'Time' Magazine’s Osama bin Laden Dead Cover to Feature Red X

1:56 PM PDT 5/2/2011 by THR staff

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Courtesy of Time Magazine

The magazine has reserved the treatment for some of history’s worst, including Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Time magazine will publish a special, 68-page issue on the death of Osama bin Laden.

Hitting newsstands Thursday, the cover will feature a Tim O'Brien illustration of the terrorist’s face with a red X across it (the issue will be available on the iPad the same day).

Bin Laden is the fourth person in the magazine's history to receive that treatment (Adolf Hilter [May 7, 1945], Saddam Hussein [April 21, 2003] and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [June 19, 2006]).

Time says the issue is set to include contributions from Joe Klein, Fareed Zakaria, David von Drehle and Peter Bergen.

The magazine has published three issues in the span of a week. (An issue featuring the Royal Wedding hit stands Monday; another regularly scheduled issue went on sale last Friday.)

Newsweek is also doing a special issue on bin Laden, which should hit stands Friday.