The FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” has a new opening now that Osama bin Laden is dead.
The bureau wasted no time at all slapping the word “Deceased” in big white letters on a red background at the bottom of his photograph less than 12 hours after President Barack Obama announced to the world during a dramatic late-night statement.
The al Qaeda leader, killed in a U.S. helicopter raid on a mansion compound near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, was among those on the “Most Wanted Terrorists” list when then-President George W. Bush went to FBI headquarters for its unveiling after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Bin Laden already had been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list and the U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to say whether any of the reward would be paid out.
He was added in 1999 after the al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and in Kenya a year earlier. Bin Laden has been the only person on both lists, which appear on the FBI’s Web site.
