With talk of the death of Bin Laden in the air news reports around the world are flooding with information, speculation, and rumors of all that is taking place. From fake photos, to lake of photos people what to know what has happened to "Public Enemy Number One" some even doubt if this is real or fake due to the prompt burial of Bin Laden and his quick death. Most importantly millions worldwide are starting to feel more safe as lives return to normal.
Special CNN Bin Laden Report:
[Updated 2:38 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser said Monday that the elimination of Osama bin Laden is "a strategic blow" to al Qaeda.
"It is a necessary but not necessarily sufficient blow to lead to its demise," said John Brennan, Obama's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism.
[Updated 2:33 p.m. ET] President Obama and his top intelligence and military officials were able to monitor in a "real-time basis" the progress of the operation on Osama bin Laden's compound, the president's top counterterrorism adviser said.
"It was probably one of the most anxiety filled periods of time I think in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday. The minutes passed like days and the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel," he said. "That is what was on his mind throughout and we wanted to make sure that we would get through this and accomplish the mission. But it was clearly very tense. A lot of people holding their breath."
Brennan said "there was a tremendous sigh of relief" when they believed bin Laden was in fact at the compound.
[Updated 2:30 p.m. ET] A woman shielded Osama bin Laden from gunfire during the assault by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser said Monday.
"There was a female who was in fact in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield bin Laden from the incoming fire," said John Brennan, Obama's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism.
Brennan said it was his understanding that bin Laden picked up a weapon and was killed in the firefight with the U.S. forces carrying out the assault.
"He was engaged in a firefight," Brennan said of bin Laden. "Whether or not he got off any rounds, I don't know."
[Updated 2:21 p.m. ET] The decision by President Barack Obama to launch the assault that killed Osama bin Laden was one of the "gutsiest" calls by any president in recent memory, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser said Monday.
John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said that despite intelligence indicating that bin Laden was in the compound in Pakistan, there was no certainty the al Qaeda leader was actually there.
Obama "made what I believe was one of the ... gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory," Brennan said.
[Updated 2:08 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser said Monday that it was "inconceivable" that Osama bin Laden did not have some kind of support system in Pakistan that allowed him to live in hiding there.
John Brennan, the president's assistant on homeland security and counterterrorism, refused to speculate on what kind of support bin Laden might have received, or whether the Pakistani government or official Pakistani institutions had any role.
[Updated 1:39 p.m. ET] Officials compared DNA of the person killed at the Abbottobad compound with bin Laden "family DNA" to determine that the 9/11 mastermind had in fact been killed, a senior administration official said.
Four others in the compound also were killed. One of them was bin Laden's adult son, and another was a woman being used as a shield by a male combatant, officials said.
[Updated 12:39 p.m. ET] The compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces is located a bit more than 1,000 yards from a Pakistan Military Academy,
raising some questions about how much information the Pakistan military may have had about his whereabouts.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman
, said during a press conference that the Pakistani army has "a lot of explaining to do."
[Updated 12:27 p.m. ET] Senior defense officials said that for a majority of the 40 minute operation at the Abbottobad compound, special forces were involved in a firefight - clearing their way through two other floors before they reached Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden was not killed until the last five to ten minutes of the firefight, officials said.
Bin Laden and his family lived on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the 3-story building, and those floors were cleared last, the official said. The official says one of bin Laden’s own wives identified his body to U.S. forces, after the team made visual identification themselves.
U.S. forces also recovered what a senior Intelligence official is calling “quite a bit of material.”
“There’s a robust collection of materials we need to sift through, and we hope to find valuable intelligence that will lead us to other players in al Qaeda," a senior intelligence official said.
The official added a Task Force has been set up “because of the sheer volume of material collected. That material is currently being exploited and analyzed.”
[Updated 12:25 p.m. ET] A soldier in a special forces unit based in Georgia told CNN on Monday that while the
news of Osama bin Laden’s death is cause for celebration,
elite military units have sprang into high alert.
“A lot of guys got their security clearances elevated due to what happened last night,” said Lamont, who didn’t give his last name because of what he said were security reasons. “I lot of people got called back” overseas, he said, adding that his unit already was scheduled for deployment as early as two weeks ago.
[Updated 12:22 p.m. ET] Osama bin Laden's body was buried at sea according to Islamic law because no country was willing or able to take his body for burial on land, senior Defense officials said.
"When there is no land alternative, Islamic law dictates that the body be buried within 24 hours, and that was the basis," one official said. "
A second senior Defense official said there was no country willing or able to accept the body for burial, and U.S. forces "took pains to observe Muslim law."
"Today's religious rites were conducted on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian sea. The ceremony started at 1:10am and finished at 2:10am ET," the second official said. "Procedures for Islamic body were followed. The body was washed and placed in a white sheet. A military official read prepared remarks, which were then translated into Arabic by a native speaker. The body of Osama bin Laden was placed on a flat board, which was then tipped up, and allowed to slide into the sea."
[Updated 12:16 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama said Monday that he thinks "we can all agree this is a good day for America."
"Our country kept its commitment to see that justice is done," he said. The world, he said, is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.
The successful operation to kill bin Laden reminds Americans that there is "nothing we can't do" when we work together, he said. That spirit, he said, is seen in the patriotic crowds that have gathered across the country.
"We're reminded that we're fortunate to have Americans who have dedicated their lives to protecting ours," he said. "As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder."
