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Throughout Suburban Maryland, Reactions to bin Laden's Death Vary from Jubilant to Hesitant

While closure is at hand for many recovering from the death of family members on 9/11, the demise of the mastermind who orchestrated the attacks offers little satisfaction.

While some grieving the loss of loved ones choose to festively commemorate the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, other suburban Marylanders are still working on closure and remain unsure of what the future holds for the American war on terror.

Kathy Amass posted on Catonsville Patch's Facebook page that Sunday was her birthday, and although she doesn't like to see others harmed, “This will be the best birthday gift ever; I'm a little fearful for the Taliban's potential retaliation, though ..."

Despite warnings from some national security experts about the potential for terrorist retribution, the death of a man many saw as public enemy No. 1 was cause for spontaneous celebrations across Washington, D.C. and southern Maryland.

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Reisterstown native said it hadn't even been a week since she had her appendix removed, but she knew she had to go to the White House Sunday night. When she arrived, the GWU freshman said she realized she and her friends weren’t the only ones who had the idea to celebrate where President Barack Obama could see them.

“There was a huge train of like 100 students that were running down there,” Stutman said. “People were drinking, calling them ‘freedom shots.’ It was cool, like a huge party.”

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Stutman left around 12:30 a.m., but her friends said the crowd, which numbered in the thousands, didn’t dissipate until around 4 a.m.

Meanwhile in , the surviving relatives of a Max J. Beilke, who died during the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, said they are "overjoyed" with the news and that bin Laden's death brought closure to a loss they've been coping with for 10 years. 

Sylvia Hess, Beilke’s daughter, described hearing the presidential address on Sunday.

“It was sort of numbing,” she said. “It was surreal that this actually happened. I stayed up all night and celebrated. It called for a drink.”

That was a scenario echoed by Washington, D.C. resident Charlene Ghee. Ghee lost her uncle, Reisterstown resident Cortez Ghee, on 9/11. He worked in budget analysis at the Pentagon.

“I told my uncle ‘Rest in peace’ because they captured him,” she said, and is celebrating with a backyard cookout.

But on the Catonsville Patch Facebook page, Rob Hinkal said he is a little concerned about the jubilant reaction.

"I'm watching CNN and I feel that the talking heads aren't reporting on an execution of justice, they're salivating over vengeance," he wrote.

Despite the public’s congratulatory attitude, officials warned that bin Laden's death doesn't end the threat of terrorism in the U.S. or abroad. The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for citizens abroad that is in effect until Aug. 1, asking them to avoid mass gatherings and limit their travel outside of homes in areas where anti-American violence could occur.

Local political science professor has studied security issues in India and Pakistan at nearby University of Maryland, Baltimore County for years and says the threat to the United States could be more long term.

"If there were going to be something happening today, this week or this month it would be a more crude attack,” he said, adding that al-Qaida has enough of a structure that more sophisticated cells would patiently plan a response.

Eldersburg resident Debbie Scheller agrees.

When how she predicts security will change, the owner of bookstore A Likely Story responded, “I don't think it's going to change—we still have a lot of terrorism problems. ... I still think we still have a lot to take care of, but I think that this is one little part that is done, that we can move on from 9/11.”

Locals in the Armed Forces say they know all too well that the battle is not yet won.

“We may have come a long way since I was handing out matchbooks bearing bin Laden’s face to fishermen, but his death does not signify any type of endgame,” said Elkridge resident and Patch contributor , who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. “Since no one can say what the end will look like, a single act is as tough to place as anything more than another thread in a web, rather than a definitive point on a timeline.”

Others, like Columbia native , are still processing what feels like the approach of the end of the war on terror.

“Nine-eleven is perhaps the most egregious incident of its kind to hit American soil,” said Wesley. “That puts you in a very special category, having gotten ‘The Call.’ You get the call, you can’t get away. I’m getting beyond it and trying to move on,” Wesley said of losing his fiancée, Sarah Clark, when she boarded American Airlines Flight 77, just before hijackers turned the plane around and crashed it into the Pentagon on 9/11.

“There are some lessons in terms of how much the country has grown and our own security since 9/11. It says to the children that maybe we have control of this,” said Wesley, adding, “If you noticed last night, most of the demonstrations around the White House, there were a lot of young people. When this happened 10 years ago, many were preteens. It means a lot to them that the American security apparatus was able to get to bin Laden, and the fact it was done not by a drone, but by American ingenuity. I think there’s something to be said for that.”

Editor's note: Jen Stutman is Reisterstown Patch Editor Marc Shapiro's stepsister.

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