details on the elite american force that took down america's most wanted, with terrorism analyst michael sheehan and former interrogator matthew alexander. the politics of bin laden's death, with michael eric dyson and colonel lawrence wilkerson. and the reaction from the people who lost their loved ones on 9/11. >> i could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform. >> great to have you with us tonight, folks. this is the story that the globe is paying attention to. there is no question about it. it's the story that we are all fired up about. i'm fired up about this guy, right here. the president of the united states, you know, i wish i had five hours to talk to you tonight and have fun with this. because we're going to talk about american exceptionalism tonight. and before we start with the president, we've got to thank those navy s.e.a.l.s and those military guys that give it all their all the time for the united states of america. tonight we're going to show you some interesting footage about how they love this country, how we responded to all of this, and, of course, we just can't forge

michael sheehan, former special forces officer himself. mike, i want to ask you, how did we get bin laden? let me go now with a picture of how this happened. as we understand it. here's how our elite special operations forces got the most wanted terrorist in the world. approximately 24 navy s.e.a.l.s repelled into bin laden's heavily guarded compound from two helicopters. in a nail biting moment, one of those choppers suffered a mechanical failure. the s.e.a.l.s, the blue dots on the screen, proceeded with their assault. bin laden, the yellow dot, used one of his wives as a human shield. she was killed. he fired on u.s. forces and was killed, himself, with a shot through the left eye toward the end of the fire fight. a backup helicopter arrived on site. u.s. commandos loaded bin laden's body onboard and blew up the crippled chopper before leaving. the entire raid took 40 minutes, some of that time was spent searching the compound for more intelligence. there were no u.s. casualties. and president obama monitored the entire operation in rea

anyway, thank you michael sheehan, and bob baer. >>> what does the end of osama bin laden mean from thethreat of al qaeda. what's left of the snake and what's it like? that's ahead, you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. >>> well, take a look at the front pages of some of the newspapers. the "new york daily news" has his picture with the words "rot in hell." the stth petersburg times simply reads -- dead. there you see it and "new york post," got him, vengeance at last. we'll be right back. >>> i think the accomplishment that very brave personnel from the united states government were able to realize yesterday is a defining moment in the wear against al qaeda, the war on terrorism, by decapitating the head of the snake known as al qaeda. it's going to have, i think, important reverberations throughout the area. this does not mean we're putting down our guard as far as al qaeda concerned. it may be a mortally wounded tiger that still has some life in it. >> that's john brennan, of course, saying we've cut off the head of the snake called al qaeda, but is al qaeda still a threat to the

anyway, thank you michael sheehan, and bob baer. >>> what does the end of osama bin laden mean from the threat of al qaeda. what's left of the snake and what's it like? that's ahead, you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. having the right real estate agent on your side is more important than ever. at remax.com, you can find the experts you need, whether you're trying to sell of hoping to buy. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. >>> well, take a l

michael sheehan is a terrorism analyst for nbc news and joins me now. give me a gut check on this.o you come down on this? what is your read? >> is no question that the u.s. government, the evidence is all pointing in that direction. it is surprising that a lot of people thought bin laden may have had a lesser role in the aspects of al qaeda. that's been the conventional wisdom. that seems to be changing rapidly now. >> one thing i'm surprised to hear about, you remember at the outset of the hunt for osama bin laden, he was a man who was getting dialysis for kidney failure, and we all had to contemplate how he would go from cave to cave carrying a dialysis machine and thought that improbable. there was nothing found according to reports thus far that indicated any sort of kidney problem. what does that say about intelligence and the reality? >> i think the kidney issue had been discarded by the intelligence community many years before. but, again, looks like his health was very, very good, even though he looked weak and a little frail in some of the videos, he seemed to be of robus

. >>> nbc terrorism analyst michael sheehan was in the army special forces himself, and dealt with bin operation like this, so technically advanced that the president was able to see a live video feed and get narration from the folks with boots on the ground, what does it take to pull off that kind of a victory? >> first of all, contessa, these are some of the most highly trained soldiers ever in the history of the united states military and they have been fighting this war for years. these u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s are at the top of the top of their game, but it is difficult. flying at night in helicopters over a long distance, that is a really dangerous part of the mission. we had disasters before in special operations over helicopters. mogadishu or desert one going after -- >> it sounds like we came close to having a disaster here when the helicopters converged on this compound. can we pull that graphic up once again of what that overhead compound looks like. there is some space there between the actual living quarters and those outer perimeter walls, anywhere from 14 to 18 feet high, we'

michael sheehan, thanks so much. wait and listen to see what the pentagon will do. >>> officials in las vegas are calling it a swarm robbery at a convenience store. all caught on tape. look what's happening here. store's owner says at least 35 people entered at the same time and just went in there and took whatever they wanted and happened to be mostly beer and so did a zps snacks. he says about $600 worth of merchandise was stolen in less than four minutes. police are using this video here to try to identify everyone involved. >>> they call at this time most exciting two minutes in sports. and today is 137th running of the kentucky derby. one of this year's favorites is dialled in. the weather channel's stephanie abrams is live for us at churchill downs. as i said last hour, she's dialed in. good to have her here. let's talk about another contender as well that was once the favorite. now scratched from this race. what's up with that? >> uncle mo had some g.i. problems and apparently he is not fully recovered. scratc

michael sheehan and evan coleman with nbc news terrorism analysts. good morning. >> let's start with five videos of bin laden released over the weekend. when you watch, what does it tell you about bin laden and why would the administration release those particular ones? >> they are trying to show, one, that bin laden is still in control and still a major player and at the same time trying to diminish him as an old man, trying to look young and in control. there are conflicting messages. >> why would they want to send those messages? >> if you look at 2006 when ayman al zawahiri came up with this video of him with a gun, trying to look machismo, the idea is to knock them down a notch, show them what they really look like, demystify this image that bin laden has created for himself. the problem is we don't have audio. it would be more impactful if we had the audio that goes with these video clips. >> meanwhile there was a drone attacking yemen targeting anwar al awlaki. do you think there is a connection between that attack and what was found in bin la

michael sheehan started in the army special forces.ng. >> good morning. >> the level of anxiety once they find out who the target is, the navy s.e.a.l. team 6 get into the choppers. what was the level of anxiety likely aboard the choppers? >> the word is when they heard osama bin laden was the target there was a huge cheer that went up. the guys were excited for the mission. they had been practicing for months going through every possible contingency. adrenaline was high. excited, but these are professionals ready for the operation. >> you talk about every possible con ten g contingency. i was glad they had the backup, two choppers coming in. how do they go through all the things that can go wrong. >> these s.e.a.l.s are the elite of the elite. some of the best commandos in the world. they practice time an again. they run different scenarios where things go wrong and they practice adjusting. they can never know for certain what will happen on the target but they know the objective was to kill bin laden, grab intelligence and get out. >

sheila sheehan since original mccomb research will maternal grandmother their children to be sure marco results will result in sochi on. the location of the results michael that really pulls up its own little review of the children each of which will make your own. million dollar bail for the outsider about chief accused of sexual assault but there is concern his downfall has already caused you're a parable for nationals adventures in the eurozone. all eyes on his really u.s. relations with prime minister netanyahu good to meet a president obama after grafted on his comments about his backing of policy in the borders. the prison term instead of a presidential walk to officers and leaders it got a ruse to get a jail sentences for inciting the love the rest of what supporters say they're being punished for standing up to the country's long time leader. plus cruising to the edge of civilization as we look at what the lure is tourists to the coldest head with this continent on earth. a top business story this hour a queue of russian companies is lining up to hold the i.p.o. in the foreign markets we'll discuss what's pushing the demand higher end of business