Twitter User Makes History with Real time Tweets on bin Laden Raid
Twitter user unknowingly gave a first-hand account of the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader.
If you’ve ever wondered how social media has changed global communication, consider how the five-year-old phenomena, Twitter, has placed us all only seconds apart, close enough to share events taking place across the world with the stroke of a key.
On Sunday evening, May 1st, President Obama made a special late-night announcement saying that bin Laden was killed, but hours before, a Twitter user located in Pakistan unknowingly gave a first-hand account of the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader while it was actually taking place.
In this cNet article, Sohaib Athar, an independent software consultant, is reported to have been in Abbottabad, Pakistan during the raid that killed bin Laden, where he gave minute-by-minute updates via Twitter on the events that he would only later discover were United States special operations against Osama bin Laden.
His tweets began at 1AM—his time—after he heard a helicopter hovering over the city. According to his tweets, he knew immediately that it could be the beginning of something big, a suspicion that was confirmed only moments later when he heard a “huge window shaking bang.”
His tweets continue less than hours apart as he converses with other Twitter users, speculating about what actually may be happening and gathering information from witnesses. Check out the article for the full string of tweets, but his last comment, after it all comes together, is awesome:
888.504.4678
