ICYMI: Buckhead Father of 911 Victim Reacts to Bin Laden's Death

Editor's note: Monday, May 2, 2016, was the fifth anniversary of the American military operation that located and killed Osama bin Laden. On the day that President Obama announced that the world's most wanted man had indeed been killed, Buckhead Patch ran the following story about the tragic local connection that linked one local family to the events of 9/11 and its aftermath. You can read the entire story by clicking here, but here also is the original story.)

Shelby White was in his Buckhead home late Sunday evening when he received a call from a friend. Then the phone calls kept coming and coming with the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed during a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

White’s son, Adam, was one of the victims in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I turned on the TV and saw President Obama’s address to the nation,” White said. “It was great to see our country, and specifically our Navy SEALs, carry out an operation like this halfway around the world.

“It’s not like Pakistan is right on our border. There’s no other nation in the world that could have carried out an operation like this.”

Adam White, a 26-year-old graduate of North Atlanta High, was at work at Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment banking firm on the North Tower’s 101st floor, when the attacks occurred almost a decade ago.

Shelby White, who described himself as a supporter of former President George W. Bush, said that developing reports indicate the final trail to bin Laden began four years ago, with intelligence that originated out of Guantanamo Bay’s U.S. military prison.

"That kind of puts a different light on some of the methods of interrogation over which we’ve been criticized for recently,” White said, referring to both domestic and international allegations of torture at Gitmo.

White also said it was appropriate that President Obama took some of the credit for the operation’s success.

“In all reality, President Obama has done well in the war on terror, despite his political rhetoric to the contrary,” White said. “And this vindicates President Bush to a certain extent as well. I’m glad he’s been able to receive some credit for this as well.”