders as well as just from ordinary people around the world. the hunt for osama bin laden has been going on for more than ten years, arguably since the mid-90s. early monday, troops stationed in afghanistan watched and listened as president obama announced that bin laden was dead. you can see all eyes fixed on the television as the president says that there is a long way to go in the fight against terrorism after having announced the death of osama bin laden. years of intelligence and months of sniffing out osama bin laden led operatives to a pretty wealthy neighborhood relatively speaking in northwest pakistan and northwest pakistani city. there have long been strained relations between the u.s. and pakistan but president obama made certain to point out that their role in this mission to take down the terrorist leader was a significant one. over the years i have repeatedly made clear that we would take action within pakistan if we knew where bin laden was. that is what we ve done. but it s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with pakistan helped lead us to bin laden and the compound where he was hiding. indeed, bin laden had declared war against pakistan as well and ordered attacks against the pakistani people. tonight, i called president zardari and my team has spoken with their pakistani counterparts. they agree this is a good and historic day for both of our nations and going forward it is essential that pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al qaeda and its affiliates. all right. reaching out to pakistan and its leaders there. the reaction to bin laden s death is coming in fast and fierce. world leaders are speaking about the historic impact. this is the first official statement by the pakistani government. osama bin laden s death illustrates the resolve of the international community, including pakistan, to fight and eliminate terrorism. it is pakistan s stated policy that it will not allow its soil to be used in terrorist attacks against any country. pakistan s political leadership, parliament, state institutions and the whole nation are fully united in their resolve to eliminate terror. the afghan president hamid karzai said this, if the international troops are the true allies of afghans, now they should come up to say that killing of the afghans, women, children and elders, was not a good idea in the last many years and it was happening on a daily basis. the british prime minister, david cameron, welcomed news of bin laden s death. here is his reaction. this news will be welcomed right across our country. of course, it does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist terror. indeed, we ll have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead. but it is, i believe, a massive step forward. osama bin laden was responsible for the death of thousands of innocent men, women and children, right across the world. people of every race and religion. he was also responsible for ordering the death of many, many british citizens, both here and in other parts of the world. reaction from david cameron, the u.k. prime minister. france s president sarkozy called it a major event in the struggle against terrorism. germany s foreign minister said it was good news for free-thinking men. and italy s foreign minister said it was a victory of good against evil, justice against militancy. and the israeli president shimon perez also reacting. the world will become a better world without him. it doesn t mean this is the end of all terrorism and all dangers. but one that was [ inaudible ] its own justified end. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu says the state of israel joins in the historic day in which osama bin laden was killed. this is a resounding victory for justice, freedom and for all the joint values for all the countries that fight side by side determinedly against terror. reaction from japan as well as spokesman for the japanese prime minister released this statement. we regard this as part of a united effort to fight terrorism. japan has been working on assistance to both pakistan and afghanistan and proactively tackling the issue of terrorism. all right. kiran and christine, that s world reaction for you. back to you for now. all right. hala, thanks so much. it took nearly ten years to hunt down osama bin laden. he escaped an attack by u.s. special forces in afghanistan back in 2001. we re going to talk to the former cia commander in charge of that operation, give us an inside look into this mission to take down bin laden. and is this it for al qaeda? what about the future? we ll be talking to peter bergen in our next hour, an expert on this to weigh in on what this means down the road for al qaeda. i don t know, something. [ mom ] something. mexican. [ female announcer ] thinking mexican tonight? hamburger helper has five festive flavors like crunchy taco. hamburger helper. one pound. one pan. one happy family. seven minutes to the top of the hour on this special edition of american morning. new details on exactly what happened as u.s. forces closed in on osama bin laden. it was a brief but intense fire fight that killed bin laden. two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s. storming his compound. they traded gunfire for nearly 40 minutes before finally killing bin laden. one of his sons and two couriers that were bunkered with him. we re told the cia had been laying the groundwork for months and the military, quote, finished it off. for more details we re joined by former cia commander gary bernstein involved in the special forces in tora bora in afghanistan that also killed bin laden in 2001. this guy has been on the radar screen for american officials since the 90s when we bombed in afghanistan some of his training compounds and the like. he has endured and survived after three presidents. this one nailed him. well, the president deserves great credit for going through with this. had he gone into pakistan and sent helicopters that deep in and dropped crashed a helicopter and there was mechanical problems, the pakistanis would have stated the americans were invading pakistan. it s at great risk to the president. hundred things could have gone wrong. mechanically there could have been people on the roof of that building with rpgs. someone could have leaked something. many things could have gone wrong. this is the ultimate gutcheck for a president to pull the trigger on something like this. what do you think of the fact it seemed i m not saying it was easy, but when you talk about bin laden being killed, maybe two or three that were close with him and a woman that s reported to be used as a human shield, it doesn t sound like they had a lot of backup around them. well, they were trying to maintain a low profile, clearly didn t want to have a lot of people involved with them. the more people involved the more likely a leak. he survived for ten years in this fashion which is a long time given the resources that were expended against him. most people don t realize the complexity of pakistan. 175 million people in pakistan. 24 different militant groups, over 900,000 people trained in terrorist cam snoops incubator for terrorism. this is a tough place and, you know, any time the pakistanis stated that bin laden was inside of afghanistan, it was laughable. it was laughable. when they made those statements. we knew he was in pakistan. why ten years of false starts? intense resources. we were in afghanistan. there are areas in the tribal area where he probably was for a period of this, that the pakistani army hadn t been in for 40 years. a year and a half ago they sent in thousands of troops for the first time in 40 years. it s a lawless place. it is a place where narco traffickers and militants, you know, run the place. and it was a perfect place for him to go. you have to remember this is we were fighting and we continue to fight a war in pashtun the southern part of afghanistan with pashtuns and 29 million pashtuns along the border of the northern part of pakistan and they supported bin laden. talk about the raid. when you were going after him in torah bora, a different kind of operation then in abbottabad, which is a big city, you know. in 2001 it was a chase. in 2001, kabul collapsed, he fled the city we chased him down to an area and were engaging him while he was on the run and we were on the run and we had very, very small number of people. i mean we went in with eight men initially, you know, and those eight guys raised the force of a couple thousands of the afghans and delta force came in with about 40 guys. never more than 60 people, 60 americans involved on the ground there. and it was in a conventional battle. this was different. this was a raid run by jsock, joint special operations group, using the s.e.a.l.s., special operations force, time to set it up. back to the fact it requires good intel and the white house has to believe the intel and has to have the courage to go forward and they did. i m no political supporter of the united states, i m a republican, ran for the senate, but give him kudos for this. he and his national security team stepped up and made the hard call and took the risk. always great to talk to you. see you shortly. thanks so much. the u.s. has killed osama bin laden. in pakistan. barbara starr is going to tell us exactly how it was done. we re also live at the white house where president obama just hours ago came out in that address announcing that this had happened that osama bin laden was killed. we ll have more details from the white house and reaction coming up. three minutes to the top of the hour. warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat you know that comes with a private island. really? 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