yours. >> thank you so much. excellent work. we will continue the conversation of the breaking news as we continue to process what we have learned about the most wanted man in the world being killed by u.s. special operations forces. it was at 11:35 eastern p.m. this evening when the president announced to all of us that osama bin laden had been killed, found in a suburban town just outside of islamabad pakistan. special forces dropping in, taking away osama bin laden's body into u.s. custody. it's almost ten years now since 9/11 and we are seeing the hordes of people learning this information and processing it for themselves as you are seeing it there outside of the white house and also in times kwar in new york city and also at the site of the twin towers.

everyone is start. >> tim: find out exactly what it will be like as we wake up to a new world. a new normal here in the united states. >> it took this long to sess this plan. and move with the speed and accuracy that they did. does it surprise you with your knowledge of military operations that learning a what they did in august it took this long to facilitate the swift 5:00 that was taken tonight?

>> we have been looking for him air land and sea for the last decade. he understood if he used computers, telephones or had delegations visiting he would be found. it was astonishing that he was anyone to conceal himself that long. what did the pakistani intelligence service know about this. was he under protection? why didn't local law enforcement know of a giant guarded compound in the suburbs? >> it was 35 miles north of islamabad in abbattoabad.

the home itself was eight times larger than any other homes in the area. it was fortified by 12 to 15 foot walls. there were no internet connections. but general, what do you think is the big tip-off here? because to have this type of accuracy and to know that he was there when he was there, who do you think is the person that tipped off u.s. forces to be able to go in as they did? >> we may never know. we have finally learned how to keep skre keep secrets. mostly the armed forces can keep secrets but in washington it starts washing across into the media or other political channels. i think the entire effort would

have been dominated by electronic intelligence, by overhead satellite photography. the cia cultivate a lot of foreign intelligence sources. we put it all together and they tracked him to this lair. and deep inside pakistan, these navy seals with their air force lift assets went a long way to get to that target. conducted a 40 minute on the ground raid and got out of there without ever being engaged by pakistani military or police is astonishing. >> i think what i was trying to get at is do you think someone from the inside may have given up his where abouts? here we are almost ten years to the day after the attacks.

and many people thought he was hiding in the mountains of afghanistan, along the border but to find out he was living in this fortified compound in a mansion of luxury with a lot of activity you would think we would have been able to find him sooner. do you think that someone trusted inside his inner circle is the person who actually tipped off american forces? >> yeah, we don't know. my guess would be that what actually happened was there was a human leak of some significan significance. we followed the couriers that were going to and from. when he was finally attacked and killed there were at least two couriers there with him. i think they were the ones that led the intelligence services that found the compound. >> i want to ask you to standby.

for those of you just joining us, we continue to follow the breaking news, the announcement that u.s. special operations forces have killed osama bin laden and recovered his body. it is in u.s. custody. i want to show you a brief portion of what president obama said earlier. >> tonight i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. it was nearly ten years ago that a bright september day was darkened by the worst attack on the american people in our history. the images of 9/11 are sered into our national memory. hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless september sky. the twin towers collapsing to the ground. black smoke billowing up from the pentagon.

the wreckage of flight 93 in pennsylvania where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction. and yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world, the important seat at the dinner table, children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. on september 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the american people came together. we offered our neighbors a hand and we offered the wounded our blood. we reaffirmed our ties to each other. and our love of community and country. on that day, no matter where we came from, what god we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we

were, we were united as one american family. we were also united in our resolve to prosect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. >> earlier tonight president obama there confirming that the most wanted man in the world osama bin laden had been killed by u.s. special operations forces. jub lent crowds have been turning up in places around the country this is a shot of the white house. people that have shown up there in lafayette park. and also as you can imagine here in new york city. in times square and at ground zero and that is where we find ron allen. explain the type of people who have turned out tonight. i know it is a combination of students and other people who have different memories of where they were on 9/11 and now they are here today back at ground zero on what has to be a very

different scene. >> thomas, there is an incredible clash of emotions. celebration and people remembering. people who were here right at 9/11 -- >> a firefighter who was hire the day that george bush was here. >> that's right. >> what do you think you would say to him now? >> he will hear all of us now. they are hearing us now. >> what do you think they are hearing? >> the fact that america is not going to quit at the job that it started to do on september 11. we didn't start this, they did. and it's not over yet.

this is just a small reminder that the resolve of america is steadfast and the people are united when they need to be. >> you have been to the white house a couple of times. what do you think president bush is feeling? >> we got to give a lot of gratitude to president bush and obama for keeping us going and keeping our eye on the prize. tonight the prize was captured and killed. that's what happens when you mess with america. >> the only loud message tonight? >> yeah. it's a good one for a place that is such sacred ground to have this joy down here is something that has not happened in ten years. i guess it is accepted tonight that this is a sacred area and we want to keep it that way. the fact is that thousands of people lost their lives here. >> it is a mix of emotions. it is. i have never seen such jubilation and celebration. sit a celebration, right?

it has been quite a night down hire. thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> the celebration continues down here tonight. >> nbc's ron allen coming to us live from ground zero. ron, thanks so much. we want to go to pete williams who joins me from washington d.c. just less than two weeks ago that here in new york where janet napolitano did away from the color coded alert system. what is it going to do now to people that are traveling? all of our lives changed when it comes to traveling with whether or not people chose to travel. now there are new warnings that are going out for what should be done and how people should consider this news as they make their plans to travel abroad? >> the state department has issued a travel advisory.

it is not specific. it lists special countries. it says that people who are in areas where there may be a response to this, obviously in parts of the middle east should pay very close attention to what's going on in the streets. stay close to their hotels. avoid large crowds. sit a word to the wise. pay attention. there may be reprisals and anger at americans. know indication that that has happened yet. we are still just a few hours from the announcement. in terms of what will happen to the u.s., for the immediate term, the quickest answer is nothing. there will be no change that we know of in what we will see at the airports. no different kind of security at the check points when you go through to go board an airplane. some police departments, notably

new yorks will and already have put out increased presence on the street to maintain a more visible presence. they are doing this, ramping up security just as a precaution but the department of homeland security is clear that it is giving no guidance to local police around the country. there is no information or credible intelligence to pass on. and the brand new system that you talked about known as the national terror alert system is not being activated because the whole point of the new system is to pass on credible information of threats and they just don't have any. so in the short term there is no plan to do anything any differently. >> now behind the scenes obviously there will be a lot of activity. i talked to a senior official who says the fbi is telling field officers to pay close

attention here in the short term to see if there is anybody in the u.s. who is motivate by this attack to carry out a home grown attack for the death of bin laden. they will be paying close attention to that. in the short term i would say looking at the next several months, maybe the next year or so, thomas, i don't think you will see a lot of change in what you see at airports and around the country in terms of security. what is driving that response now has very little to do with bin laden. no to underestimate what has happened here but the terror threat, the attacks we have seen in the past six months to a year have been domestic threats where there is no outside inspiration at all from any foreign group including al qaeda and of the al

qaeda in the arabian peninsula that doesn't take its instructions from bin laden. the attempted bombing of cargo planes. and of course a year ago the attempt to blow up a plane coming into detroit with the so called underwear bomber. al qaeda central is still a threat. had been to an al qaeda training camp and was getting direction from the core leadership of al qaeda. but that's an exception and the kind of threat we have looked at here in the u.s. over the last several months and years as not so much directed by bin laden but by either splinter groups or home grown terrorists. you won't see any change in the

threat othe u.s. and no threat in the response. >> pete williams in washington for us tonight. thank you very much. i want to go ahead and replind all of you. this major development in the hunt for the moist wanted man in the world, osama bin laden announced dead by the president this evening, killed by u.s. special operations forces. saying president obama called to inform me that u.s. forces killed osama bin laden. i congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. this achievement marks -- the

fight against terror goes on but america has sent an unmistakable message, justice will be done. i want to go to nbc michael. we have now new images about the compound where osama bin laden was found and killed in the fire fight with u.s. special forces. this compound itself was really one that stoot out in this neighborhood. because of its size. >> one u.s. official said to me this morning that bin laden was really hiding in plain sight. remember for years, u.s. intelligence officials had been saying bin laden was most likely in the mountainous region between pakistan and afghanistan. maybe in a cave, well concealed. and then it turns out he is in

this north of the capital, is m islamab islamabad, in an affluent area of where a lot of former pakistani military people live. and this is really interesting. within i was told, two miles of pakistan's main military academy, it's west point. and that's where bin laden was hiding out. and he was hiding out not surrounded by a large security apparatus as we might expect. there were two al qaeda facilitators who were with him. these were the couriers who the cia were able to track to bin laden. that's how they cracked the case. there was his one of his sons was with him. and a woman who acted as a human shield. and that's it.

no large army of machine gun toting security body guards for bin laden. so i think that's a bit of a surprise. you know, to have him so lightly defended in an affluent area north of pakistan's capital and so close, within two miles of the main pakistani military academy is really pretty astounding. >> michael, do you think when we get more information about how everything went down in this operation itself that we will learn more about missed opportunities that happened to possibly potentially capture or kill osama bin laden over the last ten years? >> i think it's safe to say we will learn a lot more about everything that led to this. the briefing that the white house gave this evening was informative but sketchy on a lot

of details about how they got on to the couriers in the first place. i was told that there was crucial information that emerged out of detainee interrogations of high value detainees. one of whom was at guantanamo where references to this particular courier as being a trusted courier of bin laden first emerged, first put him on the radar screen of u.s. intelligence and for years u.s. intelligence has been trying to figure out who this courier was and where he was. they had his working name. they knew some information about him but not a lot. and focusing like a laser on that sort of network that surrounded bin laden.

the couriers, the facilitators. the people that worked under him who were not necessarily high value terrorists. not necessarily running the show but were crucial to the way it operated. that was a major focus of the cia. and that's how they were able to piece together and ultimately put those two couriers, the one that was identified and an associate of his in pakistan this year and at the compound that ultimately we discovered was where bin laden was hiding. >> mark, it's good to talk to you. talk to us about al qaeda in north africa. many people feel this is largely

symbolic to take out osama bin laden, sit is a huge move forwad in what this country needs to feel in a fight back and justice. but it doesn't mean they will fall apart completely with the loss. >> more importantly with all of the arabs and muslims and their families who were killed in the name of bin ladenism, just a few days ago the bombing attack ark straited most likely by al qaeda. the tens of thousands of muslims that were killed and arabs that

were killed in the name of bin laden in iraq and in jordan the bombings that have taken place in the arab world in the name of al qaeda. this should be a moment for sweet justice to rise up not only from the united states but from moracco where the attacks occurred back in 2003 all the way across north africa. the bombing of a synagogue. the al qaeda attacks that occurred in egypt that continue to occur in egypt. >> while we look at it through that lens can we also look at it through the lens of feeling if we take our eye off of the prize so to speak of keeping a thumb on the war against terror and i use yemen as an example doesn't

it mean that someone will rise up to take his place to reassert al qaeda's presence around the world? >> there is no doubt that when you look at the command and control structure that in effect reinvigorated itself and which the united states continued to attack through drones in pakistan that we still have to deal with the likes of other leaders, the doctor number two who continues to run al qaeda operationally. so while he himself continued issues and continues to make statements in the name of al qaeda, they probably will always be some second, third, fourth, in command that is trying to take over and will take responsibility for trying to run the organization.

>> ambassador, mark, good to talk to you. i am sure we will be talking to you more as we continue to get more details. showing headlines after getting this late breaking news tonight there is the "new york times." bin laden killed by u.s. forces in pakistan. obama says declaring justice has been done. and the washington force, u.s. forces kill osama bin laden. obama justice has been done. the announcement made at 11:35 p.m. eastern time. we had gotten the official word that the president was going to speak at roughly 10:30 p.m. that is a live look outside of the white house right now as crowds have been gathering ever since the announcement was made gathering there and in times square and gathering at ground

zero in new york city. there is a shot there of all the people that have come out to show their celebration, to show their pride. to just be together in this moment as a country. we try to process all of this. this is a lot of drink in. especially when no one saw this coming. there was no tip off. brian williams mentioned that so many of us were in washington d.c. last night. 2600 people crammed into the ballroom at the white house correspondents dinner and not a peep about all of this. what does that say to you whin you think of how the information is going flow internationally and what it means to the war on

terror? >> it caps off a series of losses. they have lost a number of senior leaders. the problem is as gratifying as this news is we have to look at this reali iis iisticallrealist. you have al qaeda in yemen that still exist that is flourishing. i think we have to understand that the doctor is waiting in the wings. he is waiting to take over control of the organization. he has proven himself to be a capable leader and he can keep the organization running. and then there is the second piece there are people out there and they are already on internet websites chatting about this saying now is the time for reven revenge. now is the time for us to strike back.

were osama bin laden to be killed or captured that al qaeda would launch a dramatic attack. hopefully he is just blowing smoke. hopefully this is all a charade but we do have to tumper or celebrations that are certainly justified with the reality that there is certainly still an al qaeda tomorrow. home grown extremists. there are people that can kill americans and they probably will. it's great news but al qaeda will live on. >> especially through verbal intimidation of saying what they think they can do. why is it so important that the special operations forces lad to recover the body. >> it is absolutely necessary. if you look at the reaction,

initially it was lyes written in english. they said we're not going to believe this until we see the hard evidence. i won't believe it until i see the image of bin laden. that is what some of the people were saying just now in the last couple of minutes. if the u.s. wants to prove to al qaeda supporters and sympathi r sympathizers that he is dead they need to have images and the proof. simply saying he is dead is not enough. they are saying already this is a year of sorrow and saddens. we have got them on the back foot. let's hope we can keep it that way. i think we have to be careful that al qaeda or home grown extremists right here in the u.s. don't take this as an excuse to carry out revenge attack. >> for many americans and people around the globe, the images

that we know of him are a bit dated. we haven't seen anymore a video tape in a long time. audio tapes were the last ones he put out. when he went away and started to put out the intimidating audio tapes, do you think that started to take away his power? >> there is no doubt about the fact that he became a mysterious figure. people were not sure if he was still alive or dead. we know now really why he was being so careful. no internet connection, no phone. there was a serious concern on their part that putting him on camera would lead to his death. zarqawi appeared once and within two months of him appearing on video he was dead. they needed to ratchet up the

level of operational security. what is curious here and i think this has been brought up before, the place where bin laden was captured, this was not the afghan pakistan border, this is not where the missile strikes are taking place. this is very close to pakistan control casmere. this is within miles of pakis n pakistan's main military academy. you have to wonderhere how was it how he was able to hide out without being detected by anyone? >> we will hopefully find out how long he has been here when more details come out. >> give us the details of how things went down at the white house? how the secret was so well guarded that many of us were so taken aback. >> it is one of the raemarkable

moments. earlier today the president went to play nine holes of golf and the journal pool were given a limb. you got come back to the white house. people rush in. you will definitely want to cover it. it is as everyone has been saying, very remarkable that no one was told about this. and the background conference call that some senior administration officials gave to reporters after the remarks which were only about ten minutes long. not only did they not share the intelligence information with pakistan but with no other

countries and not very many people in the u.s. government. it was really a surprise to all of us. upon arriving at the white house, i think i got there around 10:30 when we thought the president might be speaking and of course that was pushed back. a crowd began to gather soon after that. as soon as people saw the headlines knowing he was going to come out and speak. around 11:00 you probably had 50 people gathered outside the white house. it just grew and grew. people were running up, waving flags, singing we are the champions. chanted usa usa. and a short while ago there were people holding giant flags outside of their car windows. celebrating, jumping in the air. there was a guy on the corner selling smaller flags for people to carry this is going be one of the nights that everyone remembers. >> how do you think this will

change the narrative as we start the new workweek. reare already in it after 2:30 in the morning. how do you think this will change the narrative as the white house starts off this, you know, beginning of may? >> well, i mean what a way to start the month. there were several other big things. a bipartisan dinner that the president was going have members of congress come over with their spouses now that congress is going to be back in session. certainly they're not going put everything on hold. we expect this to dominate the headlines for several days. >> it certainly warrants it that's for sure. we want to go down luke.

the congressional reaction. what has it been like? do we know when congress may have been notified and confirmed the death of osama bin laden? >> it's interesting. we can report that speaker boehner received a personal phone call from president obama we believe around 8:39 and informed him of exactly what had occurred. obviously asked him to keep silent. vice president joe biden informed the other members of the republican leadership as well as the democrats. that is really when we started to figure out later on around the 10:30 area when aides had heard from their bosses that bin laden had been killed.

but the press releases have been jubilant and completely bipartisan congratulating president obama. republican ones also included congratulating president bush. he is the president who started the campaign to try to apprehend osama bin laden. there will be a lot of presumed seechs. you have not had a moment of greatness and everyone could rally around such as this one that is as big as this one in a long time. i think that will be quite interesting to see how it plays out through the halls and how it plays off in what has been quite a contested political environment. this week was supposed to be about the debt ceiling. he is hosting a bipartisan

dinner tomorrow night. and biden was going to have a meeting on thursday to talk about the nation's debt with congressional leaders from both sides. >> luke, thanks so much. for those of you just joining us, the breaking news is the major announcement made by president obama earlier this evening at 11:35 p.m. when he took to the podium announcing that u.s. special operations forces had successfully killed and recovered the body of onsam bin laden. here a brief portion of the speech. >> the american people did not choose this fight. it came to our shores and

started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. after nearly ten years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. these efforts weigh on me every time as commander in chief have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one or look into the eyes of a service member who has been gravely wounded. so americans understand the costs of war. yet as a country we will never tolerate our security being threatened nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. we will be relentless. i often say to families who have lost loved ones to al qaeda's terror, justice has been done. >> earlier, united states

received praise for killing osama bin laden, seeing a resounding triumph for washington and its allies. our nbc's pete williams joins me from washington. pete, as we know it is coming up, the deadline or date looming with the troop withdrawal from afghanistan in july, how critical was it to come to this point tonight with ta nounsment oof the death of osama bin laden? >> well, i suspect that the two are pretty much independent. they have been wanting to say this about bin laden and have it be true for ten years.

this picture of the white house fascinates me. here it is almost 2:40 in the morning and there is still a considerable crowd across from the white house. it is not as easy to see it because some of the lights have been turned off but it is thinning out a little bit according to our newsroom, the washington affiliate here it is still a remarkable gathering of people. it seemed to form within a few minutes that people started to crowd into lafayette park, the obvious place to go. i guess there were two obvious places to go in the u.s. one is right across the street from the white house because it is very hard to get anywhere near the pentagon quickly and you can't get that close any more but you can get just across the street from the white house and ground zero in new york where people had gathered. it has been a fascinating thing to watch this organically

spontaneously happen. we were talking about what security measures there will be in the coming 24 to 48 hours and it is probably well to remind people who may be traveling tomorrow that as far as we have been able to determine, the answer is none. there won't be anything different that we will see. no instructions have gone out to the tsa or the state and local governments. it has been only a matter of hours since it has happened. there is no intelligence that anything is planned and the government is going to great pains to say that they don't want to do something reflexively. the city of new york views it a little differently. they always fear they are in the cross hairs. shortly after this was announced they began to deploy extra more visible patrols in new york

city. more heavily armed hercules teams. i have heard of no plans to do that here in washington or any other major cities although they may decide ind pep dentally to do that if they choose. i think that is what you will see is the immediate threat. the crowd was right across ma pa area, simply move them back into the park itself. they had flowed from the park, overflowed into the street and really right up against white house fence. you can see they have now been moved to the north side of pennsylvania avenue. we will have to see how long they stay there. >> looks like they could be there for a long while. we will continue to watch. thank you so much.

i want to read a statement from the 9/11 memorial group. osama bin laden has been brought to justice. we take this time to remember those killed in september 2001 at the world trade center their names will be etched in bronze. a tribute to what matters, our freedoms and our ability to overcome the worst of humanity with the best. rewant to check in now with the west coast. how is this news being received there? >> we have been here for the last couple of hours and a lot of passengers here did not know about the news. they have been waiting in line for several hours. we are outside of the international terminal where a lot of the passengers did not know. many questions were what does this mean for me? what will happen next.

it raeally is too early to tell. it is business as usual. as you know this is one of the busiest travel hubs in the country. some 59 million americans came in and out of the airport. this is certainly one of the high profile locations that the lapd is keeping a close eye on. a statement saying it was going to increase controls. places like religious institutions and lax. we talked to the lax spokesperson a short time ago. so no official word on any changes here at lax. they say there is no visible threat this evening.

>> thank you so much. as we were watching there, as he was speaking to us we were watching celebrations happening at different part gs of the country tonight. i think it was the bottom of the ninth at the mets phillies game and we have some video as the reaction of the fans learned this news. [ chanting [ chanting ] >> we are going go wnb krc frome

ground zero site. pete williams was talking about the crowds gathered outside of the white house. it struck me, all of the young faces. you have a lot of college kids. a mixed group of people but mainly a lot of college kids. >> actually i would say the first hour or two, the average age of the sell brants out here might have been about 25 years old. as the night progressed, we found more and more people of older ages, different races and backgrounds, different cities and countries. if you were anywhere near lower manhattan in manhattan tonight this was the place to go and people soon found that out and they were sharing in their joy and they still are. the crowd has actually thinned out a bit just before 3:00 in the morning but that says a lot. the crowd has thinned out and there are still as many as 1,000 people out here celebrating

throughout the night. in dc the same is the case. we have had spontaneous renditions. they recited the national anthem. sang god bless america. a few hours back there was an actual moment of silence if you can believe it, among all of these people. there was no one leader of the group that instructed people to stop what they were doing and yet everyone knew at that moment they were there to observe and honor the nearly 3,000 people who died here. and that is not lost on anyone that this was a place of utter sorrow almost ten years ago. and now sit a place of sheer joy. and that's part of why people are so happy here is because they have been able to transform one of the darkest days in new york city history into something worth celebrating and they are happy to do it out here tonight.

>> ida, thank you so much. i want to show you a reaction that came to us from penn state yeen ver university. take a look. >> we have reaction that is coming into us -- you can send in your images or videos of what you are seeing in your neighborhoods and communities as the word of the death of osama bin laden continues to carry around the globe. richard, talk to us about what it was like when you heard the news. as i said and i have been

talking about it seemed to catch many of us out in left field, something we were not anticipating hearing. >> it was a complete surprise. they said their bosses had just been briefed by the white house and it was hard to believe this is the first time in the last 50 years and certainly in my lifetime where an assassination of a major figure has been greeted with joy. you really have to go back to world war ii where the death of somebody world famous is a moment of joy. the death of a terrorist is a good moment but an odd moment. >> you make a very valid point. the most recent one in memory is that of saddam hussein during a very different time for our country itself. but the reaction, nothing like

this. >> nothing like this. also i think the united states made a critical mistake in the bush years in allowing saddam hussein to be buried prominently. that grave was to become a source of a pilgrimage. bin laden's body is to be buried at sea so that it will not be a focal point for more martyrdom. >> are you surprised that the white house was able to keep a lid on this as it were? the news of the death of osama bin laden especially given the fact that the correspondent's dinner was less than 24 hours ago? >> that's right. it was -- they did it by those classic means possible, which is keeping it to a very small group. i was a small combined field

very little discussion back to washington. the number of white house officials who knew about the operation on friday or saturday was apparently about five or six people outside of the president and vice president. astonishingly, joe biden kept his mouth shut, too. the secret held. once they started briefing other countries and members of congress, the news spread very, very quickly. >> richard, thank you so much for joining us. want to go to michael. as we are talking about the fact that the white house, the cia, everyone in washington that may have had access to the information was able to keep it from the press, i am still curious to know the details of how all of this came to fruition, the president making the announcement that they learned of the location or information that was going to lead them to osama bin laden

back in august. and then they formulated this plan. that they would be able to make the acute strike. >> it is rare to keep a secret in washington that long, especially something as sen t s sensational as getting osama bin laden. hats off to them for doing that. you know, it's interesting to go back a couple of years. you know, you would have to rank today as being, you know, one of the great days of the cia's history. finally tracking down the number one terrorist in the world, the man who the item government had been looking for for over a decade. but it was barely two years agrow, less than two years ago.

the worst day in the agency's history. thinking they were going get bin laden's number two, they allowed a triple operative on to a base thinking he was going to deliver the where abouts of -- and it turned out he was a suicide bomber and he killed, i think it was a half a dozen cia agents in one base. and that was an awful fiasco for the agency that led to a lot of hand wringing about what had gone wrong and what kind of operations defects that led into that plan. so i think that the memory of the coast fiasco had to have been very high in the minds of the people who were planning this operation.

what about was a vindication of an agency that had real pail yours in the past. >> the u.s. has the custody of osama bin laden's body. officials have said that the u.s. would ensure that the body was held in accordance with islamic tradition. however, there are many warning that this could lead to heightened threats to u.s. -- to u.s. people traveling outside of the u.s. >> i think that's true. a number of other people have pointed out. to the extent that there have been threats from al qaeda and serious threats in recent years, they have come not so much from al qaeda central directed by osama bin laden, they have come from osama bin laden's followers around the world, especially in

yemen and al qaeda and the arabian peninsula pronounced by the national counter terrorism director a few months ago as really having replaced al qaeda central as the main threat to the u.s. homeland. certainly the chris mast day bombing attempt came from there. one who has been cited as the guy recruiting for al qaeda so successfully in the west is hiding out in yemen and probably has very little if any contact with bin laden. so it's not at all clear that getting bin laden himself is going to diminish these threats. in fact, by making bin laden a martyr in some eyes it arguably could lead to an increased threat environment. it's hard to say. we don't know really how strong -- we haven't actually

heard much in the last few months ian when there has been all this turmoil in yemen. we are not exactly sure just how robust they are at the moment. >> we're going to take a quick break but when we return we will play the entire nine minute speech that the president gave tonight confirming the death of osama bin laden.

welcome back to continuing coverage as we follow reaction to the death of osama bin laden. the news coming tonight from president obama at the white house at 11:35 p.m. making a statement from the east room. a statement we will play for you in its entirety. welcome back. we're going to go to jim who is live for us at the pentagon. as we continue to get the details in, set the scene for us as we understand it hue this all went down? >> you know, president obama before departing on friday morning to inspect tornado dama