With five-year delay, CIA 'live-tweets' bin Laden raid

The CIA has marked the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden by live-tweeting - with a five-year delay - the raid by U.S. special forces on the al-Qaeda founder's compound in Pakistan.

Using the hashtag #UBLRaid, the CIA blasted out updates of the May 2011 strike as if it was unfolding in real time - in a highly unusual move for the secretive spy agency.

"To mark the 5th anniversary of the Usama Bin Ladin operation in Abbottabad we will tweet the raid as if it were happening today. #UBLRaid," @CIA said in announcing its social media blitz.

Tweets included the now famous picture of U.S. President Barack Obama and other high-ranking U.S. officials watching matters unfold from the White House's Situation Room.

"1:51 pm EDT - Helicopters depart from Afghanistan for compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan #UBLRaid," read one tweet.

"3:30 pm EDT - 2 helicopters descend on compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 1 crashes, but assault continues without delay or injury #UBLRaid," read another.

That was followed just minutes later by: "3:39 pm EDT - Usama Bin Ladin found on third floor and killed #UBLRaid." 

The CIA's Twitter move got quite a bit of attention, with not everyone enthused.

"@CIA Are we tweeting Hiroshima on August 6th too? Or is THAT in bad taste?" tweeted one user, Kris Knight.

Another who is identified as Amber V tweeted: "Don't you have better things to do, like catch living and breathing bad guys, or secretly invade our privacy, or something? @CIA#UBLRaid"  

But others reacted positively.

"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," tweeted Toby Knapp.

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