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Bin Laden Was Recognizable On The Scene; Secrets of bin Laden's Killing Revealed; Interview with General Colin Powell; Trusted Courier Led U.S. to Osama bin Laden; Al Qaeda's Threat to the World; Reaction From 9/11 Firefighters, Families

Aired May 2, 2011 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Anderson, thanks very much.

Happening now, breaking news -- we're awaiting even more details about where and how Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces. We're taking you inside the mansion where he hid and died, the secret mission to find him and the nail-biting final minutes that felt like days inside the White House.

We're told a message taped before bin Laden's death could surface soon. Stand by. We'll report on that.

And I'll also have my exclusive interview with the man who was secretary of State on 9/11, Colin Powell. I'll ask him whether he's disappointed that America's most wanted terrorist wasn't caught on George W. Bush's watch.

And Americans are celebrating bin Laden's death and justice served.

But will his followers now retaliate?

We're taking a closer look at the terrorist threat.

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're expecting the White House to reveal more information soon about the death of the terrorist code-named Geronimo. Of course, that would be Osama bin Laden, gunned down by U.S. forces in a daring and very secret mission that we first learned about from the president late last night.

U.S. officials say DNA test results today confirmed that it was, indeed, the Al Qaeda leader, killed in a fortress-like mansion outside the Pakistani capital.

Right now, we face the chilling prospect that we may hear a final taped message from the man who masterminded the dead -- the deadliest attack on U.S. soil ever. Stay tuned for all the breaking news. First, though, let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry -- Ed, we've already learned a lot about this operation. More details will surface. Tell our viewers now what we know.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we're learning all kinds of new details about just how tense it was inside the White House Situation Room yesterday afternoon, as all of this drama unfolded. It's also becoming clear that this White House, which has heard criticism during the crisis in Egypt, for example, that maybe the president moved too slow, is now being very aggressive about saying that this was a decisive commander-in-chief that brought Osama bin Laden to justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: (voice-over): On the front page headlines about Osama bin Laden from around the world is a dramatic story that secretly began heating up in the summer.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden.

HENRY: But when CNN pressed him about bin Laden just a few weeks after that intelligence came in at a news conference on September 10th, 2010, the president didn't let on the U.S. was closing in on the world's most wanted terrorist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM SEPTEMBER 10, 2010)

HENRY: You haven't captured him and you don't seem to know where he is.

OBAMA: Well, Ed, I think capturing or killing bin Laden and Zawahiri would be extremely important to our national security. We have the best minds, the best intelligence officers, the best Special Forces, who are thinking about this day and night. And they will continue to think about it day and night as long as I'm president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: The president kept that poker face right up until this weekend, even as the effort to bring bin Laden to justice was intensifying in private.

JOHN BRENNAN, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It was clearly very tense, a lot of people holding their breath.

HENRY: Friday, 8:20 a.m. -- the president quietly decided there was enough intelligence to move forward with the operation to get bin Laden. The authorization came just minutes before he left the White House for Alabama, where the president toured damage from the devastating tornadoes that killed some 300 people in the south. By Friday afternoon, the president toured Cape Canaveral and then in the evening delivered a commencement speech in Miami -- without ever letting on what was developing halfway around the world. Ditto for Saturday night. Just after 8:00 p.m., the president and first lady attended the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington. In retrospect, one of comedian Seth Meyer's jokes seemed to strike a cord.

SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: People think bin Laden is hiding in the Hindu Kush, but did you know that every day from 4:00 to 5:00, he hosts a show on C-SPAN?

HENRY: Then, Sunday morning, the president heads to Andrews Air Force Base for a routine round of golf, except, for some reason, he decides to only play nine holes and is seen heading back to the Oval Office in his golf shoes at 2:04 p.m.. Officials now confirm the president immediately went to The Situation Room to review final preps, where he and a handful of aides nervously kept up with the firefight in Pakistan in real time.

BRENNAN: It was one of the most anxiety filled periods of time, I think, in the lives of the -- the people who were assembled here yesterday. The minutes passed like days. And the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HENRY: All of the U.S. personnel survived this firefight, as the White House is calling it. Now, they're not saying how the president kept up with the situation minute by minute -- was he getting a live video feed or just an audio feed from those Special Forces?

John Brennan, his homeland security adviser, basically told reporters, look, we just knew what was going on. And one of the things they knew is that a woman believed to be a wife of Osama bin Laden was actually used as a human shield and was killed -- used by -- as a human shield. It shows you how dramatic and awful the situation was -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Used by a human shield by bin Laden himself.

HENRY: Exactly.

BLITZER: It shows the courage of this individual.

All right, Ed, stand by.

Joining us now, a major figure in the Bush administration's attempt to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. We're talking to the former secretary of State, the retired U.S. Army general, Colin Powell.

General Powell, thanks very much for coming in.

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: My pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: You were secretary of State on 9/11.

What -- what went through your mind?

How did you feel yesterday, when you heard that bin Laden was dead? POWELL: Absolutely delighted. Justice was finally done and this killer was brought to his just rewards by being killed by U.S. Forces.

BLITZER: Did you learn about it from the news media or did somebody call you and tell you?

POWELL: Somebody called me late last night.

BLITZER: Somebody from the White House?

POWELL: No.

BLITZER: Somebody from the Pentagon?

POWELL: Somebody who had picked it up on the news.

BLITZER: Somebody who just called and you didn't...

POWELL: It wasn't official.

BLITZER: Oh, because it was like 10:45, 11:00...

POWELL: Something like that...

BLITZER: -- at night.

POWELL: It was about 11:00. I was already in -- in bed when the phone rang and a friend -- a very, very close friend, she goes by the name of Alma, my wife.

BLITZER: Yes.

POWELL: She was in Nashville, Tennessee giving a commencement speech. And she was still up and heard the news and called me immediately.

BLITZER: So you immediately turned on the television to watch what was going on?

POWELL: Of course, for a few minutes.

BLITZER: Of course.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: This whole -- this whole issue of bin Laden, he was supposed to be in a cave, but he was found in a mansion, about a two hour drive outside of Islamabad, pretty well protected.

Was that shocking to you?

POWELL: No. I -- I never knew where he was. And I didn't agree, necessarily, with he's hiding in a cave somewhere. There are other places you can hide and hide in the middle of a -- a populated area and be just as secure as if you were in a cave somewhere. So I was reasonably sure that he was probably in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan. But I was really surprised at the size of the compound that he was in and the protection that it was around.

And the question that's going to be asked is, did nobody else notice this in that particular part of Pakistan?

BLITZER: So what do you think?

POWELL: I -- I don't know how it could go unnoticed -- I mean, seven, eight, nine, 12 foot walls and a new compound, relatively speaking, with very little traffic going in and out of it, with barbed wire on top.

BLITZER: So somebody was protecting this individual...

POWELL: I...

BLITZER: -- presumably within the Pakistani military or...

POWELL: No...

BLITZER: -- or intelligence service...

POWELL: I -- I can't...

BLITZER: -- or somebody?

POWELL: I can't say that. I'm just saying, I think that these are questions that will be asked. And I don't know what the answers are. But it sure sounds as if somebody should have noticed and sort of brought this to the attention of authorities.

BLITZER: You're a retired four star general, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Based on what you know about this military intelligence operation, how risky was it?

POWELL: It was very risky. You can never tell with an operation like that, whether something will go wrong at the end. You know, you're absolutely sure of the intelligence and you know the people are there. So there's always a high level of risk.

But the president, I think, handled this brilliantly, frankly. He had the choice of dropping bombs on him or actually going in to verify that the person that they were after was there and getting that person. And that's what they did.

BLITZER: It would have been easier just to launch a missile...

POWELL: Yes, but you...

BLITZER: -- a Tomahawk cruise missile...

POWELL: -- you never...

BLITZER: -- would have wiped out that whole area. POWELL: But once again, you never would have been able to be sure that you had gotten Osama bin Laden. And there might have been a lot of collateral damage. And so you can always make different judgments about a situation like this. But the president turned out to have made the correct judgment and he was supported by a great military team and an intelligence team and, of course, those very, very brave Navy SEALs who went in.

BLITZER: Describe those Navy SEALs to us, because, you know, we hear about them, we read about them. This was a joint operation, not just Navy SEALs, but there were intelligence operatives who went -- they had been planning this for a long time.

POWELL: They'd been planning it for a long time. They had been -- they had been building mock-ups of what the compound looked like. This is what these folks do. This is what the CIA does. The defense intelligence against work on it, as well. And this is what you expect our Joint Special Operations command, consisting of Navy SEALs, Army commandos, Army Special Operations people, our Delta Force -- lots of resources you can -- you can pull forward.

But the SEALS are at the top of the -- the top of the list of these kinds of units.

BLITZER: When...

POWELL: They...

BLITZER: -- when you were the -- the secretary of State -- and you used to, obviously, go into The Situation Room in the West Wing of the White House, when you were chairman of the Joint Chiefs. At one point in your career, you were the national security adviser.

Do they have the technology, during that 40 minutes that the troops were on the ground, the helicopters were there, for folks, including the president, in The Situation Room, to be watching or listening and hearing commands, knowing what's going on?

POWELL: During my time, we weren't quite that advanced. But what's happened in the last 10 years with respect to technology, I'm sure it was quite possible. I don't know exactly what the president was able to see and what they were showing him. And John Brennan didn't -- didn't clarify that for us. But what I'm absolutely sure of is that they had minute by minute, second by second control and knowledge of what was going on inside that compound.

BLITZER: And you can only imagine, General Powell, during those 40 minutes that the troops were on the ground and there was this firefight and all of a sudden they're told, in The Situation Room, a helicopter is no longer operating, we've got a problem, how -- how -- how nervous everyone must have been.

POWELL: You really -- you really feel the tension at that point. And the same thing happened in an operation we conducted in Panama in 1989 -- and you may recall those days.

BLITZER: I remember Desert One in Iran even earlier.

POWELL: Desert One in Iran. But in Panama in 1989, we went in before the invasion with Delta Force at that time, to rescue a CIA agent who had been captured by the Panamanians. And we landed on the roof of this building, got down there, killed a couple of guards, got the guy out, the helicopter took off and immediately landed on the street. It lost its power.

And we were, fortunately, able to get to that helicopter before anything else happened and we saved our guy.

But there always is risk in these kinds of operations. Things go wrong. Mistakes happen. But in this case, it was executed brilliantly.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment, General.

We have a lot more to discuss.

We're going to continue our conversation with General Powell.

We'll take a quick break.

I want to know whether or not he believes the photo of Osama bin Laden's body should be released to the world by the U.S. government.

We're going to hear General Powell's answer when we come back.

Also, did Osama bin Laden deserve a burial in compliance with Muslim tradition?

U.S. officials say that's what he received. We're taking a look at the pains taken to respect bin Laden's religion.

Also, people have gathered at the sites of the 9/11 attacks to celebrate bin Laden's death.

But are they putting themselves at risk for a new attack by Al Qaeda followers?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Joining us now, a major figure in the Bush administration's attempt to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. We're talking to the former secretary of State, the retired U.S. Army general, Colin Powell.

General Powell, thanks very much for coming in.

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: My pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: You were secretary of State on 9/11.

What -- what went through your mind? How did you feel yesterday, when you heard that bin Laden was dead?

POWELL: Absolutely delighted. Justice was finally done and this killer was brought to his just rewards by being killed by U.S. forces.

BLITZER: Did you learn about it from the news media or did somebody call you and tell you?

POWELL: Somebody called me late last night.

BLITZER: Somebody from the White House?

POWELL: No.

BLITZER: Somebody from the Pentagon?

POWELL: Somebody who had picked it up on the news.

BLITZER: Somebody who just called and you didn't...

POWELL: It wasn't official.

BLITZER: Oh, because it was like 10:45, 11:00...

POWELL: Something like that...

BLITZER: -- at night.

POWELL: It was about 11:00. I was already in -- in bed when the phone rang and a friend -- a very, very close friend, she goes by the name of Alma, my wife.

BLITZER: Yes.

POWELL: She was in Nashville, Tennessee giving a commencement speech. And she was still up and heard the news and called me immediately.

BLITZER: So you immediately turned on the television to watch what was going on?

POWELL: Of course, for a few minutes.

BLITZER: Of course.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: This whole -- this whole issue of bin Laden, he was supposed to be in a cave, but he was found in a mansion, about a two hour drive outside of Islamabad, pretty well protected.

Was that shocking to you?

POWELL: No. I -- I never knew where he was. And I didn't agree, necessarily, with he's hiding in a cave somewhere. There are other places you can hide and hide in the middle of a -- a populated area and be just as secure as if you were in a cave somewhere. So I was reasonably sure that he was probably in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan. But I was really surprised at the size of the compound that he was in and the protection that it was around.

And the question that's going to be asked is, did nobody else notice this in that particular part of Pakistan?

BLITZER: So what do you think?

POWELL: I -- I don't know how it could go unnoticed -- I mean, seven, eight, nine, 12 foot walls and a new compound, relatively speaking, with very little traffic going in and out of it, with barbed wire on top.

BLITZER: So somebody was protecting this individual...

POWELL: I...

BLITZER: -- presumably within the Pakistani military or...

POWELL: No...

BLITZER: -- or intelligence service...

POWELL: I -- I can't...

BLITZER: -- or somebody?

POWELL: I can't say that. I'm just saying, I think that these are questions that will be asked. And I don't know what the answers are. But it sure sounds as if somebody should have noticed and sort of brought this to the attention of authorities.

BLITZER: You're a retired four star general, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Based on what you know about this military intelligence operation, how risky was it?

POWELL: It was very risky. You can never tell with an operation like that, whether something will go wrong at the end. You know, you're absolutely sure of the intelligence and you know the people are there. So there's always a high level of risk.

But the president, I think, handled this brilliantly, frankly. He had the choice of dropping bombs on him or actually going in to verify that the person that they were after was there and getting that person. And that's what they did.

BLITZER: It would have been easier just to launch a missile...

POWELL: Yes, but you...

BLITZER: -- a Tomahawk cruise missile...

POWELL: -- you never...

BLITZER: -- would have wiped out that whole area.

POWELL: But once again, you never would have been able to be sure that you had gotten Osama bin Laden. And there might have been a lot of collateral damage. And so you can always make different judgments about a situation like this. But the president turned out to have made the correct judgment and he was supported by a great military team and an intelligence team and, of course, those very, very brave Navy SEALs who went in.

BLITZER: Describe those Navy SEALs to us, because, you know, we hear about them, we read about them. This was a joint operation, not just Navy SEALs, but there were intelligence operatives who went -- they had been planning this for a long time.

POWELL: They'd been planning it for a long time. They had been -- they had been building mock-ups of what the compound looked like. This is what these folks do. This is what the CIA does. The defense intelligence against work on it, as well. And this is what you expect our Joint Special Operations command, consisting of Navy SEALs, Army commandos, Army Special Operations people, our Delta Force -- lots of resources you can -- you can pull forward.

But the SEALS are at the top of the -- the top of the list of these kinds of units.

BLITZER: When...

POWELL: They...

BLITZER: -- when you were the -- the secretary of State -- and you used to, obviously, go into The Situation Room in the West Wing of the White House, when you were chairman of the Joint Chiefs. At one point in your career, you were the national security adviser.

Do they have the technology, during that 40 minutes that the troops were on the ground, the helicopters were there, for folks, including the president, in The Situation Room, to be watching or listening and hearing commands, knowing what's going on?

POWELL: During my time, we weren't quite that advanced. But what's happened in the last 10 years with respect to technology, I'm sure it was quite possible. I don't know exactly what the president was able to see and what they were showing him. And John Brennan didn't -- didn't clarify that for us. But what I'm absolutely sure of is that they had minute by minute, second by second control and knowledge of what was going on inside that compound.

BLITZER: And you can only imagine, General Powell, during those 40 minutes that the troops were on the ground and there was this firefight and all of a sudden they're told, in The Situation Room, a helicopter is no longer operating, we've got a problem, how -- how -- how nervous everyone must have been.

POWELL: You really -- you really feel the tension at that point. And the same thing happened in an operation we conducted in Panama in 1989 -- and you may recall those days. BLITZER: I remember Desert One in Iran even earlier.

POWELL: Desert One in Iran. But in Panama in 1989, we went in before the invasion with Delta Force at that time, to rescue a CIA agent who had been captured by the Panamanians. And we landed on the roof of this building, got down there, killed a couple of guards, got the guy out, the helicopter took off and immediately landed on the street. It lost its power.

And we were, fortunately, able to get to that helicopter before anything else happened and we saved our guy.

But there always is risk in these kinds of operations. Things go wrong. Mistakes happen. But in this case, it was executed brilliantly.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment, General.

We have a lot more to discuss.

We're going to continue our conversation with General Powell.

We'll take a quick break.

I want to know whether or not he believes the photo of Osama bin Laden's body should be released to the world by the U.S. government.

We're going to hear General Powell's answer when we come back.

Also, did Osama bin Laden deserve a burial in compliance with Muslim tradition?

U.S. officials say that's what he received. We're taking a look at the pains taken to respect bin Laden's religion.

Also, people have gathered at the sites of the 9/11 attacks to celebrate bin Laden's death.

But are they putting themselves at risk for a new attack by Al Qaeda followers?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to show live pictures of United Nation Security Council in New York. A statement circulated by the U.S. delegation, obviously, supporting the death of Bin Laden being circulated. They're hoping that the current president of the Security Council, the French ambassador, will read it. We expect that they will, and they will go forward on the record praising in effect the death of Bin Laden.

We're here with Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state. You know, they sat for months and months and months on this information that Bin Laden may be in this compound outside of Islamabad. When you sit on something like that for so long, don't you take the risk that he could be moved at some point and all that so-called actionable intelligence is for not?

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Of course. You always take that risk. It's always a judgment call as to whether how long you wait to act on intelligence and when does it really become actionable, but in this case, they succeeded in keeping this closely held. As you know in your work-up statement, CNN reporters were asking, you know, what do you know? What do you know? And the president just dead panned. That's only way to do it.

The most important thing in an operation like this is operational security, be called (ph), keeping the circle of people knowledgeable about what you're doing as close as possible and as small as possible.

BLITZER: It's amazing that no leaks in all of those months about this compound, that no one knew, no compromise of this situation. You're smiling.

POWELL: It is amazing in this day and age.

BLITZER: Yes.

POWELL: But I know these folks, and I know how they work, and I know that it's possible to keep these kinds of secrets, but it takes quite an effort to do so, and you have to make sure that there's nobody in a position to leak any of it.

BLITZER: These are new pictures that White House has released. We heard the president in the White House situation room with his national security team. You see the vice president over there. You saw Tom Donilon, the national security adviser. You see Bob Gates and Hillary Clinton there. They were all in the situation room over at the White House during those very agonizing 40 minutes waiting for word that Bin Laden had been killed.

Over the past, since you've learned about it, have you spoken with former President Bush , former Vice President Cheney, Rumsfeld, any of your former colleagues about this?

POWELL: No, I've been busy all day sort of keeping with up the story and doing some press events, but I haven't spoken with them yet.

BLITZER: How disappointing was it for you, for former President Bush, that on your watch, you didn't capture or kill Bin Laden?

POWELL: As disappointing as it was for President Clinton that he wasn't able too. I wish we could have gotten this guy on 9/12, the day after 9/11.

BLITZER: You were close in Tora Bora.

POWELL: We were close, perhaps, in Tora Bora, but we missed the opportunity if the obtain (ph) existed as controversial, but we didn't try to make the --

BLITZER: Why is that?

POWELL: I don't know, but there was evidence and intelligence that suggested he was in the area, but it never got translated into sending forces in there to find him. But, of course, we were disappointed. And I'm sure that everybody was disappointed, but these things take time. It is not that simple to chase somebody around in that kind of terrain and find them with reliable information, but he was found. It took ten years, but he was found, and he was killed.

BLITZER: You know, they gave him a proper Muslim burial at sea. I suppose they didn't want any location where his supporters could come and make him a martyr and celebrate him and be inspired by him. So, they thought the best thing to do is just dump the body at sea. A smart decision?

POWELL: I think it's a very smart decision, and as they said, it's a proper Muslim burial. That's more than he ever gave to the 3,000 people who --

BLITZER: Did he deserve a proper Muslim burial given --

POWELL: That's who we are. That's who we are. We're Americans. And we try to respect beliefs of others, and it would have been not in our interest to have essentially discarded the body if we had the opportunity to give him both a proper Muslim burial.

BLITZER: Should they release the photo of Bin Laden with the bullet in his eye and the dead body?

POWELL: I'll leave that up to the administration to decide. I don't need to see it. He's dead. We all know that. His body has been buried at sea, and I'll leave it up to the administration as to whether it serves any purpose or not.

BLITZER: If you were chairman of the joints chief of staff, what would you recommend to them --

POWELL: Well, I don't know. I haven't seen the picture. I think you have to see the picture to make a judgment as to whether it's in our interest to release it or not.

BLITZER: There will be skeptics out there as you know whether in the Middle East --

POWELL: Even if you show the picture, there'll be skeptics. That's just the nature of the world --

BLITZER: Because they'll say it was photo shopped or whatever.

POWELL: Photoshop which happens a lot these days, but I'm quite sure with the DNA evidence they have, with the pictures they have, as was said -- Mr. Brennan said, he's 99.9 percent sure, and there isn't that little one tenth of one percent hanging out there. This guy is gone. He's dead. He's off the face of earth. And what al Qaeda has lost is their intellectual head, their visionary leader. The person they looked up to, but he wasn't operational any longer. He was isolated in this compound with no telephone, no internet. It's hard to control anything. So, he's gone. But, the threat of terrorism is still there. Al Qaeda has franchised itself out, and we're still in danger. We're not in the kind of danger we were before 9/11. We've done a tremendous job under President Bush and under President Obama to deter and defend ourselves and to go on the offensive against terrorism.

BLITZER: Do you believe that elements of the Pakistani government knew Bin Laden was hiding in this town?

POWELL: I don't know, and I have no basis to make a judgment. I'm not in touch with the Pakistani government, obviously, and I don't know, but I'm sure those are questions that the administration will be discussing with the Pakistani government.

BLITZER: Gen. Powell, thanks very much for coming in.

POWELL: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very much. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state.

Jack Cafferty is joining us right now with the "Cafferty File." Jack, dramatic, historic developments.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good stuff. News of the death of Osama Bin Laden late last night stirring a lot of emotion in this country of ours, shock, joy, sadness, relief for many. Those emotions today, though, in some quarters are being replaced by questions like, "so, what happens now?" The vaguely termed war on terror was launched by President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11. The goal was to ruled out terror organizations like al Qaeda around the world, but the main target, plain and simple, Osama Bin Laden, dead or alive.

It took almost ten years, but we got him. In his address to the nation last night, President Obama said Bin Laden's death does not mark the end of our effort to defeat al Qaeda. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today said, quote, "The battle to stop al Qaeda and its syndicate of terror is not over." And in a statement released last night, former President George W. Bush said, quote, "The fight against terror goes on."

But what does that mean exactly now that the poster child of worldwide terror is dead? As difficult as it was to find and kill Bin Laden in a way, it was the simplest illustration of progress in this so-called war, but what happens now? And is the United States any safer today from terrorism than it was yesterday? Unrest is running rampant throughout the Middle East. Egypt's muslim brotherhood said that U.S. soldiers should leave both Afghanistan and Iraq now that Bin Laden is dead.

U.S. troops will begin partial withdrawal from Afghanistan, we're told, in July, and U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq at the end of this year as part of a security pack with Baghdad, but what if anything will change in that part of the world? Here's the question. What should come next for the United States in the war on terror? Your thoughts, go to the blog, CNN.com/caffertyfile and post a comment -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Getting a lot of tweets from my followers out there on Twitter, Jack. U.S. should declare mission accomplished, victory, get out of Afghanistan, get out of Iraq as quickly as possible. We'll hear what our viewers go have to think. Appreciate it.

We're also learning right now some new information about the so-called courier that U.S. officials say was key to finding Bin Laden. Just ahead, a live report from Islamabad in Pakistan.

Plus, the mission was capture or kill. Up next, we're going step by step inside the dramatic raid on Bin Laden's compound. Stay with us. You're in the SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Growing questions this hour about what exactly happened to the body of Osama Bin Laden in the hours after he was killed. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is joining us now with that part of the story. Barbara, how do we know for sure that it was, indeedn, Bin Laden that was shot?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: OK. Wolf, here's how it goes. U.S. officials are saying that when the troops, when the navy S.E.A.L.S got into that room and killed Bin Laden, first thing is facial recognition. There's no evidence that he altered his appearance. They knew right away. This is a man that is recognizable to the world, tall, thin, beard, everybody knows his face. That was the first thing.

There are also photos of him. They did some biometric matching, looking at the pattern of the nose, the ears, the eyes, again, the beard. I've talked to two officials who have seen a photograph taken of Bin Laden after he was killed. They say he is recognizable. If President Obama decides to release that photo to the world, we are told you will recognize, you will know that it is Osama Bin Laden. They also did DNA matching just to be sure.

BLITZER: What did the U.S. military, Barbara, do with his body after killing him?

STARR: Well, what they didn't want to do is bury him somewhere where his body could become a shrine, if you will, for militants where al Qaeda would gather and use it as a propaganda or recruiting tool. They put him on an aircraft, and they flew him out to the Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier that was stationed out in the North Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan and, Wolf, they buried him at sea.

There were Islamic prayers said, we are told. They wrapped him in a white cloth in a weighted bag, and basically, to be blunt, they tossed him overboard, and that's how they buried Osama Bin Laden.

BLITZER: Behind the scenes, Barbara, what's still worrying the U.S. military and intelligence committee?

STARR: You know, Wolf, I think at the end of the day, after all this conversation around the world, U.S. officials are still quite concerned about another threat emerging, about another attack, and they are watching very carefully one fact. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's number two who has seen with him and videos over the years, made a number of his own videos, is still out there. No one knows where he is.

And in recent years, it is a fact that the U.S. believed Bin Laden was becoming more of a symbolic figure head. It was this man, Ayman al- Zawahiri, who, basically, over the years, continued to exert operational control over al Qaeda, diminished as it was. This is the man they want to now get. This is now the powerhouse, if you will, left behind after Osama Bin Laden's death, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. I think he's now the most wanted man in the world. Barbara, thanks very much.

U.S. intelligence, apparently, would have never found the mansion where Bin Laden was hiding if they hadn't honed in on one of this trusted couriers. This is just one of the main pieces of this remarkable puzzle that lead to Bin Laden's death. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, he's in Islamabad, Pakistan, not that far from where Bin Laden was hiding out.

What do we know about this part of the story, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

From early this morning, Pakistani officials are trying to push their involvement out on this really, suggesting they had operatives on the ground. But by the afternoon it was clear that they hadn't. One thing they were saying, though, was they had been regularly supplying electronic transfer information, phone records, et cetera, to the Americans.

Now, one thing a senior Pakistani official said to me here was they had let part of this information slip off their radar, but the Americans have focused in on that same information and used it to find the compound. It appears to be phone taps, phone information relating to one of the couriers who seems to have gone back and forth from the compound. That appears to have been the main method in which the compound was originally located.

This whole focus I think began back in September, last year, they were saying -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, I think they have been looking for this courier for some time.

Do we know for sure that this courier who was the tip, that led the U.S. intelligence community to this mansion outside of Islamabad, do we know if this courier was one of these so-called two couriers who was killed in this mission? WALSH: I do not know that for sure, to be honest. The Pakistani official I was speaking to wouldn't go into details about the courier. But I think they were more just trying to suggest here that there was a key Pakistani role in the operation.

Islamabad, very keen, to be sure, that American audiences hear that they had a key role in finding bin Laden, that they weren't colluding to try and brush away suggestions that somehow, Pakistani intelligence officials must have known that he was there, had he been there for months in this large garrison town not too far away from the capital -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We're going to probably hear much of that line from Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Nick. He's going to be here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

But the Pakistani officials in Islamabad, where you are, they know what U.S. officials are saying, that the U.S. shared no information with the Pakistani government and, indeed, did not even consult or inform the Pakistani government of what was going on until all of those U.S. helicopters and troops and bin Laden's body were out of their country. They know that, which suggests that the U.S. simply did not trust Pakistan.

WALSH: Absolutely. I mean, the same senior Pakistani intelligence official was saying, simply, the helicopters arrived over the compound undetected, that Pakistan did not know they were coming and did not know they were there until they were already on the job, on the operation.

Obviously, a 40-minute firefight, 40-minute operation did cause a Pakistani response, and that's obviously why the Americans left the country very quickly and didn't inform officially the Pakistani government what they had done until they were well out of Pakistan air space. But trust absolutely the key issue here.

It would, frankly, have been an enormous surprise if the Americans decided they could trust the Pakistanis with a piece of information as vital as this, going after their most wanted individual here, bin Laden. Really, the last few months seeing an absolutely deterioration in Pakistani-American relations.

The drone strikes, causing Pakistan officials to demand that America curtail its attacks on the tribal areas using Predator drones, and also the instance of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who shot two men dead in Lahore, really fueling anti-American sentiment in the Pakistani public here. And also fueling those conspiracy theories that there is a large number of covert CIA operatives in the country, frankly borne out, perhaps, by today's operation -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh, in Islamabad for us.

Thank you, Nick.

Bin Laden is dead. Here's the question, though. Is the United States safer from a terrorist attack right now, or is the U.S. even more at risk? We'll talk about the fear that al Qaeda followers will now want revenge.

And was bin Laden able to hide out in Pakistan with the help of local government figures? Top U.S. officials say they aren't ruling it out.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, he will be here live in THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll press him for answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That's the new special issue of our sister publication, "TIME" magazine. Take a look. There you see bin Laden. Enough said with the "X."

It's very, very similar to a May 2, 1945 issue of "TIME" magazine. There you see Hitler. Similar treatment that "TIME" magazine gave Hitler then, bin Laden now.

Bin Laden's death is drawing a somber crowd in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, somewhat different from the ones we're seeing in New York, as well as here in Washington. Americans there are reflecting, they are celebrating the heroes of Flight 93.

Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In that tiny Pennsylvania field where a jumbo jet crashed into the hearts of a nation, Americans remember and prayed. Some brought flowers and left messages.

CLAY MANKAMYER, SHANKSVILLE RESIDENT: Score one for the good guys.

ACOSTA: Shanksville resident Clay Mankamyer hung a headline.

MANKAMYER: In response to Todd Beamer's request, when he said, "Let's roll," we're still rolling and we haven't forgotten.

ACOSTA: Still rolling are the memories of the decision made by Todd Beamer and the rest of Flight 93's passengers and crew that forced the hijacked plane into the ground here before it hit the nation's capital.

JAN WALLISH, FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL VISITOR: Those brave people, I can't imagine what that must have been like, being in the back of that plane, and the fact that they knew what they had to do.

ACOSTA: On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the first section of the national memorial will open on this site, posing to it's visitor a simple question --

KEITH NEWLIN, FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL SUPERINTENDENT: What would you do if you got on a plane tomorrow and you were faced with the same situation?

ACOSTA: As Americans reflect on what may be the final phase in the war on al Qaeda, there is still a place to remember the first skirmish in a long struggle.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: From Pennsylvania to Ground Zero, New York, stand by to hear more from some Americans who lost loved ones, the heroes of the 9/11 attacks.

And this is being billed as one of the most significant days yet in the war on terror. We're taking a closer look at al Qaeda's threat to the world now that bin Laden is dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The good news for the U.S. and for so much of the world, almost everyone, bin Laden is dead. But there is concern that some of his followers may plot revenge right now.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve is working this part of the story for us.

What are you finding out?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a U.S. official says an Osama bin Laden tape may surface. The official says it was made a long time ago and will contain what the official called "standard propaganda." But could it raise the risk of a counterattack? Officials say at this point, there is no specific intelligence that retaliatory strikes are in the works, but the intelligence and law enforcement communities are on heightened alert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): At the Pentagon memorial to 9/11 victims, the parents of Chris Romeo Bishendot (ph) celebrated Osama bin Laden's death with champagne.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sucker is gone.

MESERVE: But throughout government, the celebration is tempered by concerns at what al Qaeda, its affiliates, or sympathizers might do next.

JOHN BRENNAN, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It may be a mortally wounded tiger that still has some life in it and it's dangerous, and we need to keep up the pressure, we cannot relent, because there are individuals in that organization that are determined to try to carry out attacks and murder innocent men, women and children.

MESERVE: There is no specific credible information about a possible counter-punch, so the Department of Homeland Security has not raised the threat level. But security in some places was ramped up any way. In New York, for instance, where bin Laden struck his deadliest blow.

COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: There are no specific threats against New York City as of this moment, but we certainly are not taking any chances. Our assumption is that bin Laden's disciples would like nothing better than to avenge his death by another attack in New York.

MESERVE: And the D.C. metro system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This increase is not related to any specific threat to our system. Rather, than it is out of an abundance of caution.

MESERVE: But elsewhere, officials took a wait-and-see attitude. In Los Angeles, for instance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if the need arises, we will change our posture. But thus far, our posture remains the same.

MESERVE: Even in aviation, which al Qaeda and its affiliated have attacked repeatedly, some passengers saw no signs of increased security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There don't seem to be any problems. As a matter of fact, I don't even see any armed guards around.

MESERVE: Meanwhile, an intelligence community task force is sifting through what's called a robust collection of materials found at the compound where bin Laden was killed. Officials hope it will lead them to other members of al Qaeda.

BRENNAN: Al Qaeda is something in the past, and we're hoping to bury the rest of al Qaeda along with bin Laden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: The intelligence and law enforcement communities are strengthening their efforts to gather and analyze intelligence, hoping to detect any retaliatory attacks that may be put it motion, though officials say they are not aware of any specific threats at this time. Bin Laden's death was announced less than 24 hours ago, and no one thinks the coast is clear -- Wolf.

BLITZER: They have got to be prudent at this point given the history.

MESERVE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Jeanne.

CNN is just now getting some new amateur video of bin Laden's compound in Pakistan after the raid. We're going to show it to you. Stand by for that.

Also, an elite U.S. assault team fighting its way through bin Laden's compound. Ahead, step by step inside the dramatic raid that took his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: I just want to remind our viewers, we're standing by. We've got some new video just coming into THE SITUATION ROOM of bin Laden's compound outside of Islamabad. We're going to show it to you. You're going to want to see this. Stand by for that.

In the meantime, let's go to Jack. He's got "The Cafferty File" -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: The question this hour is: In the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden, what should come next for the United States and the war on terror?

Johnny writes from Los Angeles, "Our new war on terror should put the crosshairs of justice on the Mexican drug cartels. The Mexican cartels have collectively killed 15 times as many people as those who died on 9/11. This terror is right across our border and is infiltrating America on a daily basis."

Michael in Virginia suggests, "Finding the cash source for building bin Laden's mansion and rooting that out. When they don't have bribes to pay Pakistani internal security forces, they will quickly all be in custody or dead."

Joyce in Wisconsin says, "Get the heck out of these other countries and take care of our own. Protect America and stop nation-building. We look as bad as England did when they were trying to take over the world."

Joe in New York writes, "Now is the time to let the other dictators know that we're not kidding around and recommend that they step down now."

John in California, "Retaliation by al Qaeda or any Islamic radicals in the Middle East is very possible. The new and expected leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. That's the group that's helped destabilize parts of the Middle East and Egypt and Libya. I just have this gnawing pain in the pit of my stomach that something else more sinister is coming."

Greg in Texas writes, "Find al-Zawahiri and send him to sleep with the fishes like his good buddy. Then begin withdrawals from Afghanistan and tell their government that their leaders will share the same fate if they support al Qaeda or any attacks on the United States."

Marty in Boston, "I think we've already taken the next step by sending a clear message to another terrorist in particular, Moammar Gadhafi. That message to him is this: no, Moammar, those bombs in Tripoli were not meant for you. We were aiming at military assets."

"We don't target individuals. Oh, by the way, have you heard the latest on Osama bin Laden?"

Martha writes, "We must remain ever vigilant on the war on terror, but we should also bring all our troops home from the Middle East because our mission there now is over."

If you want to read more on this, we've got a lot of e-mail. Go to the blog, CNN.com/caffertyfile -- Wolf. BLITZER: Yes. I was saying earlier, Jack, a lot of the viewers out there, my Twitter followers, they're saying, you know what? Have the president of the United States declare victory, mission accomplished, bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

There's 100,000 U.S. troops there, by the way, at a cost of about $2 billion a week, more than $100 billion a year. Bring the remaining 50,000 troops home from Iraq and move on. I suspect that would win a lot of support, but there are a lot of people resisting that, as you know.

CAFFERTY: Well, you think that's going to happen? I don't.

BLITZER: No, I don't think it will happen.

CAFFERTY: No, I don't either.

BLITZER: But I'm just saying --

CAFFERTY: It's a good idea, but --

BLITZER: -- that's what a lot of people would like to see.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes. I would like to see it, too, but it's not going to happen.

BLITZER: All right.

Jack is going to come back shortly. Stand by.

One of the worst days ever in this country showed us some of the greatest heroes America has to offer. We're going to hear from the families of the brave men and women who responded first to the attacks at Ground Zero.

And I'll ask Pakistan's ambassador to the United States if his country gave bin Laden any aid or cover that allowed him to hide out so close to the Pakistani capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: All right. This is the video we've been talking about, amateur video taken of the bin Laden compound by, apparently, a neighbor who made the video available to us.

You can see this compound there where bin Laden was hiding, almost in plain sight there. A huge mansion, if you will, surrounded by Pakistani military installations.

This is not some remote area, a mountainous area. This is certainly no cave. This is a pretty luxurious place. We're told that the real estate value of that mansion in Pakistan, around $1 million.

Now, we'll show you more of that.

Let me show you some of the "Hot Shots" coming in, reactions from around the world to the death of Osama bin Laden.

In El Salvador, a man at a newsstand holds up a front-page newspaper headline.

In Helmand province, in Afghanistan, a U.S. Marine watches CNN's coverage of the announcement.

In Washington, a man in an American flag bodysuit celebrates in front of the White House.

And in New York City, firefighters joined the celebrations late last night in Times Square.

Just some of the images coming in from around the world.

For the families of the hundreds of firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11, today is a day many of them thought might never come.

Mary Snow is joining us now from Ground Zero with some of their stories -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Wolf, you k now, you definitely get a sense of euphoria around Ground Zero, but also a sense of reflection, with people placing flowers in the church gate behind me at St. Paul's, some American flags, and for firefighters and families of firefighters remembering the 343 firefighters who were killed on September 11th. This was definitely a day of mixed emotions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): It was the day they'd been waiting for. Maureen and Al Santora came to this fire house where their son Christopher worked. He was one of 15 firefighters from Engine 54 killed on September 11th. This Manhattan station, suffering huge losses that day.

MAUREEN SANTORA, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: At the moment, I'm on a high, because I feel my son's, you know, joy and exhilaration, that this very evil man was captured and killed by Americans. You know? And I just feel his presence, that he's just, "Right on, good for the soldiers."

And, I mean, I can hear him yelling and screaming. And he'd be dancing in the streets today, my son.

SNOW: But that elation was mixed with deep emotion for her husband Al, who was also a firefighter for 40 years.

AL SANTORA, FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: We never can bring them back, but we can do everything we can to bring the people who were possible to justice. And that's what happened today. It's a win for the United States of America, it's a win for everybody in the world, the free world. And hopefully we'll have some more wins, and it makes it a little easier.

PETER REGAN, LADDER 174: I have an added respect for my military brothers.

SNOW: Thirty-year-old Peter Regan is now a firefighter in Brooklyn, following the steps of his father Donald, who was killed on 9/11. Regan is also a Marine who was deployed to Iraq twice.

(on camera): A lot of people are saying they didn't want to use the word "closure."

REGAN: No, I don't feel any closure. I mean, there's always -- like I said, he's a big chapter, he's a big forefront, he's the main target. But, you know, I mean, there's someone behind him. For me, closure would be letting the guard down. And I'm not ready to do that.

SNOW (voice-over): But for a moment in Times Square Sunday night, some firefighters stopped to take in the news and were touched to watch hundreds of people celebrate word of bin Laden's death.

CAPT. THOMAS VENDITTO, ENGINE 54: Last night people came out of their hotel rooms, they came out of theaters, wherever they were, in restaurants. They showed up and they smiled, and they kissed us and hugged us, and took photos and cheered us on.

And it's not just about us. It's about the United States. They were cheering the United States, they were cheering the firefighters, they were cheering our troops. It's all good things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And New York City's fire commissioner told us that his elation only lasted for a few moments, that he is very concerned about retaliation and told firefighters to be extremely cautious -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mary Snow in New York for us.

Thank you.