The news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces was broken via Twitter, according to a report Sunday night.
According to The New York Times, credit for the leak went to Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for Donald Rumsfeld and a former Navy intelligence officer. His tweet, "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn," was credited by The Times as the first to report the news.
Urbahn later tweeted, "Don't know if its true, but let's pray it is." He also speculated on the means that bin Laden was killed: "Highly unlikely that if we had credible info on UBL's location that Hellfires from a drone would be the weapon of choice."
At 11:35 PM, President Obama confirmed the news in a primetime address, adding that bin Laden had been killed after a firefight with American troops, who had later recovered the body.
On Twitter, news of bin Laden's death spread like wildfire, complete with fake accounts (@OsamainHell and @GhostOsama) and chatter about how, when, where, and what was accomplished, along with comments about President Obama's recent birth certificate flap and other chatter.
And, of course, there were just those who reveled in the moment. "Does anyone else find it moving hearing people singing our national anthem outside the white house gates? I do," CNN's Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) wrote.