Numerous news outlets across the globe are reporting that Osama Bin Laden is dead and that the U.S. has his body. The New York Post and CNN claim to have additional information, stating that the 9/11 mastermind was killed by an unmanned drone in Pakistan last week. Other family members were said to have been killed in the attack, which occured outside a mansion in Islamabad.
DNA tests were said to have been conducted to confirm his identity.
CNN reports that the U.S. military is taking steps to prepare for the possibility that Al Qaeda and/or Bin Laden supporters may immediately retaliate.
Puppet Masters
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
Washington - A U.S. official says Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.
After bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.
The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, did not immediately say where that occurred.
© EPA
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
While his death is powerfully symbolic and will be widely welcomed in Afghanistan, his al Qaeda network has held little sway in the country for several years.
A decade after the Taliban regime gave him safe haven and refused to hand him over following the September 11 attacks, many in the Taliban are reportedly now ambivalent toward their former guest and his network.
The Taliban have denied they share the international jihadist ambitions of al Qaeda and the CIA has long estimated the network has fewer than 100 fighters and operatives inside Afghanistan.
Instead the Taliban say their insurgency is a home-grown nationalist campaign of resistance waged not by international terrorists, but waged by Afghans against a puppet government and its foreign backers.
Nato commanders often state that 80 per cent of Taliban foot soldiers are local men fighting within 20 miles of their homes.
© Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden
The killing of Osama Bin Laden provided a moment of catharsis that had eluded America for a decade. Flag-draped crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House and at Ground Zero in Manhattan, singing the national anthem. On television, Peter Bergen, an expert on al-Qaida and one of few people in the field to have actually met its leader, declared: "Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror."
The mood this morning is likely to be more sober, as Americans cast their minds back on past premature declarations of victory, in Afghanistan at the end of 2001 and at George W Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" triumphalism over Iraq in 2003.
The struggle against terrorism does not give itself easily to neat beginnings and endings. In one sense, the "war on terror" ended in March 2009 when the incoming Obama administration decided it was a counter-productive phrase in the first place, bringing America's enemies together rather than dividing them.
After being driven from Afghanistan in 2001, al-Qaida's response was to transform itself into a far looser global network that would be harder to destroy. In its most dilute form, al-Qaida is little more than a franchise that alienated groups around the world can sign up for, exchanging formal oaths of allegiance for the dread that the name inspires in their enemies.
For much of the world, Osama bin Laden was the face of al Qaeda. He was, after all, the man who oversaw the September 11, 2001, attacks.
With bin Laden gone, the question now becomes "What happens to al Qaeda?"
Within hours of bin Laden's death, questions began to emerge about who would take the helm of the organization and whether it would create an opportunity for other Islamic organizations to step up.
"Al Qaeda is weakened. But it doesn't mean that the United States has no challenges," Steven L. Spiegel, director for Middle East development at the University of California Los Angeles, said early Monday.
Standing behind bin Laden for more than two decades has been an ideological army that stretches around the world, where militants have set up their own "al Qaeda franchises," analysts say.
"He was very good at coming up with messages that would unify al Qaeda," said Paul Cruickshank, a CNN analyst for terrorism and an alumni fellow at the New York University's Center on Law and Security.
"Now without bin Laden, they will likely lose some of that unity."
With bin Laden gone, the question now becomes "What happens to al Qaeda?"
Within hours of bin Laden's death, questions began to emerge about who would take the helm of the organization and whether it would create an opportunity for other Islamic organizations to step up.
"Al Qaeda is weakened. But it doesn't mean that the United States has no challenges," Steven L. Spiegel, director for Middle East development at the University of California Los Angeles, said early Monday.
Standing behind bin Laden for more than two decades has been an ideological army that stretches around the world, where militants have set up their own "al Qaeda franchises," analysts say.
"He was very good at coming up with messages that would unify al Qaeda," said Paul Cruickshank, a CNN analyst for terrorism and an alumni fellow at the New York University's Center on Law and Security.
"Now without bin Laden, they will likely lose some of that unity."
The death of Osama bin Laden has brought justice for the 24 Canadians who died on Sept. 11, 2001, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday night.
However, he added, the threat of international terrorism continues, which is why Canada remains in Afghanistan.
"Canada receives the news of the death of Osama bin Laden with sober satisfaction," Harper said in British Columbia, shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sunday that the world's most wanted terrorist had been killed in a compound in Pakistan. Bin Laden's demise ends the 10-year manhunt for the terrorist who masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
"Sadly, others will take his place," Harper said.
"This does remind us why Canadian Armed Forces personnel have been deployed to Afghanistan," he said. "Through their operations there to cut off terror at its root, our men and women in uniform have made an enormous contribution to Canadian security at home and abroad."
Online hacktivist collective Anonymous has announced OpIran, a new campaign set to coincide with International Workers' Day on 1 May and designed to launch denial of service attacks at Iranian web sites.
In a post on the AnonNews site, the group urged the Iranian people to join an "era of change" sweeping the world.
"We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you," the statement read.
In a post on the AnonNews site, the group urged the Iranian people to join an "era of change" sweeping the world.
"We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you," the statement read.
© Wired
The case decided 2-1 Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerned the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Congress adopted the CFAA in 1986 to enhance the government's ability to prosecute hackers who accessed computers to steal information or to disrupt or destroy computer functionality.
Tries to reassure users that details are safe
Microsoft has admitted that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) tracks users' locations.
With concern growing over revelations that all of the major mobile operating systems, including Apple's IOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, collect location data, Microsoft has released an FAQ about the issue.
Microsoft revealed that it collects data such as the BSSID, which is the MAC address of the device, the signal strength, the radio type, and if GPS is available it also logs latitude, longitude, direction and speed.
However, the company said it does not collect information sent over private, non-protected wireless networks, otherwise known as payload data. It said that its software specifically only picks up publicly broadcast data from WiFi access points and that packets sent over encrypted or unencrypted networks remain safe from its location tracking.
Microsoft has admitted that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) tracks users' locations.
With concern growing over revelations that all of the major mobile operating systems, including Apple's IOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, collect location data, Microsoft has released an FAQ about the issue.
Microsoft revealed that it collects data such as the BSSID, which is the MAC address of the device, the signal strength, the radio type, and if GPS is available it also logs latitude, longitude, direction and speed.
However, the company said it does not collect information sent over private, non-protected wireless networks, otherwise known as payload data. It said that its software specifically only picks up publicly broadcast data from WiFi access points and that packets sent over encrypted or unencrypted networks remain safe from its location tracking.
