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Good Question: All Osama Bin Laden Questions

By Jason DeRusha, WCCO-TV

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- From the bounty on Osama Bin Laden's head to the next-in-line for Al-Qaeda, WCCO viewers have a number of Good Questions around the death of Bin Laden.

Who will collect the reward?

The U.S. State Department has had a $25 million reward for information leading to Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. The airlines added in an extra $2 million.

However, we may never know if the reward is paid out.

"Given the importance of confidentiality to the Rewards for Justice Program, I cannot comment at all on whether anyone has been nominated for a reward in this or any other case," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

We do know who won't be getting the money: CIA interrogators who got the information that led the military to Pakistan, or the Navy SEALS who actually brought bin Laden to justice.

Under the law that created the Rewards for Justice Program, government employees who are doing their jobs can't cash in.

Who will become Osama bin Laden's successor?

Most experts believe that Ayman Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian eye surgeon, will take over as new leader of Al-Qaeda.
And he'll likely become the FBI's most wanted.

However, that process takes a couple weeks. The FBI takes nominations from all their field offices, including the Twin Cities, then a committee decides who goes to number one.

Who's left in the terror deck of cards?

The deck of cards was actually for the most wanted Iraqi's. So Osama bin Laden was not in the deck. Saddam Hussein was the Ace of Spades, he was executed four years ago. There were 55 most wanted - 10 are still out there.

How did the U.S. have a DNA match for bin Laden?

ABC News is reporting that the U.S. had DNA from one of Osama Bin Laden's sisters, who died of cancer in a Boston hospital. One of Bin Laden's sons was also killed in the raid on the compound in Pakistan, so the U.S. had that DNA sample too. That's enough to make a match.

DNA experts report that it can take about 5 hours to get a DNA match processed. The results were shared on bin Laden Monday morning.

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