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02nd May 2016

Reminder: The Rock knew about Osama Bin Laden’s death before nearly everyone else

"DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN". A JOE investigation.

Declan Cashin

This weekend marked the 5th anniversary of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan that led to the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Barack Obama marked the fateful date in an interview with CNN in which he said “hopefully, at that [final] moment, [Bin Laden] understood that the American people hadn’t forgotten the some 3,000 people who he killed.”

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured.<br /> <h6>(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

Elsewhere, the CIA marked the occasion by “live-tweeting” the 2011 raid as it unfolded…

…which earned the agency a lot of flak:

https://twitter.com/Hanksingle/status/726830935484698625

But the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death is also an opportunity to revisit one of the day’s more enduring mysteries:

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/726840442881454081

“JUST GOT WORD…”

WHO IS YOUR SOURCE, DWAYNE?

So just how did The Rock seem to learn the news before everyone else outside of the US government?

In 2011, ‘The Village Voice’ noted how The Rock’s tweet came soon after this message by former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff (and Navy Reserve intel officer) Keith Urbahn (as opposed to Keith Urban):

The newspaper further speculated:

“Our best guess in reference to The Rock’s info comes from the fact that his subsequent tweets praise the Navy SEALs and he’s been known to visit troops overseas. Being an action star and all, he’s probably trained for roles with the military. The common thread between The Rock and Urbahn seems to be a SEALs connection.”

This would seem to line up with what the big man himself told Moviefone in February 2012:

“I got my sources. I got friends in high places and low places. I knew the President was going to give his speech; I thought he was going to give it at a certain time and so I thought, ‘I think it’s appropriate that I tweet ‘I’m damn proud to be an American’ and keep it in that space without giving away too much information’. And then I got a call saying, ‘Now the President will give his speech in a couple of hours.’ So we had about two hours of Rock tweets out there.”

Hmm, maybe this is the real truth and The Rock was just having some fun with us?

Whatever the explanation, there are sure to be many people out there who would agree with this guy’s view that The Rock’s involvement marks “Twitter’s greatest moment”:

The-Rock