↩ the History · a speech, filed

Announcing the Death of bin Laden

Barack Obama · the East Room, the White House · May 1, 2011
text: The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara · a work of the United States government, in the public domain
colour carries the act's function; a dashed underline marks a predicted misfire; hover or focus any span for its filing

Good evening. Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Usama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory: hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world: the empty seat at the dinner table; children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father; parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace; nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.

On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

We were also united in our resolve to protect our Nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Al Qaida, an organization headed by Usama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against Al Qaida to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides in that effort. We've disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban Government, which had given bin Laden and Al Qaida safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of Al Qaida terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.

Yet Usama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, Al Qaida continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the Director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against Al Qaida, 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 Usama 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 firefight, they killed Usama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

For over two decades, bin Laden has been Al Qaida's leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our Nation's effort to defeat Al Qaida.

Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort. There's no doubt that Al Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must--and we will--remain vigilant at home and abroad.

As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. I've made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader, he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, Al Qaida has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

Over the years, I've repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we've done. But it's important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding. Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.

Tonight I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts. They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against Al Qaida and its affiliates.

The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as Commander in Chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one or look into the eyes of a servicemember who's been gravely wounded.

So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to Al Qaida's terror: Justice has been done.

Tonight we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who've worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. The American people do not see their work nor know their names, but tonight they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice.

We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country. And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.

Finally, let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.

And tonight let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today's achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.

The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it's the pursuit of prosperity for our people or the struggle for equality for all our citizens, our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.

Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

The divergences

"Justice has been done" — the White House files a Declaration: the verdict is returned by the authority that ordered the operation, and this sentence is the returning of it. A hearer who asks which authority files an Assertion the page cannot support: no court sat, no charge was read, and the passive supplies nobody who did the doing. They part on function. The speech offers three candidates for the doer and settles on none — the operation went ahead "at my direction," it was carried out by "a small team of Americans," and the paragraph after the verdict credits the intelligence professionals with "their pursuit of justice." The agentless passive is what lets each hearer install the author he arrived with.

"Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan" — the podium files an Assertion, a chain of command reported in the order it ran. A listener attending to where the sentence puts its only person files an Avowal: the clause that names an agent names the speaker, and the men who executed the order arrive in the next sentence as "a small team of Americans," without service, unit or number. They part on target — whether the sentence acts on the world or constitutes the man who ordered it. The argument that ran through the following week, over whose achievement this was, was already inside the grammar: "I directed," "I determined," "at my direction," against "they killed Usama bin Laden."

"We must also reaffirm that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam" — the room files an Order, a hortative asking Americans to restate something they are presumed to hold already. A government in Cairo or Islamabad reading the transcript files a Promise, in the tense the sentence hands it: "never will be" commits a state past the term of the man committing it. They part on function, and the construction is what permits both — the commitment travels inside the content of a reaffirmation, so a pledge about the future is delivered in the grammar of a settled belief. The warrant offered for it is domestic: "just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11."

"Our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding" — Washington files an Assertion crediting an ally, and every word of it can be true. Islamabad, which has to explain to its own public how a foreign force reached a compound in a garrison town, files a Palter. They part on motive, and the hinge is a tense one paragraph down: "Tonight I called President Zardari." The paragraph has to establish two things that will not sit together — that the United States acted inside another country on its own authority, and that the country helped — and it establishes them in adjacent sentences without saying which applies to tonight.

"Tonight I can report" — the networks file an Assertion read narrow: first word of a completed operation, the city named, the compound named, the body in custody. A reader who takes the same sentences wide files them against what the page will not say — the professionals are "countless" and unnamed, the men are "a small team of Americans," and both are thanked without being described. They part on scope: whether the announcement ends the secret or discloses exactly as much of it as the work's continuation allows. The archive's Truman page announces a weapon by ranking its own concealment as a credential — "the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost." This page spends the same asset the other way. The secrecy that is kept becomes the thing the country is asked to be grateful for, and "The American people do not see their work nor know their names" is offered as the reason the thanks are owed.

"We can say to those families who have lost loved ones to Al Qaida's terror: Justice has been done," and, four paragraphs on, "we have never forgotten your loss nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores" — the same audience is addressed twice and handed two different things. Read narrow, the first closes a case and the second renews a guarantee. Read wide, the second withdraws the closure the first offered, which the speech has already done once in its own voice: "Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort." They part on scope. The one second person in the speech belongs to the sentence that promises, not to the sentence that files the verdict, and the families are named in the third person at the moment the verdict is spoken over them.

"And tonight let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11" — heard as an Order, an invitation to remember a week the speech has already described. Heard as a Frame-set, a rule about what the remembering will measure: that week becomes the standard, and the decade of argument since is filed, by the sentence immediately after, as fraying. They part on function. "I know that it has, at times, frayed" gives the fraying no cause and no party, in a speech whose account of the same decade is carried by an unbroken "we" — and the paragraph then assigns the night to "the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people," which returns the achievement to the party being asked to remember.