Bin Laden Widows, Daughters Face Deportation

Osama bin Laden’s three widows and two daughters could be deported from Pakistan after their period of house detention expired.

From CNN:

A Pakistani judge ordered earlier this month that the five women be deported back to their countries of citizenship after serving their sentence for living illegally in Pakistan.

The 45-day detention period ended Tuesday night, said Aamir Khalil, the widows’ lawyer. But he said he had no information on when they would be deported.

The widows — identified by U.S. and Pakistani officials as Amal Ahmed Abdul Fateh, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar — have been in Pakistani custody since U.S. Navy SEALs raided bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad and killed the al Qaeda leader in May 2011.

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Osama Bin Laden Dead

The mastermind of the worst terrorist attack on American soil has been killed.

In a speech made this evening by President Barack Obama, U.S. special forces have killed Osama bin Laden.

Now…let’s see the photos…

From MSNBC:

“Justice has been done,” the president declared as crowds formed outside the White House to celebrate, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “We Are the Champions,” NBC News reported.

Obama said the 54-year-old bin Laden, whom he called a terrorist “responsible for the murder of thousands of American men, women and children,” was killed in Pakistan earlier in the day after a firefight in a military operation that was based on U.S. intelligence. Other U.S. officials said one of bin Laden’s sons and two of his most trusted couriers also were killed, as was an unidentified woman who was used as a human shield.

2 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan

According to reports from CNN, two American NATO-led troops were killed by an Afghan Border Police officer Monday.

From CNN:

The victims were teaching a group of border policemen in a meeting room in Faryab in northern Afghanistan, according to the deputy governor of Faryab province, Abdul Sattar Bariz.

The gunman escaped on foot, running toward the desert, Bariz said.

“Initial reports say that there were about six Americans inside the meeting room and only two of them have been killed,” he said, adding that he did not have many other details.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said earlier two NATO troops had been killed after an individual wearing an Afghan police uniform opened fire.

The NATO-led force did not identify the nationality of the dead.

Al Qaeda Chief Beheaded Daniel Pearl

According to new reports, a senior al Qaeda leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl back in 2002.

From CNN:

“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,” Mohammed said, according to a Pentagon transcript released nearly four years ago. “For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”

The new report erases any doubts that Mohammed personally carried out the beheading.

Twelve Terror Suspects Captured in Britain

British counter-terror police arrested 12 men this morning in a “large-scale, pre-planned, intelligence-led” operation.

From CNN:

The suspects, aged from 17 to 28, were arrested in London, Cardiff in Wales and Stoke in central England. They are due to be questioned Monday, West Midlands police said.

They are all of Pakistani descent, a security source who did not want to be identified told CNN.

Britain’s domestic intelligence service, known as MI5, led the operation, the source said.

The suspects were not planning a “Mumbai-style” attack, where gunmen sprayed bullets at crowded public places in India, and there is no known link to a suicide bombing in Sweden earlier this month, according to the source.

Richard Holbrooke Dies

Richard Holbrooke, a U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers and served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died today at the age of 69.

From CNN:

The 69-year-old diplomat died Monday at George Washington University Hospital. He was admitted last Friday after feeling ill. Doctors performed surgery Saturday to repair a tear in his aorta.

One of the world’s most recognizable diplomats, Holbrooke’s career spanned from the Vietnam War-era to the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, coinciding with presidencies of the past five decades, from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama.

He also worked as a journalist and an investment banker. But as a diplomat, he was plain-speaking, accessible, and known for his tough-mindedness.

“He was known as a bit of bull in a China shop,” said Nic Robertson, CNN’s senior international correspondent who knew and covered Holbrooke.

Times Square Bomber Receives Life In Prison

Faisal Shahzad, the man who plotted to drive a homemade car bomb into Times Square, leaving it to explode,  has been sentenced to life in prison.

Credit: Associated Press

From the Associated Press:

A judge gave Faisal Shahzad (FY’-sul shah-ZAHD’) a mandatory life prison term at his sentencing Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The bomb he had packed into the back of an SUV sputtered, injuring no one in a Times Square packed with tourists.

Calling himself a Muslim solider, a defiant Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to 10 terrorism and weapons counts.

Shahzad, a former budget analyst from Connecticut and a Pakistani immigrant, was arrested two days after his May 1 attempted bombing.

From CNN:

Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to all 10 counts in an indictment against him. At the time, he told the court, “I want to plead guilty 100 times because unless the United States pulls out of Afghanistan and Iraq, until they stop drone strikes in Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen and stop attacking Muslim lands, we will attack the United States and be out to get them.”

Charges against Shahzad included attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy and attempt to commit international terrorism, among others, authorities have said.