who knew what? who chose to avoid knowing? and perhaps who chos to avoid revealing what it was they did know. these are really serious questions. >> rose: we conclude with david ignatius of the "washington post," steve collfth e new america foundation and also the author of a book about the bin ladens. and finally dexter filkins of the "new yorker" magazine from istanbul, turkey. >> it may be more difficult now for president bush to make the case... president obama to make the case to stay in afghanistan. people are going to say "hey, look, he's dead, let's bring the boys home." but when you're in afghanistan, as i just was, the senior leadership there in the american military, i mean, i think down to the last person, they all believe that this is a multiyear if not a generational effort. >> rose: perspectives of the death of osama bin laden and the implications for the united states and pakistan with brian ross of abc news; former c.i.a. director general michael hayden; dexter filkins of the "new yorker" magazine; david ignatius of the "washington post"; and steve coll of the new america foundation. every story needs a hero we can all root for. who beats the odds and comes out on top. but this isn't just a hollywood storyline. it's happening every day, all across america. every time a storefront opens. or the midnight oi is burned. or when someone chases a dream, not just a dollar. they are small business owners. so if you wanna root for a real hero, support small business. shop small. >> rose: president obama went on television last night to make the dramatic announcement that osama bin laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, had been killed by u.s. military forces in a raid in pakistan. >> good evening. tonight i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that has killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. shortly after taking office, i directed leon panetta, the director of the c.i.a., to make the killing or capture of bin laden the top priority of our war against al qaeda. even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. then last august after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community i was briefed on a possible lead to bin laden. it was far from certain and it took many months to run this thread to ground. i met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin laden hiding within a compound deep inside pakistan. and finally, last week, i determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get osama bin laden and bring him to justice. today at my direction the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottabad, pakistan. a small team of americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. no americans were harmed. they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a fire fight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. >> rose: bin laden's death marks the end of a nearly ten-year man hunt during which he continually eluded capture. in a white house briefing earlier today, john brennan, president obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, provided more details. >> you went into this operation believing that the most likely outcome would be he would be killed on sight? >> we were trying to make sure that we were able to accomplish mission safely and securely for the people who were involved. we were not going to put our people at risk. the president put a premium on making sure our personnel were protected and we wereot going to give bin laden or any of his cohort it is opportunity to carry out lethal fire on our forces. he wasengagednd he was killed in the process but if we had the opportunity to take him alive we would have done that. >> reporter: have you been able to determine how bin laden was able to hide in this relatively prominent location and do u believe the pakistanis when they say they have no idea he was there? >> people refer to this as hiding in plain sight. clearly th was something that was coidered as a possibility. pakistan is a large country. we are looking right now at how he was able to hold out there for so long and whether or not there was any type of support system witn pakistan that allowed him to stay there. we know that the people at the compound there wereorking on his behalf and that's how we ultimately found our way to that compound. but we are right now less than 24 hours after this operation so we are talking with the pakistanis on a regular basis now and we're going to pursue alleads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors that bin laden might have had. >> reporter: but you don't necessarily assume that they did snow >> we're following all leads in this issue. >> reporter: just to follow up on that? is it really credible pakistani authorities had no idea this compound was built and that he existed in such an elaborate compound? >> i think it's inconceivable that bin laden did not have a support system in the country that allowehim to remain there for an extended period of time. i am not going to speculate about what type of support he ght ve h on an officia basis inside of pakistan. we are closely talking to the pakistanis right now and we are leaving open opportunities to continue to pursue whatever leads might be out there. >> rose: also, one of the things that a lot of people think about when they hear this news is what does this mean for the war in afghanistan? doest make it easier to wind things down? >> i think the accomplishment that very brave personnel from the united states government were able to rlize yesterday is a defining moment in the war against al qaeda, the war on terrorism, by decapitating the head of the snake known as al qaeda. it is going to have, i think, very important reverberations throughout the area on the al qaeda network in that area. this is something that we've been after for 15 years. it goes back before 9/11. so i think what we're doing now is going t try to take advaage of this opportunit that we have to demonstrate to the pakistani people, to the people in the area, that al qaeda is something in the past. we're hoping to bury the rest of al qaeda along with bin laden. >> in the situation room yesterday, could you describe how you were monitoring the gogs on? it's been described as a very tense... understandably a very tense scene. were you watching the operation? were you just... were you listening to it? how were you getting your informatn >>he principals convened yesterday around midday. there were others who we were here early yesrday morning. thpresident joined us then early afternoon before the operation got under y. when the operati did get under way, then the president rejoined the group and we were able to monitor in a real-time basis the progress of the operation from its commencement to its timeline target to the tracon of remains and to the the egrs off of the rget. it wasprobably onof 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 and the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel. that was what was on his mind throughout and we wanted to make sure we were able to get through this and accomplish the mission. but it was clearly very tense. a lot of people holding their breath. and there was a fair degree of silence as it progressed, as we would get the updates. and when we finally were informed that those individuals who were able to go in that compound and found an individual that they believe was bin laden, it was a tremendous sigh of relief that what we believed and who we believed was in that compound actuallyas in that compound when it was found and the present was relieved once we had our people and those remains of target. >> was it just a radio report or phone reports or... >> we were able to monitor the situion in realtime and were able to have regular updates and to ensu that we had realme visility to the progress o operations. i'm not going to go into details abt what type of visuals we had or what type of things were there but it gave us the ability to actually track it on an ongoing basis. >> can you talk to us about what documentation you may have found in? was it a bank vault worth of information and were you able to potentially get additional leads out of the information >> the people who were on the compound took advantage of their time there to make sure that we wereble to acquire whatever material we thought was appropriate and needed and we are in the process right now of looking at whatever might have been picked up but i won't go into detail about what might have been acquired. we feel this is a very important time to continue to prosecute this effort against al qaeda, take advantage of the success of yesterday andcontinue to work to break the back of al qaeda. >> from a visual perspective, here is bin lad on who has been calling for these attacks living in this million dollar plus compound living in an area that is far removedrom the front, hiding behind women who were put in front of them as a shield. i think it speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years. and looking at what bin laden was doing, hidg there while other people are carrying out attackspeak to, i think, the nature of the individual he was. >> was it a close call in you were? >> with the president going forward with this? >> yes. >> i have been following bin laden for 15 years, been after this guy and i have the jut most confidence in the people, particularly at c.i.a. who have been tracking him they were confident and their confidence was going. this intelligence case is different, what we've mean? this compound is different than anything we've seen before. i was confident we had the basis to take action. i also, though, had the dhafs a u.s. team that went in there has exceptional skill to do this capefully. but the president had to look at all the scenarios. what would have happened if a helicopter went down? whatf it weren't bin laden. but he decided it was so important to the security of the american people that he was going to go forward with this. >> how certain are you that there ll be some kind of movement to astleng death? some kind of retaliation if you still have the color-coded alerts? would this be a time when you would raise that alert? >> janet napolitano and ebb secretary of homeland security announced there was a change to the color code system and i think she has put out a atement saying w don't the specific and credible that reporting that would require some type in their mind of an elevation of that threat status. like any instant like ts, what we do is take the prudent steps afterwar to make sure we have our vigilance up, that we are taking the appropriate measures so that our security posture is strong both overseas and here but i think there is always the potential for terrorist groups to strike out and avenge an operation like this. >> there are reports there was a replica of the compound. can you tell us anything about where and how that was put together? >> you can imagine that for something as important and risky as this, every effort would be made to do the practice runs understand the complexities and the layout of the compound there were multiple opportunities to do that in terms of going through exercises to prepare for it so once they hit the compound they had already simulated that a number of times. so i won't go into details about where and when this was done but needless to sa whe they hit that compound they had already trained against it numerou times. >> if the compound was so big, howdid the skillknow where to find bin laden and can you say anything about whether it was a bedroom dining area o open area or something like that? >> the outer features of the compound were studied intensively and there were certain assessments made about where individuals were living and where bin laden and his mily were. and th operated according to that and they didn' know when they got there exactly what some of the internal features of it would be but they had planned on... based on certain, again, observable features of the compound to carry it out. there were a lot of people within the pakistani government and i'm not going to speculate about who or if any of them had foreknowledge of bin laden but certainly his location there outside of the capital raises questions. we are talking to the pakistanis about this. but they-- at least in our discussions with them-- seem as surprised as we were initially that bin laden was holding out in the that area. >> rose: though bin laden's death is a big victory, how much the will affect al qaeda's diffuse network remains unclear. there's also renewed questions today about pakistani's reliability as an ally in the fight against terrorism. secretary of state hillary clinton spoke earlier and defended u.s. cooperation with pakistan. >> in pakistan we are committed to supporting the people and government as they defend their own democracy from violent extremism. indeed, as the president said bin laden had also declared war on pakistan. he ordered the killing of many innocent pakistani men, women, and children. in recent years, the corporation between our governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies increased pressure on al qaeda and the taliban and this progress must continue and we are committed to our partnership. >> rose: we begin our coverage this evening with brian ross, chief investigative correspondent for abc news. i'm pleased to have him back on this program. welcome. >> good evening, charlie. >> rose: tell me what is the most interesting question about this. because you've followed it far while. >> i think the most interesting question is how was he able to hide essentially in plain sight in the middle of a major city that is the headquarters of a garrison for the pakistan military. who in the pakistan government knew he was there? >> rose: and do the americans assume that it is an operative fact that somebody high up in pakistan had to know? >> yes, they do. the comments today by the president's national security advisor john brennan were very pointed, raising the question, he says, which should be raised, about who in pakistan knew this. people we've talked to say they again and again raised those issues with the pakistani officials saying someone in this room knows where bin laden is. they've always denied he was in pakistan, now the proof is that he was, in fact, there, just about a mile down from their version of a west point, the pakistan military academy. >> rose: what else do you ask yourself 24 hours after we know this? >> well, i'm also interested to know xa what actually is the impact on sdmaeld does this really cripple them is the symbolic loss significant or do they see him as a martyr now and step up their level of attacks? after all, he had not been in day to day charge because he was largely isolated to keep his head down and his number two, his deputy, ayman al-zawahiri, had been running the operation. he still is. he'll be very much the focus of an intense effort to go after him as they did bin laden now. >> rose: in terms of the operation itself, were the operative instructions to try to take him alive? >> the instructions as i understand were kill or capture but they had very little time on the ground. they knew they had to get in and out because they had not told pakistani military they were coming and they were exposed that way. as i understand it, they were 40 minutes on the ground. when they found bin laden in this rambling house, this huge million-dollar mansion, they told him to surrender, drop his weapons, he did not do that and they killed him. because that was the training. as martha raddatz my colleague reports it was two taps to the head. that's trade craft for two shots to the head for fear that he might be wearing some kind of a suicide bomb vest. >> rose: so once he didn't respond to the drop his weapons, that's when they shot him? >> that's when they shot him. there was no more consideration. >> rose: it was not, then, a cross fire of any kind? >> as far as we know it was not. there was a fire fight, described by the president, and after that fire fight they... the president said they killed him. and we're told that's because he refused to surrender. >> rose: and the burial at sea? first there was islamic ritual and practice? i'm hold that saudi arabia refused to accept him even though he was born as a saud economy? >> that's the report we had and they did not want to create a place that would be become a shrine for the martyr bin laden and the decision was made even before the assault began the decision had been made that he was killed, he would be buried at sea in a place we don't know specifically but you have a the aircraft carrier "carl vinson." >> rose: and the role of the c.i.a. and leon panetta? >> well, the c.i.a., this was their operation, not the final military attack, but they did the painstaking work, really, a masterful piece of intelligence to track down the couriers. they were bin laden's achilles heel. he could hide, he could stay in this special compound that had walls that were 15, 16 feet high. in fact, charlie, on the terrace where he went outside the walls were seven feet high. now he was 6'4 or 6'6, so he could be outside and not be seen from the road. in any case, the c.i.a. started to track the couriers, they knew the one thing where he was exposed was his ability to reach the outside world, somebody had to come and get those tapes that he made for broadcast and also letters he sent to others in al qaeda. so those couriers became important. detainees at guantanamo provided them with the information that then led them to this town of abbottabad and that is, in fact, where the compound was. they realized then in following the couriers that this compound was highly unusual and then came to them that he's not in a cave, he's probably right here. it's interesting, charlie, they never once saw him before the assault. there was no absolute visual confirmation that bin laden was there but everything else seemed to fit. the couriers going here, the size of the family seemed to match his. everything seemed to fit and they made the decision to go in and get him. >> rose: that the reason john brennan, the president's counterterrorism expert on the national security staff said that this was a courageous decision by the? >> yes, it was. because the other decision was to drop bomb there is. had they done that, they might have killed him there might not be evidence or proof that he had been killed. they might have obliterated everything. so the decision was made to put u.s. personnel, this navy seal team, at risk, send them in, they had practiced on a mock-up of the same compound that was built here in the u.s. they knew exactly what they were going to do. >> rose: how extraordinary is this? >> i think it's historic and i think it will be part of historic lore a about the united states and the navy seal teams. this was a successful operation. they pulled it off, they lost one chopper where which they then demolished so nobody could get their hands on it. but no u.s. personnel were injured, no u.s. personnel killed, everyone came home safely on the u.s. side. >> rose: quite a difference from iraq under the... >> iraq and then the attempt to rescue the hostages in iran which was a complete disaster. >> rose: let me come back to al-zawahiri and what might happen to al qaeda. is the assumption that he is hiding inside pakistan and not north waziristan but in fact in a cit