Rebecca Brock, in 2004:

People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything.

Decius, in 2006:

Al Qaeda is not an organization. It is a scene.

David Kilcillen, in 2006:

People don't get pushed into rebellion by their ideology. They get pulled in by their social networks.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells, in 2006:

The best way to fight terrorists is to go at it not like G-men, with two-year assignments and query letters to the staff attorneys, but the way the terrorists do, with fury and the conviction that history will turn on the decisions you make -- as an obsession and as a life style.

One frustrated counterterrorism official, in 2006:

There's nobody in the United States government whose job it is to find Osama bin Laden! Nobody!

Malcom Gladwell, in 2007:

Osama bin Laden's whereabouts are a puzzle. We can't find him because we don't have enough information. The key to the puzzle will probably come from someone close to bin Laden, and until we can find that source bin Laden will remain at large.

Thomas W. Gillespie, John A. Agnew, Erika Mariano, Scott Mossler, Nolan Jones, Matt Braughton, and Jorge Gonzalez, in 2009:

One of the most important political questions of our time is: Where is Osama bin Laden?

Peter Baker, Helene Cooper, and Mark Mazzetti, today:

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced.

Lauren Clark:

It's good to have a plan, but if something extraordinary comes your way, you should go for it.

Let the what-does-it-all-mean metareporting begin.