Osama bin Laden, the most wanted mass murderer on the planet, had eluded capture for so long, he had almost become an afterthought in the minds of most Americans.
Thought to be hiding deep in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and no longer running the day-to-day operations of al Qaeda, the terrorist organization he founded, bin Laden, 54, had largely been out of sight for several years, purposely isolating himself without phone and Internet to make it harder to be found.
Still, even before his death early this morning at the hands of an elite U.S. special operations unit, the spiritual leader and military mastermind of al Qaeda remained the epicenter of the search for justice for three U.S. presidents.
Bin Laden oversaw a wide network of terrorists that took the lives of thousands of civilians and military in diabolically planned and efficiently executed attacks over more than a decade, including the bombing of American targets in Saudi Arabia, Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania, the American Navy ship USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and then, on U.S. soil, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Attacks on U.S. forces and others in Iraq since the U.S.-led overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 also have been linked to al Qaeda. So has terrorism elsewhere, including the suicide bombings that killed 56 people in London in July 2005, and the bombings that killed almost 200 people on commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004. Al Qaeda attacks also have occurred in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Southeast Asia.
Counter-terrorism experts widely believed bin Laden was no longer running the day-to-day operations of al Qaeda. Nonetheless, his death in a sprawling mansion in the suburbs of Islamabad, Pakistan at the hands of an elite U.S. military unit, ends his personal campaign of hatred that was carried out across the globe with bullets, bombs and the suicidal zeal of legions of radical Muslim followers.
One of 50 children and the 17th son of Muhammad bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian construction company owner, Osama bin Laden was born in 1957. He received a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul Aziz University, but shortly after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he left behind a life of privilege to fight the Soviet occupation.
In the mid-1980s, bin Laden had founded a group called the Maktab al Khidmat, or Bureau of Services, a global organization that sought to recruit fighters and raise money for the Afghan resistance against the Soviets. The group established cells in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even the United States. It built the paramilitary training centers and systems of roads, caves and tunnels in Afghanistan that were used to support bin Laden’s vision of a global Islamic army.
After the withdrawal of the of the Soviets 10 years later, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia a hero, but was said to have been discouraged by the political corruption in his home country and turned his attention toward the United States and the West.
In an interview with a French journalist years later, bin Laden said he came to believe at around this time that the struggle against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan was only the beginning.
"I discovered that it was not enough to fight in Afghanistan, but that we had to fight on all fronts against communism or Western oppression. The urgent thing was communism, but the next target was America. … This is an open war up to the end, until victory," he said.
In 1989, the regime in Sudan, run by an Islamic extremist organization called the National Islamic Front, invited bin Laden to move there from Saudi Arabia, where he had returned to work with the family business. He sent an advance team to Sudan but stayed in Saudi Arabia, where he continued to organize and to support radical Islamic fundamentalist groups.
After listing a series of grievances in a letter to Saudi King Fahd and planning a campaign to drive U.S. forces from military bases in Saudi Arabia, he was expelled from his homeland in 1991 and moved his operation to Sudan.
By 1992, bin Laden was arguing that other extremists, who were focused on local rulers and Israel, had not gone far enough. He called for attacks on "the head of the snake," the United States. Bin Laden believed the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holy cities of Medina and Mecca, defiled Muslim land. He also charged that the United States supported repressive Arab regimes and defended Israel.
Bin Laden used fundraising and his inheritance of $1 million a year to establish businesses and training bases in Sudan. According to a report on bin Laden by the National Commission on Terrorism, bin Laden created an international council in al Qaeda to promote common goals among terrorist groups, including coordinated targeting and asset-sharing.
The commission called this "a new level of collaboration."
A December 1992 bombing at the port city of Aden, Yemen, which was used as a staging area for U.S. troops en route to Somalia, is believed to be the first terrorist attack by bin Laden and al Qaeda, according to U.S. intelligence agents.
The first attack on the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993, was the work of terrorists who were later linked to al Qaeda and bin Laden. One of those eventually convicted in the attack was Ramzi Yousef, who according to the 9/11 Commission’s report was "traveling around the world and joining in projects that were supported by or linked to bin Laden."
In his twisted calculus, Sept. 11, 2001, was bin Laden’s finest hour, killing nearly 3,000 Americans in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the hijacked plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
"Its (America’s) greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its east to its west," he gloated in a videotape released less than a month after the attacks.
In December 2001, bin Laden laughingly discussed details of the Sept. 11 attacks with an unnamed Muslim cleric: "The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it," bin Laden boasted in a video tape found in Afghanistan.
"We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower … I was the most optimistic of them all," he said.
Since he became America’s most wanted fugitive shortly after the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden taunted the West with a series of video and audio releases designed to show the world that while in hiding he was still an active leader. In 2007, his tape-recorded message warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs not to join in the fight against al Qaeda and called for renewed attacks on Israel with the threat of "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
"We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he said, adding "we will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have."
For years, bin Laden portrayed himself as above the laws of any nation, subject only to his own extreme interpretation of the Quran and answerable only to his personal vision of God.
His followers saw him as a brilliant military strategist and a spiritual leader who offered an eternity in paradise in exchange for their ephemeral lives on earth. It was a bargain many accepted with righteous zeal.
In January 2004 bin Laden renewed his call for a jihad against the West and sympathizing Arab nations, urging his supporters to "check the conspiracies that are hatched against the Islamic nation." He also said the U.S. could avoid another major attack if it stopped meddling in the affairs of the Arab world. Earlier that year he offered a truce to European countries that refused to participate in the U.S.-led operations in Muslim countries.
In late 2004, he urged Iraqis to boycott elections and named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top deputy in Iraq.
Two years later, bin Laden called for renewed attacks and said the United States and Europe were waging "a Zionist crusader war on Islam."
Also in 2006, an audiotape surfaced, released for broadcast on the al Jazeera network, in which bin Laden threatened to attack the United States anew, though he offered a truce on conditions he did not specify. That was the first time the al Qaeda leader had been heard from in more than a year.
As he remained in hiding, bin Laden watched as, one by one, his top al Qaeda operatives were captured or killed in the global manhunt that began in earnest hours after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Still, bin Laden remained defiant in the face of world condemnation and as public enemy No. 1 in the United States, was thought to be often on the move, hidden by followers in various caves and villages in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While the loss of bin Laden is a blow to the international terror network he spent years building, it hardly neutralizes al Qaeda and its loose band of associates stationed around the globe. say counter-terrorism experts.
Some analysts, in fact, have said that at least in the short term, the terror threat will be heightened without bin Laden in control, infusing leaders of al Qaeda "franchises" around the world with ultimate decision-making power.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Port Authority to beef up security at airports, bridges following bin Laden's death
NEW YORK — Some local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. were adding security measures Monday following Osama bin Laden's death, out of what one called "an abundance of caution."
In Los Angeles, police were stepping up intelligence monitoring, and New Yorkers will see extra police at their airports, bridges and the World Trade Center site itself.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it will add more police at the facilities it runs, which include the airports, the George Washington Bridge and ground zero. The measures aren't response to any current threat and all the facilities will operate normally otherwise, the Port Authority said.
"This response is not based on a current threat, but out of an abundance of caution until we have the chance to learn more," the agency said.
Eighty-four Port Authority employees died in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a message to all police commands reminding them that while there's no information indicating a specific threat to the nation's biggest city, officers should remain alert.
In Los Angeles, a top counterterrorism commander said police will be stepping up intelligence monitoring.
Assistant Commanding Officer Blake Chow, who heads the department's counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said Sunday night that officers will be keeping a close ear on intelligence buzz to develop immediate response plans accordingly.
Police in Philadelphia were on heightened alert, checking on mosques and synagogues every hour, Lt. Raymond J. Evers said.
In Los Angeles, police were stepping up intelligence monitoring, and New Yorkers will see extra police at their airports, bridges and the World Trade Center site itself.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it will add more police at the facilities it runs, which include the airports, the George Washington Bridge and ground zero. The measures aren't response to any current threat and all the facilities will operate normally otherwise, the Port Authority said.
"This response is not based on a current threat, but out of an abundance of caution until we have the chance to learn more," the agency said.
Eighty-four Port Authority employees died in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a message to all police commands reminding them that while there's no information indicating a specific threat to the nation's biggest city, officers should remain alert.
In Los Angeles, a top counterterrorism commander said police will be stepping up intelligence monitoring.
Assistant Commanding Officer Blake Chow, who heads the department's counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said Sunday night that officers will be keeping a close ear on intelligence buzz to develop immediate response plans accordingly.
Police in Philadelphia were on heightened alert, checking on mosques and synagogues every hour, Lt. Raymond J. Evers said.
N.J., N.Y. residents gather at Ground Zero to celebrate bin Laden's death and reflect on 9/11
NEW YORK — Before the revelry really began, Church Street looked and sounded like it does on most Sunday nights as another Monday approaches: Cabs jostling for position, cars trying to make their way in and around the construction zone of Ground Zero. But as word of Osama bin Laden’s death started to circulate, the horns took on a different tone.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
As the cars approached the former site of the World Trade Center towers, their horns mimicked the chant, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” The improptu symphony brought with it people of all walks. They came to celebrate, weep and remember what had happened here nearly 10 years ago.
They arrived every way imaginable.
Some walked, dressed in pajamas. Others took bicycles, dressed in suits. Some came by cab, fresh from a night in the clubs.
Within 30 minutes, the area in front of Ground Zero, at the corner of Church and Vesey Streets, saw nearly 2,000 people congregate. They sang, they chanted, they drank and they danced to the news of the death of the al Qaeda leader and mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
Paul LaGrandier called it the best phone call he ever received.
The New York City firefighter from Engine 235 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant had spent the day fishing and was in bed when his daughter called with the news bin Laden had been killed. He knew what he had to do.
“I had to be here,” LaGrandier said in the early morning hours. “So I put my uniform on and came down. It’s a mixed bag of emotions. I’m happy because he’s dead, but it’s a reminder of what happened here and all of the people we lost.”
He was here with friend Chris Steikowski, a retired FDNY Fire Marshal, standing a few hundred yards away from the raucous celebration. LaGrandier arrived at Ground Zero just as the North Tower collapsed and worked in the rubble in the days and weeks after. Steikowski was at LaGuardia Airport and doubled-back to his home on Long Island, grabbed a shovel and headed for Lower Manhattan.
“There’s some sense of closure,” Steikowski said. “It was something that we all needed. My heart actually skipped a beat when I heard the message. I think that the prevailing view will be that a sense of justice was served.”
While their hearts and minds were on the 343 firefighters who were killed that day — many of whom they knew — the two of them couldn’t help but enjoy the scene.
“Today’s a wonderful day,” LaGrandier said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
***
Howard Zapken walked amid the chaos on Church Street holding high a copy of the book Portraits: 9/11/01 and was proud to tell anyone who cared to listen about the man on page 37: His brother-in-law, Alvin Bergsohn.
Bergsohn, an equity trader on Wall Street, was behind the horrifying sound clip that aired alongside television broadcasts as the towers were about to come down.
“He knew he was dying, and his last quote was ‘We’re all (expletive) dying here,’” Zapken said. “That was reported out on TV and they said, ‘We have a very disturbing message.’”
So he left the comfort of his Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., home to walk around outside the place where it happened. Zapken considers his family lucky that they were one of the few that got a body to bury.
But there was something about the news of bin Laden’s death that seemed soothing.
“So the man who murdered my brother-in-law got what he deserved today,” Zapken said. “Not that I’m a vengeful person but he got what he deserved today. That’s why I came down here and felt like I should be a part of this.”
***
Ted Carousso handed over his enormous American flag just long enough to light a cigarette. He came as soon as he could from his home in Bayside because the memories of 9/11 can never seem to escape him.
He had a best friend who died there, Lt. Vincent Francis Giammona, a brother-in-law who’s working as an engineer on the new freedom towers and a sister who serves on the police and fireman widow and children’s fund. It was no surprise that, as soon as he heard news of President Obama’s impending address, he felt it in his gut: Osama bin Laden was dead.
“I said, if the president is going to speak tonight, it has to be bin Laden,” Carousso said. “Ten minutes later: Breaking news, bin Laden dead. I did, I did man I had a strange feeling.”
To Carousso, 45, he was hurt. But it provided America with a chance to fight back. In his eyes, he knew they would.
“It was a crushing blow to our city but not that bad, we’re resilient,” Carousso said. “We stuck together and I was really proud to be an American that day and I’m proud to be one today. We never stopped looking for him and now he’s dead. He’s going to stay dead.”
***
Sgt. Joseph Moresco has the scars to know why he had to be here.
During his multiple tours in Iraq, the Bloomfield native was injured by IEDs. He had to have part of his jaw reconfigured and he still has shrapnel embedded in his left leg, which makes it difficult to walk.
So, why was he here?
“To celebrate that we brought down the man that brought half of New York City down,” he said. “That we went in there after him and even though it took us 10 years to do it, we took him out.”
Moresco and his friend and fellow Marine, Anthony Malanga of Lyndhurst, were in the middle of the mess of bodies in the middle of the night. But they weren’t rowdy or boisterous. Instead, they stood there and took it all in.
But it was Malanga who summed it up in just one word, what it meant for the two of them to be here on this night.
“Freedom,” Malanga said. “It means freedom.”
On September 11, these were the same grounds where Daryl-Ann Saunders scrambled on her way to give blood to help those who desperately needed it. But at the hospital, they began to turn people away because there was no one left to help.
“All the people who suffered the consequences were dead,” she said. “We didn’t know what to do with ourselves to try and help. There was no help left to be given.”
People knocked on her door all day, showing flyers, asking if they’d seen her cousin, their mother, their sister. They could feel the spirits of the lives lost at the first Ground Zero memorial.
That’s why she and her husband, Norm Barber, had to come back last night.
They sat in their Brooklyn home watching the President address the nation, but something got them out of their seats. By now, Norm would have liked a new monument built, a place to show bin Laden the strength and resilience of a nation.
Daryl-Ann wasn’t sure. On a night like last night, it was good to remember.
“I’m glad there’s not one, in a way,” she said. “It’s sort of a skeleton, reminiscent of what it was like. If there was a whole new building there it almost would have been like it was erased.”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
As the cars approached the former site of the World Trade Center towers, their horns mimicked the chant, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” The improptu symphony brought with it people of all walks. They came to celebrate, weep and remember what had happened here nearly 10 years ago.
They arrived every way imaginable.
Some walked, dressed in pajamas. Others took bicycles, dressed in suits. Some came by cab, fresh from a night in the clubs.
Within 30 minutes, the area in front of Ground Zero, at the corner of Church and Vesey Streets, saw nearly 2,000 people congregate. They sang, they chanted, they drank and they danced to the news of the death of the al Qaeda leader and mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
Paul LaGrandier called it the best phone call he ever received.
The New York City firefighter from Engine 235 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant had spent the day fishing and was in bed when his daughter called with the news bin Laden had been killed. He knew what he had to do.
“I had to be here,” LaGrandier said in the early morning hours. “So I put my uniform on and came down. It’s a mixed bag of emotions. I’m happy because he’s dead, but it’s a reminder of what happened here and all of the people we lost.”
He was here with friend Chris Steikowski, a retired FDNY Fire Marshal, standing a few hundred yards away from the raucous celebration. LaGrandier arrived at Ground Zero just as the North Tower collapsed and worked in the rubble in the days and weeks after. Steikowski was at LaGuardia Airport and doubled-back to his home on Long Island, grabbed a shovel and headed for Lower Manhattan.
“There’s some sense of closure,” Steikowski said. “It was something that we all needed. My heart actually skipped a beat when I heard the message. I think that the prevailing view will be that a sense of justice was served.”
While their hearts and minds were on the 343 firefighters who were killed that day — many of whom they knew — the two of them couldn’t help but enjoy the scene.
“Today’s a wonderful day,” LaGrandier said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
***
Howard Zapken walked amid the chaos on Church Street holding high a copy of the book Portraits: 9/11/01 and was proud to tell anyone who cared to listen about the man on page 37: His brother-in-law, Alvin Bergsohn.
Bergsohn, an equity trader on Wall Street, was behind the horrifying sound clip that aired alongside television broadcasts as the towers were about to come down.
“He knew he was dying, and his last quote was ‘We’re all (expletive) dying here,’” Zapken said. “That was reported out on TV and they said, ‘We have a very disturbing message.’”
So he left the comfort of his Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., home to walk around outside the place where it happened. Zapken considers his family lucky that they were one of the few that got a body to bury.
But there was something about the news of bin Laden’s death that seemed soothing.
“So the man who murdered my brother-in-law got what he deserved today,” Zapken said. “Not that I’m a vengeful person but he got what he deserved today. That’s why I came down here and felt like I should be a part of this.”
***
Ted Carousso handed over his enormous American flag just long enough to light a cigarette. He came as soon as he could from his home in Bayside because the memories of 9/11 can never seem to escape him.
He had a best friend who died there, Lt. Vincent Francis Giammona, a brother-in-law who’s working as an engineer on the new freedom towers and a sister who serves on the police and fireman widow and children’s fund. It was no surprise that, as soon as he heard news of President Obama’s impending address, he felt it in his gut: Osama bin Laden was dead.
“I said, if the president is going to speak tonight, it has to be bin Laden,” Carousso said. “Ten minutes later: Breaking news, bin Laden dead. I did, I did man I had a strange feeling.”
To Carousso, 45, he was hurt. But it provided America with a chance to fight back. In his eyes, he knew they would.
“It was a crushing blow to our city but not that bad, we’re resilient,” Carousso said. “We stuck together and I was really proud to be an American that day and I’m proud to be one today. We never stopped looking for him and now he’s dead. He’s going to stay dead.”
***
Sgt. Joseph Moresco has the scars to know why he had to be here.
During his multiple tours in Iraq, the Bloomfield native was injured by IEDs. He had to have part of his jaw reconfigured and he still has shrapnel embedded in his left leg, which makes it difficult to walk.
So, why was he here?
“To celebrate that we brought down the man that brought half of New York City down,” he said. “That we went in there after him and even though it took us 10 years to do it, we took him out.”
Moresco and his friend and fellow Marine, Anthony Malanga of Lyndhurst, were in the middle of the mess of bodies in the middle of the night. But they weren’t rowdy or boisterous. Instead, they stood there and took it all in.
But it was Malanga who summed it up in just one word, what it meant for the two of them to be here on this night.
“Freedom,” Malanga said. “It means freedom.”
On September 11, these were the same grounds where Daryl-Ann Saunders scrambled on her way to give blood to help those who desperately needed it. But at the hospital, they began to turn people away because there was no one left to help.
“All the people who suffered the consequences were dead,” she said. “We didn’t know what to do with ourselves to try and help. There was no help left to be given.”
People knocked on her door all day, showing flyers, asking if they’d seen her cousin, their mother, their sister. They could feel the spirits of the lives lost at the first Ground Zero memorial.
That’s why she and her husband, Norm Barber, had to come back last night.
They sat in their Brooklyn home watching the President address the nation, but something got them out of their seats. By now, Norm would have liked a new monument built, a place to show bin Laden the strength and resilience of a nation.
Daryl-Ann wasn’t sure. On a night like last night, it was good to remember.
“I’m glad there’s not one, in a way,” she said. “It’s sort of a skeleton, reminiscent of what it was like. If there was a whole new building there it almost would have been like it was erased.”
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