About 200 people showed up Wednesday evening at the Buddy & Anne MacKay Auditorium to hear CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen speak about the United States' hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The Bob Graham Center for Public Service organized the event, which was free and open to the public. The center paid $8,000 to bring Bergen to speak, according to Ann Henderson, director of the center.
After 10 years of simply not knowing where one of the biggest terrorist leaders in the world was, Bergen said, he is now dead, and there is reason to be comfortable with the future security of America and the rest of the world.
Bergen, who is an author and journalist as well, met bin Laden face to face in 1997 when he conducted an interview for CNN.
After meeting bin Laden and studying his actions, Bergen said he was a paranoid, secretive man who was very concerned with being relevant to the world. While he was in hiding, he produced multiple video and audio clips to keep himself known.
Bergen attributes the war on terror to religious fanaticism. If bin Laden were here today, Bergen said, he would say the war was waged in the name of religion.
Henderson said she thought Bergen's perspective was interesting.
"We often don't discuss religion in public light," Henderson said, "and yet it has a real effect on our security, of course, but also on the making of our public policy."
Today, the war on terror is over, Bergen said.
What is of importance is the domestic issue of the economy, he said. The economy as it stands can pose a long-term national security problem.
"The death of bin Laden is a way of saying it's time to move on," he said. "We didn't kill every Nazi in World War II to end World War II. There will be no surrender with al-Qaida, but they will slowly fade into history."
CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen discusses his opinion and knowledge Wednesday night of national security, terrorism and the hunt and eventual capture of Osama bin Laden.
