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Binghamton University
Vol. LXXIX, Issue 20
BIN LADEN KILLED,
CAMPUS RALLIES ‘ROUND THE FLAG
Hundreds share night of patriotic exuberance
Terrorist dies in U.S. assault on compound
Rob Bellon
KIMBERLY DOZIER
News Editor
The Associated Press
The death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden inspired a wave of patriotism at Binghamton University early Monday morning, as a small group of elated students grew to a crowd of several hundred that paraded around campus waving flags, orating through megaphones, sharing champagne and launching fireworks. Hundreds of voices chanting “U-S-A,” “fuck Osama” and singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in central campus could be heard hundreds of yards away, as far away as Appalachian Dining Hall in Mountainview College. The rally began around midnight on Monday, following the announcement by President Barack Obama that United States forces killed bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Obama announced at 11:35 p.m. Sunday that bin Laden had been killed, and that the U.S. operation that led to his death was the culmination of months of intelligence work. Obama ordered the operation earlier that day, he said. He added that no Americans were harmed. At BU, the student rally lasted for several hours before concluding at around 3 a.m. Monday. Chris Formisano, a junior majoring in political science and a resident assistant in Dickinson College’s Rafuse Hall, was among the first to bring the celebration to the streets. “I was like, ‘no way,’” Formisano said. He said he was in “complete disbelief” when he heard the news that bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces. Zach Bilder, a freshman majoring in biology who lives on Formisano’s floor in Rafuse, was also involved in the initial revelries. Bilder, who took credit for starting the rally, described his feelings as “fucking awesome.” There were also reports of a group of students that started a concurrent rally in College-inthe-Woods and that the two came together soon after. As the students paused by the south entrance to Lecture Hall around midnight, Bilder spoke to the crowd, which by then had already grown to at least a hundred people. Speaking through a megaphone, he urged the crowd “to celebrate the historical night” and led them
WASHINGTON (AP) — Osama bin Laden, the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was killed in a firefight with elite American forces Monday, then quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run. Long believed to be hiding in caves, bin Laden was tracked down in a costly, custom-built hideout not far from a Pakistani military academy. “Justice has been done,” President Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House while a crowd cheered outside and hundreds more gathered at ground zero in Manhattan to celebrate the news. The military operation took mere minutes. U.S. helicopters ferried elite counter-terrorism troops into the compound identified by the CIA as bin Laden’s hideout — and back out again in less than 40 minutes. Bin Laden was shot in the head, officials said, after he and his bodyguards
See RALLY Page 4
Daniel O’Connor/Photo Editor
Top, a student raises the American flag in front of the crowd in the College-in-the-Woods courtyard Monday morning. The campus celebrated the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Bottom, students gather in the Mountainview College quad. The students criss-crossed the campus cheering on the news from Pakistan.
See RAID Page 10
Holocaust remembered in midst of celebration Brian Racow Assistant News Editor
For 24 straight hours, from 9 p.m. Sunday to 9 p.m. Monday, student volunteers took shifts standing outside the entrance to the New University Union reading out the names of individuals killed in the Holocaust. The students carried out their vigil to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah, on May 1, and to preserve the memory of the Holocaust’s victims and raise awareness about genocides, past and present. The Holocaust is the name history has bestowed on the systematic genocide of Europe’s Jews and other peoples by Germany’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party during World War II. The vast majority of those who were killed by the Nazis died in concentration camps set up for the purpose of conducting efficient mass murder. Sunday and Monday’s vigil and reading of victims’ names was sponsored by Hillel, which holds similar events annually on university campuses and other
locations around the world. According to Rabbi Shalom Kantor, who works with Binghamton University’s Hillel chapter, such Holocaust Remembrance Day readings have taken place for many years, but this is the third year at BU that Hillel has staged the reading in a public, outdoor location. The names BU students read aloud were compiled from multiple online databases and included a list made up entirely of the names of children who perished in the Holocaust. Kantor estimated yesterday that students would read several thousand names over the course of 24 hours — a small fraction of the several million people the Nazis killed. Roughly two students read during every half-hour of the 24hour vigil. The students stood beneath a small, open tent in front of the New University Union, using a lectern and microphone as they read names, accompanied by the individual’s place of birth and place of death, from the pages of multiple large binders. Alex Schwartz, a junior
majoring in chemistry, was one of the students who read names. He took his shift at about 6 a.m. “Someone needs to do it,” Schwartz said. “[Remembering the Holocaust] is still important because there’s genocide going on in the world.” Kantor echoed this sentiment, saying that he believes students will continue the tradition of reading
the names of Holocaust victim’s for “eternity.” “Jewish tradition says that the way someone lives forever is through the remembrance of their name,” Kantor said. “We perpetuate their memory and not let them have died in vain by remembering
See VIGIL Page 4
Jonathan Heisler/Contributing Photographer
Johanna Sanders, a sophomore majoring in political science, and Carly Rubenfeld, a freshman majoring in human development, read the names of victims of the Holocaust. Students volunteered to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in the vigil, which was sponsored by Hillel.
Sports Pipe Dream
Softball headed to postseason for first time See Page 22 Tuesday, May 3, 2011
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FANTASTIC FOURTH Sasa Sucic/Staff Photographer, graphic by Will Merchan/Staff Designer