U.S. Should Release 'Gruesome' Photo of Osama Bin Laden

Jay Carney, at today's press conference, described the photo of Osama Bin Laden's corpse "gruesome." He discussed the tremendous "sensitivities" surrounding the possible release, but they'd better get a move on, because the administration f**ked up with the burial at sea, big time, which is likely to fuel conspiracy theories. Not only is a speedy release politically necessary, but people won't get full closure until they see Osama's obliterated remains.

Canada's Conservative Party Returned to Office

Blazing has a roundup, "No. 1 - Deport all Hippies Starting with Margaret Atwood":

Tell me your dreams for the new conservative majority.

And from Mark Steyn, "Liberal Party of Canada Buried at Sea After Dying in Firefight."

Bin Laden Not Armed and Wife Not Killed: White House Backtracks on Official Account of al Qaeda Raid

At CNN, "Bin Laden unarmed when killed, White House says," and New York Times, "White House Corrects Bin Laden Narrative."

That's a really big lie, that Osama resisted U.S. forces. And why? The administration didn't want backlash against targeted assassination? How lame? The president's been doing so well. I didn't think I'd be going back to calling him "Obambi" so soon. Sheesh.

And from Jimmy Bise at Hot Air, "The Story Shifts on the Abbottabad Raid; UPDATE: Carney Revises Again, Says There Was “Resistance” from bin Laden." (Via Memeorandum.)

ADDED: Well, maybe this was just epic incompetence. See Michelle, "Brennan and the bin Laden story bungle":

Why the changes? As the famous situation room photo shows, Brennan was in the room watching the raid video along with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others.

He probably disclosed more than he should have and it’s possible his betters were forced to walk back his comments for opsec reasons. What’s your best, good-faith guess?

I'll update if I find more info, but my best guess is that the White House embellished --- as if our Spec-Ops guys needed that?

Rep. Peter King: Initial Information on Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti Was Obtained by Waterboarding in 2003

The debate continues today.

My previous post indicated that waterboarding put intelligence officials "on the trail" of Abu Ahmad. No doubt my ace commenter James B. SpongeBob has some questions for Representative Peter King, and of course J.B. SpongeBob didn't provide all the information on Donald Rumsfeld's comments, for example, speaking on The Today Show yesterday, Rumsfeld that the intelligence on Bin Laden may well "have come from interviews at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

And Matt Lewis quotes Karl Rove from his appearance on Fox & Friends yesterday:

Look, there is continuity in these kind of things and the tools that President Bush put into place, GITMO, rendition, enhanced interrogation, the vast effort to collect and collate this information, put it in a usable form obviously served his successor quite well because this served the information of the courier several years ago and moved forward to this administration.

And Thomas Joscelyn's leaning that way as well, "Did Enhanced Interrogation of the 20th Hijacker Help Identify Bin Laden’s Courier?"

And John Yoo yesterday, "Bush-Obama Continuity Is the Key to Terror War Victories":

Anonymous government sources say that the al Qaeda courier who led our intelligence people to bin Laden was a protege of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks who was captured in 2002, subjected to enhanced interrogation methods, and yielded a trove of intelligence on al Qaeda. Those same sources admit that interrogation of al Qaeda leaders, presumably by the CIA, yielded the identity of the courier. That identity was then combined into a mosaic of other information from other detainee interrogations, electronic intercepts, and sources in other countries, to eventually identify bin Laden’s hideout.

And here's this at The Atlantic, "Rethinking Guantanamo After Detainee Info Led to Bin Laden." Can't block quote that one without decontextualizing it, although it's noted that conflicting reports "are being used to support arguments in both directions."

There's a big report on Abu Ahmad at Telegraph UK. It's Hassan Ghul who gave up the Ahmad's name, but again, would that have been possible without the earlier intelligence from harsh interrogations?

More later.

Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L.

Has a new book out, and he's featured at O.C. Weekly. I never met him, but T.S.O.L. was huge back in the day, and reading this piece is a blast from the past. Grisham, though, was a vicious criminal, a remorseless bully, and a pathetic drug addict. I think he found God:

Grisham first started going straight in 1984, but the birth of his daughter, Anastasia, a few years later acted as a catalyst to cement his sobriety. He says he's been clean since Jan. 8, 1989.

"For me, when I got sober, it was like a tidal wave came, and I was swept along with it," he says. "I'm not really seeing what's happening, and it's dropped me off, and as the water recedes, I start to see things — just not right away. The water sucks back, and I'm 26 years old, living with my mother. It sucks back some more, and hey, you've got a daughter you're not seeing. It sucks back more, you owe $20,000 in child support. Sucks back more, you've got warrants out for your arrest. Sucks back more, you've got a father whose death you were blamed for. Sucks back more, you can't stand to be touched. Sucks back more, you've never been able to be intimate with anybody. The more it receded, the more I was able to see the damage and look at this behavior. It was like a coroner's blanket had been pulled off a frightening mess. I started waking up."

It's a long essay, but worth the time.

And at Amazon, Grisham's book: An American Demon: A Memoir.

War on Terror Goes On

At ABC News:

Osama bin Laden's death puts an end to a chapter that has cost the United States thousands of lives, billions of dollars and countless resources. But it's unlikely to end the U.S. war against terrorism or reduce the resources spent on such missions, though how they are allocated will likely change.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed -- in the words of President Bill Clinton -- "public enemy number one" in a top-secret, risky operation in Abbotabad, Pakistan Sunday night.

The mission itself was unlikely to have cost the U.S. military a substantial amount, experts say. It was conducted by 40 SEALs in the dead of night with four helicopters and lasted about 40 minutes. Any costs associated with the mission would come from the Department of Defense's overall operations and maintenance budget.

It's the hunt leading up to the raid that experts believe was more costly. It likely included aerial predators, unmanned surveillance aircraft, satellite imagery and other high-tech means to pin down bin Laden's location.

U.S. intelligence officials for years had been looking for a messenger close to the al Qaeda leader. They were able to track down his name in 2007 and finally spotted him in 2009. In August, they received a crucial tip that bin Laden was hiding in a mansion in Abbottabad, a city near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

The mission that killed bin Laden was only a part of a wider effort, lasting more than a decade, to take out the man who declared in 1998 that it was every person's duty to "kill Americans wherever they are found."

More at the link.

And related, from Andrew McCarthy, "A Different Kind of Justice."

Bin Laden Dead Photo Could Be Released Today

According to Jake Tapper: "A top source tells ABC News that President Obama and White House officials are discussing the possibility of releasing a photograph of Osama bin Laden's corpse today."

Waterboarding Works!

Rep. Peter King makes the case at the video.

And Andrew Malcolm notes:

The trail to Monday morning's assault on Osama's Pakistan compound began during someone else's presidency. That previous president authorized enhanced interrogation techniques which convinced folks like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to give up, among many other things, the name of their top-secret courier, now deceased. His travels ultimately led the CIA back to Osama's six-year-old suburban home.

And the New York Times has the background, "Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden." Also, at ABC News, "Phone Call by Kuwaiti Courier Led to Bin Laden."

RELATED: Last night David Beamer, whose son Todd Beamer died fighting terrorists on Flight 93 on 9/11, told Sean Hannity that the U.S. government should continue to do what works in fighting our mortal enemies. And he's quoted, with video, at Freedom's Lighthouse:

I really wish I could have seen the look on Osama Bin Laden’s face when he realized, ‘Uh-oh – these are the Navy SEALs, and they’re right here.’ . . . He got American justice delivered by U.S. Navy SEALs. Moments thereafter, he received Divine Justice by God Almighty. . . . There’s a heaven and there’s a hell. Osama Bin Laden knows all about that now.

All of this is really driving progressives crazy, like McJoan at Daily Kos, "Waterboarding did not reveal Osama bin Laden trail." Check the post for a really, er, tortured attempt to tamp down the waterboarding worked meme. Seriously. The fact that this president is simply completing the job of his predecessor drives progressives nuts.

Warrior in Chief

I mentioned it earlier, that the killing of Osama Bin Laden ushered in the signal transformation of President Obama as the unequivocal wartime leader. Roger Simon, at Politico, made the point yesterday as well, "Barack Obama is Now Warrior in Chief." It's a partisan take, that exempts the previous administration's resolve and ultimate success in Iraq, but these are some points worth considering:

Make no mistake: The United States is now the gang that can shoot straight.

Our reputation for being able to carry out successful military missions has been in some doubt ever since former President George W. Bush stood under a ridiculous “Mission Accomplished” banner during the Iraq War, a mission that he did not accomplish in a war that he did not win.

But President Barack Obama managed to kill Osama bin Laden on Sunday, using a small special operations force, and in so doing, he sent a clear message to terrorists everywhere: You’re next.

We have seen Obama be the professor in chief and the orator in chief. Now he is the warrior in chief.

We should not get crazed with bloodlust. War should always be our last choice, not our first.

But bin Laden had it coming. And he got it. Twice. In the head.

He had not spent the past several years crouched in a cave, as we thought. He lived like the billionaire he was (his family is in construction in Saudi Arabia): in a fortified mansion behind high, thick concrete walls topped with barbed wire and protected by guards.

It didn’t matter. In a precision operation, our Navy SEALs found and killed him in 40 minutes.

So if you are just an ordinary terrorist, without billions of dollars and extraordinary protection, think how short a time it might take us to find and kill you. Maybe it’s time for you to retire before the United States retires you.

More at the link above. Notice how Simon shifts abruptly from "Mission Accomplished" to Obama's order to kill Osama Bin Laden. That said, one has to be thrilled that U.S. Navy Seals went in and did the job, not drones or bunker busters, and without casualties or civilian deaths. I'm just awed by this and anxiously awaiting more information.

IMAGE CREDIT: The White House Flickr page, "President Barack Obama listens during one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011."

Hoax? Viral Video Claims Dude Survives Lightning Strike — Twice!

At London's Daily Mail, "How unlucky can you get! Man survives being hit by lightning TWICE in remarkable CCTV footage":

Looks pretty real, but check MSNBC, "Lightning striking twice? Maybe not even once":

The first sign that the video might be fake, according to Vladimir Rakov, electrical engineer and co-director of the University of Florida Lightning Research Group, is that people almost never survive direct lightning strikes like the one shown in the video. "The chance of survival in the case of a direct strike is essentially zero," Rakov told Life's Little Mysteries. That's because lightning bolts emanating from storm clouds convey a gigajoule of energy, he explained — which is about enough to melt a ton of steel.

The vast majority of the 240,000 people who survive lightning strikes worldwide each year do not actually get hit directly. "They are struck by 'side flashes,'" Rakov said. "Lightning might strike a building near them, for example, and there's a side flash that jumps to them carrying a small fraction of the original lightning bolt's energy. In that case, they can survive and even walk away."

Rally 'Round the Flag After Killing Osama Bin Laden

Discussed this with my students today, and Frank Newport has some background, "History Suggests a Rally in Obama's Job Approval Rating as a Result of Bin Laden's Death."

Victory in Abbottabad

At Wall Street Journal, "A measure of justice for the thousands he killed, and a warning to others":

Mr. Obama ... deserves credit for ordering a special forces mission rather than settling for another attack with drones or stand-off weapons from afar. Drones have their uses, but a target as valuable as bin Laden was worth the gamble of a U.S. military raid both to reduce the chances of his escape and to end once and for all the myth that he couldn't be taken. The skill and success of the raid is also a boost to American prestige and pride at a moment of too much national self-doubt ...

That's about all I should quote. It's a sober and accurate commentary, and the editors suggest "burying" Osama's body at sea might have been a mistake --- one of the main points I raised in my classes today. So go RTWT.

PHOTO CREDIT: The White House Flickr page, "President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011."

See also CNN, "Obama watched live video of bin Laden raid, U.S. official says."

Inside Osama's Compound (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Osama bin Laden's death: ABC correspondent Nick Schifrin discusses network's 'exclusive' video," and "Osama bin Laden's death: ABC News releases video of inside of mansion where terrorist leader was killed."

And at ABC News, "EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Compound Where Osama Bin Laden Was Killed: Photos from Inside the Osama Bin Laden Kill Zone."

Teachers Scramble to Incorporate News of Bin Laden's Death Into Lessons

Well, I wasn't scrambling.

I had the presidency scheduled for two classes today anyway, and it was interesting, especially because lots of students were shocked to find out that the death pictures of Osama Bin Laden were fake. But we had some great discussion. It occurred to me especially that President Obama's tenure will be defined more than ever as a wartime president. He's already presiding over three wars, and the frequency of U.S. predator drones strikes accelerated under this adminsration, but we're now at a turning point in the war on on terror, and last night's success will redound to this president's benefit. (See CSM, "Osama bin Laden's death will boost Obama approval rating, but for how long?") Indeed, one student asked how developments will help Obama's public approval ratings?

In any case, here's this at the Orange County Register, "Schools quick to integrate bin Laden death into lessons":

Across Orange County, many teachers scrambled Monday to change lesson plans to incorporate news about Osama bin Laden's death.

Teachers led discussions of the significance of killing the world's most-wanted man, while students debated everything from whether the world is now a safer place, to the root causes of terrorism.

At Dale Intermediate in Anaheim, seventh-grade world history teacher Grant Schuster began his classes Monday with a slide show of images from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He followed that with the video from Sunday of President Barack Obama's announcement that bin Laden had been killed by American special forces.

Students in all three of his morning classes applauded at the conclusion of Obama's recorded speech.

"Many of students don't have memories of 9/11 because they were too young," he said. "Some of my students are asking if terrorism is over. But others are quick to explain that no, it's not. And we still have to be very careful."

Schuster also explained to his classes that bin Laden's death will allow families of victims of the terrorist attacks to continue their emotional healing.

"I would have been remiss if I didn't spend at least half of the period today talking about bin Laden," he said. "This served as a valuable teaching tool."

More at the link above ...

The Secret Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden

A report from Mark Ambinder, at National Journal, "The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden."

And at ABC News, "White House Officials Debate Releasing Photographs of Bin Laden’s Corpse."

More updates throughout the day.

Progressives Claim Credit in Osama Bin Laden Killing

Little Miss Attila snarks:

A lot of the people celebrating this victory would have impeached Bush for doing the same thing; some of them didn’t even want us to collect some of the intel that helped us accomplish this.

And Michelle's got it, "All About Obama: Who’s politicizing bin Laden kill?":

Leftists are swarming Twitter to chastise any conservatives who dare give any credit to President Bush for his resolve and role in leading the post-9/11 counterrorism/national security response to the worst attack on American soil.

Meanwhile, Democrat hacks are burning the midnight oil making this All About Obama.

Steve Benen's first update appeared after he Googled around a bit, and found: "On March 13, 2002, George W. Bush said of bin Laden, 'I truly am not that concerned about him'."

The Obama White House acted and that is good. But the killing of Osama should be a victory for America and Americans. Politics is never far behind, but the left's sheer dishonesty in claiming credit on this --- after nearly ten years of the most intense demonization of GWOT hawks --- is no doubt digging deep for some news depths of progressive depravity.

Image via Markos "American Taliban" Moulitsas' Daily Kos.

Americans Cheer Death of Bin Laden!

Updating from my live blog earlier.

We still don't a lot of what happened. I've been communicating with Bruce Kesler and we were speculating on an abrupt U.S. withdrawal from Af-Pak as quid pro quo for Pakistani cooperation. More on that later as full details become available.

Meanwhile, at LAT, "Crowd celebrates bin Laden's death outside White House."

And check Patrick Ishmael's huge roundup at Hot Air.

More later ...

Debra Saunders: 'Intolerant Left Strikes Again'

At Rasmussen (via Memeorandum):

On April 25, gay-rights advocates -- led by the Human Rights Campaign -- scored a victory after the HRC applied pressure on a law firm hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and denies federal benefits to same-sex partners. The firm fired its client. There are two reasons you should be outraged, no matter what your position is on DOMA.

Go read it all. One of the more outraged commentaries I've read on the case. Earlier I meant to juxtapose William Jacobson's commentary on this, "Is There Now A Hostile Environment For Pro-Traditional Marriage Views At King & Spalding?", to that of Dale Carpenter's. William writes, for example:

For whatever their reasons, the supporters of gay marriage have chosen the path of intimidation rather than persuasion. I think this is a mistake, but time will tell.

The comment assumes that this kind of intimidation is new, unprecedented. But is it? Dale Carpenter had an interesting piece at the New York Times the other day, "How the Law Accepted Gays:

THE prestigious law firm King & Spalding has not fully explained its decision this week to stop assisting Congress in defending the law that forbids federal recognition of same-sex marriage. But its reversal suggests the extent to which gay men and lesbians have persuaded much of the legal profession to accept the basic proposition that sexual orientation is irrelevant to a person’s worth and that the law should reflect this judgment. The decision cannot be dismissed simply as a matter of political correctness or bullying by gays.

Well, folks should finish the essay, and they might be a little more convinced, although I'm not. There's something fundamentally different about the struggle for civil rights for gay Americans, and since 2008 that difference has been a level of demonization and intimidation of the opposition that's unprecedented in my political lifetime. But go back and read Debra Saunders once more. Even the leadership of HRC admits they're again ready to pounce and destroy at the next instance of politically incorrect non-compliance to the gay narrative.

Dead Pictures of Osama Bin Laden

Here, said to be shown on Pakistani television.

PREVIOUSLY: "Osama Bin Laden Dead."

Added (May 2nd, 9:50am PST): At Astute Bloggers, "Osama bin Laden: is this photo a fake? YES!" Also, at N.Y. Daily News (12:22pm PST), "Osama Bin Laden dead: Gruesome photo is hoax, but White House debates release of real ones."

Osama Bin Laden Dead!

Greta says it's confirmed.

Updates coming ...

8:11pm PST: CNN's report: "Osama bin Laden is dead, sources say." A live feed for the president's address at CNN's homepage.

8:25pm PST: Bethany Murphy tweets: "Okay, this made me cry. Thank you George W. Bush. G-d bless you:

8:45pm PST: The president just spoke. It was a good speech. I'll be checking around from some analysis and will update. There's a feeling of celebration, obviously, but deliverance as well. The president closed his address with the unifying conclusion to the Pledge of Allegiance: "... one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

9:00pm PST: Bruce Kesler comments, at Maggie's Farm, "President Obama's Mushy Announcment That Osama Bin Laden Is Dead."

9:05pm PST: Via Blake Hounshell on Twitter, a Facebook page in Arabic, "We are all Osama Bin Laden."

9:30pm PST: Checking some progressives on Twitter, Karoli's not pleased with the response on the right.

9:37pm PST: Here's the president's address:

And at New York Times, "Obituary: Osama bin Laden was the Most Wanted Face of Terrorism."

10:30pm PST: Lots of stuff becoming available.

* At New York Times, "How the bin Laden Announcement Leaked Out," and check this striking image from the Times.

* At ABC News, "Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy Seals in Firefight."

* At National Journal, "Osama’s compound already mapped on Google Maps."

* And at Los Angeles Times, "Former president George W. Bush calls bin Laden death 'momentous achievement'."

11:05pm PST: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup, and note this from Austin Bay:

Would that we had him in Fall 2001. However, time has worked against Bin Laden. He dies tarnished. A man who hides in a cave for ten years is no martyr. He quickly lost the aura of divine sanction — he was driven out of Afghanistan, and the US stayed. Moreover, the US took it’s counter-terror war into the heart of the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim world. What’s the choice between tyrant and terrorist? Iraq provides a choice. Al Qaeda made Iraq a battleground and lost — lost to the Iraqi people and the US.