Israel Matzav

The guy who broadcast Bin Laden's death live on Twitter (and didn't even know it)

I'm so glad they didn't get Osama Bin Laden in 2001, because we didn't yet have the technology to do this kind of stuff. The picture above is from Twitpic and it's Abbottabad in Pakistan on Monday morning. You can find more of them here.

The picture was taken by Sohaib Athar, a Pakistani who moved from Lahore to Abbottabad for peace and quiet. Mr. Athar, who tweets as ReallyVirtual, accidentally broadcast the entire US operation to liquidate Bin Laden live on Twitter (from a safe distance). Athar's Twitter feed is here and he is now overwhelmed with 'follows.' You can read the liveblog (without following him) by going to that last link and starting from 1:00 am Pakistani time (GMT +4), which is pretty easy to do because it's his first tweet since April 28. Here's a teaser of what you'll find there:

Yes, that's a Google map of Bin Laden's hideout location.

The funniest thing is that the guy goes offline for several hours, and then comes back and realizes what he had done. I hope he's enjoying his 15 hours of fame, and his 15,000 newfound Twitter followers (no, I'm not kidding).

P.S. Abbottabad is now trending worldwide on Twitter along with Osama and OBL. Heh.

P.P.S. As I queue this, he has stopped posting. In the half hour or so I was working on this post, he gained 1,500 followers. So far, I am not following him.

Labels: Abbottabad, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Sohaib Athar, US Navy Seals

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:38 PM