CNN EXCLUSIVE: CNN's Nic Robertson says neighbors had no idea Osama bin Laden was living under their noses in Abbottabad, Pakistan. FULL POST

CNN's Richard Quest says the estimated $2.5 trillion that Osama bin Laden cost the U.S. economy is only the beginning.  FULL POST

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) says aid to Pakistan should be cut given the circumstances of bin Laden's death.  FULL POST

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) calls for a speedy exit from Afghanistan following the death of Osama bin Laden.  FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Harry Humphries, president of GSGI International Security Consultants and a former Navy SEAL who served in more than 200 combat missions.

Humphries is an engineer with operational and security consulting experience in many foreign countries including Germany, Austria, Russia, Albania, Kosovo, Egypt, Jordan, Columbia, Brazil, Mexico and the US. A recognized authority on counter-terrorism and WMD preparedness, Humphries lectures in modern law enforcement training techniques, and is an accomplished trainer in combat tactics, small arms and edged weapons.

As CNN has reported, in the dark of night, U.S.helicopters approached a high-walled compound inPakistan on a mission to capture or kill one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders. Less than 40 minutes later - early Monday morning inPakistan– Osama bin Laden was dead, along with four others inside the complex, and the U.S. forces departed with the slain al Qaeda leader's body.

 The mission ordered Friday by President Obama found outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a 7-foot privacy wall.

What was your initial reaction when you heard that Navy SEALs helped to accomplish this remarkable mission?

 I was surprised that the information flow was so open with respect to unit identification. I know the SEAL Strike Force would not have wanted the release of any information identifying unit, tactics, techniques, procedures, etc. This was leaked at some level; however, given the magnitude of mission success and target Value, I was extremely proud of my Team Brothers, albeit not surprised.

 For over 9 years, the Capture Kill mission of OBL has been the highest priority set at presidential level.  It was only a matter of time before the Intelligence community would eventually have revealed location pulling the trigger on a special missions unit response.

Given your SEAL background, what kind of planning and specific training likely preceded this mission?

Intel, Intel, Intel – It’s all about Intelligence. A strike like this can’t happen, especially of this magnitude and degree of sophistication, without having extraordinarily good intelligence. FULL POST

President Barack Obama is seeing a boost in his poll numbers on how he's handling terrorism and the situation inAfghanistan, thanks to his Sunday announcement that Osama bin Laden has been killed, according to a new national survey.

But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday also indicates no large bump in the president's overall approval rating compared to a poll taken over the weekend, but his rating has been trending upward since mid-April.

The survey was conducted Monday, one day after the president's announcement that the al Qaeda founder and leader was shot and killed by U.S. forces during a raid in Pakistan. While the poll indicates that two-thirds of the public sees bin Laden's killing as a major achievement, more than nine out of ten say the al Qaeda terrorist network will remain a threat.

Sixty-seven percent of people questioned say they approve of how Obama's handling the issue of terrorism, up seven points from January. And his approval rating on handling the situation in Afghanistan now stands at 58 percent, also up seven points.

But the poll indicates that the president's overall approval rating, now at 52 percent, is up just one point from a poll conducted Friday through Sunday; it is up four points from Obama's 48 percent approval rating in early April. All interviews in the poll taken this weekend were conducted before the announcement of bin Laden's death. FULL POST

The Number of the Day is trillions.

Frankly, it’s hard to figure out exactly what we have spent responding to national security threats because of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda–and other terrorist organizations.

Just think about the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Think about the costs of airport security and all of the other homeland security measures taken—protection of our ports, military actions around the world, and the billions it’s taking to rebuild Ground Zero.

The point is: the cost to our nation - merely counting dollars and cents—has been gargantuan.

And the emotional costs, the costs in human life, are incalculable.

But in this moment of near exaltation that we have finally killed Osama bin Laden, we should not ignore the totality of the costs he has imposed on our society. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Maria Ebrahimji, who along with Zahra Suratwala, edited the new book, “I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim.”

The book features essays by 40 women—doctors, engineers, journalists, mothers, students, politicians, and academics–who explore what it means to be a Muslim woman in America.

Ebrahimji is CNN’s Executive Editorial Producer and manages a team that is responsible for guest coverage and story planning for all of the network’s special events and breaking news programming. She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and serves on the board of the Atlanta Press Club.

In the book’s first essay, journalist and blogger Yusra Tekbali is a staff assistant in the office of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. A constituent phones and asks the origin of her name. Tekbali answers: Arabic. There is a grunt and a dial tone. Tekbali writes, “Sometimes, it feels like I am racing against a clock that always reads 9:11.”  

How common is that experience—and what is the affect of that kind of suspicion, if not prejudice?

For many American Muslims, including those born here, 9/11 was an awakening to our identity and to the idea that Muslims were now the new “other.”  Yusra’s experience is not uncommon and many of us have felt some sort of prejudice against us at some time in our lives.

In some cases, these experiences have more to do with lack of understanding and education about what Islam means and how we practice it, rather than pure intellectual and emotional hate. 

Fortunately, in the ten years since 9/11, there are many more American Muslims who are working in civil society and government. Hopefully their presence alone will help to dispel what I call an “otherness” epidemic that seems to be our country’s natural reaction to fear and the unknown. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s six OFF-SET questions is Lobsang Sangay, the newly-elected prime minister of “Tibet’s government-in-exile” headed by The Dalai Lama.

The son of parents who fled Tibet in 1959, Sangay was the first Tibetan to attend Harvard Law School. According to Harvard, he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in 1995, and obtained his masters of law degree, writing his thesis on Buddhism and Human Rights. His doctoral dissertation was entitled, “Democracy in Distress: Is Exile Polity a Remedy? A Case Study of  Tibet’s Government in Exile.”

You became Prime Minister by defeating two other candidates, winning some 55% of the votes spread throughout 30 countries. How long did you campaign and what are the major promises you made?

Tibetans from Australia to Alaska, New York to New Delhi, including Tibetans on the edges of Tibet participated in this election. I campaigned for 7 months, intensively reaching out to Tibetans around the world.

Among the most memorable was a winter trip toLadakh, India, at an altitude of over 9,800 feet. While previous Tibetan elections had never witnessed modern contested campaigns, I believed it was important to exchange ideas with the voters and to personally ask for their vote. My efforts seemed to resonate among the electorate, perhaps because of a mood for change. I am gratified and humbled that people gave me a very strong mandate, even though I was of a different and younger generation from the other candidates. FULL POST

PAKISTANI TALIBAN SEND REVENGE THREATS – After a day of international exaltation over the death of Osama bin Laden, questions remain about who might take over his terrorist group and whether a trove of material gathered from bin Laden's compound might tip off U.S. officials to other al Qaeda leaders and plots. But already, at least one threat of revenge has surfaced against the United States, which carried out the mission to eliminate bin Laden.

"We are proud on the martyrdom of Osama," Ahsan Ullah Ahsan, spokesman for Tehrik-e-TalebanPakistan(TTP), said late Monday night. "We shall definitely take revenge (on) America as well as Pakistan, as they aided Americans in this operation. All the government functionaries are on our hit list. We shall never spare any one of them."

When asked how the Pakistani Taliban organization would carry out revenge on America, Ahsan said, "We already have our people in America, and we are sending more there." FULL POST