Osama bin Laden’s former compound in Abbottabad.’ (REUTERS)
Osama bin Laden is seen at an undisclosed location in this television image broadcast in Oct. 2001. (AP)
WASHINGTON — Today marks the first anniversary of the Navy SEALs’ daring attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, where they rid the world of its most deadly terrorist.
That event — which unified the nation a year ago and drew cheering crowds at the White House and Ground Zero — caused angry finger pointing between President Obama and Mitt Romney yesterday, as the two clashed over the president’s role in overseeing the mission.
Romney, who campaigned in New Hampshire yesterday, dismissed Obama’s role, while the president continued his multiday victory lap and suggested Romney wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.
“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” Romney countered.
PHOTOS: OSAMA BIN LADEN KILLED
Romney today, along with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, plans to visit a FDNY firehouse in Greenwich Village where many responders lost their lives on 9/11 — an event that guarantees Romney will be included in stories about the anniversary.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down bin Laden through a fake vaccination program also assisted in the final confirmation of the terror kingpin’s hideout, intelligence sources said today.
At a press conference yesterday, Obama denied charges of “excessive celebration” on the anniversary — although critics have fumed at new efforts to milk the issue, including an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams in the White House situation room and a tense new campaign ad featuring a testimonial from former President Bill Clinton.
The ad features a 2007 quote from Romney saying, “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”
“I’d just recommend that everybody take a look at people’s previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and to take out bin Laden,” Obama said, in a clear shot at Romney.
“I assume that people meant what they said when they said it. And that’s been at least my practice.
“I said that I would go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him — and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they would do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it.”
The Romney camp called Obama’s comments a “cheap political ploy,” and has called a new Obama campaign ad “divisive.”
Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan yesterday hat-tipped his boss, saying credit belongs to those who carried out the raid, to intelligence officials, “and to President Obama, who gave the order to go in.”
“One year ago today, President Obama . . . did not hesitate to act,” Brennan said in a speech in DC.
But deadly terror threats remain.
American and European authorities told ABC News that terrorists might try to mark the anniversary by taking down an airliner using explosives concealed inside their bodies.
Airports in Britain and other European countries and the Middle East have stepped up security on US-bound carriers.