DNA testing?

How can they compare DNA when they a) don't have his in the first place, and b) he has approx 50 brothers/sisters that would therefore make it impossible to simply "compare" it to his sisters to get a match. I think the USA needs to provide some more unbiased and factual information before people should just outright believe what they're told (AGAIN)!

It is not actually that difficult to make a positive DNA match based on the DNA of close family members, especially when a Y chromosome is involved.

Umm. Fyi, children get 50 percent of their DNA from each parent. As a result, a siblings' and blood relatives' DNA are all similar. That's why related persons' DNA can be used to identify others.

I think the point was that with 50-ish siblings there is a decent amount of men out there with big beards, turbans, and matching dna so further proof would be needed before the initial person posting would be satisfied.

I heard they had DNA from a family member already. They just need to compare the samples. But you know the pictures or a video will be leaked to the press!

His dead sister, iirc.

He's right. They did a DNA test off of a stored sample of Bin Laden's dead sister's DNA, and they determined it to be enough of a match to confirm it being him.

I believe they have one of his children in Gitmo...

The Bin Laden's are a large family, and not all of them agree with Osama's actions. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get DNA from one of them.

On this topic, the claim that his identity has been verified through DNA testing should be removed. The results of the test are not yet released. Those things take several days.

The US announced his death. They didn't kill him yesterday. He'd been dead at least a week, and besides, bin Laden was a priority so they would done the DNA test in one day.

Nope, it happened yesterday – See? — μchip08 22:50, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

It happened yesterday. On Friday, the began the mission.