ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN: Sohaib Athar, a self-described IT consultant living in the city where Osama Bin Laden’s compound was attacked on Sunday by U.S. forces, inadvertently reported the raid live on Twitter. As the raid started, Athar, as “@ReallyVirtual,” wrote:
“Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1 a.m. (is a rare event).”
“Go away helicopter--before I take out my giant swatter. :-/ ”
“A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottobad Cantt. I hope it’s not the start of something nasty. :-S ”
“All silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 kilometers away, too. . . the helicopter is gone too.”
“Seems like my giant swatter worked!”
Athar and others speculate about the origin of the aircraft. Within hours, he wrote, “Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. ISI has confirmed it. Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood.”
Then: “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”
See “One Twitter Use Reports Live from Bin Laden Raid,” at Mashable.