http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-live-blogger
Osama bin Laden killed -
how a live blogger captured the raid
Pakistani IT consultant's tweets about a helicopter in Abbottabad swiftly
turned into dramatic account of Bin Laden's final minutes
Amelia Hill
After a car accident that nearly killed his wife and five-year-old son,
Sohaib Athar exchanged his "big-city life" in Lahore for what he hoped
would be a more peaceful pace.
The 33-year old Pakistani software consultant chose the small town of
Abbottabad. "[I decided to] take a break from the rat race by hiding in
the mountains with [my] laptops," he said.
But as Sunday night became Monday morning in northern Pakistan, Athar
suddenly found himself at the centre of the biggest news story in the
world - and, without quite knowing what he was witnessing, began live
blogging the raid on Osama bin Laden's hiding place.
Athar reported on his Twitter account - @ReallyVirtual - about a
"helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1am (is a rare event). Go away
helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/"
Moments later, he tweeted that a loud bang had rattled his windows, adding
that he hoped it was "not the start of something nasty".
It was not the first time Athar had noticed strange goings-on in his
neighbourhood: on 10 November, 2010, he saw lots of helicopters and planes
over the town.
This morning, however, things moved more quickly. "Seems like my giant
swatter worked!" he tweeted, attaching a link to an online Pakistan News
story reporting that the blast heard near the big military academy of
Kakool was rumoured to be a helicopter crash.
But already the online community had begun questioning the official
version of events: "The few people online at this time of the night are
saying one of the 'copters was not Pakistani," he added, moments later.
"Since Taliban (probably) don't have helicopters, and since they're saying
it was not 'ours', so must be a complicated situation ... people are
saying it was not a technical fault and it was shot down. I heard it
CIRCLE 3-4 times above, sounded purposeful ... The gunfight lasted perhaps
4-5 minutes, I heard."
After several hours, Athar realised he had witnessed the end of a
worldwide manhunt for the man held responsible for orchestrating the
September 11 attacks.
"I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and the President
Obama breaking news address are connected," tweeted Munzir Naqvi, one of
Athar's followers.
Sure enough, seven hours after Athar's first tweet, Barack Obama announced
Bin Laden's death in an operation by US forces where one helicopter was
lost.
Athar responded with verve: "Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood :-/"
As news of his coup spread and the number of his followers exploded to
more than 21,000, Athar found his email inbox, Skype and Twitter accounts
flooded by those trying to reach him. His humour turned to exasperation:
"Ok, I give up. I can't read all the @ mentions so I'll stop trying ...
this is insane ... I have other commitments."
With the world's media beating a path to his door, the IT consultant tried
to downplay his exclusive: "Can't handle the rush .. I am JUST a tweeter,
awake at the time of the crash. Not many twitter users in Abbottabad,
these guys are more into Facebook. That's all."
Soon he had had enough: "Need to sleep ... Funny, moving to Abbottabad was
part of the 'being safe' strategy."
And then: "Bin Laden is dead. I didn't kill him. Please let me sleep now."
--
Peace Is Doable
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