WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States aims to build upon its killing of Osama bin Laden to destroy his al-Qaida terrorist organization, the White House counterterrorism chief said Tuesday.
John Brennan declared that the administration was determined to "pummel the rest of al-Qaida" as the U.S. moves on from the daring Navy SEAL raid that eliminated bin Laden with a marksman’s lethal shot above his left eye in a surprise airborne attack on his fortified compound not far from Islamabad, the Pakistan capital.
A U.S. official said the 40-minute raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad netted potentially crucial al-Qaida records as well as the body of the global terrorist leader.
The assault team came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that might tip U.S. intelligence to al-Qaida’s operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The CIA is already going over the material.
The feared and expanding al-Qaida organization had suffered "severe body blows" during the 10-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, Brennan said in a series of morning TV interviews Tuesday.
President Barack Obama, who gave the final orders for the raid on Sunday, has vowed to begin withdrawing some American forces from Afghanistan this summer.
The Pakistan government reacted with displeasure on Tuesday, declaring that the raid was an "unauthorized unilateral action."
"The government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S.," adding such actions can sometimes constitute a "threat to international peace and security."
As details of the mission that killed bin Laden continued to filter out, U.S. officials weighed the pros and cons of releasing secret video and photos of the dead bin Laden.
"This needs to be done thoughtfully," Brennan said, with careful consideration given to what kind of reaction the images might provoke.
At issue were photos of bin Laden’s corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body.
But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.
Until Sunday, bin Laden had escaped reckoning for the jetliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth jet fought al-Qaida hijackers but were killed as the aircraft then plunged to the ground in Pennsylvania.
Obama plans to visit the site of the former World Trade Center in New York on Thursday to mark the killing of bin Laden and remember the nearly 3,000 who were killed in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
The United States, under then-President George W. Bush, invaded Afghanistan late that year hoping to eliminate the al-Qaida sanctuary provided by the militant Taliban government then controlling the country.
Bin Laden and his top lieutenants were believed to have fled to neighboring Pakistan as U.S. forces swept the Taliban from power.
In an appearance on NBC television, Brennan said again that "clearly there was some kind of support network" for bin Laden inside Pakistan. Brennan declined to blame the Pakistani government for that, calling Islamabad "a strong counterterrorism partner."
But he also said the Pakistani government is conducting its own investigation into how bin Laden dodged authorities for so long. Brennan said it is "unknown at this point" whether individuals inside the Pakistani government were helping bin Laden.
Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation against bin Laden’s Pakistan redoubt and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, won accolades from world leaders he’d kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home.
CIA Director Leon Panetta, in interviews with Time and PBS’ "Newshour," sketched the scene in the Situation Room as the tense final minutes of the raid played out.
"Once those teams went into the compound," he told PBS, "I can tell you there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on."
Then, Panetta told Time, when Adm. William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Forces Command, reported that the commandos had identified "Geronimo" — the code name for bin Laden — "all the air we were holding came out."
And when the helicopters left the compound 15 minutes later, Panetta said, the room broke into applause.
Republican and Democratic leaders alike gave Obama a standing ovation at a Monday evening White House meeting that was planned before the assault but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate. Obama plans to visit New York on Thursday.
"Last night’s news unified our country," much as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, did, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said earlier in the day.
Obama later appealed for that unity to take root as the U.S. presses the fight against a terrorist network that is still lethal — and now vowing vengeance.
The episode was an embarrassment, at best, for Pakistani authorities as bin Laden’s presence was revealed in their midst.
The stealth U.S. operation played out in a city with a strong Pakistani military presence and without notice from Washington.
As Brennan’s remarks showed, questions persisted in the administration and grew in Congress about whether some elements of Pakistan’s security apparatus might have been in collusion with al-Qaida in letting bin Laden hide in Abbottabad.
Brennan asked the question that was reverberating around the world: "How did Osama bin Laden stay at that compound for six years or so and be undetected?"
"We have many, many questions about this," he said. "And I know Pakistani officials do as well." Brennan said Pakistani officials were trying to determine "whether there were individuals within the Pakistani government or military intelligence services who were knowledgeable." He questioned in particular why bin Laden’s compound hadn’t come to the attention of local authorities.
In an essay published by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country’s security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint the al-Qaida leader.
As Americans rejoiced, they worried, too, that terrorists would be newly motivated to lash out. In their wounded rage, al-Qaida ideologues fed that concern.
"By God, we will avenge the killing of the Sheik of Islam," one prominent al-Qaida commentator vowed. "Those who wish that jihad has ended or weakened, I tell them: Let us wait a little bit."
In that vein, U.S. officials warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to encourage attacks from "homegrown violent extremists" even if al-Qaida is not prepared to respond in a coordinated fashion now.
The administration weighed whether to release photos of bin Laden’s corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body.
But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.
Bin Laden had lived at the fortified compound for six years, officials said, putting him far from the lawless and harsh Pakistani frontier where he had been assumed to be hiding out.
The only information about what occurred inside the compound has come from American officials, much of it provided under condition of anonymity.
They said SEALs dropped down ropes from helicopters, killed bin Laden aides and made their way to the main building.
Obama and his national security team monitored the strike, watching and listening nervously and in near silence from the Situation Room as it all unfolded.
