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The CIA is live-tweeting the Osama bin Laden raid ‘as if it were happening today’

On Twitter, the CIA plays it very, very straight.

by Mark Bergen
Twitter

Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden in a raid authorized by the Obama Administration. To commemorate this, the CIA has decided to live-tweet a behind the scenes recreation of the raid.

Those expecting a riveting treatment of one of the most historic moments of the 21st century may be disappointed. Thus far, the tweets are remarkably banal.

https://twitter.com/CIA/status/726824007220125696

https://twitter.com/CIA/status/726856479920136192

https://twitter.com/CIA/status/726866311725248512

Details of the raid of the compound in Pakistan and bin Laden’s death remain heavily disputed. (The New York Times has an excellent rumination on this.) It does not seem the CIA is interested in wading into the debate.

https://twitter.com/CIA/status/726858500219924480

Unless the CIA Twitter account suddenly switches gears, today’s exercise will fall short of the best Twitter broadcast of the event. That honor goes to the curious IT professional in Pakistan, who unknowingly live-tweeted the rare event five years ago today.

https://twitter.com/reallyvirtual/status/64780730286358528

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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