| by Dr. Jeffrey Lant I am not a violent man but I have waited, with all Americans, for the violent end to one man of consummate evil, Osama bin Laden... and now -- at long last -- his end has come and my heart beats quicker and in gratitude to the people who have done this worthy deed and rid the world of the man whose face was the face of death. The facts. For years, the CIA had been monitoring an al-Qaida courier. They knew he was important because detainees told investigators he was profoundly trusted by bin Laden and might very well be living with bin Laden. Last August, as a result of monitoring this courier, intelligence officials got a break. The courier arrived at a highly fortified compound nestled in an affluent neighborhood of an affluent Pakistani town two hours outside Islamabad. Everything about this compound suggested some nefarious purpose. It was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire. Two security posts were the only way in. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall. No phone lines or Internet cables ran to the property. The residents burned their garbage rather than put it out for collection. Intelligence officials came to believe that this highly distinctive compound was built about 5 years ago at a cost of about one million dollars for a person of consequence in al-Qaida.. The question now was who that person of consequence might be. Increasingly, after innumerable reviews of the compound and everything known about it, intelligence officials came to believe that the compound was bin Laden's... but for this most important of covert operations there could not be any error of any kind. Americans, they knew, had to have success, total success from this mission... and that's precisely what these officials aimed to give an aggrieved, long-suffering, and patient nation. And so they did their important work, their painstaking work, their essential work so that when they did what they must do they would be completely successful, and Osama bin Laden would not escape yet again. Absolute certainty required. By mid-February, intelligence from multiple sources was clear enough to enable President Obama to "pursue an aggressive course of action." During the next two and a half months, Obama led five meetings of the National Security Council focused solely on whether bin Laden was in that compound and, if so, how to get him. Everyone was agreed from the President on down: this time there must be complete success... And so, first of all, just who had access to this growing body of intelligence was drastically limited. Our closest allies -- Britain, Canada, Australia, etc. -- are ordinarily in the loop... but not this time. Too, the United States does not normally carry out ground operations inside Pakistan without collaboration from Pakistani intelligence. But this was the ultimate covert operation and what was "normal" in such matters was not good enough. There had to be total success; everything had to be done right... the first time. April 29, 2011. The President approved the operation to kill Osama bin Laden and the countdown to vengeance began. For this most important of missions, Obama went with real people instead of our sophisticated Predator drones. President Obama entrusted the honor of America to some of America's finest, the elite Navy SEAL Team Six under the command of CIA Director Leon Panetta. The names of team members have not (so far) been released... but they have well and truly earned the gratitude of the nation. A fiery end, a bullet to the head. In the dead of night, helicopters descended out of darkness to deliver Armageddon. One can imagine the event. The inhabitants of the compound would have awakened, drowsy and disoriented, to their worst nightmare. Coming for them, every one of them, were the deliverers of promised retribution... the representatives of a great nation delivering at last what every citizen of that nation wanted: Revenge! Retaliation! Justice! Unimaginable horror scarred the night skies as, one by one, the representatives of al-Qaida fell... the courier who lead the CIA to this place... bin Laden's brother... his son... and the man of practised and unfathomable evil Osama bin Laden himself... one blessed bullet into the brain that brought so much undeserved pain to so many. This was the man whose hatred created, on the fateful day of September 11, profound misery; a man who turned happy children from happy homes into orphans... a wicked man who tore wives from husbands and husbands from wives... a man who turned doting grandparents into crazed people mad with despair... asking a single question over and over again: "Why?" What had so many innocent people done to deserve so much.... And so, even as the Twin Towers fell, even as a great nation reeled and wept... the sentiment took root that the perpetrator of this great evil must be found and punished. And that day of righteous punishment came -- May 1, 2011. Buried according to Islamic practice and tradition. The bodies of Osama's victims were buried in the burning debris of the once majestic towers, the very symbols of our greatest city. The bravest of the brave found these bodies and gave them the most reverential burials. We gave the remains of bin Laden the same high respect... burying him with decency and full honors, so that no one could say we treated him with the deep contempt with which he treated us. Here, as so often, we rose above... to behave with the deep decency which is the core of who we are. An incident, not the end. I am not, as I said, a violent man; I often wonder why we humans seem to need, even crave, so much of it. But of this I am sure: the total eradication of this man was needed, warranted, and beneficial. His misguided followers, now disoriented and dismayed, will turn the man into a martyr, but they will be wrong to do so. His twisted perspective hurts them, too, and can deliver nothing more than more infernos and more pain. That is why we must continue to be vigilant. One bullet is not the end... but that bullet surely marks the end of the chapter which began September 11, 2001. It is a beautiful day here in Cambridge, Massachusetts... the kind of day that makes one glad to be alive. I intend to go, in a minute, into the sparkling air and the brilliant sunshine... to say a little prayer for the victims, our honored dead... and hope their spirits may now rest more easily, abiding forever in the Peace of God they came to know too soon. |
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