Looking for a way to mark Sunday’s fifth anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s demise, someone inside the CIA thought it’d be a good idea to tweet the events leading up to his killing “as if it were happening today.”
Al Qaeda leader Bin Laden was shot dead by Navy SEALs at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011. The raid, the CIA said, marked a significant victory in the U.S.-led campaign to disrupt, defeat, and dismantle the terror group.
Sunday’s tweets, some of which have been embedded below, covered events over a 5.5-hour period, from when the SEAL operatives departed their Afghanistan base on helicopters to when President Obama received “confirmation of high probability of positive identification” of a dead bin Laden.
Join us beginning at 1:25 p.m. EDT today as we tweet the #UBLRaid as if it were happening today. pic.twitter.com/x8EBpW571f
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:30 pm EDT – 2 helicopters descend on compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 1 crashes, but assault continues without delay or injury#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:30 pm EDT – @POTUS watches situation on ground in Abbottabad live in Situation Room#UBLRaid pic.twitter.com/59KPF7eUTr
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
3:39 pm EDT – Usama Bin Ladin found on third floor and killed#UBLRaid
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
However, the agency’s idea to mark the event in this way was heavily mocked by Twitter users, with one suggesting the CIA’s Web team should be relieved of its duties.
CIA doing a rendition of their “greatest hits” for May Day. Tacky af. The Imperium congratulates itself.
— nellalou (@NellaLou) May 1, 2016
@CIA This is grotesque and embarrassing. You should fire your web team.
.@CIA is bragging about an extrajudicial murder. There’s no other way to frame this; Bin Laden should’ve been brought to trial. #UBLRaid
— Zack Struver (@zstruver) May 1, 2016
— Hank Single (@Hanksingle) May 1, 2016
.@CIA pic.twitter.com/fVTpRJapcD
— Freddie Campion (@FreddieCampion) May 1, 2016
Imagine the meeting where this was agreed. ‘Ok guys no ideas are out of bounds – I want cool stuff.’ #UBLRaid https://t.co/JP3gVUEM2A
— No Comb Rick (@nocombrick) May 1, 2016
The Daily Show, too, wasted little time in having a pop:
If you live tweet the Bay of Pigs invasion, call us. Otherwise, stop it. #UBLRaid https://t.co/RJ7gwLbh1P
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 2, 2016
And in further evidence suggesting the CIA’s social media exercise had backfire, plenty of tweets, like those below, attempted to reignite controversial debates surrounding the killing five years ago.
.@CIA is bragging about an extrajudicial murder. There’s no other way to frame this; Bin Laden should’ve been brought to trial. #UBLRaid
— Zack Struver (@zstruver) May 1, 2016
Why dont @CIA begins from the day when Bin Laden was recruited by CIA. We surely want to know the complete and hidden story. #UBLRaid
— kiran Raza (@kiranraza_01) May 1, 2016
But CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani defended the agency’s decision to mark the event in this way, telling ABC News that bin Laden’s killing was “one of the great intelligence successes of all time.”
Trapani added, “History has been a key element of CIA’s social media efforts; on the fifth anniversary, it is appropriate to remember the day and honor all those who had a hand in this achievement.”
What do you think of the CIA’s method for marking the bin Laden raid – a pointless reenactment or a clever way to observe a significant event? Sound off in the comments below.
