OSAMA bin Laden became the world’s most hunted man in the aftermath of 9/11 as President George Bush memorably drawled: “Wanted. Dead or alive.”
Two years later when that other murderous fugitive Saddam Hussein was dragged like a rat from his hole and paraded before the cameras – it seemed only a matter of time before bin Laden was also caged.
And yesterday President Barack Obama proudly told how he had authorised the operation “to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
But it soon became clear that the orders given to the special forces who had tracked the al-Qaeda mastermind to his fortified compound in Pakistan were a lot more specific than that.
“This was a kill operation,” a national security official later revealed to US journalists. The target was taken out with a bullet to the head by a US Navy Seal.
There was never any question of bin Laden being captured – because he was the Impossible Prisoner. As former British ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Meyer said: “If he were alive and taken prisoner, what the hell would they do with him?” Three months ago the CIA director Leon Panetta told a Senate intelligence committee hearing what could happen.
He said bin Laden would “probably” be sent to Guantanamo Bay if captured
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