By Michael Jonas

Just how long was the period between Osama Bin Laden’s emergence as the most wanted man on the planet following the 9/11 attacks and his killing last night in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan?  Long enough that Bin Laden outlived one of the authors of his New York Times obituary.  The  5,000-word obit now posted on the Times website – most of which, in keeping with standard practice with high-profile subjects, was written and stored some time ago – is co-bylined by Kate Zernike (a former Boston Globe reporter) and Michael T. Kaufman, a veteran Times reporter and columnist who, the tagline notes, died last year.