Twitter's Osama correspondent spreads his wit
Sohaib Ahtar, the man who unwittingly first tweeted news of the raid on Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, is providing excellent and witty commentary from the scene.
It's not easy to be famous--even if you're merely Twitter-famous.
Sohaib Athar, the 33-year-old software consultant who happened to have escaped to Abbottabad in order to get some peace and quiet, became an Internet legend overnight.
He had, unwittingly, begun to tweet strange happenings in his tranquil neighborhood. The strange happenings turned out to be the raid on and elimination of Osama bin Laden.
Once his tweets had taken on their worldwide significance, you might have imagined that Athar would have hunkered down (perhaps in a cave) and returned to his solitude--especially after he was reportedly hacked by those whose idea of fun perhaps verges on that of the original cave dwellers.
And yet the man who had begun to appreciate his newly discovered fame by tweeting: "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it," seems to be undeterred.
He has used his Twitter feed to become an intimate, on-the-spot Twitter correspondent who is delivering observations without pomp, and commentary without portents of doom.
His first reaction to the hacking was: "It is a good thing my blog server is infected with malware today, I guess :-/."
Yes, a witty software consultant. The world needs more of them. Perhaps it was his very software expertise that gave him the strength and heart to overcome this little obstacle. For his subsequent tweeting has approached an artform of wit and wisdom.
For example, this just 18 hours ago: "Fact: I don't own a TV set and stopped watching TV many years ago. Sorry three-lettered-big-tv-news-channels for not replying to your emails.
Just an hour later, he followed up with: "I apologize for reporting the operation 'unwittingly/unknowingly' - had I known about it, I would have tweeted about it 'wittingly' I swear."
He continued by offering images of his locality with amusing commentary. Posting a picture of a man and a small rock, he offered: "At last, somebody was seen hiding behind a rock! http://twitpic.com/4soux1."
Surely he will make money from not merely his newfound fame, but his refreshing mind. He claims not. For he tweeted: "@moliesre1981 No, I am not taking any money for the interviews - just losing sleep - a lot of it. 'Monetization' is not really on my list."
Yes, Sohaib Athar is a modern-day tweeting chronicler who is doing it simply because he seems to find it all intellectually and sociologically amusing.
I can find no evidence that the Huffington Post has already snapped him up to start a blog.