‘Now live-tweet Bay of Pigs’: CIA lambasted online for live-tweeting bin Laden kill
The CIA ‘live-tweeted’ the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan five years on, reporting the operation as if it were happening right now. Some found the social media exercise distasteful and arrogant.
Sunday marked the anniversary of the clandestine US raid, in which Navy SEALs stormed the Abbottabad hideout of the Al-Qaeda leader and killed him. The CIA, which provided intelligence for the operation, decided to mark the event by reenacting it step-by-step in a series of tweets.
3:30 pm EDT - @POTUS watches situation on ground in Abbottabad live in Situation Room#UBLRaidpic.twitter.com/59KPF7eUTr
— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
Preluded by some facts about bin Laden and the operation, the series of tweets closely matched timeline updates from the agency's official article on the operation on its website. One of them embedded the famous picture of President Barack Obama and top US officials waiting for updates in the mission’s Situation Room.
The exercise did get some positive feedback on Twitter.
Watching the @CIA relive on Twitter the #UBLRaid today reminds me of how proud I am of the men and women who do what they do. Thank you.
— toby knapp (@tkradio) May 2, 2016
But many found the whole thing lacked taste and the CIA was oversimplifying things.
@CIA waiting for your last tweet about Pak response during the whole Operation? plz #UBLRaid
— Ramxi Khan Wazir (@RamxiKhan) May 2, 2016
Hey @CIA, now that your #UBLRaid tweet fun is over, tell us what's stopping you from rescuing Dr. Afridi who u abandoned behind enemy lines?
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) May 1, 2016
If you live tweet the Bay of Pigs invasion, call us. Otherwise, stop it. #UBLRaidhttps://t.co/RJ7gwLbh1P
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 2, 2016
The raid to kill bin Laden was conducted without Pakistan’s consent. Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA collect DNA samples through a fake vaccination program in an effort to track down bin Laden, was sentenced for treason and remains in a Pakistani prison.
Vaccination efforts in Pakistan are now in peril, as many people see any doctor offering a vaccine as a likely CIA agent.
Heres what really happened during #UBLRaid, the story @CIA wont livetweet: https://t.co/Af5abc8DDT
— Young Lefty (@chalkupydaytona) May 2, 2016
Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist renowned for breaking the My Lai and Abu Ghraib stories, believes the actual story of bin Laden’s killing differs from the official one. He says the terrorist was given out by a rogue Pakistani official for a reward and killed after capture rather than in a firefight.
Live from CIA Media Cell.#UBLRaidpic.twitter.com/6oHwmRhgfp
— M H T (@HanzalaOfficial) May 1, 2016
CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani defended the live-tweeting of the raid, saying it was an appropriate way to honor those involved.
“The takedown of bin Laden stands as one of the great intelligence successes of all time. History has been a key element of the CIA’s social media efforts,” he told the ABC.
