That's what we were told.  The "official" story is that the founder and leader of Al Qaeda was given a burial at sea, only a few hours after commandos from the US Navy's SEAL Team 6 killed him in his home in Pakistan.

But there are now reports that it may not have happened that way.  You be the judge.

loading...

An exchange of internal emails from intelligence service Stratfor, obtained by the hacker group Anonymous and posted online by WikiLeaks appears to suggest that Osama Bin Laden's body was flown secretly to the United States for an autopsy and positive identification at a secret location outside Washington.

One of the leaked emails from Stratfor Vice President for intelligence Fred Burton, sent on May 2 of last year states: “Reportedly, we took the body with us. Thank goodness.”

A subsequent email on the same day states: “Body bound for Dover, DE on CIA plane. Than (sic) onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda.”

The same email says “His body is a crime scene and I don't see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”

By 1.36pm Burton writes again: “Body is Dover bound, should be here by now.”

The conversation then took a puzzling turn, with Burton stating: “Down and dirty done, He already sleeps with the fish…”

A note adds: “It seems to me that by dropping the corpse in the ocean, the body will come back to haunt us… gotta be violating some sort of obscure heathen religious rule that will inflame islam?

"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX’s do, with OBL’s pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.”

The later emails appear to contradict those sent earlier, and serve only to create a confusing mystery over just what did happen to Bin Laden.

The thread of emails - under the heading The Global Intelligence Files - was published by WikiLeaks on 27 February 2012 and contains correspondence dated between July 2004 and late December 2011.

What actually happened to Osama Bin Laden has been disputed from the start.  Many people have never believed the Pentagon story that he was buried at sea only hours after he was killed.   Some don't even believe Bin Laden is dead.

They ask why would the US send its best Navy SEAL team to find and kill the world's most famous  terrorist leader, and then quickly dispose of the very evidence that would prove beyond a doubt that they succeeded.

But, unless some highly placed and credible person in Washington actually confirms what the above quoted emails seem to say, rumors surrounding Bin Laden's death and supposed sea burial will be with us for years to come.

More From Newstalk 860