CNN's David Gergen says the death of Osama bin Laden boosts Pres. Obama's hand on thorny issues like Libya and the debt.  FULL POST

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who knew Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan as he fought against the Soviets, says the bin Laden he knew died many years ago.  FULL POST

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man who proposed the controversial Islamic center near Ground Zero and as CEO of the Cordoba initiative that tries to connect the Muslim world and the West, says "we're seeing the end of a chapter of terrorism" with the death of Osama bin Laden.  FULL POST

For New Yorkers, many of the strongest memories from September 11 are of the firefighters, police and emergency workers who rushed to the World Trade Center site. 418 first responders died that morning. For those who survived the attack, the death of Osama bin Laden raises complicated feelings.  FULL POST

New Yorker magazine's Lawrence Wright and former CIA station chief in Islamabad Robert Grenier discuss the outlook for al Qaeda following the death of Osama bin Laden. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Capt. Al Hagan, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Local 854 in New York.

Tonight In The Arena, a number of firefighters who served at Ground Zero will speak with Eliot at our World Trade Center location.

Hagan was off-duty at the moment of the attack and scheduled to work that night. Once he found out about what was happening at Ground Zero, he put his bicycle on his car. His daughter, an assistant district attorney, drove him from Queens towards Manhattan. They got as far as they could in the bad traffic. Hagan removed his bike, while his daughter pleaded with him to not go. To retire now. “But that’s what we do,” Hagan said today. “Our job is to go into danger.”

He rode his bike to his firehouse in Spanish Harlem–Ladder Company #43– where firefighters were taken by bus to the World Trade Center. He spent the next month there or at the firehouse. He said, “I didn’t go home for a month.”

What is your reaction to the killing of Osama bin laden?

First of all, some of my reaction is unformed, and I imagine everyone in the country has similar unease. I am hopeful that the families of those members killed on 9-11 will be able to achieve some measure of closure as a result of this successful mission.

And I am grateful to the American intelligence community and the military for succeeding.

But it is very frightening that that the mayor of New York has announced the closing of 20 fire companies in the city and I am concerned that the impact on the security of our citizens—particularly in the event of another terrorist attack-would be devastating. The whole world knows that the Fire Department is one of the cornerstones of homeland security here in New York City. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and global managing editor for The Crescent Post in Washington.

In an opinion essay for CNN.com, you wrote, “In addition to the vast majority of Americans who are relieved by his death, there are more than 1 billion Muslims around the world who salute the fact that bin Laden's ungodly terrorist mischief has finally come to an end. Simply put, there has been no single person in nearly a millennium and a half of Muslim history who has ever hijacked our beloved religion of Islam more than bin Laden.”

Was bin Laden ever considered a Muslim leader?

 Of course not. Osama bin Laden was no more of a Muslim leader than Timothy McVeigh was a Christian leader after the Oklahoma Citybombings.

Sadly, since many Americans do not know any Muslims, OBL became a symbol of Muslims with his long beard and turban. This is one of the reasons that there has been such growing Islamophobia in America, because idiots like Osama bin Laden kept making the global airwaves because people thought he was representing Islam, which one billion Muslims around the world would certainly take issue with.

Since 9/11, have you experienced prejudice as a Muslim?

I think a good portion of the American Muslim community has experienced some degree of prejudice since the tragedy of September 11. FULL POST

Today’s Number of the Day is 800.

U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden on Monday. The terrorist was hiding in a huge compound just 800 yards from the Pakistan Military Academy near Abbottabad—which is just 30 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

On April 23, Pakistani Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani claimed during an address at the academy—home to thousands of army personnel–that the "terrorist backbone had been broken." This is the same general who told Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that U.S. drone attacks in his country’s tribal areas were undermining the war on terrorism.

It’s unclear so far how long bin Laden inhabited the compound or the role that Pakistan may have played in his capture. There’s a good chance that the operation that killed bin Laden was a surprise to Pakistan.

I wage it also surprised most Americans. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s OFF-SET questions is Carie Lemack, co-founder of the non-profit, non-partisan organization Families of September 11. She helped to create and then lead the organization after her mother, Judy Larocque was killed on American Airlines Flight 11 that terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center. Lemack was executive producer of “Killing in the Name,” the Oscar-nominated documentary on international terrorism. She is a visiting fellow at the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also the cofounder of Global Survivors Network (GSN), a global organization for victims of terror to speak out against terrorism and radicalization.  www.globalsurvivors.org

Lemack received a Masters in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in June 2006 after receiving an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 2004.

How did you find out about Osama bin Laden’s death?

I got a call from someone in the government to watch the news, that the president was going to make a statement—and they wanted to make sure that I saw it. Yesterday was my sister’s birthday, so we were having a nice quiet evening.

Your initial reaction when you heard Mr. Obama?

Shock I believe, and probably relief. Now no other family will have to celebrate a birthday with one of the seats at the table empty because of bin Laden’s hatred. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's six OFF-SET questions is John Allen, CNN's Vatican expert and Senior Correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Allen is author of the book, "The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church."

Catholic faithful from around the world poured into Rome on Sunday as the Catholic Church declares Pope John Paul II "blessed," a step below sainthood. There were cheers as Pope Benedict XVI personally beatified his predecessor, and a huge tapestry protrait of John Paul II was unveiled, showing him as the healthy, vigorous and relatively young man he was early in his papacy.

Normally a person cannot become a saint until 50 years after his death. But John Paul II was put on a fast track to sainthood by the current Pope Benedict XVI, who waived the normal five-year waiting period to begin the beatification process. Why did Pope Benedict make that decision?

Formally, Benedict XVI waived the waiting period because the cardinals who elected him pope just after the death of John Paul II signed a petition asking him to do so.

(An interesting footnote is that Italian media reports have identified Slovakian Cardinal Jozef Tomko, 87, who served in the Vatican under John Paul II in various capacities, as the man who initiated that petition. When CNN asked Tomko about that this week, he said: “I neither confirm nor deny.” Translation: “Yeah, it was me.”)

Beyond that, Benedict XVI was responding to the chants of “Santo Subito!” meaning “Sainthood Now!” in St. Peter’s Square during John Paul’s funeral Mass, and in general to the strong conviction in many quarters of the Catholic Church that John Paul II was a living saint. FULL POST