Bin Laden dead

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WASHINGTON _ Americans celebrated historic news late Sunday that Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man on the planet and the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is dead and the U.S. is in possession of his body.

Almost 10 years after the terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 Americans and left a gaping wound on the American psyche, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed a global audience to tell the world that the man who founded al Qaida had finally been killed and captured.

“Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the U.S. has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden,” a sombre Obama said in a late-night announcement in the East Room of the White House.

Outside, thousands of cheering, flag-waving, fist-pumping Americans amassed beyond the White House gates to celebrate the news, some of them taking in the joyous revelry from trees they’d climbed. For years, Americans had believed bin Laden would never be captured after a decade of eluding U.S. forces.

Obama said he told CIA head Leon Panetta to make “the killing or capture of bin Laden” the focus of U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bin Laden was killed earlier Sunday in a Pakistani firefight following a tip received by American officials eight months ago.

He’d been hiding out in a mansion in a mountainous region of Pakistan near the capital of Islamabad.

On Friday, the president gave the order to move in and kill bin Laden; two days later, U.S. forces succeeded. Their triumph followed Obama’s personal involvement in several top-secret national security meetings over the past few weeks focused squarely on capturing and killing bin Laden.

“His demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity,” Obama said in the hastily called address. “Justice has been done.”

The news will undoubtedly be considered the biggest achievement of Obama’s presidency. His administration, after all, managed to accomplish what George W. Bush’s could not in seven years.

Bush congratulated the Obama administration in a statement.

“This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001,” said Bush, who added that Obama had called him earlier in the day to tell him the news.

Bush added that the U.S. “has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done. ”

The 9-11 attacks set off a cascading sequence of events that led to Canadian troops spending almost a decade in Afghanistan and pushed the U.S. into costly and deadly wars in Afghanistan, then Iraq.

The attacks also changed the American way of life, leading to suspicion of Muslims in many parts of the country and heightened levels of security, particularly in U.S. airports. In the 10 years since the attacks, Americans have been growing increasingly disillusioned with the war effort, suggesting they want U.S. troops to come home.

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