reasons mr. obama clearly understood. it was nearly ten years ago that a bright september day was darkened by the worst attack on the american people in our history. the images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory. hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless september sky, the twin towers collapsing to the ground. black smoke billowing up from the pentagon, the wreckage of flight 93 in shanksville, pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction. and yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. the empty seat at the dinner table, children forced to grow up without their mother or their father, parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. on september 11th, 2001, in our time of grief, the american people came together. we offered our neighbors a hand and we offer the wounded our blood. we reaffirmed our ties to each other and our love of community and country. on that day, no matter where we came from, what god we prayed to or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one american family. >> there are conflicting reports regarding pakistan's involvement that helped u.s. forces to locate bin laden. for more on that we turn to nick paton wash in kabul. what's the deal? were the pakistanis involved or not? >> reporter: they say they were. very early on they came forward and said, yes, our intelligence operatives were on the ground during this and we have prior knowledge to it. that conflicts with what we hear from american officials in washington. so clearly two different viewpoints here. obviously the pakistanis would want to show they're out in front of it, preempt criticism, why on earth was bin laden able to hide here for a number of month, the question reverberating i'm sure for the next couple of days, in terms of the actual operation itself we are hearing of helicopters which dropped special forces into the compound high walls, heavily fortified perhaps worth up to a million dollars where bin laden had been hiding out. key to this, though, it appears the communications in and out of this compound there were no mobile phones, no internet apparently and i've heard also couriers coming to and from were under on ver sabservatiobservat. perhaps explain it is a relatively discreet covert compound and in a very big city. lots of people around so the potential for him to disguise himself significantly greater. >> a short time ago we saw on afghan television that the president of afghanistan, hamid karzai was talking holding a news conference. do we know any details of what he said? >> reporter: i can only paraphrase him but he was basically saying i hope the world will now believe that afghanistan is not the place where terrorists are and that they should not shall hunted down in the homes of women and children here. effectively alluding to the nato campaign, its toll on citizens and seize on this as a pr period saying we've all along said that al qaeda and the insurgents you're hunting are across the border in pakistan and trying to -- a degree of not national pride but reminding afghans they have not been the ones hiding bin laden. >> there's also some talk now that analysts suggesting that the u.s. could start drawing down troops sooner rather than later. the original plan, 2014. any talk of that and what the reaction or implications of that might be? >> reporter: i think that the death of bin laden provides and icy political narrative and can say, the guy is dead and we can start to move away from here. there's a much more complicated situation on the ground. only recent people have talked about the presence of al qaeda re-emerging in some of the havens where u.s. forces have withdrawn from on the pakistani border so concerns about that but also about trying to ensure that america leaves behind a functioning state. the reason why they came here in the first place was the taliban had used the dilapidated kind of collapsed nature of afghanistan as a place in which they could allow al qaeda a safe haven so i think there will be two argue many, one from a democratic side suggesting, yes, it is time to leave and perhaps another one saying that the fact this man is dead does not change the situation on the ground and perhaps we might even see what remains of al qaeda trying to retaliate and trying to raise this operation here in the coming months. >> nick, thank you. nick paton wash live in kabul. rosemary? >> new yorkers have awaited this day for nearly ten year, the site of the fallen world trade center towers general evokes a somber mood but celebrations have broken out at ground zero and cnn's jason carroll is there and talking to many people on the ground there and it is an extraordinary day for those people who really saw for them 9/11, it was a horrendous day for them at the ground there but also for the rest of the world as it washed on. what are people saying to you? >> reporter: well, first of all, i have to say when you come down here, rosemary, i mean you really get this sense of the celebration. you see the people with their flags, you hear the people sings, you hear the people chanting, but it's also a moment of perplexion. want to introduce diane masaroli. her husband was killed on 9/11. this must be an incredibly conflicting day in terms of what you're feeling and being down here. >> definitely. it's definitely bittersweet. when i first heard, my son had woken me up and said, mommy, i think you want to put the tv on and you'll want to see what's on. i started crying right away but i feel a sense of relief also. >> reporter: is it really a sense of relief because i think of -- a lot of people who lost loved ones on that day might have conflicting feelings on a day like today when you see the folks celebrating here for obvious reasons but is that the emotion you're feeling most? >> i feel a bunch of different -- of course, i'm sad. i'm missing him all the time but i feel that justice is done and that's a great feeling for me. and i do feel some overall calm. that i haven't felt in almost ten years. >> reporter: your husband worked for canning fitzgerald on the 101st floor when it happened. ten years, did you ever think this day would come? >> never, never thought it would happen and never thought it would give me a feeling of closure. i didn't believe that there could be closure because my husband's remains were never found, so i didn't think that would ever give me closure but in a way it does. i feel better. i feel like i could put a new foot forward and maybe start a new chapter in my life. >> reporter: well, i think a lot of people are probably watching and standing right behind you so i thank you tore coming down and taking the time to speak with us. i want to take an opportunity, diane knows mario crassiolo, you guys are friends. you're an army vet. teal me what the day means to you, you see all the folks celebrating. >> it has a lot of personal meaning to me. i served here on ground zero in the aftermath of 9/11, later served in iraq and for me this is also kind of a bit of a closure. i remember president bush vowing, i watched it right down the block on tv when he vowed that we'd bring our enemies -- we'd bring our enemies to justice, justice to our enemies and that's the first thing i thought of. >> reporter: mario and diane, i want to thank both of you for taking the time to come down here, share your feelings and not just with us but so many people out there watching and taking place in and taking part in what is history down here at ground zero as so many people come down here, rosemary, and john, to celebrate, to reflect as these two are doing and for some it's not just a time for celebration but they can finally bring closure to a very painful chapter in their lives. back to you. >> that's right. jason carroll there at ground zero, the word we're hearing all of the time here is closure. thanks so much. john? >> rosemary, want to get more now on what will happen with osama bin laden's body. the u.s. officials have said it will be handled in the islamic tradition. cnn's jeanne meserve has more on that right now. you have more details about what they plan to do with his body. >> reporter: well, john, according to a u.s. official, spoken to by our national -- national security producer pam benson, this u.s. official says that the body has already been buried at sea and that the body has been handled in the traditional islamic tradition. the official would not elaborate beyond that. so the headline here, the body has already been disposed of. it's been disposed of at sea. no details on how and why that was done. one could speculate that one reason might have been that anybody who wanted to be able to find that body would not be able to do so with a burial at sea. john, back to. >> you won't this lead to some problems of conspiracy theorists, of people wanting to see the body now, you know, the first thing that occurs to me, people are going to say it's all part of the u.s. conspiracy that he is really still alive. >> reporter: i would have to imagine, john, they have recorded this is some fashion that there is some sort of documentary record of the body. will that satisfy people who harbor those kinds of theories? it may not. it actually may not. but this is the course the u.s. government apparently has taken. >> well, when uday was killed and saddam, the bodies were displayed. >> apparently so -- i wish we had more detail but that's the bare facts they're giving us at this time. >> jeanne meserve, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> it most certainly is and g joining me is someone we remember. dr. abdullah, abdullah who years later was also a candidate for president of afghanistan. we are not disclosing dr. abdullah's current location at this time for obvious reasons. but doctor, i wonder if i could get you to respond to that news that we just heard from jeanne meserve, quite shocking, the world just absorbing this information that osama bin laden has been killed that he is dead but now we're hearing his body has already been buried at sea. what's your response to >> my response would be of him being killed, ha happened to the body? it was mentioned earlier to some conspiracy to these -- conspiracy theories around all along. that we are aware of. that the impact of what has happened, you know, the far-reaching -- but as we mentioned, with regards to the region and with regards the world against terrorism throughout the world. >> but do you think this could raise problems as far as the u.s. sort of telling the world that, indeed, osama bin laden is dead but a lot of people saying we want proof of that. we want to be sure that that is most certainly the case. >> we lost our connection and will try to get him back. >> joe johns is there and joins us live. joe, it's getting quite late. but the crowd is not going anywhere. >> reporter: well, diminishing just a bit but not in spirit. i can tell you that, john and who knows what it'll be like through the evening. it's strange how spontaneous crowds rise and fall through the night. i wouldn't want to predict. however, i wanted to just give you some sense of what we're looking at here right now. what we've seen is a lot of military personnel. a lot of college kids, a number of veterans, you know, in our last live shot we spoke to a woman who was a veteran of afghanistan. as well as someone who had been at the pentagon on 9/11. many of these people who came here came with american flags, red, white and blue. you can see a lot of that. a lot of excitement a lot of college students, as well. so maybe this wasn't such a good idea. anyway, you have a general idea. people are very happy, and i think probably i'll throw it back to you. >> joe johns, the rock star there outside the white house. they still have the camera. they came running. don't know if joe can still hear us. probably can't. we're going for battery power and can still look at this site. okay, it's quarter past 3:00 in the morning and still have energy which is amazing to see. is joe still there? joe? no, we've lost joe. one interesting thing about a lot of people are now saying, you can see by the crowds outside the white house, a lot of people are now saying president obama has sealed his re-election in 2012 with this announcement. >> this is it. this is the most important announcement he has made in his first term and if he has a second term still the pose important announcement. >> foreign policy since 9/11, george w. bush couldn't make this announcement. barack obama did. candidate obama said repeatedly if i am president we will kill bin laden. >> he has done that. more about the successful operation in pakistan. i'm joined by retired u.s. brigadier general mark kimmitt. thank you, sir, for talking with us again. staying up at this very late hour. do want to just talk to you very quickly about this news that we got from jeanne meserve a very short time ago that, of course, as the world celebrate, most of the world celebrates the death of osama bin laden, we now hear that his body has barahona been bu body has br been buried at sea. >> is he still alive? quite frankly, bin laden was famous for putting out videos, bin laden still alive. i'm sure we'll see a video of him very soon. >> let's go back to the operation. i think a lot of people are quite amazed. it's benghazi nearly ten years and people have been looking, the u.s. and others have been looking for osama bin laden. suddenly, of course, we hear that on friday, the u.s. president gave the word to go ahead to seek out and kill osama bin laden. walk us through what likely happened. >> well, first of all, i don't think this just happened on friday. more than likely, this had been an intelligence operation that had been developed for months and months and months. the information became intelligence. the intelligence became targetable intelligence. and then further refined became actionable intelligence. and once the intelligence got to the point where the commanders who were going to be putting soldiers at risk said, i think we've got enough to work on, then they in consultation with their chain of command got permission from the president and executed the mission. >> why do you think that osama bin laden was able to hide near the pakistan capital for what appeared to be a fairly long time? >> well, that's going to be the major question that's asked in the days and weeks to come. was the pakistani government complicit or some local officials complicit? were external organizations outside of pakistan complicit? i think we're just going to have to wait and see the answer to that, but it would seem very, very hard to believe that somebody could be in that area for an extended period of time without some local official being aware of it. so -- but, again, i'm only speculating and time will tell. >> i don't -- not sure whether you were able to hear what the afghanistan president hamid karzai had to say, but, of course, he's celebrating in his own way because, of course, the capture and the consequence killing occurred on pakistani soil. >> well, it certainly would have been an embarrassment for the afghani president if, in fact, it turns out all this time period he had been inside of afghanistan. in some cases it would be an embarrassment for our own intelligence services because we are so heavily -- our presence is so heavy inside of afghanistan. the fact is he was in pakistan and if the afghani president wants to now make an issue between himself and pakistan over this that's probably not a wise choice or a wise move to make. >> now, for a lot of people certainly in the united states, they're experiencing a sense of closure at this time. but this isn't the end, is it? how much should the american public and others across the globe be on alert here. >> in the near term i think there's every reason to be on higher state of alert than we've been in some time. clearly the al qaeda organization which has now lost their spiritual and ideological leader has got to demonstrate to the world that it's still a viable organization. the only way they can do that is by prosecuting some operations to demonstrate that they are still alive and still dangerous. and so there's every reason in the world to increase the threat warnings at this point. >> yeah, and that, of course, is the concern. but they would have been preparing for this day presumably. what sort of impact do you think this has had on the al qaeda leadership, because presumably they're prepared for this. >> well, they are and but for years, bin laden has not had an operational role from all reports that i've read. he's been more of an ideological figure, a leadership figure, an iconic figure, so to speak but not one who is planning day-to-day operations. every year or so he may put out some commanders intent to keep the organization moving in a certain direction but by and large, the hard work is being done by the affiliates in the specific countries in yemen, in the -- as we saw with zarqawi inside of iraq. so it will have an iconic importance, his loss but in terms of the day-to-day operations of al qaeda i wouldn't expect to see a significant change in the near term. >> u.s. retired brigadier general mark kimmitt. thanks for staying up. 3:21 in the morning in the united states and you were good to stay with us. appreciate it. >> glad to do so. rosemary, the buzz about bin laden's death spread quickly online and anna curran joins us with more. wasn't just the buzz that spread but btwitter which broke the news. >> that's right. we're seeing widespread reaction from leaders to ordinary people. this is the facebook page of former u.s. president george w. bush. he issued a statement after hearing of bin laden's death from president obama. he says "this momentous achievement marks a victory for america, for people who seek peace around the world and for all those who lost loved ones on september 11, 2001. the fight against terror goes on. but tonight america has sent an unmistakable message, no matter how long it takes, justice will be done." well, news that osama bin laden had been killed began to leak out on twitter. most point to this tweet as the first real report of his death. keith urbahn, the chief of staff for former u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld says "so i'm told by a reputable person, they have killed osama bin laden." that spread quickly. less than an hour after his tweet almost 18% of all tweets had the word "osama" in them. by the time president obama's speech finished there were over 4,000 tweets a second talking about the story. a significant jump in traffic but short of the record 7,000 tweets a second set during new year's eve. but keith urbahn might not have been the first person to break the story. it looks like this i.t. consultant in abbottadad might have been live tweeting the raid on bin laden's compound as it was happening. he talks about a helicopter hovering over the city at 1:00 a.m., something he says is very rare. and later, he mentions a loud blast which he then says might have been a helicopter going down. we've reached out to him but have yet to hear back. we have no real way of verifying whether he really hear the american helicopters or not but it's worth noting he was in the city when it happened and was posting his tweets hours before we heard that obama was set to make the statement. let's step back for a moment and look at some of the key events in bin laden's past. well, he founded al qaeda in 1988 but the group did not become a terror network until 1991. well, the next year, that being 1992, bin laden allegedly sent some of his followers to so p palelpa paglpa palia to fight u.s. troops and there was a bomb this new york and he was named as a co-conspirator but not indicted. in 1996 he theirs a holy war against u.s. forces, two years later charged with 224 counts of murder at the u.s. embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania. well, in 1999, he appears on the fbi's ten most wanted fugitives list for the very first time. in 2000, bin laden is linked to the attack on the "uss cole" that killed 17 american soldiers. and as we all know, on september 11, 2001, four u.s. commercial planes are hijacked. more than 3,000 people are killed. rosemary, back to you. >> all right, thanks so much for that, anna, appreciate it. if you are just joining us, u.s. forces say they have killed osama bin laden in a surprise attack on the al qaeda leader's residence in pakistan. and it is prompting quite a reaction from around the world. ahm ahmed rashid joins us from madrid. your first reaction when you heard this and i do want to get an idea on how you will report this. >> well, obviously it's a great coup. it's closure for a lot of people, especially the victims of 9/11 which by the way included a lot of pakistanis and afghans trapped in the twin towers in new york. it'll be closure for them. and it's a great day but at the same time i think it must be said that, you know, cnn financial newsdesk has morphed into many different kinds of organizations over the last ten years and we're not going to see the end of cnn financial newsdesk just with the death of bin laden. in fact, there's a big danger that they're going to be revenge attacks possibly in europe and the united states but certainly in pakistan and afghanistan by al qaeda allies and al qaeda has many allies in pakistan and afghanistan and they're not going to rest easy with bin laden's death. >> of course, the big question, why was osama bin laden able to hide out in pakistan for what appeared to be a long time and not very far from the capital. >> well, of course, this is really extremely stunning and it does remind us also of the way that khalid shaikh mohammed, the number three al qaeda caught in 2004 by the authorities, he was hiding out in rawalpindi next to the headquarters and now we have abbottadad is a city of about 300,000 people but it's a military city and has the only and largest academy for army cadets. it's got a military hospital and down the road is another town called halil where there is three divisions of the army base and this is a town -- they were built by the british and the empire and were built to be tightly controlled by the military. and a civilian population that was very small and basically serviced the military and here we have in the middle of this town this huge villa coming up and very strange goings on and it seems according to the american press that u.s. intelligence seems to be following this villa, the track of this villa for the last three or four year. >> explain some of the sensibilities you need to consider when reporting a story like this to an audience in pakistan? >> i mean pakistan has been in a state of denial basically about bin laden and it has constantly been telling its public that the americans have it all wrong and al qaeda is based in afghanistan. that there is no al qaeda in pakistan. just three days ago, in fact, the army chief general kaini was in abbottadad addressing the cadet college and saying that, you know, the back of militancy in pakistan had been broken and so in a sense, you know, i mean pakistanis have been receiving a narrative for the last few years which has not exactly, you know, gone along with the realities on the ground because pakistan is faced with a very vicious taliban movement which is backed by al qaeda. the afghan taliban have been in pakistan and reside there, recruit from there which is again something that is defied by the pakistani authorities, so i think this death is going to lead to now -- there has been a series of tensions between the u.s. and pakistan but depending on what exactly happened and we really don't know what happened, but depending on what happened, this death is going to lead to enormous questions, i think, between the u.s. and pakistan. >> indeed, and as you point out, we don't know the role of pakistan at this point but it certainly i'm sure in the coming hours perhaps days we will find out more. i want to ask one more question before you go. we have just learned a very short time ago in fact that osama bin laden's body has br lohan buried at sea. i will be interested to get your reaction to that and what sort of ramifications there could be as a result of that. >> obviously that has been done as his grave is not known to anyone and that it does not become a kind of martyr's place because a lot of dead al qaeda leaders and even fighters, their graves have been turned into shrines in afghanistan and in pakistan. so obviously that avoids that. but this will be obviously also disliked enormously by, you know, by muslims, because bodies that, you know, that peop who do die on land have every right, you know, according to religion and custom to be buried in the land and the fact that, you know, his body was taken out to sea and dumped it the sea somewhere is something that probably is not going to go down very well with a lot of people. >> interesting, all right, ahmed rashid from pakistan, a journalist, thanks for talking with us and sharing your perspective. >> news that osama bin laden's body has been burieied at sea ce to us from one official. from one spokesperson who basically just told us his body has already been buried at sea. the mastermind was killed in a u.s. operation in sunday. not in the lawless mountains of afghanistan or pakistan but in a mansion located 100 kilometers north of pakistan's capital city. the news was greeted by ex-hub rant crowds the ground zero where his most infamous attack was carried out a decade ago. analysts speculated where he was hiding often invoking the remote areas between pakistan and afghanistan. now we know he was in a large compound in a densely populated city close to zubaydah and cisln king looks at why the operation by u.s. forces was, in fact, a daring one. >> reporter: how many times they have they told us he's here an afghanis tell us no, he's not there. >> we'll measure it out for you. where was he? about 120 miles east of the afghanistan border, waziristan where it was said so often he's probably hiding here. no, 30 miles north of islamabad. a closer look at this town, abbottadad. we'll take a closer look and you see of a million people. a lot of educational institutions and bring you in on a location. this is where we are told. somewhere right in this area here people are saying where this played out. a large complex here and a lot of building here, walled off buildings here and complexes and big complex here and then chris was saying they were worried about civilian casualty, this is one of the places we are told to look tonight. we don't have an exact location but this is the area. i want to shrink this down a little bit and just show you again bring up the terrain of this town. it's in a mountain valley. you see around here and around the outskirts, you come in a valley, city of about a million people, again, jut look at this highly dense population up in here. but as we look at this year, not in the mountains. not in afghanistan. not in a cave, but in a very highly developed, highly developed, highly populated area we're told is where this special operation played out. it would be fascinating to get more of the details. on just how they dit, you can see right in here, if the s.e.a.l.s went into an area like this, what a high-risk situation to capture and kill ultimately osama bin laden. >> and if they go in by helicopter and come down on ropes from the helicopter, you can only imagine how vulnerable those navy s.e.a.l.s might have been. john, go back and show us the big picture. our viewers need to get a sense from how far the afghan border and military personnel, 100,000 troops, if those helicopters did in fact come from a u.s. base in afghanistan, they would have had a nice journey. give us the big picture once again. >> absolutely. u.s. military installations on this side of the border for the past ten years as we have asked the question of presidents, of cia directors and anybody in the united states government and of people in the afghan and pakistan, where is osama bin laden. the answer has usually been somewhere in the ballpark here. you mentioned 100,000 plus troops and the president and we are told by sources launching this operation not telling the government of pakistan, only telling them after the operation took place. u.s. bases coming across the border. and, again, let's measure out exactly what we're talking about. as you watch and zoom in here, you come off and hit the measure and you see what we're talking about. 120 miles in, 30 miles north of the capital of pakistan. right in here this takes out. again, for years we have focused over here, the tribal areas and cave areas and ungovernable areas of pakistan. it turns out that he was living in a large city, not a suburb. a city of about 100,000 -- of about 1 million people. when you come in and see how densely populated it is, a very different kind of operation that for years people have talked about finding bin laden in a cave, finding bin laden in a remote area. finding bin laden protected by tribes up in the hills. no. in fact, it turns up that he was hiding in a very densely populated area and, again, we're told to look at a complex something like this, something like this ballpark right here. one of the focuses of the operation. you can see the large walls and spaces and all around it you can see. all around it densely populated areas which shows you the risks that any of the elite forces, not only risks to the firefight but of civilian casualties and, again, a very bold decision by the president of the united states to launch this operation and tell the pakistani government after the fact the u.s. special forces were right here on the ground. >> u.s. officials say the government was not notified ahead of time, only a handful of people knew all the details about this operationment for more on this we're joined by ilyse levin. what does this is a about relations between washington and islamabad at this particular point in time. >> well, john, in the last couple of months, u.s. relations with pakistan have been at an all-time low. the raymond david case of the cia agent arrested for killing a couple of young youth he said were trying to kill him. relations over those drone strikes bad and all this going on as the u.s. was planning this attack as president obama said against bin laden. trust between the two have never been good and that's why u.s. officials say they were not notifying the pakistanis about this attack but we're hearing from the pakistanis that they were involved and said, hey, not so fast. senior intelligence officials in pakistan and other senior officials telling myself and pick paton wash, they were involved and helping with cordoning off the area. u.s. is really disputing that account so what really led a very delicate dance. the u.s. is saying president obama spoke to president zardari and pakistan is supporting them all the way and both trying to feel their way about how they're dealing with it because this is certainly going to as we've been reporting open up a lot of tensions between the u.s. and pakistan. >> yeah, the fact that president obama gave zardari a shout-out during his presidential address a few hours ago, well, that sort of smoothed things over or was there a lot more work to be done than that. >> reporter: both are trying to keep a calm, public face that the partnership is still on track as they've been trying to do in the last couple of weeks as drone strikes have continued, officials are kind of leaking to us and leaking to others on both sides they're unanticipate with the other but publicly saying the partnership or relationship is still strong. i think we'll see that in the next couple of day, but as we've said on one hand, the u.s. is saying, secretary clinton about a year ago said to the pakistanis when she was giving an address, i find it really hard to believe that if the pakistani government doesn't know where osama bin laden is, you know, the u.s. has known about where he was for a long time sending the message we know you know where he is and if he was living in the compound really in the middle of a small city close to a military installation, the u.s. is wondering how come the pakistanis haven't moved against him. at the same time the pakistanis are saying if you knew where he was, why didn't you tell us and let us go against him, john. >> finally, elise. a great deal of concern over what happens next. the state department issuing a travel warnings. what are the fears here? what could happen. >> reporter: right now the state department issued a worldwide caution for all american, saying there could be a lot of anti-american sentiment. in all areas and saying in these areas where there could be anti-american sentiment in afghanistan, in pakistan, don't leave your house as much as possible. stay inside. stay in your homes. stay in your hotel. avoid crowds and u.s. bases and consulates around the world on high alert and this really raises a lot of questions about what's going to happen now to the so-called war on terror. is this a major victory in terms of u.s. curtailing terrorist attacks against the united states or as we've been saying are some of these splinter groups that really haven't gained all that much support financially or operationally from al qaeda, al qaeda and the arab peninsula that's launched attacks and al qaeda in the mahrab and how does this affect the u.s. campaign in afghanistan? all questions there will be a lot of discussion. >> elise, our state department producer. a long day. we appreciate it. >> all right, john, let's bring up some live pictures. it was about five hours ago that the world started absorbing this news. we didn't, of course, get it officially from the president for a little while after that but certainly about five hours ago and people then once they understood that osama bin laden was now dead they started moving toward the white house in washington, d.c. and there's the people there. it is 3:40 in the morning at this time. and these people have gathered there, celebrating for a lot of people they are getting a sense of closure here with the news, the death of osama bin laden, the head of al qaeda. one of the motion wanted men in the world. so we're just keeping an eye on that. those live picture, want to get reaction from across the middle east region. there you go. celebrate -- celebrations continue. we want to go to rima maktabi standing by for us in abu dhabi. great celebration as cross the united states, not necessarily across some parts of the middle east but when we spoke last hour there thnts been a lot of reaction from middle eastern leaders. what are you hearing now? any more? >> still most arab governments are silent but we've been reaching out to people and some officials, one yemeni official who cannot name himself or give on the record statements said it's historic news, many people, millions of people will sleep peacefully tonight. this is in the arab world. across the middle east, the turkish president said terrorists and leaders of terrorists are captured alive or dead sooner or later and this is the lesson, this is a statement he gave recently. other arab governments have not given statements yet. we are waiting for saudi arabia, the most important country in this whole battle against terrorism, bin laden is saudi. he was denied the saudi citizenship in 1991 and saudi arabia has been a victim of his terrorist attacks, however, many al qaeda members and people who like bin laden and view him as a symbolic leader live in saudi arabia and across the arab world. rosemary? >> great caution presumably from these leaders not too quick to get out and respond because they do have to be careful what they say. i'd be interested to get an idea how this is playing out in arab media. >> it has been the headline news since early morning. it is important to view how arab media is covering the story for one reason, it was the al jazeera arabic that first aired the first sound bites or videos of osama bin laden. and this channel has been criticized historically for airing these videos whereas other people said, had it not been for al jazeera we wouldn't foe who bin laden is and wouldn't know what's happening. al arabiya has been airing this news since early morning on the other hand, careful about how they cover it. first of all, they cannot rejoice about it because of some religious and islamic rituals but on the other hand it is important news to the channel that hosted one of the most controversial shows against al qaeda and terrorism. these arab networks are important because they impact the arab population in a very high and important manner. people in the arab world watch al arabiya and al jazeera and react to this news. now, the current news that bin laden was buried at sea and according to sharia law, this is important for the arab world. here we haven't seen it yet on arab networks aggressively because this may cast some sensitivities and how bin laden was buried and dealt with. on the one hand, bin laden is hated by many people in the arab world. even conservatives and muslims but on the other hand he has some supporters here. >> indeed. behind-the-scenes a lot of caution on the part of many people when covering this story. and rightly so. reema maktabi reporting from abu dhabi. john? >> rosemary, israeli leaders are also celebrating what one statement called the liquidation of bin laden. prime minister benjamin netanyahu hailed it as a resounding triumph. joining us is phil black and the israelis, no doubt, will be very pleased even though al qaeda was never much of a direct threat to israel. >> reporter: indeed, john. this news has been broadly welcomed here politically and by the people, as well. it is holocaust remembrance day in israel. a very significant day, a somber reflective one where people remember the millions of jews who were killed in the holocaust. it's a very significant day here, a short time ago sirens rang out across the city. everyone stops what they're doing and stop in traffic and stand still for a number of minutes to mark this. it is a day when broadcasting, television radio, is normally dedicated to ceremonies marking the day or to other more reflective programming and a lot closed down altogether. today it's been a little different. dedicated through the morning to rolling news coverage, rolling discussion on television and radio about just what this means, the political reaction as we've been saying has been very positive, israel's foreign minister said in many ways it's symbolic this has taken place. on holocaust remembrance day and from the israeli prime minister netanyahu said israelis are feeling the same joy as the americans today and he's talked about this being a resounding victory for all countries that are together fighting terrorism. john? >> for about the west bank and gaza. al qaeda did have its supporters there, certainly a lot of admiration for osama bin laden that he managed to avoid capture by the u.s. for so very, very long. what's the reaction there? >> reporter: well, i think israel will be very interested in this today. what will be the reaction among palestinians. israel will tell you there are al qaeda affiliated groups operating in the gaza strip. al qaeda affiliated in the sfrns they share the same global ideas for jihad and islamist politics. they are there, they're small in number and influence and as much as they are an irritant to israel equally so they are to hamas in itself an extremist group but governs the gaza strip currently and focused in opposing israel and israel's existence. you may that remember after the 9/11 attacks there were some scenes of celebration among palestinians celebrating the fall of the twin towers. it'll be interesting to see as the day progresses what the reaction among palestinians may be. because equally so this is a point they've struggled, their plight against israel that al qaeda has spoken about that followed but while it would seem that osama bin laden claim to have cared for the palestinians it does not necessarily mean that most palestinians cared for osama bin laden. they are not necessarily isl islamiisla islamist in their outlook. it will be interesting to see what the reaction among palestinians will be to the news that osama bin laden has died. john. >> okay, phil black there live for us in jerusalem keeping a close watch on the situation there. across israel and also the west bank and gaza. thank you, phil. well, if you have just joined us you're tuned in to cnn's special coverage of the death of osama bin laden and the crowds of americans have been celebrating in the streets overnight and also been a strong reaction from the international community. let's turn to zain verjee who joins us from cnn london. >> hi, rosemary. the united kingdom has been a staunch ally with the united states in fighting terror. just a short while ago the prime minister of britain, david cameron had this to say. listen. >> this news will be welcomed right across our country. of course, it does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist's terror. indeed we'll have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead but it is, i believe, a massive step forward. osama bin laden was responsible for the death of thousands of innocent men, women and cdren right across the foreign minist saying it was good news for knee thinking men and italy says it's good against evil. >> sane serge ji keeping an eye on developments in london. thanks so much. our cute tiff editor tim lister who has been following the story pretty much since -- >> the beginning. >> september 11th, 2001. >> yeah. >> we were together in tora bora for a time and we've been, you know, across the region. let astart with tora bora and what happened after that. why couldn't they get bin laden for such a long time. >> i think after the first few months, the trail ran cold and everything suggested that ted a pretty good idea in the immediate aftermath of tora bora where he might have gone but then the trail ran pretty cold. someone in german intelligence suggested they were on to him again for a little while in 2004 but i remember leaving torah for ra in the company a great pakistani fixer that we had and as we left an went through the khyber pass he pointed to the left and said there's places up there where man has never set foot afternoon that was kunar province. it's actually only about 120 miles away from where he was finally found. >> tim, how surprised were you when news first came? about what ha happened? >> very surprised. simply because the locate. you're talking somewhere barely 50 miles from the capital of pakistan and a major garrison town where the pakistani military retire. there's golf club, hockey fields. a genteel hill station where the most wanted man in the world was finally located. >> does -- one thing i'm curious about, the fact he was suddenly in this million dollar mansion, not in a cave. he was surrounded by luxury, if you like and this was a man who made a lot about living in a cave and, you know, roughing it out to avoid the u.s. forces. suddenly he's been caught in a million dollar mansion. does it suggest to you that he got a bit soft? >> no, i don't know about that. i think -- one thing i do wonder about whether he had one kidney and needed dialysis he needed to come somewhere sophisticated to get regular medical treatment. after all, he was what, 56, 57 years old. >> i thought it was 54. >> that's conceivable. we don't know what was inside the mansion aside from the fact it was very well guarded with security even on the third floor there was a seven-foot-high terrace balcony wall to stop anybody, any prying eyes. we don't know whether he was getting soft but clearly he thought he was safe in this place because he had been there some time. >> since october. >> what does it do for his reputation because, you know, this tough -- the image of this tough leader of al qaeda living out this hard life but in actual fact as you say, you know, living in this mansion and the perception of having gone soft, whether he had or whether he hadn't. what's the impact? >> i don't think we can tell what the impact will be but the devotees will be no less devoted now that he's dead. >> he's a martyr. got shot in the head. >> died for the cause like so many other comrades have and a lot swore a permanent oath not own will i to him but to the organization. if you go through the guantanamo document, it is miss how many held at guantanamo had sworn a personal oath of loyalty to osama bin laden, the man and were awed by being in his presence. he had a huge impact on the followers. what it'll be like now he's gone, it's difficult to tell because al qaeda was already much more dispersed organization with franchises popping up in somalia, in the magrab. it wasn't so it was a centralized organization anymore. >> and the question i asked peter bergen, didn't really get into it but i'm curious. if there is anybody, a particular name which comes to mind who could succeed bin laden who could have the same charisma and still the same loyalty and convince people to strap on explosives and blow themselves up. >> there's someone who is doing it, anwar al lwlaawlaki. in terms of the inspiration features, awlaki is a different generation and knows how to use the internet. he knows after all how to produce this magazine they do called "inspire" every couple of months that comes from al qaeda, produced in english. he knows how to get the message through after all he is u.s. educated to an english-speaking jihadist community and, of course, given the situation in yemen at the moment it's quite possible that they will find that a safer haven than parts of pakistan or afghanistan in years to come. >> just very quickly, though, this news that we just received, i mean, it's not confirmed yet, but word of the possibility that osama bin laden's body was buried at sea. what is the likely impact of that. >> i think that's difficult to tell. amongst some of the bin laden supporters, they could not provide evidence that he was dead they'll say but he's not really dead but somewhere up in the mountains and still fighting the cause. that may be part of it but others will accept that he's gone and, in fact, we may get a message from zawahiri confirming that but confirming jihad goes on still. most interesting the relationship between the taliban in afghanistan and al qaeda. >> al qaeda's best friend. >> al qaeda's best friend. >> and how that affects the peace process. >> we still have to take our shoes off at airports. >> it could be worse. >> which just goes to show he was really more an icon, inspirational figure. al qaeda has gone way beyond being osama bin laden. >> first statement coming in from the pakistan statement, saying osama bin laden's death illustrates the resolve of the international community including pakistan to fight and eliminate terrorism. it constitutes a major setback to terrorist organizations around the world. al qaeda had declared war on pakistan. scores of al qaeda sponsored terroristacks h resulted in deaths of thousands of innocent pakistani men, women and children." we'll take a short break here right now. our coverage though of the death of osama bin laden will continue. >> it will. right now here are some live pictures from ground zero in new york where americans are gathering in celebration of the news that they heard just hours ago. over five hours ago now that over five hours ago now that osama bin laden is now dead. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com