Death Of A World Villain: U.S. Forces Find & Execute Osama Bin Laden...Shot In The Head...Saudi Buried At Sea...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Editor-In-Chief

AUSTIN, Texas - It came almost a decade after he boldly masterminded the airliner attack that downed the iconic World Trade Center's twin towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Late yesterday afternoon, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden died from a gunshot to the head after a U.S. Navy Seals team stormed his mountain compound in northern Pakistan and briefly engaged his security forces before felling the world's Number One terrorist.

The 54-year-old Bin Laden and his guards are said to have put up a short fight before being overwhelmed. Reports say the compound was inhabited by a small Bin Laden security force and some women and children. U.S. officials said one woman in the compound was killed when she tried to shield an Al-Qaeda security member.

No U.S. casualties were reported, although raid leaders said a malfunctioning helicopter ferrying the seals went down. Its occupants, however, were all rescued.

President Barack Obama went on television last night to relay the news to the American people. New Yorkers were seen celebrating in the streets, as did residents of Washington, D.C.

Few other details have surfaced about the operation, although it has been confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency had obtained information about Bin Laden's travels and whereabouts as early as 2004. And it seems much of that info came from a detainee, or detainees, being held at Guantanamo. Investigators there were said to have been given the nickname of a trusted courier used  by Bin Laden. The U.S. intelligence community then spent the next 6-plus years piecing the puzzle together. President Obama approved the raid on Saturday. Details of how the raid unfolded remain murky. But the Al-Qaeda courier, his brother and one of Bin Laden's sons were killed. Senior administration officials will only say that Bin Laden "resisted." And then the man behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil died from an American bullet to his head.

It was not known whether others in the million-dollar, ramshackle-like compound were taken prisoner.

The inside story is still unfolding.

Pakistan's role in the assault has not been explained, although a spokesman for that country said it had not participated. Nothing was heard from Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden's homeland.

Nothing has been said about the decision to bury the terrorist at sea. But a U.S. official said this to a British newspaper: "Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult. So the US decided to bury him at sea."

The story is fluid and details will come out little by little, as happens with most international news stories...

- 30 -