>> reporter: katie, this operation has been in the planning stages for more than eight months and president obama was deeply involved every step of the way. >> our country has kept its commitment to see that justice is done. the world is safer. it is a better place because of the death of osama bin laden. >> reporter: the operation began over seven months ago. august, 2010, president obama is briefed about a rare lead after a bin laden courier is traced to a massive secure compound in pakistan. mid-february, the 2011, after months of surveillance, u.s. officials conclude there's a strong likelihood bin laden is living at the compound. the president orders operational plans to capture or kill him. march and april, the president chairs a series of meetings with his national security team to finalize the plan. and this past friday, 8:20 a.m., minutes before leaving for alabama to survey tornado damage, the president orders the operation to proceed. the day arrives sunday, may 1. 10:06 a.m. the president goes golfing at a military base in maryland as he waits for the mission to begin. he plays only nine holes returning to the white house at 2:11 p.m. at 3:32, he enters the situation room. the president was able to monitor the operation from start to finish as it happened in realtime. >> 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. >> reporter: the operation began when two black hawk helicopters carried about 25 navy seals into the compound. inside, bin laden and his men engaged in a fire fight. bin laden was killed by a shot to the head, another to the chest. video shot the morning after showed a blood-stained compound. there were no u.s. casualties. bin laden's body was taken to a u.s. ship and buried at sea. as revelers celebrated across the nation, some-- who have accused the president of being soft in the war on terrorism-- had nothing but praise. >> let me as a republican give president obama tremendous credit for what was done. he's the commander in hef. this was an amazingly successful military operation. >> reporter: even former vice president dick cheney-- perhaps his harshest critic-- said in a statement "i want cocongratulate president obama and the members of his national security team." >> you can expect the president will get a political bounce in the polls from this people see him in command, in control of the signature moment, perhaps the most important moment in the fight against terrorists. the question is how long will it last? >> reporter: cbs news has learned that intelligence analysts say two reasons they decided osama bin laden must be in that compound are, number one, a very tall tall man paced in the courtyard every day for an hour. second, the courier lived in the guest house, the tall man-- osama bin laden-- lived in the main house. katie? >> couric: juan czar ratty is a former advisor to president george w. bush and now a cbs news consultant. how risky was the operation? >> katie, that was highly risky operation. it was an operation deep inside pakistan, a compound in a heavily populated city, with imperfect intelligence. it was a risky gamble and the president took it. but it was the best chance to get bin laden since the battle of tora bora and when it was executed they got bin laden, killed him, took his body and exploited the site. >> couric: and, juan, why was bin laden's body buried at sea? >> well, american officials, katie, didn't want to create a sacred site or rallying point for extremists so what they did was made a decision to dump his body in the sea and that's where his body will remain:. >> couric: and is there pressure to give absolute proof that there this really was bin laden who was killed? >> katie, i think's going to be likely mounting pressure to prove bin laden was killed, especially now that there is no body. the u.s. government that has d.n.a. proof and tests to show, pictures as well of bin laden's body, as well as testimony from those who were interrogated at the site. the women who were at the compound. and so how and when that information will be revealed is still unclear. but it is clear that the administration will want to be very careful as to how it releases that information, in particular the photographs. >> couric: and can you tell us what was recovered from this compound? i know the c.i.a. is already analyzing this. was it a treasure trove of information? >> absolutely, katie. i think the navy seals were surprised at what they found. there were many documents and equipment than they expected. things like computers, hard drives, files, cd-roms, et cetera. so there was quite a bit to not only take back but now to exploit so analysts are now looking at information, looking at that data to find plots of attacks as well as other information for al qaeda leaders. >> couric: all right, juan sar rattay, juan, thanks so much. there were demonstrations in places like yemen, syria, and libya, but they had nothing to do with bin laden's death. few protestors seemed to view the al qaeda leader as a martyr. mandy clark reports tonight from benghazi in eastern libya. >> reporter: in the nearly ten years since osama bin laden went into hiding, the arab world has changed in ways no one could have predicted. a whole generation of young people took to the streets to battle corrupt dictatorships. but they are demanding democracy not bin laden's brand of extremism. >> i don't think that al qaeda or other similar jihadist movements have much of a future in the region as long as these revolutions are continuing. >> reporter: even in bin laden's ancestral home, yemen, some protestors applauded the news. >> ( translated ): osama bin laden deserved to be killed before he distorted the image of islam even more. >> reporter: in libya where the protests have turned into an armed conflict, the rebels stress they have no al qaeda connections. >> thank you, obama, thank you sarkozy. >> reporter: in jordan, confidence in bin laden fell from 56% in 2003 to just 13% this year. among palestinians, the drop was from 72% to 34% in the same period. some leaders were bucking that trend today. >> ( translated ): we condemn the assassination of an arab and muslim holy warrior. >> reporter: but egypt's muslim brotherhood found a way to say that bin laden's death was an opportunity. >> that can build and make a bridge between the west and the arabs. >> reporter: the biggest difference between 9/11 and 2011 is that al qaeda is in danger of becoming irrelevant as one revolution after another sweeps through the arab world, bin laden was left standing on the sidelines. katie? >> couric: mandy clark in benghazi, libya. meanwhile, secretary of state hillary clinton says pakistan's cooperation helped lead the u.s. to bin laden, but there he was just a half mile from pakistan's version of west point. once again, here's chief foreign affairs correspondent lara logan in washington. lara, how can anyone believe the pakistanis did not know about osama bin laden and where he was living? >> well, it seems improbable at this point, katie. and the biggest question raised by this operation to kill osama bin laden deep inside pakistan as the president made a point of saying is how could the world's most wanted man have been living in the midst of pakistan's military elite just an hour's drive from their capital? one man who wasn't at all surprised is afghanistan's former spy chief. and for years, the c.i.a.'s lead source on osama bin laden. in a rare "60 minutes" interview he told us recently that america's greatest enemy in that region is not al qaeda, it's pakistan. >> you have to give pakistan a title. is it a friend? what is pakistan? >> reporter: it currently has the title of ally. >> right. deceptive. >> reporter: so you think its title should be? >> it should be a hostile country. a hostile estate. >> reporter: so pakistan is the enemy of the u.s.? >> the amount of pain pakistan has inflicted upon the united states in the past 12 years is unprecedented. no other country has inflicted that amount of pain upon your nation. >> reporter: that pain is pakistan's long-term support for al qaeda and its allies. battling u.s. forces in afghanistan. today, the president's counterterrorism chief also seemed to point the finger at pakistan. >> i think it's inconceivable that bin laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time. >> reporter: that was more blunt than secretary of state hillary clinton whose carefully worded statement seemed mindful of the fact that the u.s. still needs pakistan's help in the war on terror. >> our partnership, including our close cooperation with pakistan, have helped put unprecedented pressure on al qaeda and its leadership. >> reporter: that talk of continued cooperation hints at what one u.s. counterterrorism official told me that they're closing watching pakistan basically seeing they're going to cough up now that the heat is on them. the u.s. has no doubt got their eye on al qaeda's number two anwar al-awlaki and taliban leader mullah omar who are both believed to be protected inside pakistan along with a number of other significant leaders, katie. >> couric: all right, lara logan thank you, lara. meanwhile, a computer programer in pakistan was so startled to see a helicopter hovering above his quiet town that he went on twiter to tell the world about it. he had no idea he was witnessing the raid on osama bin laden's compound. but as bill whitaker reports, the news was soon exploding all over the internet. >> reporter: even before the news flash, wordover the death of bin laden flashed around the glen on social networks. one of the first, from keith urban, chief of staff for former defense secretary donald rumsfeld an hour before the president's address. "so i'm told by a reputable person they have killed osama bin laden, hot damn." after that, word spread like wildfire. for almost three and a half hours last night from 10:45 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. eastern time twitter averaged 3,000 tweets per second, the highest sustained number ever. the tweets and comments like this one from shayna baldwin "meet me at the white house, i'm wearing my p.j.s." and from new york "everyone from new york, let's meet at ground zero and celebrate" triggered flash mobs at ground zero and outside the white house. >> i heard it on facebook. it was on my news feed. >> reporter: in the ninth inning at last night's phillies/mets game word spread from cell phone blackberry and got the whole stadium celebrating. there were expressions of relief and pride, a simple "i love america" and congratulations. new york police and fire and all of america thanked the seals. but there were also ominous warnings from bin laden supporters. "we would not be real men if we did not torch american embassies" said one. >> when major news breaks people need a place to go and facebook and twiter are the platforms where this is taking place. >> it's a new day in the world and online. bill whitaker, cbs news, los angeles. >> couric: and still ahead on this expanded edition of the "cbs evening news" from ground zero, a survivor of 9/11 dealing with the sudden flood of memories. but up next, bin laden is gone, >> bin laden publicly vowed to wage a terrorist war against america saying "we do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians, they're all targets." >> i want justice. and there's an old poster out west as i recall that said "wanted: dead or alive." >> if we have osama bin laden in our sites and the pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then i think that we have to act and we take them out. >> couric: back now from ground zero, which has served as a constant reminder of how vulnerable this city is to terror attacks. aaron moriarty of 48 hours spoke today with the man whose job it is to keep eight million new yorkers and countless visitors safe and, erin, in the city that never sleeps, that's a round job. >> reporter: oh, it is. hi, katie. it's a frightening fact that in the past decade there have been at least 12 plots against the city of new york that were either planned or inspired by bin laden and tonight security experts and the city's police commissioner tell cbs news that the threat may be greater than ever. it's clear that law enforcement in new york city is not letting down its guard tonight but, in fact, beefing up security. is it fair to say that we are more at risk today than we've been at any other time since 9/11? >> in my estimation, i would say yes. >> this is kind of the start of things not tend of things. i don't think this ended anything. >> reporter: the biggest concerns, say security experts: lone wolf terrorists like phial is shahzad who exactly a year ago tried to bomb times square. bin laden's death heralded in huge newspaper headlines may spark more copy cats bent on revenge. >> this city unfortunately is at the top of the terrorist target list. >> reporter: what keeps new york police commissioner ray kelly up at night, he says, is the pocket of a catastrophic event. >> on the top of the priority list is the possibility of a dirty bomb or, god forbid, a full blown nuclear event. >> reporter: one of kelly's main weapons is this state-of-the-art security center which puts more and more of the city under 24-hour surveillance. in just the past six months, 500 cameras have been added to the subway system, feared a possible trial target. but with all this high-tech equipment, sometimes it comes down to luck and an eagle-eyed vendor who saw smoke from shahzad's bomb-laden vehicle and alerted police. >> we've done a lot but we were lucky as well. of course, we'll take luck every time. >> reporter: and there are signs that people in the city are also becoming more vigilant. normally there are about 26 calls a day about suspicious packages. today there ]e& 40 before noon. katie? >> couric: all right. erin moriarty. erin, thank you. coming up next, firefighters [ male announcer ] undeniably colorful, seriously smooth, and in excellent condition. those are your lips with new covergirl lip perfection. it doesn't just give you beautiful color now, it gives you more beautiful lips in 7 days. in a single stroke, rich color rocks your lips. in a single week, silk therapy moisturizers help smooth and soften them. how perfect! 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(man) register today for the... because everyone deserves a lifetime. >> couric: back now from ground zero in new york. on 9/11 firefighters arrived here just minutes after the first plane hit the world trade center. 343 of them lost their lives as did 23 members of the new york police department and 37 port authority police officers. jim axelrod reports on the reaction of first responders to the death of binñi laden. >> reporter: this picture of firefighters from engine 54 ladder 4 battalion 9 spoke volumes about osama bin laden gettingxd hunted down. >> i'd like everybody else to kdo, "good job, boys, good job." >> reporter: but there was plenty more to say at their station house in midtown manhattan. 15 men from this fire house were killed on 9/11. chris san torah, 23, had been on the job three months. when did you finally release into understanding this is for real? >> probably this morning when i woke up with this tremendous grin. >> reporter: it's been nearly a decade since maureen buried her son's remains. that day she was the very picture of heart break. today was for an entirely different set of emotions. >> i'm just filled with joy that my son is up in heaven, you know screaming and yelling and saying "we got him! we got him, ma!" >> reporter: in the back of the station house, we found this firefighter a bit more somber. >> i don't think i'll ever move forward from it. it will always be there. >> reporter: he was supposed to be working that day but he switched shifts with chris. >> ten years late per, does any part of that shift switching plague you? >> everyday. everyday. >> reporter: there are 343 stories like this in and around new york city. about firefighters who lost their lives but forged a lasting impression on the soul of this city. >> if you don't even have a chance to focus this all in today, you have to go to work. >> you pull back, this is one part of it and now back to work. >> reporter: maybe that's what makes first responders different than everyone else-- even today. they don't have time to dwell. just like on 9/11, they've got a job to do. jim axelrod, cbs news, new york. >> couric: and coming up next, shaken by the news of bin laden's demise nearly a mary! hey! wow, you look great! thanks! it's this new wish yourself thin program. i just wish it and it happens. it's probably those fiber one bars you're eating. i know they help me stick to my diet. the bars are 90 calories and the fiber helps you feel full. 90 calories and high fiber. so that's why this diet thing is working. but it's weird because my wish for lorenzo came true. [ male announcer ] fiber one 90 calorie bars. hungry no. results yes. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] however they come into the world, pampers believes every baby should be swaddled in the comfort and security of our softest diaper ever. ♪ pampers swaddlers. our softest protection for every little miracle. >> couric: house t white house has just announced that president obama will come here to ground zero on thursday and meet with families of the victims of 9/11 for many of them, this has been an emotional day filled with memories of the people they love and lost. leslie has kin was an executive at kemper insurance on the 36th floor of tower one when the first plane hit. she was one of the last people to escape the building. >> there was debris and body parts and furniture falling outside the window. i lost 22 of my friends. i lost a man who i loved dearly. >> couric: when she heard bin laden had been killed, the memories came rushing back. >> it has knocked the wind out of me and i need to figure outçó again how to regroup. >> i can only imagine the look on osama bin laden's face when he saw navy seals. this is not a good day. >> reporter: david beamer's son todd became a modern-day folk hero when he rallied his fellow passengers on flight 93 and tried to overtake the hijackers saying "let's roll." the plane instead crashed in a field in shanksville, pennsylvania. todd's father said his son was killed inñi the line of duty-- doing the right thing.ñi he was as elated by the news that the 40 navy seals had survived as he was by the fact that osama bin laden had died. >> osama bin laden has met his american jusz. and in addition he's met divine justice. i'm a christian; todd was a christian. we believe there's a heaven and a hell. i don't know what's's believed, but now he knows.ñtr >> i understand that it is a good day, you know, for americai and for the families that lost loved ones that day. >> couric: anthoula katsimatides's loved one was for her 31-year-oldñi brother john. she says she wasn't prepared for the emotion this day would bring. >> in the beginning i was crying and didn't understand why because you think that after ten years the tears will stop coming but they don't. they don't.ñi i miss him like i missed him on september 12. >> couric: and that's a our special ♪ [ female announcer ] if you want to just push messes around, dishcloths are just fine. for a better shot at getting surfaces clean, you'll want bounty extra soft. in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface 3x cleaner than a dishcloth. even with just one sheet. super clean. super soft. bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. and try bounty napkins. in the dc area, it's hard to miss a capital one bank. alright, let's get ready to work alex. rosslyn! ♪ arlington! ♪ falls church! nice save! 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