United States President Barack Obama put out yet another strong message that Osama Bin Laden's killing in Pakistan last Sunday was “justice done” to the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks when he travelled to the site of the attacks in New York City to lay a wreath at a memorial and spoke with the victims' families.
Three days after the nearly decade-long search for America's most wanted terrorist drew to an end, Mr. Obama laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers at Ground Zero in Manhattan, and also spent time talking with fire-fighters, police officers and other first-responder teams that lost numerous colleagues in 2001.
Pursuing justice
Speaking at the “Pride of Midtown” Firehouse he reiterated a message that he, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had alluded to in the past few days — that the U.S. would pursue justice no matter how long it took. “What happened on Sunday, because of the courage of our military and the outstanding work of our intelligence, sent a message around the world, but also sent a message here back home that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say,” he said.
After observing a few minutes' silence at around 1p.m. on a sunny afternoon in New York, the President said the Ground Zero site was symbolic of the “extraordinary sacrifice” that was made on that “terrible day almost ten years ago”.
He conceded, however that the actions of Sunday did not “bring back your friends that were lost”. Speaking to police officers at New York's First Precinct he also hinted that Osama's death would not be the end of terror threats, saying “there are still going to be threats out there and you are still going to be called on to take courageous actions and to remain vigilant.”
Meanwhile reports said that Mr. Obama would be meeting with members of the SEAL team that raided the Abbottabad compound where Osama was killed. On an upcoming visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Friday, an administration official was quoted as saying that the President would meet with Admiral William McRaven, a former SEAL and commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, which oversaw the successful raid.
While he was said to have already met with Admiral McRaven at the White House on Wednesday “to thank him personally in the Oval Office”, in Fort Campbell Mr. Obama “will have the opportunity to privately thank some of the special operators involved in the operation tomorrow at Fort Campbell”, an unnamed official was quoted as saying to the Washington Post .
