Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton makes a statement regarding the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday.
By Jacquelyn Martin, APSecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton makes a statement regarding the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday.
"You cannot defeat us," Clinton said at the State Department, urging al-Qaeda members to renounce the terror organization and back U.S. efforts to stop violence against innocents. "The fight continues and we will never waver."Clinton said bin Laden's death was a milestone in the war on terrorism, but stressed that the "battle to stop al-Qaeda and its syndicate of terror" is not over. Clinton said cooperation with Pakistan helped lead the U.S. to the compound where bin Laden was killed and the U.S. would continue to boost its counterterrorism cooperation with other nations, including Pakistan.
But John Brennan, White House advisor on Homeland Security, said at a press briefing Monday that it was inconceivable that bin Laden didn't have some kind of support in Pakistan.
"People are raising questions and understandably so," he said. "A number of people have questions on whether there was some kind of support by the Pakistani government."
The death of bin Laden, while celebrated in the U.S. and other countries that have been al-Qaeda's targets, is likely to set off a spasm of attacks aimed at re-establishing the terror organization's international credentials and avenging the killing of its longtime leader, security analysts said.
"Decapitation does not mean the end of the movement," said Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman, who has studied terrorism and insurgencies for more than three decades.
Hoffman said al-Qaeda's surviving franchises are likely to be joined by other aspiring groups jockeying to fill a leadership void left in the wake of bin Laden's death.
"Some may see this as an opportunity to steal the limelight," Hoffman said. "While the risk may go up, the good news is that in the rush to do something, some of these (attacks) may go off half-cocked" and allow U.S. officials to learn more about the surviving terror networks.
The head of the House Homeland Security Committee said Monday that the United States must temper victory with vigilance in the wake of bin Laden's assassination.
Rep. Pete King told NBC's Today show the al-Qaeda terrorist organization could "try to avenge this death" and said "we'll have to be on full alert."
The New York Republican predicted "a fight for power" within al-Qaeda. King also said there will be "round-the-clock" government surveillance to determine if al-Qaeda is planning or organizing a retaliatory attack. He said federal agencies will be trying to find out if an attack is possible or imminent, "and how we can prevent it, how we can stop it."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the government has no plans to raise the terror alert level in the U.S. as a result of bin Laden's death.
Napolitano said elevated terror alerts will only be issued when the government has specific or credible intelligence it can share with the American public.
Some communities around the country, including the New York City subway system, have increased security out of concerns of potential retaliation attacks. Napolitano said the country remains at a heightened state of vigilance, and the U.S. is safer than it was on Sept. 11, 2001 because bin Laden is dead.
Retaliatory attacks against the U.S. and Western targets could come from members of al-Qaeda's core branch in the tribal areas of Pakistan, al-Qaeda franchises in other countries, and radicalized individuals in the U.S. with al-Qaeda sympathies, according to a Homeland Security Department intelligence alert issued Sunday and obtained by the Associated Press.
Bin Laden was more of a symbol than anything else, said Qaribut Ustad Saeed, a longtime member of the Hezb-e-Islami rebel group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the U.S. has labeled a terrorist.
Saeed is currently a member of the Afghan High Peace Council set up to try to negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban. Bin Laden's loss will be an inspirational one, rather than an operational one, he said.
"Osama bin Laden became a symbol and inspiration for the young Muslim extremists," he said. But the group has expanded into a worldwide movement that is now bigger than bin Laden, he said.
Family members of those killed in the World Trade Center attack were cautious Monday about the future.
"This is a good thing and it needed to happen. But it doesn't change everything," said Lynn Faulkner of Mason, Ohio, who lost his wife Wendy at the World Trade Center, where she was on business. "It's one battle in a war. He was a figurehead."
"It's not an end to anything," said Neda Bolourchi of Los Angeles, a Muslim whose mother Touri was a passenger on United Flight 175, which hijackers crashed into the World Trade Center. "His ideology is still rampant in the Arab world. But this is a dent. You wonder ? 'Is it really gonna make a difference?' Symbolically it does. … Justice was done."
"I've been waiting for this for 10 years," said Sheila Flocco of Wilmington, Del., whose only child -- 21-year-old Matthew -- was among those killed at the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into it. "I know it's probably putting our country in danger again. Retaliation for his death could come and I'd hate to see that happen. But in the same breath, I'm glad they finally got him."
The State Department issued a worldwide advisory to U.S. citizens traveling and living abroad about the potential for anti-American violence in the wake of bin Laden's death.
"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," the advisory said.
U.S. government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert, the State Department said, and some may temporarily close or suspend public services when necessary.
Mark Lytle, Bard College historian and co-author of the American history textbook, Nation of Nations, called the killing of bin Laden "a shot in the arm for America's image," especially compared to the debacle that resulted when President Jimmy Carter mounted a similar effort to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980.
"Americans can take a certain comfort that we were able to do this, especially in a period that's been pretty grim for the average citizen," he said Monday.
But for all the euphoria, Lytle said bin Laden's demise probably seems more important now than it will in retrospect.
"This is sweet revenge, but it won't change much," he said. "Sept. 11 will be remembered because so much changed."
Contributing: Johnson and David Jackson reported from Washington, D.C.; Hampson reported from New York; Carolyn Pesce in McLean, Va.; Tim Konski and Beth Miller, The (Wilmington, Del.) News-Journal; the Associated Press.
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