"Thank God Osama bin Laden Is Dead"

News of Osama bin Laden’s death was welcomed at the Kremlin. The Russian president’s position is this: Only a joint fight against global terrorism could bring these results. According to Izvestia’s information, the U.S. and Russian presidents will speak about this at a bilateral meeting within the framework of the G8 summit, which will take place on May 26-27 in Deauville, France. The majority of Russian politicians also believe that the elimination of the number one terrorist speaks positively to the domestic political situation.

“Russia was one of the first to encounter the dangers that global terrorism brings, and, unfortunately, knows firsthand just what Al-Qaida is,” a report from the Russian president’s press service reads. “Retaliation will inevitably reach all terrorists.” It is emphasized that only a joint war can bring results. “Russia is ready for an increase in such collaboration,” it was reported in the press service. Izvestia’s sources are not ruling out the possibility that Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev will discuss options of such collaboration during the G8 meetings, which will take place in France at the end of May.

In Russia Osama bin Laden was a sort of symbol of international terrorism. Financing of the terrorist and extremist organizations in the North Caucasus is attributed to him. The topic of a mastermind arose after every terrorist act, and the main one was called “Al-Qaida.” Bin Laden himself never denied his involvement in the execution of high-profile terror acts, including those in Russia. Russian politicians spoke about this in their comments.

“We have grounds to believe that Osama bin Laden was involved in a number of terrorist acts that occurred in our country,” announced Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs. “Therefore this news can only be welcomed. It is a substantial step forward for the international community in the fight against global terrorism.”

Kosachev believes that “we are not talking about mob law, as sometimes happens in international practice. All this time Osama bin Laden was not just an organizer for radical extremist forces but an inspiration, symbolizing their success on the road to so-called ‘opposition to the West.’ But there is no doubt that behind this battle cry of ‘opposition to the West’ was hidden merely bin Laden’s desire to maintain power, even by illegal means, to control financial flow, and to manipulate the perceptions of people subject to massive psychosis and zombification,” emphasized Kosachev.

“Thank God Osama bin Laden is dead. This is indeed a success,” Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the leader of Ingushetia, told Interfax. “Congratulations are due to those who performed this special operation. In the future everything possible needs to continue to be done so that there are fewer evildoers who try to perform their dark deeds under the cloak of various religions,” he stated. Granted, Yevkurov is sure that Osama bin Laden has not exercised any influence on the situation in Ingushetia.

There is one more topic that arose after bin Laden’s death, which are acts of retaliation by his followers. Konstantin Kosachev believes that an escalation of terrorist actions can be expected now. In light of this, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs is convinced that “the final conclusion in the war against this evil will arrive not when all head leaders of the terrorists are destroyed, but only when the causes that foster terrorism are eliminated, that is, poverty and class divisions of people in many countries of the world.”

“In my opinion, there are a host of threats that are first and foremost related to the fact that terrorist attacks will hardly abate after the removal of a leader,” says Vladimir Vasiliev, Chairman of the State Duma’s Security Committee. He noted that these threats are seen and understood well in the United States, and there is good reason for the American embassies in various countries of the world to take preventive measures for protection.

In turn, Mikahil Margelov, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council, says that the war against terrorism is not ending with the elimination of Al-Qaida’s leader. “The beast’s head has been cut off, and the poisonous tentacles are left, which have ensnared the whole world,” says Margelov. “Following sheiks Ahmad Yassin, Hattab, Basayev, and ‘littler fish,’ Osama bin Laden has been eliminated.” But, in the senator’s opinion, “the elimination of one terrorist, even the main terrorist, does not mean very much for the war against terror. After all, terrorism is primarily a tangle of social and political causes and ideological views, attractive to a specific portion of the young generation, and they will take revenge for bin Laden.”

Anatoly Yegorin, the head science official of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Oriental Studies, believes that now attention must be paid to regional factions of Al-Qaida, which are present particularly in the North Caucasus. “In the first place, what to fight against. In what manner? With toughness, but within the legal framework,” the expert argued. “Not like the West, which does whatever it wants in order to please its own interests, hiding behind countermeasures to terrorism.”

The well-known political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of the Politika Foundation, notes: “As far as Barack Obama is concerned, certainly this elimination is a big plus for him and his election campaign. A plus, but it is far from being a force for victory. The level of unemployment in the United States in November of 2012 will be very important. In America foreign political events, even such significant ones, have never predetermined anything. Americans are always oriented toward domestic policies. There is a single exception: World War II.”

Nevertheless, today Barack Obama is experiencing a triumph. The first CNN report about the successful anti-terrorist operation not far from Islamabad, you will recall, appeared at 6:46 a.m. Moscow time. The previous day, around midnight, four American helicopters began an attack on a private house in the city of Abbottabad (100 km north of the Pakistani border). The operation lasted about four hours. A fire broke out in the house where the Al-Qaida leader was allegedly located. American soldiers, who were supported by a special branch of the Pakistani army, took the building in an assault. The bodies of bin Laden and one of his sons were discovered in it. They were taken away from the operation site by helicopter. A DNA analysis showed that this was indeed the most wanted criminal in the world. Coroners established that bin Laden’s death was a result of a gunshot to the head. So far it is not clear whether it was a suicide or if he was killed in a gun battle.

At the White House, President Barack Obama appeared at a special press conference. He announced, “Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaida, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Justice has been done.” At the White House in Washington and at Ground Zero in New York, hundreds of people began to gather spontaneously and arrange improvised celebrations.

The hunt for bin Laden began immediately after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. About 3,000 people were killed below the ruins of the towers. In 2007 the American Senate set a price of $50 million on the head of Al-Qaida’s leader. But, as Obama reported, only in August of 2010 was credible intelligence received about bin Laden. Since 2001 he has been in hiding in the region situated near the Afghan-Pakistani border (including in caves). Several weeks ago, the place where he was located was established exactly. Right away Obama gave the order to conduct the operation. “It was prepared and executed by a small division of American special operations acting in Pakistani territory,” the U.S. president reported.

Details of the operation have not been disclosed. Sergei Goncharov, president of the Alpha Veterans Association, agreed to tell Izvestia about some features of similar actions.

IZVESTIA: Sergei Alekseyevich, do special operations forces have some kind of generally accepted technology for attacking houses and palaces?

SERGEI GONCHAROV: Now it is difficult to say how the attack on the house went. I think that it is an enormous achievement of the American and Pakistani special operations. And I do not think that they are going to reveal all of their secrets, but clearly the intelligence agents did some very good work, and the special operation forces had precise information about what time and where to attack the terrorists. Regarding the attack, during such operations the task for any type of special operation force is to preserve their own people and to minimize losses.

IZVESTIA: Let’s imagine: Before us there is a house with 3-meter walls. What is the first thing to do?

GONCHAROV: First of all, gather information. How many people are inside in which rooms? How many guards are there, and what are they armed with? Do they have an emergency exit, are there guard dogs, how many are there, and where are they located? Very serious strategic work and surveillance precedes an attack. Now information is coming out that Americans used unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. To all appearances, with the aid of the aircraft they were successful in getting ideas about what was going on inside. After receiving all of the necessary information, all options for action are worked out. And only then can the team attack.

IZVESTIA: Such attacks are often shown in Hollywood movies. A special operations soldier runs and shoots rounds, and the enemies fall in swarms from towers and walls. How far is that presentation from reality?

GONCHAROV: Infinitely far. For some reason many people love to present special operations soldiers as some kind of monsters who are not even stopped by bullets. But special operations soldiers, both ours and America’s, are people just the same. Therefore, everything is done with the utmost caution and precision in order to preserve their own people first and foremost.