The 15th Anniversary of the Killing of Osama bin Laden
“A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
On May 1st, 2011, just before midnight Eastern time (some reports say shortly after midnight), then-President Barack Obama announced from the White House’s East Room that, after years of evading capture, Al- Qaeda leader and 9/11 attack planner Osama bin Laden had met his demise at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as a result of a U.S. military raid.
“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’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children,” Obama stated.
“A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability,” he added. “No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
15 years ago today SEAL Team Six carried out a daring raid in Abbottabad, killing al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden almost 10 years after terrorists murdered 3000 Americans on 9/11. Obama made the announcement just after midnite & celebrations erupted nationwide.pic.twitter.com/VmlJrmgLXP
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) May 1, 2026
Unwittingly, this man tweeted about the operation:
Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).
— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011
15 years ago today, a legend burning the midnight oil for an IT project, live logged the OBL raid in Abbottabad pic.twitter.com/ztnxj9APUd
— Pehalwaaan (@Pehalwaaan) May 1, 2026
The New York Times reported at the time that there were celebrations across America after the news broke, including in Washington, D.C., and New York City:
The news touched off an extraordinary outpouring of emotion as crowds gathered outside the White House, in Times Square and at the ground zero site, waving American flags, cheering, shouting, laughing and chanting, “U.S.A., U.S.A.!” In New York City, crowds sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Throughout downtown Washington, drivers honked horns deep into the night.
[…]
The mostly young people who celebrated in the streets of New York and Washington saw it as a historic moment, one that for many of them culminated a worldwide manhunt that started when they were children.
Some climbed trees and lampposts directly in front of the White House to cheer and wave flags. Cigars and noisemakers were common. One group started singing, “Osama, Osama, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.”
Americans celebrate Osama Bin Laden's death in front of the White House, 2011 pic.twitter.com/bwzKeQbslE
— Time Trip (@TimeTriping) June 15, 2024
15 years ago today Mets and Phillies fans bonded for the first and only time over the death of Osama Bin Laden. pic.twitter.com/OrquaYrEJt
— Ben Yoel (@Ben_Yoel) May 1, 2026
15 years ago today, John Cena broke the news to many that Osama Bin Laden is dead
pic.twitter.com/wvnuKnaTuj— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 1, 2026
15 years ago today, Osama bin Laden was killed.
I strongly opposed Barack Obama, but I celebrated anyway. That night I felt proud to be an American.
Today, people infected with TDS are so deranged they’re actually rooting for our enemies just to own Trump. pic.twitter.com/f1DHh88D04
— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) May 1, 2026
As early as the late 1980s/early 1990s, bin Laden was becoming “increasingly hostile to the United States. In particular, he opposed the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and Somalia and sought to drive our nation’s personnel out of these areas by force.”
Before the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorist network had also been implicated in terrorist attacks against the United States’ interests overseas, including two in East Africa in 1998:
One of terrorist organization’s major plots came to deadly fruition on August 7, 1998, when al Qaeda operatives bombed U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.
The near simultaneous attacks killed more than 200 American, Kenyan, and Tanzanian citizens and wounded another 4,500 people.
There was also the deadly bombing of the USS Cole on October 12th, 2000:
On October 12, 2000, however, terrorist operatives set off a small boat filled with explosives next to the USS Cole during its fuel stop in Yemen. The attack killed 17 Navy sailors, injured nearly 40 other crew members, and severely damaged the ship.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six, was carried out by Ramzi Yousef, whose uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was the mastermind behind 9/11. Yousef trained at an Al-Qaeda camp. Mohammed and bin Laden became associates in 1996, and he later joined Al-Qaeda in late 1998/early 1999, after which the planning for 9/11 really took shape.
Also in 1993, the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia occurred. Osama bin Laden perceived the United States’ response to it as weak, which emboldened him to plan and carry out other attacks:
The street battles that ensued on Oct. 3 and 4, 1993, involved U.S. Army Rangers and commandos from the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, known as “Delta Force.” During a successful mission to capture lieutenants of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed, hundreds of Somali gunmen engaged the U.S. teams and killed 18 soldiers, wounded 73 others and shot down two Army Black Hawk choppers.
America’s subsequent hasty exit from that mission, which was originally to support United Nations humanitarian operations in Mogadishu, emboldened a little-known terrorist leader at the time named Osama bin Laden, who boasted that the U.S. superpower was weak for withdrawing after losing G.I.s in “minor battles” there.
Fifteen years ago today (1 May 2011), U.S. Navy SEALs raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and killed Usama Bin Laden. The raid marked the end of a more than 15-year effort by partners across the Intelligence Community to find Bin Ladin.
Learn more: https://t.co/vA7dJxHClB pic.twitter.com/Gz1v4Z0ole
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2026
According to the CIA, the notorious global terrorist leader “was buried at sea from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the north Arabian Sea” at 12:59 a.m. Eastern time, May 2nd, 2011.
Do you remember where you were when you heard the news of OBL’s death?
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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Comments
I’ll drink to that! And pet my dog. And eat some sausage for breakfast.
And not nearly enough of the other Islamist terrorists in the intervening 15 years. Until Trump and Bibi both got unleashed after Oct 7 2023. We’re still playing catch-up, though.
And, as a non-interventionist, I don’t advocate going to war and such very often. But killing terrorists is something that is absolutely in our national interest. I think we should a special assignment (like White House Fellowships and similar) for which you compete to get on the Terrorist Hunter team.
“…should create a special assignment…”
Not to be a Debbie Downer but I’m not quite sure what we’re celebrating here.
Osama bin Laden may be dead but the political system disguised as a religion that he espoused is in far better shape today than it was fifteen years ago.
Islam has all but conquered Europe without firing a shot, terroristic attacks are met with “we cannot discern a motivation” and a Muslim is the mayor of New York City.
Killing 3,000 people, bringing down skyscrapers and the Pentagon seems pretty minor league compared to today.
I’m glad he’s fish food – he deserved nothing less – but he’s smiling as he looks up from hell.
(BTW, does anyone else find “Osama bin Laden” & “Obama and Biden” to be so close as not to be coincidental? I think it may be proof we’re in a simulation. 😂)
“According to the CIA, the notorious global terrorist leader “was buried at sea…”
According to the CIA. Show us the body.
After what we’ve all learned about the wretched scum and villainy that is the iNtELLiGeNcE community during the previous 15 years, ‘according to the CIA’ is almost anathema to the truth. Show us the body.
What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory (a term coined by the CIA to discredit anyone suspicious about their activity) and reality? A few years.
Remember how we finally learned the truth about how Kennedy was wet-worked by the iNtELLiGeNcE community because he sought to dismantle it?
Forty-five years from now, at the 60th anniversary of Bin Laden’s death in 2071, I’ve little doubt we will learn that Bin Laden and Epstein were wisked away to live out quietly on some remote Indonesian Island as a thank you for their previous alliances with the iNtELLiGeNcE community.
Show us the body.
Do you also think JFK died of old age and the moon landings were faked?
.
Don’t be stupid. Re-read my comment.
“Inhofe was sure it was bin Laden. “Absolutely no question about it. A lot of people out there say: ‘I want to see the pictures,’ but I’ve already seen them. That was him. He’s gone. He’s history.”
“You can trust me!”
His corpse is in the Area 51½ warehouse, between Emmanuel Goldstein’s and the Ark of the Covenant.
Øbama bin Biden could not be reached for comment.
He died too quickly. Should have burned down his hut with him inside until it was nothing but ash.
They should also have killed every paki that either knew where he was or enabled him to hide. They should also have destroyed every building associated with paki intelligence since it was those people who protected him.
Stop selling weapons to pakis. They are not only a client of China but they aren’t our friends. When will they government types in this country learn that muslim countries will never be friends. They might be temporarily allied with us but at the end of the day they want to conquer and transform us. All of them want to,
From what I understand, there were multiple planned raids before this one, all of which were called off by POTUS at the last minute before the soldiers boarded their helicopters. There’s an unconfirmed rumor that Hillary and Susan Rice waited until POTUS was golfing to give the green light to this raid, and notified him at the golf course *after* the helicopters had crossed the Pakistan border so there would not be any more last-minute Lucy-and-the-football moments. That would explain the sour expression on POTUS face during the photos of the White House situation room with him still in his golf cleats. But that’s unconfirmed.
How long before democrats lobby to have the anniversary of his death as a national day of mourning?
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