Former Navy SEALs offer a possible profile of whoever it was that shot Bin Laden. Pretty much what you'd expect: physically fit, relatively young. I'd also add to the profile that he should also be the happy claimant of a $25 million bounty.
Oops. Maybe not.
Speaking of the Pakistanis, in light of their evident and utter failure to detect the worlds most wanted man, living for as many as five years a mere mile away from their most prestigious military academy, they offer the following: "He was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be".
Which of course begs the question: "Were you complicit or incompetent?" When all's said and done, there have simply been a few too many coincidences:
America's first attempt to kill Osama bin Laden came 13 years ago in August 1998, when president Bill Clinton launched "Operation Infinite Reach" in retaliation for the suicide bombings that devastated US embassies in Nairobi and Daressalam.
Sixty six cruise missiles were launched from the Arabian Sea at camps in eastern Afghanistan to kill Al Qaeda's senior leadership who were due to meet in a shura council.
Pakistan's military leadership was informed by US counterparts shortly before the missiles entered their airspace, just in case they mistook it for an Indian attack (India and Pakistan had just tested nuclear weapons earlier in May).
Shortly after, bin Laden cancelled his planned meeting. Many US officials believe the Pakistani Army and the ISI tipped bin Laden off.
I've seen more than a few comments on FaceBook and what-have-you thanking George Bush for the death of Bin Laden. I assume the idea is that he was just warming up during the 8 years of his presidency and two years of his retirement. The argument certainly holds water because as Presidents go, Bush was certainly known for his restraint and caution! He was also known for his uncanny ability to see through walls and bend spoons with his mind. That said, Republicans giving credit to the President that was actually you know...serving during the raid now include Dick Cheney, Rudolph Giulani and Donald "I Am Not Amused" Trump.
A world without Bin Laden.
Arab-American comedian, Dean Obeidallah expresses one of the most pernicious effects Bin Laden had quite eloquently I think:
To put it simply: On September 10, 2001, I went to sleep an American. On September 11, I woke up an Arab.
I didn't choose this path, a terrorist did for me. It's odd to realize that Osama bin Laden had a direct effect on my life.
After the 9/11 attacks, many of us Arab-Americans felt the need to become visibly Arab to show our fellow Americans the Arabs living among them were nothing to fear. While a few Arab-Americans did distance themselves from their Arab heritage after 9/11, most -- like me -- went the opposite way and embraced our latent Arab identity. I feel like I converted from a white guy to an Arab in the years after 9/11.
Osama bin Laden not only killed more than 3,000 innocent people on 9/11, he also was the father of Islamophobia. His actions set into motion the backlash felt until today against Arabs and Muslims in America. In fact, it is not better for us 10 years later -- it is worse.
Not to be insensitive but so what? An Islamic chaplain at NYU counters here. Excellent point: Would you want that monster buried next to your grandmother?
In other news, there's still the small matter of Libya.
In the event you haven't on already, here's and excellent reason to support Doctors Without Borders. (Another good reason might be that they are largely unique as a charity in that they will tell donors when they've received enough money for a project): Bahrain has announced that doctors and nurses that treated injured anti-government protesters will be prosecuted by a military court. That said, one should bear in mind that in the United States it's illegal to provide any sort of professional support to any organization designated as "terrorist". This includes legal advice to help them get off the terrorist list in the first place. Honestly, it's really not all that terribly different.
Russia has announced the conviction of the spymaster who betrayed the identities of the spy ring operating in the US last year. Evidently, he'd already fled to the United States and I would assume that we will not be handing him over. Sort of makes for a boring spy story though, don't you think? It's not quite le Carre when a spy can escape from the Russians by...just booking a flight. Whatever happened to the midnight dashes across the border?
It's fascinating to me to read articles like this and consider that the original purpose of copyright law was to encourage the dissemination of knowledge. The idea was to provide a temporary financial incentive to print more books. Sadly, the concept of intellectual property is being warped to discourage this spread of ideas. Particularly when utterly venal groups like Righthaven get involved. They profit by preying upon and crushing a natural thirst for ideas. To be blunt, if left left to their own devices, you would not be reading this blog. Or any other for that matter.
Looks like being heavily armed might not deter crime after all.
Capitalism can be risky. I wouldn't usually say this but sometimes, unacceptably so. That said, though the story is certainly sad, I wonder what other alternatives these kids have.
Sweet and cool and sexy!
It is to laugh. But with seriousness. No kidding around.
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