That quote from president Obama tonight. The story here
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet” – Afghan proverb
UPDATE #3: Zeroing in on the compound. Threes a charm. Like anything in the fog of war, early reports can be erroneous. The first two seemed plausible, especially the second one with the high walls. Now the official Google Earth Blog weighs in:
[UPDATE: The location has essentially been confirmed by the BBC
(via Ogle Earth).] You can fly there with this KML file
or view the image below:
Lat/lon 34.169314° 73.242304° see it on Google Maps
The Pentagon has released this photo, which matches:
A powerpoint from the Pentagon is here (PDF) which shows the details.
======================================================================
UPDATE: I have the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan mapped on Google Earth below:
Lat/Lon 34.146371° 73.216925° Google Maps It sure looks like a fortress. I’m betting they special forces landed the copters in the field to the east, near the blue roofed building, which is the Government Post Graduate College No.1 Another view here
Source: The Atlantic
===============================================================
UPDATE2: The Atlantic’s story was wrong, here is the (likely) correct location:
Lat/lon 34.187663° 73.242617° See it on Google Maps
Here it is with the PMA Kakul Military academy mentioned in news reports h/t to Ryan Maue:
Wikipedia has already made an update about the PMA Kakul Military academy:
In May 2011, the US military conducted a raid and killed Osama bin Laden in a compound less than 1 km from Burn Hall Army Academy in Abbottabad. Burn Hall is a junior academy that feeds the Pakistan Military Academy. Bin Laden’s extended refuge near the academy is cited as evidence of the Pakistani government’s collusion with al Qaeda.
That places the compound back near the city center where we originally placed it from reports by The Atlantic. The compound originally identified din’t quite match the news reports.(see image below).
The imagery of the compound above described as “very high walled” matches the image of the white building and the tall white walls around it. I also just saw some helmet cam video of the scene in flames, and the white walls were visible.
The Google added red pointer location for OBL’s compound Abottabad in their database in the images above was originally near the city center, See below for the original placment Google had. But the pointer lat/lon has been updated within the last hour to the new location near PMA Kakul shown above. I think the locations above are correct, as they match news accounts much better.
Thanks for that photo Anthony.
Best coverage of this story I have found, by far:
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
And handy. Listening to it right now. Lots of details I’m not getting from the usual channels.
Are we sure this is the compound, Anthony. It’s the default marker for the city when typed into googleEarth. The helicopter crash and shots fired were heard about 800 yards from the Pakistani Military Academy (PMA Kakul) off of Kakul Road. News reports about 4 hours ago, as well as a LiveTweeting guy http://twitter.com/#!/ReallyVirtual describe the situation…
Ryan –
My source was The Atlantic Magazine, see link at bottom of story. They didn’t plot sat imagery though. I noted that marker too. Thinking it was odd, but this whole episode was apparently about hiding in plain sight. What better place to hide than next to the old police station? And just look at the building, I looked all around the city, nothing quite like that. OTOH it is possible the Atlantic has it wrong and so do I. We’ll know more soon I’m sure. – Anthony
Keith in Perth says:
May 1, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I think I would call it revenge, not justice
—————————————————————————
Keith in Perth says:
May 1, 2011 at 10:38 pm
It would have been justice if the UN, Interpol or Pakistan had captured him, and then tried him and executed him.
The US going into another country and blowing people up is revenge
—————————————————————————
Hey Keith.
I would say that Osama has been brought to justice for his crimes. I get the feeling that you have a problem with that opinion. Do you feel he was innocent? Why did you name The UN, and Pakistan or even Interpol as organizations to try him? I don’t remember him plotting to kill, and then killing thousands of Pakistani’s or Brit’s.
You posted up twice, why don’t you tell us why…
[[[Grant Hillemeyer says:
May 1, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Outstanding. The fact that we was living in a mansion near Pakistan’s capital is disturbing, but not surprising. ]]]
Living in a custom mansion near Islamabad ?!!
For Pakistani officials to not to have known this is absurd !
I can think of an appropriate budget savings item…
CUT ALL U.S. AID TO PAKISTAN !!
Have a nice day.
Bin Laden had the money, the means, the followers, and the will to declare war on the West, especially the people of the United States of America. The government of the US is charged with providing for the security of its people and it so doing has followed the constitution. This is not revenge as Keith in Perth tries to spin it. Revenge would have been to have sent a stealth bomber and dropped several large devices in and around that compound.
First the Royal Wedding goes off without a hitch, in the face of Islamic terrorist threats. Now this.
I don’t usually drink on Mondays but a bottle of Champagne has just gone on ice.
Ryan – follow up. The marker in Google Earth was apparently added by Google itself. You can do a search for “Osama bin Laden compound Abbottabad” and find it in their database. Maybe the copter crashed after takeoff, maybe the landed at the academy and went by vehicle…who knows at this point?
That may not be the compound. I have heard that the compound was a little outside of town on a dirt road. Also, I have seen video that is purported to be the compound and it is not consistent with that location that has been floating around the web (and that you posted above).
I would take that location with a grain of salt for now.
I think it’s in this neighborhood: near that PMA on Kakul road: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=34.1703491&lon=73.2357913&z=18&l=0&m=b&v=8
Ryan, GE updated their marker. The new images are up. It matches the “high walled compound” descriptions I’ve heard and the proximity to PMA – Anthony
About time. It should have happened years ago. It probably would have happened years ago if Bush hadn’t got sidetracked in Iraq.
Yes, I have heard it was in the Bilal district.
One down, the rest of the nutjob organisation to go…
How is this climate related?
REPLY: Note the masthead. “recent news” – Anthony
Yes, the new location is more consistent with the reports I have been hearing. Great job, Mr. Watts.
So what? At least the SOB is finally dead — and we don’t have to put up with the UN playing pattycake with him.
I’ll explain myself a little more Robert M.
Like most people, I also assume he was guilty of the crimes attributed to him and many more. But me assuming it doesn’t make it fact. Justice is about proof, and the perception of due dilligence. By waltzing into another country and blowing up people, the US will only make it’s own people happy.
The reason I mentioned interpol, the UN or Pakistan is that they at least have some claim to authority in the situation. The US has none.
I am not saying it is wrong that he is dead, but there is no way it should be labelled as “justice” If so we should bring back lynch mobs because they certainly felt they were dealing out justice.
The compound is currently on fire.
Just excellent news!
OBL – – DEAD with a bullet to the head, hunted down in his own nest…
Congrats to my neighbours your navy seals are the best, this is such welcome news.
For me, this is how war on terrorists should be done – up close, personal, unrelenting and very final.
$100 bucks says there’s an entertainment theater in that compound with American movies… Netflix too.!
crosspatch…buring down the evidence no doubt.
Osama bin who? Forgive my ignorance but is he one of these new leaders to emerge from the ME democracy movements springing up everywhere in response to the Iraq ‘beacon of light’ project?
You are under the mistaken impression this was a law enforcement matter, and Interpol or the United Nations had jurisdiction.
He issued a formal written declaration of war against the U.S. and all our allies in 1998, then backed it up with several unprovoked attacks, that in the case of the U.S. killed 3,000 , not to mention their attack on the U.S.S. Cole DDG-67 a capital ship of the U.S Navy, while in harbor killing 17 crew members and injuring 39.
If any nation in the world had done either of those things it would be universally recognized as an act of war, and it is perfectly legitimate for the attacked party to respond in kind any where any time they can find the “head of state” of the attacking nation.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1998.html
He was the leader of a group at war with the U.S. and we have every right to take what ever measures are necessary any where in the world to take him down. This has been established by precedent for literally 1000’s of years. There is not a single major nation in the world that has not taken similar lethal action against a foreign belligerent be they nation or criminal organization while engaged in recognized open warfare.
The same legitimacy would have attached if the group that took action was from the UK or Spain or any other nation that had suffered a direct attack on their soil or their overseas interests.
He started it, and paid the price for his actions.
Larry
[[[crosspatch says:
May 1, 2011 at 11:47 pm
The compound is currently on fire.]]]
If I were in the Pukistani Government, I’d burn all the evidence too.
They need to create all the distance they possibly can from this.
Good luck with that hockey stick….
Now we turn our attention to Mr. Zawahiri.
Whilst I’m glad bin ladin has finally been removed, one must not forget the 100,000 Iraqis whose lives were taken against international law using the excuse of Bin Ladin to pursue their own political aims.