The Central Intelligence Agency’ “live tweeted” the May 2, 2011 military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden to mark the fifth anniversary of the operation.
On Sunday, the CIA issued a series of tweets to mark the raid by U.S. Navy Seals on the al-Qaeda leader’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The raid was dubbed “Operation Neptune Spear.”
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Using the hashtag #UBLraid the agency issued a blow-by-blow account of the raid that included diagrams of the compound and the infamous picture of U.S. president Barack Obama, CIA director Leon Panetta and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the situation.
Many on social media criticized the CIA for the series of tweets as a PR stunt and in “poor taste.”
A spokesperson for the CIA defended the agency’s decision to commemorate the event calling it “one of the great intelligence successes of all time.”
“The takedown of bin Laden stands as one of the great intelligence successes of all time. History has been a key element of CIA’s social media efforts,” CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani told ABC news.
“On the fifth anniversary, it is appropriate to remember the day and honour all those who had a hand in this achievement.”
The CIA first launched its Twitter account in 2014 with the tweet: “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”
In 2014, an opinion piece by a former CIA employee published in the Guardian argued the agency shouldn’t be on Twitter in the first place.
“Ridiculously glib tweets from the CIA paint the entire agency in a smug light, which is exactly the persona it so badly needs to avoid,” the piece read. “The CIA knows what everyone else knows: it’s in desperate need of a makeover. We haven’t forgotten about Benghazi or torture, and painfully awkward tweets — like watching-your-dad-dance-to-CeeLo-at-your-wedding awkward — won’t make the CIA appear soft and fuzzy, just woefully disconnected from reality.
“The CIA does not need to be on Twitter, because it can’t be transparent.”