Osama Bin Laden is dead

May 3, 2011

There are few stand out moments in your life when you can say “I was there when…”.

Where I was when I heard Princess Diana had died was definitely one of those moments, as was my whereabouts when news broke of the 9/11 attacks.

The events of Sunday night and indeed yesterday certainly fit into that mould.

I was in Afghanistan when the world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, was finally found after a 10-year cat-and-mouse chase around the Middle East.

Surreal scenes

When I walked into the office on Monday morning I, like presumably so many other people around the world, had to do a double-take of the images and words on the television screen.

It didn’t seem real. A day later and it still seems surreal.

The internet has been ablaze with speculation over his death for years now. And now the iconic figure of terror is dead?

Had he really been killed? Or was it a sneaky PR stunt by the US following the Taliban’s announcement of its spring offensive the day prior?

Some of the commandos I spoke to yesterday seemed cynical about the whole thing.

“It’s the whole Elvis thing all over again,” remarked one.

Working in a newsroom we have been bombarded with updates on our TV screens and computer screens.

But in a morbid way all we have been waiting for is an actual image of Bin Laden dead.

Earlier yesterday Pakistan TV broadcast pictures claiming to be of his mutilated face. But then within minutes of the footage being shown, eagle-eyed web users found a photo of Bin Laden and put them alongside the broadcast image.

Guess what? His teeth and beard appeared to be exactly the same – as did his profile in the photograph.

So it appeared to be a fake.

Okay so we’ve heard that the US does have pictures of the man dead, and indeed helmet camera footage of the moment he was killed.

But I think we need to see it to know for sure that it is for real.

The US has announced that dental records and face recognition (by his wife) have proved that it is him, but I think the world needs further proof.

There has also been plenty of debate over why he was ‘buried’ at sea.

Question: Would you really want to bury him on land in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Afghanistan thus creating a shrine?

Martyrdom is something which has got to be avoided if it can be.

Aside from that we’ve been asked a great many times in the last 24 hours whether his death means I will be coming home early from BFBS reporting duties here in Afghan?

Afraid not.

There is still as much work to be done here as there was on Saturday.

I’m told if you cut off a chicken’s head its body still runs around the place flapping.

I think it’s the same principle with regard to Bin Laden and the crazed Al Qaeda insurgents.

Bin Laden was Al Qaeda’s founder. But he wasn’t actively fighting our boys and girls on the ground. If you like he was the spiritual leader of the insurgents.

They’re still out there, and they won’t stop overnight.

Nothing has changed with regard to operational intent and purpose in Afghanistan.

If anything the widely publicized pictures of the Americans celebrating the announcement of Bin Laden’s death has only fuelled hatred towards coalition forces.

You can’t help but feel a hornet’s nest has just been kicked over and there is a swarm coming.

Twitter: @tristan_nichols