A new bulletin issued tonight by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by ABC News describes the terror organization's chilling desire to derail a train. "As of February 2010, al-Qa'ida was allegedly contemplating conducting an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001," the document reads, using an alternate spelling for bin Laden's terror group. "As one option, al-Qa'ida was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge."

The article cites Jason Reed, a White House photographer for Reuters, recounting in a separate post how this was done. “As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent,” Reed wrote. “Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the president then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.”

The official said Obama met at the White House on Wednesday with Vice Adm. William McRaven, the overall commander of the bin Laden mission, NBC News reported. "The president met with Admiral McRaven at the White House yesterday to thank him personally in the Oval Office and will have the opportunity to privately thank some of the special operators involved in the operation tomorrow at Fort Campbell," the official said without elaborating. The official said Obama will meet "special operators" involved in the mission but was not specific about whether members of the SEAL team would be among them.

Pakistani intelligence agents today are interrogating three women -- all wives of Osama bin Laden -- who were captured during the U.S.-led raid on Sunday. The wives, including the youngest -- 29-year-old Yemeni Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah -- were all living with bin Laden inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. According to one of the women, bin Laden confined himself to two rooms in the house, including the bedroom where he was killed. He never left those rooms, she claims, for the five years he was hiding there.

The wife, who was wounded in the raid, said she lived in the compound in Abbottabad with eight of bin Laden's children and five others from another family, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN. All of them have been in Pakistani custody since the pre-dawn U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden and will be returned to their country of origin, Abbas said. Abbas said he wasn't sure from her questioning how long bin Laden had lived there himself or whether he had ventured outside.

The statements run counter to the public position taken by officials in both Pakistan and the United States who have so far downplayed the role Pakistan’s military and intelligence community had in the attack, saying that it was limited to a small amount of information sharing. One senior military official, who asked not to be named because he is not permitted to speak to the press, said that Pakistani army troops were in fact providing backup support when the United States began its operations inside the compound where bin Laden had been staying, including sealing off the neighborhood where the compound was located.

There's a rich coincidence to that intimate photo of President Obama and his national security team monitoring the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound -- and a lesson about a conceit of political pundits. Not only does it recall the 1986 photo of President Reagan and top aides as they viewed a replay of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion -- and, as with Team Obama, one doesn't know what they're watching at that moment --but it's taken by the same person, my former colleague Pete Souza.

...U.S. intelligence has long suspected that at least some among its Pakistani counterparts were maintaining ties with Qaeda-linked figures. The U.S. has known this for years, but that hasn't forced a break in U.S.-Pakistan relations. That's unlikely to change, now, even if it turns out that elements in the Pakistani security hierarchy had been aware of Bin Laden's presence all along. To understand why, you only have to look as far as Damascus. That's right, Damascus. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is Iran's only ally among Arab heads of state; he is a key patron of Hizballah and Hamas, and is still formally at war with Israel. His regime is accused by the IAEA of trying to build a secret nuclear program (before the facility was bombed by Israel) and he has sought to suppress an unprecedented protest movement against his authoritarian rule by sending in tanks and ordering his security forces to fire repeatedly on unarmed demonstrators, killing hundreds. Yet, you're unlikely to find a serious foreign policy hand in the corridors of power in Washington -- or, for that matter, even in Jerusalem -- who is willing to advocate for a policy of overthrowing Assad.

During his time at a fortified compound, did the world's most wanted man manage to sneak supporters into Pakistan's nuclear sites to gain the ultimate weapon for global holy war? That's a question that could haunt some policy makers in Western capitals for many years. The answer among experts is a resounding no, but bin Laden's stay here is fueling concern about Pakistan's overall stability, vital for securing its nuclear weapons. Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the fact that bin Laden had managed to evade capture for so long in Pakistan should not raise additional red flags about the security of the country's nuclear arsenal.

Worse, there are signs that groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), nurtured by Pakistan's spy agency to advance strategic interests in India and Afghanistan, are no longer entirely under the agency's control. Even if the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), under intense pressure following the discovery of bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town, sought to roll up the groups, it may not be able to do so without provoking a major backlash. In Lashkar's case, according to experts, it is not even certain if it is under the control of its own leadership, with many within pushing for greater global jihad. Several others are spinning off into independent operatives which makes it harder for security agencies to track down.

"Navy SEAL training,” followed closely by “Navy SEAL workout,” were the only bin Laden-related search terms in the Top 10 on Wednesday, narrowly beating “Jesse James” (who opened up about his ex, Sandra Bullock) and “Flowers Online” (note: Mother’s Day is Sunday). Surely, this says something unflattering about the national id, or at least American Web-surfing habits. But since inquiring minds want to know… SEAL training is the most ferocious workout in the free world, according to Navy memoirs and other published reports, a bone-wrenching, spine-rattling affair that takes about two years, and overwhelms most men who attempt it. Those who pass go on to restock the 2,500-man rotation of active-duty SEALs. The best are eventually tapped for the elite Seal Team Six—the squad that got bin Laden. And as perhaps goes without saying, the average Googler wouldn't survive the pre-training requirements: 50 sit-ups and 42 pushups (in under two minutes each), a mile-and-a-half run (at sub seven-minute-mile pace), a 500-yard swim (in less than 13 minutes). There are no women allowed.

"Those were 38 of the most intense minutes," Clinton said, the AP reports. "I have no idea what any of us were looking at at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken." Clinton also didn’t give much thought to her hand over her mouth. “I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs,” she said. She added, “So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever.”

Hundreds of people marched through Multan, burning U.S. flags and waving placards as they warned the terrorist's death could produce many more radical figures to take his place. It comes after crowds of weeping mourners were pictured offering funeral prayers for the Al Qaeda mastermind widely blamed for thousands of deaths at 9/11.

Dr Rowan Williams said: "I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn't look as if justice is seen to be done." He continued: "I don't know the full details any more than anyone else does. But I do believe that in such circumstances when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a war criminal in terms of the atrocities inflicted it is important that justice is seen to be served."

Two other Senate Republicans, Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, told CBS News Wednesday morning they had viewed post-mortem images of bin Laden. "Obviously I'm not an expert in this area, he's such a well known figure when you see the picture it clearly has his features," said Ayotte. But Ayotte released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that she's not sure the picture was real. "While I was shown a photo by another senator of what appeared to be a deceased Osama bin Laden, I do not know if it was authentic," she said. "However, I do believe a photo of the dead al Qaeda leader should be released. Although some may be upset by the image of someone who has been shot in the head, releasing a photo is important to put to rest any conspiracy theories that may arise around the world and to provide for closure."

Brown, a freshman, told several Boston-area media outlets that he had seen the photos to make the case that they should not be released to the public. “Listen, I've seen the picture," Brown in a local television interview, according to The Boston Globe. “He’s definitely dead. And if there’s any conspiracy theories out there, you should put them to rest.”

The photos, taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters. None of the men looked like bin Laden. President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of his body because it could have incited violence and used as an al Qaeda propaganda tool, the White House said on Wednesday.

“It’s a common-sense approach. To do an assessment -- we have all these materials, computer disks, etc., that were seized by our Navy SEALs from the compound. Those need to be fully reviewed and exploited. And until that process, at least an initial review has been completed, and until we have a worldwide intelligence assessment of the impact of bin Laden's death, it just seems prudent to me to temporarily elevate the terror threat level.” While additional security steps have been taken, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Collins’ Senate committee today that she “has not been advised” of information that would cause her to raise the threat level, under the new system that Napolitano used to replace the old color-coding system.

In between interviews, he kibbitzed with Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the national security council, who was standing by. "Tommy, when are you going to release this photo?" Brennan asked. "Make it a lot easier for me." As the interviews dragged on, Brennan griped, "What's the matter, you couldn't get the Christian broadcasting station, too?" "I am going to be on the weather station soon," Brennan said. "Chance of rain and helicopters in Pakistan."

The leader of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe is looking for a formal apology from President Barack Obama for the government's use of the code name "Geronimo" for Osama bin Laden. Tribal Chairman Jeff Houser asked for the apology in a letter sent Tuesday to the president. The letter was posted Wednesday morning on the tribe's website, and the tribe's administration confirmed it was from Houser. Houser writes that his tribe was ecstatic to learn about bin Laden's death but those feelings were tempered when members learned that the code word used for the terrorist was the name of one of the Oklahoma tribe's legendary warriors. Houser says equating Geronimo or any other Native American figure with a "mass murderer and cowardly terrorist" is painful and offensive.

“I respectfully disagree with President Obama’s decision not to release the photos. It’s a mistake,” Graham said today. “The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden’s death,” he continued. “I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world.” “I’m afraid the decision made today by President Obama will unnecessarily prolong this debate.”

“Imagine how the American people would react if Al Qaeda killed one of our troops or military leaders, and put photos of the body on the Internet,” said Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “Osama bin Laden is not a trophy. He is dead, and let’s now focus on continuing the fight until Al Qaeda has been eliminated.”

Amid the harsh criticism of Pakistan, Boehner and others said this was not the time to back away from Pakistan. "I think we need more engagement, not less," he said. "Al-Qaida and other extremist groups have made Pakistan a target. ... Having a robust partnership with Pakistan is critical to breaking the back of al-Qaida and the rest of them." Boehner said it was premature to talk about cutting off U.S. aid to Pakistan. When pressed on the level of funds, however, he said it was imperative that the U.S. have an "eyeball to eyeball conversation about where this relationship is going." He made the comments in an hourlong interview with a handful of reporters.

More than 56 million Americans watched President Barack Obama's televised address on the death of Osama bin Laden, according to ratings data on Tuesday. Despite the late hour on Sunday -- shortly before midnight on the U.S. East Coast -- and the brief notice given before the address, Obama's speech drew more viewers than either of his two State of the Union addresses.

It is not unreasonable for the American people to question if Osama bin Laden was located on government controlled land, next to a military academy, and so close to the nation's Capital. What real assistance was the Pakistan Government providing for the last 10 years to locate the al-Qaeda leader and bring him to justice? Since the September 11th terrorist attack, the United States Government has provided an estimated $20 billion of assistance to the Government of Pakistan. Questions are arising on whether the Government of Pakistan may have aided and abetted this most wanted international terrorist. I think it is quite clear that unless we get a clear explanation of what the Government of Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, all foreign aid from American taxpayers to this nation needs to cease. We need to understand whether the Government of Pakistan was harboring Osama bin Laden for all these years. Further, did the Government of Pakistan always know where this terrorist was but instead did not want to bring him to justice in order to continue to receive foreign aid from the United States of America.

“Earlier today, I called President Bush to congratulate him and to thank him for the leadership role that he had played in this quest over the years,” Pelosi told reporters after emerging from a closed-door briefing by CIA Director Leon Panetta for bipartisan House members. “I have also placed a call to President Clinton to thank him. As you may recall, in the ‘90s, he declared Osama bin Laden public enemy number-one for America.” Following a 1998 al-Qaeda bomb attack on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Clinton ordered cruise missiles fired at targets in Sudan and Afghanistan. Bin Laden was not hurt, and Clinton administration officials were subsequently cautious about taking action against him because of unclear intelligence. Asked what Bush said on the call, Pelosi said that the former president expressed his thanks to her for calling.

Underscoring the complicated nature of the American team’s attack on bin Laden, Carney was caught in a crossfire of his own when he was asked about the number of floors in the compound in Pakistan. “Even I’m getting confused,” Carney said as he looked through his notes.

Paul, a long-time skeptic of American interventionism, said that "like all other Americans, I'm glad he's gone," but raised multiple questions about the costs associated with the 10-year manhunt for the al Qaeda leader behind the 9/11 attacks. "If we got him, I guess it's time to come home as far as I'm concerned," he said during an interview with Fox Business network.

The bin Laden pictures are in a legal gray area, University of Michigan Professor of Law Steven Ratner told us. Ratner has been thinking about these issues for a long time. He worked in the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and in the late '90s he was appointed to a panel by the U.N. Secretary General to consider how to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice. When people talk about the Geneva Convention, they're usually referring to Article 13, which stipulates that prisoners of war should be treated "humanely," and that "prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity." But Ratner said the operation that killed bin Laden happened outside an international armed conflict, so Article 13 doesn't cover it. There is a section — Common Article Three — of the Geneva Convention that does cover other conflicts, but that doesn't address the treatment of bodies.

The two polite Pakistanis who helped Osama bin Laden hide in the shadow of their country’s army bought bulk food orders, chose major brands and equally favored Pepsi and Coke, neighbors and a local shopkeeper said. Rashid and Akbar Khan owned the fortified residence where U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in an early morning raid May 2, and did the daily shopping in the Pashtu-language accents of Waziristan, a region on the Afghan border, said grocer Anjum Qaisar, 27, who works 150 meters from the compound. Bin Laden’s men “never came by foot, they always drove a Pajero or a little Suzuki van, and they bought enough food for 10 people,” Qaisar said in an interview yesterday.

The US soldiers were due to perform a routine posting "training the trainers" of Pakistan's 70,000-strong federal military unit, the Frontier Corps. Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan Military Academy, the country's version of Sandhurst in Britain, and trains officers from across the nation. The academy is streets away from where Bin Laden was tracked down and killed. The information about the US troops is contained in the account of a meeting in Washington between the-then US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, and Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, discussing security co-operation and concerns across the country.

Those opposed believe that "if the point is just to have some shock value, why do it?" the source added. The decision, the source said, will likely come down to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among other national security officials. A key counterterrorism adviser to President Barack Obama said that if the White House does decide to release images, it wants to do it in a "thoughtful manner." "We also want to anticipate what the reaction might be on the part of al Qaeda or others to the release of certain information so that we can take the appropriate steps beforehand," John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, said on CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday. "So any other material, whether it be photos or videos or whatever else, we are looking at it and will make the appropriate decisions."

“I look forward to hearing more,” Romney said. “How did we find out where he was located? What sources of intelligence were developed over the years? How many blind allies did they have to pursue until they finally found this guy?" When asked whether the killing of the world's most wanted terrorist made Obama unbeatable in the 2012 election, Romney said, “I don’t think so.” “I don’t know whether it helps or hurts politically the president but I really don’t care,” Romney said. “The right thing is we got the bad guy and the nation celebrates that. We’re all Americans. This is not a Republican or a Democrat thing. This is an American thing.”

"Clearly it would not be in our national security interest to have the Taliban take over the government or have Afghanistan reestablished as a terrorist safe haven," Lugar said in a Tuesday statement. "But the President has not offered a vision of what success in Afghanistan would entail or how progress toward success would be measured." On Monday, Lugar welcomed the news that bin Laden had been killed but said his death should also serve as a reminder. "The reported death of Osama bin Laden is welcome news, but it in no way eliminates the threat from the terrorism he espoused," he said. "This is another reminder that Americans cannot hide from global affairs."

Mr Cameron said Britain's resolve against terrorism today is as strong as it was in September 2001. "I believe it is in Britain's national interest to recognise that with Pakistan we share the same struggle against terrorism. That is why we will continue to work with our Pakistani counterparts on intelligence gathering, tracing plots and taking action to stop them," Mr Cameron said.

Chances are he’s keeping score. Smith, who served in the SEALs from 1991 to 1999, got together recently with five Navy SEALs, some of whom he’d served with and others whom he’d trained. “They were responsible for 250 dead terrorists,” Smith says. “They know their number.”

But among his colleagues, the shooter’s identity will be well-known. And right now, he’s probably in for some locker-room-style ribbing. “They’re gonna hard-ass him,” Marcinko says. “It’ll be, ‘If I’d have been there, it’d have been done in 20 minutes instead of 40 minutes.’ ” Smith can envision the shooter’s pals razzing him about the precise location of the shot. But, in the culture of the SEALs, it’s not as if he won’t push back. He’ll come back at them, Marcinko says, with something like: “Talk is cheap. I did it. I left my mark in the sand.”

Q. ENTRY INTO THE COMPOUND For safety's sake wouldn't a noisy helicopter have to approach the compound already firing guns? Afterall, we had to expect the inhabitants to start firing as soon as they saw and heard the helicopter? A. STEW SMITH That is assuming they were on guard and ready. It is a quick process from when you hear a helo and when you have boots on the ground.

"Neither any base nor facility inside Pakistan was used by the U.S. forces, nor the Pakistan Army provided any operational or logistic assistance to these operations conducted by the U.S. forces," the foreign ministry said in a lengthy statement. While Islamabad hailed the killing of bin Laden as an important milestone in the fight against terrorism, the statement said Pakistan had expressed "deep concerns" that the operation was carried out without informing it in advance. "This event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule," the ministry said.

Long before Panetta ordered General William McRaven, the head of the Joint Special Forces Command, to undertake the mission at 1:22 p.m. on Friday, the CIA had been gaming out how to structure the raid. Months prior, the U.S. had considered expanding the assault to include coordination with other countries, most notably Pakistan. But the CIA ruled out participating with its nominal South Asian ally early on because “it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission: They might alert the targets,” Panetta says.

U.S. officials have said that when the identity of the courier -- who they have not named -- was established in 2007 the U.S. began a path to the house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al Qaeda leader was living. Analysis of assessments of detainees held at the U.S. Navy's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, include several mentions of a man by the name of Abu Ahmad al Kuwaiti, who was reportedly close to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- also a Kuwaiti. The information on the detainee assessments came from U.S. Defense Department documents published by WikiLeaks.

"I don't think that the celebrations in the streets were our finest moment as Americans, and reminded me much of the anger I felt at seeing Afghans dancing in the streets at the fall of the Towers on that dreaded day." Hayes says: "We are called to forgiveness. And that is the only way that we can be truly free. Holding onto our hatred keeps us in slavery to bin Laden's madness and gives the terrorists continued power over us."

That this compound was constructed in the neighborhood of former Pakistani military officials and a local military academy is of course calling into question the participation of the local – if not national – government. “It’s inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time,” said White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan on Monday. Brennan said the Obama administration was “pursuing all leads in this issue.”

Pakistan's president acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that his security forces were left out of a U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden, but he did little to dispel questions over how the al Qaeda leader could live in comfort near Islamabad. The revelation bin Laden had been holed up in a compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, possibly for years, has threatened to worsen U.S. ties with nuclear-armed Pakistan.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say units from SEAL Team Six dropped into bin Laden's high-walled compound in Pakistan early Monday morning, sliding down ropes in the pre-dawn dark. The military won't confirm which unit carried out the attack. But the head of the Navy SEALs, Rear Adm. Edward Winters, sent an email congratulating his forces and warning them to keep their mouths shut. "Be extremely careful about operational security," he added. "The fight is not over."

A woman killed during the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan was not his wife and was not used as a human shield by the al Qaeda leader before his death, a U.S. official said on Monday, correcting an earlier description. John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counter- terrorism adviser, told reporters earlier that the slain woman had been one of bin Laden's wives and had been used -- perhaps voluntarily -- as a shield during the firefight.

WASHINGTON -- From halfway around the world, President Barack Obama and his national security team monitored the strike on Osama bin Laden's compound in real time, watching and listening to the firefight that killed the terrorist leader. Gathered in the White House Situation Room, members of the group held their breath and barely spoke as they waited to see whether a carefully crafted yet extremely risky plan would succeed, said White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan. Obama had been playing golf but returned to the White House for the suspenseful watch Sunday.

The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.” The special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightning raid that killed bin Laden, officials told POLITICO. “They cleaned it out,” one official said. “Can you imagine what’s on Osama bin Laden’s hard drive?”

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells Newsmax the information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden was obtained through “normal interrogation approaches” and says the notion that terrorist suspects were waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay is a “myth.” Rumsfeld also claims that elements of Pakistani intelligence could have been complicit in hiding the terrorist mastermind, asserts that his killing exonerates George W. Bush’s approach to fighting terrorism, and warns that terrorists will likely try to avenge bin Laden's death with new attacks against America or its allies.

Alberto Gonzales, the top White House lawyer at the time of the attacks and later attorney general, along with his former White House Counsel’s Office aides issued a statement congratulating Mr. Obama and drawing attention to Mr. Bush’s efforts. Mr. Gonzales’s statement said: “I congratulate President Obama and his team for this significant accomplishment. I also congratulate President Bush who carried the War on Terror to our enemies and adopted the legal framework for that effort that continues today.” The Guantanamo prison, which Mr. Obama has criticized and plans to close, remains the subject of political controversy. Lawmakers in Congress have blocked the president from moving prisoners there to the U.S. for trial.

Two men stared at the square, three-storey house in a well-to-do suburb, now swarming with soldiers and police, trying hard to make sense of it all. "It couldn't have been Osama bin Laden," declared 32-year-old trader Azhar Khan of the neighbour he had never known. "This is a very sensitive place, full of military and intelligence agencies. You can't live here for years without anyone knowing." But Naqeeb Khan, an 18-year-old engineering student, had another take. "I believe it. I saw it on CNN this morning. They confirmed it was Osama." "Yeah, well we've heard a lot on television," shot back Khan. "And it's not always right."

The death of Osama Bin Laden marks the most significant accomplishment yet in the war against Al-Qaeda. I commend the work of the U.S. Armed Forces and intelligence community for finding the world’s most wanted terrorist. I also wish to recognize President Obama for his decisive leadership as Commander in Chief. Today my thoughts are with the families of those Bin Laden murdered in the September 11th terrorist attacks. Even before 9/11, Bin Laden killed Americans and others at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and on the USS Cole. Americans of all faiths recognized the end of a truly evil man last night. Osama Bin Laden was a murderer. I hope his death marks the beginning of the end of the Al-Qaedaism ideology.

"We saw it and heard about it," the chairman recounted. Returning to Washington Sunday night, Levin said he told his wife, Barbara, 'You know what, let's go down.' And the two ventured to the White House around 2 a.m. EDT to celebrate. "It was a moment that all Americans wanted to participate in. Not just Americans...It was a real outpouring around the world, an outpouring of justice being arrived at. It took a long time," Levin said. "Barb and I wanted to just go in, soak it in...It was just a place we felt we wanted to participate in."

On where he was found: Abbottabad is essentially a military-cantonment city in Pakistan, in the hills to the north of the capital of Islamabad, in an area where much of the land is controlled or owned by the Pakistani Army and retired Army officers. Although the city is technically in what used to be called the Northwest Frontier Province, it lies on the far eastern side of the province and is as close to Pakistani-held Kashmir as it is to the border city of Peshawar. The city is most notable for housing the Pakistan Military Academy, the Pakistani Army’s premier training college, equivalent to West Point. Looking at maps and satellite photos on the Web last night, I saw the wide expanse of the Academy not far from where the million-dollar, heavily secured mansion where bin Laden lived was constructed in 2005. The maps I looked at had sections of land nearby marked off as “restricted areas,” indicating that they were under military control. It stretches credulity to think that a mansion of that scale could have been built and occupied by bin Laden for six years without its coming to the attention of anyone in the Pakistani Army.

An intelligence official said Mr. bin Laden was "more or less hiding in plain sight" and was living, "relatively speaking, high on the hog" in the compound in an upscale area of Pakistan. "We have no indications that the Pakistanis were aware that Osama bin Laden was at the compound," a senior intelligence official said. A contingency plan had been made to capture Mr. bin Laden, but he "did resist the assault force" and was killed in the firefight that ensued as the strike team entered the compound, a senior administration official said. Mr. bin Laden's body was identified by the strike force, officials said. Family members in the compound also positively identified his body.

Ret. Sgt. Evan Cole enlisted the Army when he was a 17-year-old Michigan high school student in 2001. He got out of Walter Reed Naval Hospital three months ago. He has a six-inch scar on his right leg to go with injuries to his hand and his head from his tour in Ramadi. He made up his mind to join the army after the watched the Twin Towers fall in his geography class. Cole was one of thousands of revelers who gathered in front of the White House late last night and stayed well into the early hours of the morning to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden. "In the last few years, it seemed like nobody even cared, like what we did over there in Iraq; nobody even talks about it anymore. It is so amazing to see so many people out here wearing red, white, and blue," Cole said. "See, that's what we were over there for—it's these people!"

Muhammad Riaz, 34, a construction worker who lives in the neighborhood says that he had viewed it with some suspicion. Unlike other homes in the Thanda Chuha area of Bilal Town, he was unfamiliar with its occupants. "I know that it was owned by a Pashtun man, who had come from elsewhere, called Akbar," Riaz says. "It's just five minutes away from my house." Like others, he denies ever glimpsing Bin Laden. For Riaz, the mystery of the explosion swiftly faded. "We rushed out of the house immediately," he says, echoing the words of several residents across Abbottabad who hastened out on to the streets out of panic. "When we came outside, I saw the helicopter on fire, there was smoke rising out of it." The images were also broadcast that night on Pakistani television. The helicopter, Riaz says, had fallen out of the sky and plunged on to the compound, damaging at least a boundary wall. U.S. officials have said that the helicopter suffered a mechanical failure. None of the Americans involved in the raid were hurt, President Obama said in his speech. Part of the reason for the rigidly enforced perimeter was that Pakistani authorities were attempting to remove the wreckage from the scene, behind hastily erected tarpaulins.

Abdi Aziz Mohammed attends the mosque. "In our community here, we are all good Muslims here. I believe when I see something like this it doesn't create a good image to young kids, especially," he told MPBN's Josie Huang. "They are in school right now. When they come and see the sign, they're going to feel bad."

In July 2008, Larry King asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), "If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?" McCain said he would not. "Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why: because Pakistan is a sovereign nation."

The last thing Osama bin Laden saw on this earth was the small team of Americans who shot him…We take great satisfaction in knowing that Osama bin Laden will no longer be able to carry out his evil plans, that he has made his last video, and that whenever someone says that the United States has grown weary or complacent in this war, we’ve shown just how determined we are to fight it to the end.

Osama bin Laden's former sister-in-law has been speaking about his death, saying that he would have wanted to die "rather than face justice in an American court." Swiss-born Carmen Binladin told the Associated Press she believed believes that bin Laden had powerful supporters who protected and funded him up until the end.

The Obama administration has photographs of Osama bin Laden’s dead body and officials are debating what to do with them and whether they should be released to the public, officials tell ABC News. “There’s no doubt it’s him,” says a US official who has seen the pictures and also reminds us that OBL was 6’4”.

The United States, after failing to find a country willing to take Bin Laden's remains, began preparations for a sea burial at 1:10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, Reuters reported, citing an anonymous defense official. According to Reuters, a defense official said the body was washed, covered in a white sheet and then placed in a weighted bag before "a military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body eased into the sea."

Osama bin Laden's death is making waves around the world. But among U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, the country from which the al-Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind once declared war on the United States, there was barely a ripple. At a large recreational facility on Kandahar Air Field, about three dozen troops gathered around a pair of big-screen televisions Monday morning to tune into President Barack Obama's announcement. There were no impromptu cheers or chatter to be heard, just crossed arms and blank expressions. Nearly as many troops continued shooting pool and playing video games in background, nonplussed by the news.

"The Afghan government is pleased Bin Laden is dead, and even happier that he was killed in Pakistan. For Afghan officials it is a vindication of their view that Pakistani intelligence has, for years, supported both the Taliban and al-Qaeda."

The helicopter carrying Navy SEALs malfunctioned as it approached Osama bin Laden’s compound at about 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, stalling as it hovered. The pilot set it down gently inside the walls, then couldn’t get it going again. “Obviously, everyone was thinking about Black Hawk Down and Desert One,” a senior administration official recalled.

Among the children who lost a parent were Beaven's offspring. A passenger on United Flight 93 originally scheduled to fly from Newark to San Francisco, Beaven, along with a few others on board, successfully diverted the hijacked plane from what was believed to be the terrorists' intended destination -- Washington, D.C. -- by confronting them at the front of the plane near the cockpit area. The plane crashed in Pennyslvania, killing all on board.

The man who once called the United States “a paper tiger” and issued a fatwa to “kill all Americans” believed that our nation would not strike back if provoked. Today that man, responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Americans on September 11th, Osama bin Laden, is dead. It is an achievement of which our country can be proud.

How did the helos elude the Pakistani air defense network? Did they spoof transponder codes? Were they painted and tricked out with Pakistan Air Force equipment? If so -- and we may never know -- two other JSOC units, the Technical Application Programs Office and the Aviation Technology Evaluation Group, were responsible. These truly are the silent squirrels -- never getting public credit and not caring one whit. Since 9/11, the JSOC units and their task forces have become the U.S. government’s most effective and lethal weapon against terrorists and their networks, drawing plenty of unwanted, and occasionally unflattering, attention to themselves in the process.

During an appearance on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" program, Michael Scheuer cited conspiracy theories as a leading reason why the government will probably release the photographs. "I think they will be forced to put out the pictures," said Scheuer, who headed the initial CIA unit aimed at capturing or killing the terrorist mastermind.

Mr. Bin Laden's body was buried at sea, in order to be in accordance with Islamic tradition that burial take place within 24 hours, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Saudis declined a U.S. offer to take the body, this person said.

Former Pakistan president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf called the operation by US forces to kill al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad near Islamabad a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. "America coming to our territory and taking action is a violation of our sovereignty. Handling and execution of the operation (by US forces) is not correct. The Pakistani government should have been kept in the loop," Musharraf told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview.

Those who revered him prayed the news was not true but many in the Arab world felt the death of Osama bin Laden was long overdue. Some said the killing of the Saudi-born al Qaeda founder in Pakistan was scarcely relevant any more, now that secular uprisings have begun toppling corrupt Arab autocrats who had resisted violent Islamist efforts to weaken their grip on power.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh says the operation is "the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs."

"Now Pakistani rulers, President Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

NATO said on Monday the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a firefight with U.S. forces was a "significant success" for the security of NATO allies. The Western military alliance's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said in a statement NATO should continue its mission in Afghanistan to ensure it "never again becomes a safe haven for extremism."

The US dollar has rebounded and stock markets gained in Asia and Europe after US President Barack Obama said Osama Bin Laden had been killed.

All along Church Street near Ground Zero, a mass of New Yorkers spilled into the streets to mark the death of Osama bin Laden, architect of the mass killing at that very spot nearly a decade ago. But behind the constant refrain of patriotic chants was a deep range of emotions among the masses gathered there. There were the friends and family who lost loved ones nearly ten years ago; the doe-eyed college freshmen, scaling traffic signals, hoisting American flags and spraying champagne on crowds below, and the neighborhood loyalists, who every day deal with fresh reminders of a seminal New York City tragedy.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde on Monday welcomed the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and said his death could bolster consumer confidence and economic growth in the United States. "The U.S. economy is like the American people. It reacts very quickly either positively or negatively," Lagarde told France 2 television. "I wouldn't be surprised if this event prompted a pick-up in confidence."

Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that while Christians "do not rejoice" over a death, it serves to remind them of "each person's responsibility before God and men." "Osama bin Laden, as everyone knows, had the grave responsibility of having spread division and hate among people, causing the deaths of an innumerable number of people and exploiting religion for these purposes," he said.

People living in an area known as Tanda Choha were told to to switch off their lights and not to leave their homes. Shortly afterwards residents heard shots being fired and the sound of heavy firearms. At some point in the operation one of the helicopters crashed after being hit by gunfire from the ground, reports say. Locals residents say that helicopter wreckage is visible in the area now. The compound was about 3,000 sq yards but people from the area told the BBC that it was surrounded by walls 14 feet high, so not much could be seen of what was happening inside.

Osama bin laden was not born to the role of terrorist ringleader. He wasn't brilliant. He didn't give great speeches. He lacked force of personality. Before he became notorious, he tended to make almost no impression at all on the people he met. He was not charismatic. He was far too regular for that. You might expect from a supreme mass murderer a volatile temper, an overinflated sense of self. He had neither of those traits. He had a diabolical mind, clearly, but not a diabolical temperament. By the accounts of those who knew him, bin Laden was serene and modest in his manner. "He was gentle and very genuine," says Issam al-Turabi, a former friend of his in Sudan. "He was never nervous, never aggressive, always calm."

LYON, France - INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble has congratulated the US and its counterparts worldwide for the gathering and sharing of intelligence that permitted the US to locate Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, and to launch a targeted operation to bring him to justice - an operation that resulted in his killing by US special forces. While Bin Laden's death strikes a crippling blow to an organization that requires members to swear personal allegiance to Osama Bin Laden, the head of INTERPOL called for extra vigilance by INTERPOL member countries' law enforcement authorities to a heightened terror risk from Al Qaeda-affiliated or Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists as a result of Bin Laden’s death.

Since last August, Obama convened at least 9 meetings with national security principals about this operation and the principals met 5 times without the president, a senior administration official said. Their deputies met 7 times formally amid a flurry of other interagency communications and consultations. ABC News reported that the principals' meetings were held on March 14, March 29, April 12, April 19 and April 28. Last week Obama finally had enough intelligence last to take action. The final decision to go forward with the operation was made at 8:20 AM on Friday, April 29 in the White House's Diplomatic Room. In the room at the time were Donilon, his deputy Denis McDonough, and counterterrorism advisor John Brennan. Donilon prepared the formal orders.

One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity." A senior national security official said that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face." The national security official would not confirm if DNA testing was performed.

It started with a courier's name. Senior White House officials said early Monday that the trail that led to Osama bin Laden began before 9/11, before the terror attacks that brought bin Laden to prominence. The trail warmed up last fall, when it discovered an elaborate compound in Pakistan. "From the time that we first recognized bin Laden as a threat, the U.S. gathered information on people in bin Laden's circle, including his personal couriers," a senior official in the Obama administration said in a background briefing from the White House.

The U.S. had been monitoring the compound in Abbottabad for months after receiving a tip in August that Bin Laden might be seeking shelter there. He had long been said to be in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan, Pakistan border, hiding in a cave as the U.S. sought to kill him with drone strikes from above. Instead, he was in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, with a seven-foot wall and valued at $1 million. The house had no phone of television and the residents burned their trash. The house had high windows and few points of access, and U.S. officials concluded it had been built to hide someone.

CNN's Chris Lawrence, citing U.S. officials, reports that the compound where bin Laden was found - in Abbotabad, Pakistan, about 100 kilometers outside Pakistan's capital of Islamabad - was three stories tall, and about eight times larger than any of the buildings around it. An official said a "small U.S. team" was involved in the operation at the compound - the official would not confirm any U.S. military involvement. An official said bin Laden resisted the assault - and was killed in the firefight. Three other men were killed in the firefight, and a woman being used as a human shield was also killed, the officials said. There were no U.S. casualties, the officials said. The U.S. team was at the compound for about 40 minutes, officials said. A U.S. helicopter crashed during the raid because of mechanical reasons, an official said. It was destroyed, the officials said.

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