Five years ago, the United States military killed the most wanted man on the planet. Al-Qaeda’s lanky leader and mass murderer, Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the bloodiest foreign attack ever on American soil.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for these past few years, or have been boycotting both Hollywood and the mass media, you know that the Central Intelligence Agency and its operatives played a key role in providing the intelligence that led SEAL Team Six to bin Laden’s ugly cement compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in the early morning of May 2, 2011.
To commemorate the historic operation, the agency did a retro-live-tweet thing over the weekend where they posted — through their Twitter feed — a timeline of what went down and how, halfway around the globe, covertly, half a decade ago.
Here’s every one of them, in order:
To mark the 5th anniversary of the Usama Bin Ladin operation in Abbottabad we will tweet the raid as if it were happening today.#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
1:25 pm EDT-@POTUS, DCIA Panetta, & JSOC commander Admiral McRaven approve execution of op in Abbottabad.#UBLRaid pic.twitter.com/YhvuJVrMVc
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
1:51 pm EDT – Helicopters depart from Afghanistan for compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:30 pm EDT – 2 helicopters descend on compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 1 crashes, but assault continues without delay or injury#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:30 pm EDT – @POTUS watches situation on ground in Abbottabad live in Situation Room#UBLRaid pic.twitter.com/59KPF7eUTr
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:39 pm EDT – Usama Bin Ladin found on third floor and killed#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:39 pm – 4:10 pm EDT – Team retrieves large quantity of materials from compound for intel analysis#UBLRaidhttps://t.co/yl1FjRA0qk
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:53 pm EDT – @POTUS receives tentative confirmation of positive identification of Usama Bin Ladin#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
4:05 pm EDT – First helicopter leaves the area to go back to Afghanistan#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
4:08 pm EDT – Assault Team destroys crashed helicopter#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
4:10 pm EDT — Backup helicopter picks up remaining team members & materials & leaves Abbottabad#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
5:53 pm EDT – Helicopters return to Afghanistan where Admiral McRaven greets team#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
7:01 pm EDT – @POTUS receives confirmation of high probability of positive identification of Usama Bin Ladin#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
Daring #UBLRaid was an IC team effort & in close collaboration with our military partners.https://t.co/rklCIRLlgF pic.twitter.com/xZObdGeqPR
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
Not everyone was pleased with the agency’s decision to relive the events that lead to someone’s death. Including a former culturally significant satirical news show, which collectively? tweeted the following:
If you live tweet the Bay of Pigs invasion, call us. Otherwise, stop it. #UBLRaid https://t.co/RJ7gwLbh1P
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 2, 2016
But since no one watches the show anymore (Jon Stewart is no longer the anchor) does anyone really care what they think? And why would they rather read a retro-live-tweet regarding the Bay of Pigs invasion? That’s not patriotic!
On a serious note, the agency — through its spokesman Ryan Trapani — did comment that this isn’t the only such event they’ve given the social media treatment on. According to them, they’ve also marked the Glomar operation, Argo, U-2 shootdown and the evacuation of Saigon.
NPR, ever observant and smart, pointed out that a popular quote was ruling the day on Facebook, and it all had to do with the CIA’s mini campaign:
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” – Mark Twain
Mr. Clemens sure could spin up an immortal hot take, couldn’t he?
This is America, of course, so all are obviously entitled to their own opinions, but let’s not ever forget the men and women who put their lives on the line to ensure that a man who had already killed thousands of Americans, wouldn’t be able to do it again.
CIA Director John Brennan called the raid a “masterpiece of planning and execution.”
If you need more context, watch this:
And here’s how some baseball fans reacted when the news spread at a Philadelphia Phillies-New York Mets game — get ready for the goosebumps: