The killing of Osama bin Laden

By Lexington

"THERE'S an old poster out West that says: Wanted Dead or Alive." So said President George Bush of Osama bin Laden in September 2001, a week after the al-Qaeda attack that brought down New York's twin towers and struck the Pentagon in Washington. Now, ten long history-altering years later, the United States has at last got its man. News late on May 1st that American special forces had killed the al-Qaeda leader in a raid on his compound deep inside Pakistan brought jubilant crowds thronging to the White House and, in New York, to Times Square and the site of ground zero.

The heli-borne raid that killed the arch-terrorist was completed in only 40 minutes, according to the White House. Mr bin Laden resisted the attackers and was killed in a firefight. His body was removed and, it is now reported, buried at sea so as to avoid the possibility of his grave becoming a shrine. But if the raid was lightning-fast, the intelligence operation that preceded it was long and deliberate. Barack Obama was told in August last year that the intelligence community might have discovered bin Laden's hiding place—not some cave but a fortified compound in the town of Abbottabad, not far north of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city.

The first lead came four years ago. Thanks to information acquired by interrogating detainees, the Americans identified one of the few al-Qaeda couriers trusted by bin-Laden, and the area of Pakistan in which he operated. But it was not until last August that they worked out precisely where this man and his brother lived: a large home built in 2005 on what were then the outskirts of the growing town of Abbottabad. It was surrounded by walls up to 18 feet high topped with barbed wire. Access was controlled by two security gates. Suspiciously, the inhabitants of the house burned their own rubbish instead of putting it out for collection. Astonishingly, for a house so large and expensive, it had no phone or internet connection. The three-storey house had few outward-facing windows. In addition to the two brothers a third family was in residence. After careful analysis the Americans concluded that this family was bin Laden's.

In March President Obama and his security team started an intensive series of meetings on how to act on this intelligence. Mr Obama gave the final go-ahead for the raid on Friday morning. On Saturday evening he gave a relaxed, wisecracking speech to the annual dinner of White House correspondents. The raid was launched the following evening. In addition to bin Laden, three men and a woman were killed in the compound. But although one helicopter had to be left behind, there were no American casualties.

As Mr Obama himself acknowledged in a short late-night speech on May 1st, this flawless military operation will not put an end to the war against al-Qaeda. Many analysts believe that the organisation long ago mutated into a franchise operation, relying on local jihadist fervour and initiative rather than central direction. Having died fighting, Osama bin Laden may well remain, even in death, a potent symbol of jihad against the infidel. Al-Qaeda will no doubt try to retaliate swiftly. It is also possible that the raid will aggravate the already raw relationship between the United States and Pakistan. To preserve security, Pakistan appears not to have been informed about the American attack in advance. Meanwhile, the compound's location in an affluent town near to Pakistani military bases raises uncomfortable questions about how serious Pakistan's own spies were in their search for the master terrorist. All that said, the elimination of the terror group's top figurehead is a heavy blow to al-Qaeda at a time when the pro-democracy Arab awakening had already demonstrated the organisation's waning influence on the Arab street.

For Mr Obama, this could hardly be a sweeter moment. At a stroke, the daring raid and the careful planning that preceded it have destroyed the credibility of the Republican argument that he is soft on terrorism or does not have what it takes to be commander-in-chief. Just conceivably, that will make it easier for him to accelerate the planned start of this summer's drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. The last American troops are already scheduled to depart from Iraq at the end of the year. The long and bloody decade that began on September 11th 2001 is not quite over. But it may at last be drawing to an end.

Read on: Clausewitz looks at the evolution of al-Qaeda. Newsbook reports on the humiliation of Pakistan's leaders.

(Photo credit: AP)