This weekend marked the 5th anniversary of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan that led to the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Barack Obama marked the fateful date in an interview with CNN in which he said “hopefully, at that [final] moment, [Bin Laden] understood that the American people hadn’t forgotten the some 3,000 people who he killed.”
Elsewhere, the CIA marked the occasion by “live-tweeting” the 2011 raid as it unfolded…
Features
High walls/barbed wire
Double entry gates
No internet/phone connection
Trash burned not collected#UBLRaid pic.twitter.com/KyPIFPxA4d— CIA (@CIA) May 1, 2016
…which earned the agency a lot of flak:
https://twitter.com/Hanksingle/status/726830935484698625
@CIA This is unprofessional and serves no edifying purpose. Please stop. Will you reprise this bad idea every year or just to help #Hillary?
— Zippyman818 (@zippyman818) May 1, 2016
But the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death is also an opportunity to revisit one of the day’s more enduring mysteries:
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/726840442881454081
“JUST GOT WORD…”
Just got word that will shock the world – Land of the free…home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 2, 2011
WHO IS YOUR SOURCE, DWAYNE?
5 years since @TheRock knew about Bin Laden before everyone
— eat shit (@theroostarr) May 2, 2016
@DanLeBatardShow I remember where I was when we got Bin Laden. Found out from @TheRock on Twitter of all places.
— scottbwalters (@scottbwalters) April 21, 2016
lol remember when they got Bin Laden & for some reason The Rock knew about it before the rest of us?
— suzanne b. (@suzannishly) January 13, 2016
So just how did The Rock seem to learn the news before everyone else outside of the US government?
In 2011, ‘The Village Voice’ noted how The Rock’s tweet came soon after this message by former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff (and Navy Reserve intel officer) Keith Urbahn (as opposed to Keith Urban):
So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.
— Keith Urbahn (@keithurbahn) May 2, 2011
The newspaper further speculated:
“Our best guess in reference to The Rock’s info comes from the fact that his subsequent tweets praise the Navy SEALs and he’s been known to visit troops overseas. Being an action star and all, he’s probably trained for roles with the military. The common thread between The Rock and Urbahn seems to be a SEALs connection.”
This would seem to line up with what the big man himself told Moviefone in February 2012:
“I got my sources. I got friends in high places and low places. I knew the President was going to give his speech; I thought he was going to give it at a certain time and so I thought, ‘I think it’s appropriate that I tweet ‘I’m damn proud to be an American’ and keep it in that space without giving away too much information’. And then I got a call saying, ‘Now the President will give his speech in a couple of hours.’ So we had about two hours of Rock tweets out there.”
Hmm, maybe this is the real truth and The Rock was just having some fun with us?
Five years ago today, @TheRock killed Osama bin Laden.
— John Martin (@JohnMartin929) May 2, 2016
@pattymo I heard that The Rock killed bin laden with the people's elbow.
— john h (@jfh2c) May 1, 2016
Whatever the explanation, there are sure to be many people out there who would agree with this guy’s view that The Rock’s involvement marks “Twitter’s greatest moment”:
Twitter's greatest moment remains the time The Rock broke the news about Osama bin Laden being killed. https://t.co/k7oOoI5QRu
— Will (@HeyMyNameIsWill) March 21, 2016
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