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.
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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
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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.
Wucash:
For such a major announcement, preserving the body for forensic analysis should have been a top priority. Unless, of course, they had a reason to get rid of the evidence.
Give me a convincing reason for dumping the body overboard.
Jen wrote: “I have a hard time connecting the bulk of these comments with people who allegedly apply critical thought to bad science as regards GW and AGW.”
Skeptics are exactly the people who are immune to wide-eyed hothead conspiracy theories that rely on insular little crazy blinking text and multiple exclamation point web sites that five minutes on Google are sufficient to debunk.
Years ago a young gal I had a sort of crush on linked to a site claiming no aircraft wreckage was found near the Pentegon. She hadn’t bothered to use Google to locate pictures of the actual lawn involved, like I then did. It was strewn with aircraft wreckage.
The site you link to at least is sanely formated but it’s immediately obvious that here is someone desperately trying to prove a paranoid fantasy by grasping for evidence to
support their madness. This is exactly what has siezed the souls of climate alarmists too. The very last thing you want is for climate skeptics to delve into your favorite web sites about thermite being found in dust of the WTC, unless if course you want a hundred viable explanations as to why such evidence is not so solid after all.
The second update still gives the wrong location. NY times published the right one, with compound diagram from DOD.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/02/world/asia/abbottabad-map-of-where-osama-bin-laden-was-killed.html
REPLY: Refresh, we have the update also – Anthony
@ur momisugly Wucash 9:41am
As a stable intelligent person not on any medication how is it that you are so certain of the “facts” in this case? Were you there at the firefight and saw the body with your own eyes? No? You and a few others seem awful quick to name-calling. Are you saying that conspiracies never happen at all? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that belief is? Are you calling me a “nut job”?
( if this were face-to-face your cowardly snot-filled probosces would now be significantly disfigured and bleeding profusely … )
Telling a lie over and over doesn’t make it true. You are basing your conclusion on reports from “news” corporations which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the very same defense contractors who have profited from the Osama bin Laden fairy tale to the tune of trillions of your tax dollars. Keep on believing the lies… with the construction of new detention facilities for “re-education” underway all across Amerika soon you won’t have to worry about pesky folks who are awake. Soon everyone will be happy and no one will ever question Big Brother ever again.
Emmanuel Goldstein’s Dark Victory
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/05/emmanuel-goldsteins-dark-victory.html
Burying a human body “within 24 hours” or “by sunset” or “before sunrise” is superstitious BS. It must have developed from rapid decay in hot climates. They seem paranoid about it.
This “rule” would prevent any local cadavers from being available to medical schools in many countries, impeding medical education. Foolishness.
The Earth is still flat in many of these countries. Sad.
The White House is pandering on this issue.
My $.02
“”””” 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 “””””
You want to run that by us again ? Lemme see, they guy is living in the lap of luxury in Pakistan; and your recommendation is that Pakistan capture him; how would they know where to find him; most of the Pak military folks there are in a retirement home; they can’ be expected to run down the street and try to arrest somebody.
So now tell us about how the UN would go about executing him, after they try him. Try him for what ? Who was the last criminal to be executed by the United Nations. Oh I forgot, this guy declared war on the USA, so he wasn’t a criminal; just an enemy combatant.
They captured the Achile Lauro Terrorist, and the italians tried him and let him go. What about the Lockerbie bombers; they were “arrested” and tried, and let go.
We (the US), have soldiers dying trying to “arrest” these enemy combatant “criminals” after the lawyers have said it is ok to try and arrest them, and the they are let go; maybe the soldiers (our soldiers) are tried for not being nice when they tried to arrest these vermin.
No it is not revenge; revenge is getting even. You can’t get even with somebody who perpetrated the act of war against the USA on 9/11/2001.
I have been saying for ages, (not here at WUWT) that if they found this jerk, they should just kill him, and dump the body in the sea somewhere.
And if Osama, was not a prominent leader and representative spokesperson for the Moslem community; then why would anybody give a tinkers damn about treating his remains, as moslem culture demands. It seems like Obama is speaking out of both sides of his mouth (one for each teleprompter) when he says we are not at war with radical moslems. Well isn’t that the problem; they ARE at war with us; but we are treating them like Jaywalkers, to be ticketed and let back on the battlefield.
“”””” Smokey says:
May 2, 2011 at 9:50 am
Wucash:
For such a major announcement, preserving the body for forensic analysis should have been a top priority. Unless, of course, they had a reason to get rid of the evidence.
Give me a convincing reason for dumping the body overboard. “””””
Not possible; even remotely so, to bury him anywhere on land Smokey; that would become a holier place than Mecca. I have long thought that dumping him at sea was the only thing to do.
I’m sure some would have separated his body into multiple pieces; or burned it; maybe dragged it around Baghdad; like they did to our soldiers. But I’m not much into ghoulish behavior; and just dumping the corpse, in some unheralded spot in a deep ocean, suits me. I don’t care forensically if they have a body or not; it is enough for me that he is dead; whether that was years ago under GWB’s reign, or whether Obama achieved it; it matters not to me, one way or the other.
I’m, certainly not up to feeding these vermin for years, and then letting them go on some legal technicality.
Front page everywhere, except.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk
The silence is telling.
Soy de Brasil!
O Brasil está de luto pelo grande líder Osama Bin Laden.
Blog PERFIL PME
From ancient times, assassins such as bin Laden were executed by a peculiarly awful and protracted technique known as “scaph” (from Greek for “boat”). Details are not fit topics, but prospective scaphing could give even fanatical jihadis pause.
Rhys Jaggar says:
May 2, 2011 at 5:32 am
“This statement [by Grant Hillemeyer blockquoted above] says a lot about the American character.”
– – – – – – – –
Rhys Jaggar,
I am a citizen of the USA. I think a simple message is that if someone attacks us then their way of life is automatically forfeit. We would be barbaric if we in any way were unresponsive to attacks on the USA.
John
I think we’ve uncovered the folks who can incontrovertibly be called denialists.
Osama is dead. Obama was born in Hawaii. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something :-p
REPLY: Well that wouldn’t be me, as I agree on both counts. However, with any historic event, there are always doubters and conspiracy theory. It’s been that way all through history. The bombing of the Maine, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, The attack on Pearl Harbor, Bay of Pigs, Amelia Earhart, the Kennedy assassination, Jimmy Hoffa, 9-11…all have these problems, due to incomplete information. Nothing new or unique here that has not happened before, except that you are gleefully (per your emoticon) invoking the word “deniers”. – Anthony
Anthony,
My point was simply that disagreement on these points can be legitimately considered a state of denial. I, like you, dislike the broad use of the term “denialist” in the climate science context.
REPLY: Fair enough. Then don’t use it, even with emoticons. – Anthony
A burial at sea flies in the face of the claim that everything was done to satisfy islamic law, unless a submersible placed the corpse in the required position facing Mecca, a simple dumping over the side could not have achieved the proper positioning. The body could have landed on the sea bed facing down in the wrong direction.
The claim that a tactical unit heavily engaged in a fire fight(Pakistani witnesses) and on the ground for forty minutes did not attract the attention of alert highly trained and heavily armed security police at one of the most heavily guarded military bases in Pakistan a mere few hundred yards away seems strange does it not? The terrorist threat to Pakistani bases means that security in and around those bases is highly alert and highly mobile, would they hear explosions and gunfire nearby and just shrug it off? The Pakistani military are not backward and have aggressive hunt and kill units ready and waiting for taliban attacks, the idea that a highly trained security force keyed up and waiting for taliban attacks would simply ignore a fire fight just stretches credibility too far.
Did the assault launch from Afghanistan and travel on to the sea and the waiting carrier? Did they refuel on route? Was a CAP involved or were there gunship escorts?
Too many words from the MSM with not enough hard evidence for my liking. The DNA story alone gets my spidy senses tingling alone, I await real evidence before I am convinced.
Cassandra King says:
May 2, 2011 at 9:09 am
I am sorry if this is repeating another posters concerns but the time line of events is a little worrying.
DNA tests take 5 to 7 days with a good source of physical material taken by a qualified person in clean conditions yet we have been informed that DNA tests confirm that the body supposedly taken yesterday proves with 99.9% certainty that it is the body of Bin Laden.
It certainly doesn’t take that long, I’ve routinely done them using the FBI procedure in two days without any hurry. I would expect an expedited test would be done in less than 12 hours.
Is he really dead? Did the US really kill him? Where is the body? News report on the radio this morning said he was “burried at sea with appropriate Muslim rituals”. Sure glad of that. Great shot in the arm for the Obama campaign.
@Keith. in Perth
It is neither justice, nor revenge. We were at war with this man’s organization. We simply conducted an operation in said war.
Or so our leaders say. We’ll never know because BHO chose to honor him with a proper burial, rather than letting him sit in a morgue for a few weeks for a proper forensic analysis. Something is a little fishy, there.
Zeke Hausfather says:
May 2, 2011 at 10:55 am
I think we’ve uncovered the folks who can incontrovertibly be called denialists.
Osama is dead. Obama was born in Hawaii. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something
Not so fast, Zeke. And not so simple.
No need to “deny” anything. It’s quite possible that Osama is dead. It is very probable that Obama was born in Hawaii. The problem is, neither statement can be proven.
We all know that Saddam was captured and hanged. This has been confirmed by independent observers, pro-Saddam and anti-Saddam. There are medical test results, videos, hundreds of documents, thousands of witnesses. It is an objective fact that the captured person was Saddam, and that he is dead.
So, unless you can offer the conclusive evidence in support of your assertions, stop harassing those with more inquisitive minds, and mind your own business.
Some people don’t trust blindly everything that politicians tell them. This is not a paranoia, this is common sense.
How about a burial under the Chernobyl Monolith in a see through chamber for up close viewing ?
Underground tunnels or “caves” for “360 degree” access.
(That could also be the temperature there.)
Free transportation worldwide for any sympathizers that want to pay their respects.
Free lodging for a week or two or as long as they like.
Free local food, lots of wild boar and truffles available.
Free chunks of the fracturing Chernobyl cement to take home as souvenirs.
Special night showings to prove that his “glowingness” is next to “hole-i-ness”.
This will quickly have supporters be truly “closer” to their expired leader and if they stay long enough they can take up residence in a plot of land nearby in short order.
After all, the “next world” and “virgins” have always been the goals all along, haven’t they ?
This works for me, even better than the sea.
One news report said he was shot in the left eye. I’ll bet the guy that did it (from Team-3) ain’t gonna be able to buy another drink for weeks. Hellofa shot…
Smokey
I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with this one.
It is quite common (and sensible) to try to destroy totally a place or a person in order to ensure their death doesn’t permit then to carry on living as martyrs. Wherever Bin laden was buried would become a place of pilgrimage, so you remove that possibility by ensuring there is no burial place.
There was a similar situation with Hitlers final defeat in Berlin. The Chancellery was completely bulldozed in order to ensure it couldn’t be used as a place of pilgrimage and the body removed and its final destination was a mystery for many years.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-08-bunker_x.htm
tonyb
It’s only a matter of time before the folks here at WuWT are labeled “a unique form of terrorism” and rounded up in unmarked white vans for transport to “re-education” camps with funny-looking ovens out back. Go ahead and cheer for revenge, believe the lies, buy into the propaganda, cheer for American hegemony in the name of world government. The stage is being set for a false-flag nuclear detonation in the United States, to be blamed on “Al Qaeda”. Then comes martial law. Then comes “thought crimes” and round-ups of “dissidents”. Almost everyone here @ur momisugly WuWT is a “dissident”.
You’re next.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=21312
Robert M says:
May 1, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Keith in Perth says:
May 1, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I think I would call it revenge, not justice
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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.
Well he certainly orchestrated the killing of many Pakistanis and attempted to have many Brits killed. I have the same view of the death of UBL as I do about the death of IRA murderers, Good riddance!
AGW Moriarty: On what evidence do you base that suspicion that he has been dead for years? I have seen not even one shred of evidence to support that claim.
They could have attached a long magnet with a dial tied to Osama’s body to keep him pointed in the right direction…