Bin Laden Cartoon Roundup

At Orange County Register, "Cartoon Gallery: 40 Osama bin Laden Cartoons."

And at Cap'n Bob & and Damsel's, "Pakistan - No Ally in GWOT."

Bin Laden's Cowardly Last Moments

At New York Post, "Bin Laden acted 'cowardly,' confused in final moments."

The terrorist leader was apparently within reach of two guns when he died during Sunday's raid. A senior US official confirmed that bin Laden was near the door along with the two weapons -- an AK-47 and a Makarov hand gun -- which are now in US custody.

And Fox News' Jennifer Griffin spoke with agents who were on the ground:

Osama Bin Laden Planned 9/11 Anniversary Train Attack

At New York Times, "Data From Raid Links Bin Laden to Newer Terror Plots":

WASHINGTON — After reviewing computer files and documents seized at the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, American intelligence analysts have concluded that the chief of Al Qaeda played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks from his hide-out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, United States officials said Thursday.

The C.I.A. had Bin Laden’s compound under surveillance for months before American commandos killed him in an assault on Monday, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to several officials briefed on the operation.

The documents taken at the Abbottabad compound, according to American officials, show that Bin Laden was in touch regularly with the terror network he created. With his whereabouts and activities a mystery in recent years, many intelligence analysts and terrorism experts had concluded that he had been relegated to an inspirational figure with little role in current and future Qaeda operations.

A rushed examination of the trove of materials from the compound in Pakistan prompted Obama administration officials on Thursday to issue a warning that Al Qaeda last year had considered attacks on American railroads.

The documents include a handwritten notebook from February 2010 that discusses tampering with tracks to derail a train on a bridge, possibly on Christmas, New Year’s Day, the day of the State of the Union address or the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said. But they said there was no evidence of a specific plot.

More at the link above, and at Los Angeles Times, "Al Qaeda had U.S. trains in its sights, U.S. officials say."

Added: From ABC News, "Osama Bin Laden Evidence: Al Qaeda Considered 9/11 Anniversary Attack":

President Obama Disses Debra Burlingame

Via Atlas Shrugged and Pat Dollard (at Memeorandum):

Details on Operation Neptune Spear

WaPo has some background, "Operation Neptune Spear: Code name for killing Osama bin Laden."

And check Barbara Starr's report:

Also, at NYT, "In Bin Laden’s Compound, Seals’ All-Star Team."

Ann Coulter on Bin Laden Photos

She's in fighting form!

RELATED: From William Bennett, "4 reasons to release bin Laden photos."And at The Hill, "Watchdog group is prepared to sue for photos of bin Laden."

President Obama Wreath Laying Ceremony at Ground Zero — VIDEO

At USA Today, "Obama giving NYC its moment of justice on bin Laden," and at New York Times, "Obama Honors Victims of Bin Laden at Ground Zero":

President Obama laid a wreath of red, white, and blue flowers at ground zero on Thursday, honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 2001 terrorist attacks and marking the death of its perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.

The hushed ceremony on a sunny, breezy day was a somber coda to a triumphal week that began with Mr. Obama’s announcement that commandos had killed Bin Laden in his fortified compound in Pakistan.

Now, in the wreath ceremony and in a series of meeting across Manhattan on Thursday, the president had a chance to meet one-to-one with the people whose lives were changed most deeply by Bin Laden — relatives of the victims, as well as firefighters and other rescue workers who lost comrades that morning.

“Obviously, you can’t bring back the friends you lost,” Mr. Obama said to the crew at a firehouse in midtown Manhattan that lost 15 men, an entire shift, at the World Trade Center. “What happened Sunday sent a message: When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”

It was Mr. Obama’s first visit as president to ground zero, a patch of lower Manhattan that Bin Laden turned into hallowed ground ...

Pamela has commentary, "State Media." And from Elise Cooper, "Obama snubs 9/11 families at Ground Zero today."

I Got No Friends 'Cause They Read the Papers...

Alice Cooper, "No More Mr. Nice Guy":



From yesterday morning's drive time, at The Sound LA.

Killer set, especially while getting slammed in some serious traffic:

9:37am You're My Best Friend by Queen

09:30am Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot

09:21am Mainstreet by Bob Seger

09:18am No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice Cooper

09:15am Lady Madonna by Beatles (remastered)

09:12am Blue Morning Blue Day by Foreigner

09:05am Suite Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills, And Nash

09:00am One of These Nights by Eagles

08:51am Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan

8:46 - Empty Spaces / Young Lust by Pink Floyd

8:42 - Sunshine of Your Love by Cream

8:39 - Rock The Casbah by Clash

8:35 - Saturday In The Park by Chicago

8:26 - I Still Haven't Found... by U2

8:20 - Ready For Love by Bad Company

The Editors at the New York Times are Living in Another World

I wrote on this earlier, before I read today's big New York Times' editorial. See, "CIA Detainees 'Produced Enormous Amounts of Valuable Intelligence Information' in Decade-Long Manhunt for Osama Bin Laden."

I can understand the editors' position, since they did their darnedest to weaken national security during the Bush years, and more recently with WikiLeaks. But in attacking coercive interrogations they conveniently ignore that President Obama not only has reneged on his pledge to close Guantanamo, he also praised the intelligence gathering the led American forces to Osama Bin Laden --- and that intelligence-gathering process by all counts included enhanced methods at both Guantanamo and at off-shore black sites. See, "The Torture Apologists." It's boilerplate and predictable, but it's mostly the dishonesty and omissions that are bothersome. Folks can correct these by reading the commentary from Marc Thiessen and John Yoo, both of whom published essays yesterday, Thiessen at WaPo ("Obama owes thanks, and an apology, to CIA interrogators") and Yoo at WSJ, "From Guantanamo to Abbottabad").

Folks should read those carefully. Thiessen argues that critics of the CIA haven't a clue as to how the interrogations work in the first place, and thus the attacks that "enhanced interrogation doesn't work" are false, ignorant, and misleading. Thiessen argues that President Obama should apologize for dissing program officers and follow through by reestablishing the intelligence regime that brought success in Abottabad.

Also, Yoo makes an especially interesting point, and it's worth quoting:

Early reports are conflicted, but it appears that bin Laden was not armed. He did not have a large retinue of bodyguards—only three other people, the two couriers and bin Laden's adult son, were killed. Special forces units using nonlethal weaponry might have taken bin Laden alive, as with other senior al Qaeda leaders before him.

If true, one of the most valuable intelligence opportunities since the beginning of the war has slipped through our hands. Some claim that bin Laden had become a symbol, or that al Qaeda had devolved into a decentralized terrorist network with more active franchises in Yemen or Somalia. Nevertheless, bin Laden was still issuing instructions and funds to a broad terrorist network and would have known where and how to find other key al Qaeda players. His capture, like Saddam Hussein's in December 2003, would have provided invaluable intelligence and been an even greater example of U.S. military prowess than his death.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Monday that the SEAL team had orders to take bin Laden alive, "if he didn't present any threat," though he correctly dismissed this possibility as "remote." This is hard to take seriously. No one could have expected bin Laden to surrender without a fight. And capturing him alive would have required the administration to hold and interrogate bin Laden at Guantanamo Bay, something that has given this president allergic reactions bordering on a seizure.

That's an extremely interesting line of argument, and a devastating indictment of this president and the administration's counterterror policies. Americans are pleased that we killed Bin Laden, and as I also noted yesterday, only a small percentage in Rasmussen's polling said Bin Laden should been taken alive and put on trial. But it's highly likely that President Obama indeed would have had fits of apoplexy in deciding how, when, and where to try Osama. In short, he had no choice to be tough in ordering the hit on Bin Laden, because he's such a pussy. And of course by now we've seen how badly the White House has botched the post-killing public relations campaign. It's almost frightening to observe the government's incompetence.

It's a pity. Seriously. In any case, check those links. I'll have more on all of this tomorrow.

Related: See Michelle's essay, "Non-shocker of the day: Most transparent prez ever decides not to be transparent; : GOP Rep. Mike Rogers said what?"

Rise of Freedom: 9/11 Memorial to Display the Victims' Names

At Fox News:

Well, Yeah, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is Hot!

And she's the first Asian Chief Justice in California history, but turns out Democrat Assemblyman Charles Calderon is taking progressive heat for suggesting she's an attractive woman. At Los Angeles Times, "Senator demands apology for assemblyman's comments on the chief justice":

The head of the state Legislative Women’s Caucus called Tuesday for a state assemblyman to apologize for remarks that referred to the physical appearance and personality of the chief justice of the California Supreme Court.

Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) sought the apology from Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) for comments he made during a legislative hearing on a bill he introduced to give judges more say in the running of the state’s courts. Calderon said he meant no disrespect to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

A transcript and tape of the Judiciary Committee meeting were not immediately available, but the assemblyman said in an interview that he was making a point that the bill was being advocated on policy merits rather than based on some bias against the chief justice. The assemblyman recalled saying his support for the bill has nothing to do with how "smart" or "nice" the chief justice is.

"It isn’t that she isn’t pretty," he said in the interview, recounting his comments in committee.

Evans fired off a letter asking for a formal apology.

"Your remarks regarding the chief justice were degrading and inappropriate," Evans wrote. "As the leader of California’s Judiciary, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye should be taken seriously and not spoken about in such a dismissive and frivolous manner."

"It is crucial that women be valued for more than just being 'nice' or 'attractive,' " Evans added.

The letter is here.

No, no! You just can't objectify women, just ask (freakin' PC asshole) Scott Eric "I'll End You" Kaufman!

Hey, Little Scotty, does Calderon get a pass because he's a Democrat? Or are you going to "end him" for not toeing the left's totalitarian line? Okay, check back with me on that, will ya? Thanks bro. Freakin' dickwad loser.

RELATED: I'm throwing this post into the ring for "National Offend a Feminist Week 2011."

CIA Detainees 'Produced Enormous Amounts of Valuable Intelligence Information' in Decade-Long Manhunt for Osama Bin Laden

Two key updates on the waterboarding controversy.

First, Weasel Zippers has the longer version of the clip below. Secretary Rumsfeld has clarified his messaging: "Part Two: Yes, Waterboarding Helped Get Osama""

Rumsfeld says waterboarding "absolutely" produced enormous amounts of information intelligence. And be sure to check that link to Weasel Zippers, which includes a segment from O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo," smacking down Alan Colmes.

And the Los Angeles Times has a careful analysis and complex analysis of the evidence-gathering process, and credits the coercive interrogations at Guantanamo as providing the initial clues about Bin Laden's courier, "Trail to Bin Laden began with CIA detainee, officials say":

An Al Qaeda suspect who was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques at a secret CIA prison in early 2004 provided a clue, the nom de guerre of a mysterious courier, that ultimately proved crucial to finding Osama bin Laden, officials said Wednesday.

The CIA had approved use of sleep deprivation, slapping, nudity, water dousing and other coercive techniques at the now-closed CIA "black site" in Poland where the Pakistani-born detainee, Hassan Ghul, was held, according to a 2005 Justice Department memo, which cited Ghul by name. Two U.S. officials said Wednesday that some of those now-prohibited practices were directed at Ghul.

Ghul was not waterboarded nor subjected to near-drowning, the most notorious interrogation technique and one that critics describe as torture.

Two other CIA prisoners — Al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his successor, Abu Faraj Libbi — gave their interrogators false information about the courier after they were waterboarded repeatedly, U.S. officials said.

Those lies also played a role in the decade-long manhunt, however. Over time, they were viewed as evidence by CIA analysts that Bin Laden's top deputies were trying to shield a figure who might be a link to the Al Qaeda leader's hide-out, according to U.S. officials briefed on the analysis. "The fact that they were covering it up suggested he was important," a U.S. official said.

In the end, intelligence gleaned from interviews with numerous detainees, high-tech eavesdropping and surveillance, and other investigative spadework provided insights on people close to Bin Laden. No one source or bit of intelligence was so decisive or critical that it instantly solved the puzzle or ended the painstaking hunt for the world's most wanted terrorist, officials said. They stressed that none of the three most critical pieces of information — the courier's name, the area of Pakistan in which he operated and the location of the compound in which Bin Laden was living — came from detainees.

The nuances of that complex chain of events were often lost Wednesday amid a renewed public debate about the efficacy and morality of coercive interrogations that the CIA carried out under President George W. Bush.

"I think the issue has been mischaracterized on both sides," said a former CIA official who was involved in internal debate over the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques program at the time. "The people who say 'enhanced interrogation techniques' directly led to catching Bin Laden are wrong, and the people who say they had nothing to do with it are also wrong."

That closing remark there is probably about the best we're gonna get. Waterboarding was a key factor, but not the decisive factor. No one source was crucial; the range of methods and our ability to use them was central.

Osama Raid Death Photos Traffic Surge

Click on the image for the Sitemeter link:

And check the Feedjit page as well. Pretty interesting to watch the visitors arrive in real time.

Top Secret Stealth Helicopters Used in Raid Against Osama Bin Laden

Interesting report, at ABC News, "Top Secret Stealth Helicopter Program Revealed in Osama Bin Laden Raid: Experts":

Also, "Navy SEALs Who Captured, Killed Osama Bin Laden Return to United States" (via Memeorandum).

Reuters Releases Pictures From Osama Bin Laden Raid! — ADDED! Reuters Updates With Report and Photos!

It won't be long until we see Osama Bin Laden's bloody corpse.

HERE'S A PICTURE OF AN UNIDENTIFIED BODY.

And see iOWNTHEWORLD, "Reuters releases photo of unidentified victim of America’s raid on bin Laden’s compound":

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE, IN TERMS OF INFLAMING MUSLIMS, IF THEY RELEASE ‘OTHER’ VICTIMS OF THE RAID?

Also, "Warning: These photos might be too graphic if you’re a progressive pussy."

Amazingly, I'm scooping Left Coast Rebel on this!

But check Ironic Surrealism. Turns out the Reuters' page has been taken down [now restored at the update].

ADDED: At Yeshiva World News, "Reuters Releases Graphic Images From Bin Laden Compound After Raid." Following the link takes us to a Yahoo page featuring a Reuters icon:

The unidentified body of a man is seen after a raid by U.S. Navy SEAL commandos on the compound where al Qaeda leader bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad...

More, at Bungalow Bill's, "The Reuters Images of the Attack Against Osama Bin Laden That Were Removed From Reuters Web Site," via Left Coast Rebel, who updates, "(PHOTOS) Reuters Releases, then Pulls, Graphic PHOTOS from Osama Bin Laden Raid (GRAPHIC WARNING"

UPDATE 3:21pm PST: At Reuters just now, "Photos show three dead men at bin Laden raid house":

(Reuters) - Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.

The photos, [see sidebar at left] taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters.

And the sidebar report: "Photos from the Bin Laden Compound."

Also, at Jawa Report, "Photo: Dead Man at bin Laden Compound Had ... WATER GUN???" (via Memeorandum).

Justice Stayed? Osama Bin Laden's Killing and Theories of International Justice

From Charli Carpenter, at Duck of Minerva, "Was "Justice' Served?"

Charli cites left-wing sources almost exclusively, and the others are largely academic links (and leftist by default). Interesting discussion, despite the high-falutin nature of the debate. Most regular folks couldn't care less if Osama Bin Laden got a trial. See Rasmussen, "86% Approve of Obama’s Decision to Kill bin Laden":

Americans overwhelmingly endorse President Obama’s decision to kill Osama bin Laden and don’t believe a greater effort should have been made to bring the terrorist mastermind to trial.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 86% of American Adults approve of the president’s decision authorizing the mission to kill bin Laden. Just five percent (5%) disapprove of the president’s action, while nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Only 14% say the special operations forces involved in the weekend mission should have tried harder to capture bin Laden so that he could have been given a fair trial. Seventy-five percent (75%) disagree and say there was no need for the Navy SEALs to try harder to capture the man behind the 9/11 attacks on the United States and several other major terrorist incidents. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

This puts Charli Carpenter down there with less than one-sixth of the population, as she suggests that with America's actions, "justice ... has been stayed, not served." All is not lost, however. Charli's in good company with the folks from Human Rights Watch, "Human Rights Watch Condemns Bin Laden Killing: Odious Immoral Equivalence" (via Memeorandum).

World's Largest Google Bomb!

Seriously.

This puts Robert Stacy McCain to shame.

See Tim Daniel's post, "Left Coast Rebel's 'Osama Dead Photo' Google Bomb."

Congratulations are in order! Jeez, that is working it!

Code-Name Geronimo

The code name for Osama Bin Laden, "Geronimo," is offensive to Native Americans. See ABC News, "Congress to Examine "Inappropriate" and "Devastating" Use of "Geronimo" Codename in bin Laden Mission." And at the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Onondaga Nation leaders blast 'Geronimo' codename for Bin Laden":

Onondaga Nation Territory -- Leaders of the Onondaga Nation blasted as “reprehensible” the code name used for Osama bin Laden in the commando assault that killed him: “Geronimo.”

“We’ve ID’d Geronimo,” U.S. forces reported by radio Sunday to the White House. Later, word came that “Geronimo” was dead.

Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until his surrender in 1886.

“Think of the outcry if they had used any other ethnic group’s hero,” the Onondaga Council of Chiefs said in a release Tuesday. “Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity.”

“Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world,” the chiefs said, “and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our people.”

More at the link.

Not the brightest idea for a code name. Good thing they didn't take out Osama with a Tomahawk missile.

Also at Wall Sreet Journal, "Osama Bin Laden Was No Geronimo."

U.S. Safer From Terrorism After Death of Bin Laden

For years analysts have argued that al Qaeda had matured into a many-tentacled global multinational actor, with offshoots, copycats, and official subsidiaries all vying for attention from the national security bureaucracies in the West. Killing Osama Bin Laden is most importantly a signal of American endurance, perseverance, and military effectiveness. His death brings a turning point and closure to the war of retribution that followed September 11. We are now in a much more complicated, developed competition with the forces of religious extremism around the world, with the United States and Israel in the crosshairs of totalitarian Islamist jihad. I don't believe we are necessarily safer. But I'm confident we're capable of defending our interest against our foes.

In any case, at Gallup, "Majority in U.S. Say Bin Laden's Death Makes America Safer":

Americans express mixed views on how Osama bin Laden's demise will affect U.S. national security, according to a Monday night USA Today/Gallup poll. A slight majority (54%) believe bin Laden's death will make the U.S. safer from terrorism, nearly double the 28% who fear it will make it less safe ...

Bottom Line

While fearful that a retaliatory attack could be imminent, Americans are guardedly optimistic about the longer-term national security ramifications of the dramatic U.S. military operation that killed al Qaeda leader bin Laden at his residence in Pakistan.

Americans are twice as likely to consider the United States safer rather than less safe as a result. However, they continue to believe the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan -- initiated in October 2001 to destroy al Qaeda terrorist training camps -- is needed. And they have fairly modest views about what the U.S. military's success at locating and killing bin Laden means for the war on terrorism more generally. Although three-quarters say their confidence that the U.S. will win that war is at least somewhat higher as a result, fewer than half, 39%, say it makes them a lot more confident. Similarly, not quite a third of Americans, 32%, say bin Laden's death gives them a lot more confidence in Obama as commander in chief.

RTWT (via Memeorandum and Los Angeles Times).

Military Families Reassess After Death of Bin Laden

This was a front-page report at yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "For friends and family of fallen troops, celebration and reassessment at news of Bin Laden's death":

Margot Stengel went to bed Sunday on the early side, with a heavy heart, as she had ever since her son died during his tour in Afghanistan. She was surprised when the phone rang a little before 10, and even more surprised to hear the voice of her grandson.

An often taciturn teenager, Jessee had a lot on his mind. Osama bin Laden, he told her, was dead. And it had come too late for his father, who died in December saddled with doubt about his slog through a dangerous pocket of Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.

It had seemed a confounding mission, both to California Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Vincent W. Ashlock and to his family back home, with an objective as concrete as a handful of water. But here was a moment, Stengel told her grandson, of clarity — finally, mercifully.

"Your father," she told her grandson, "is tap-dancing in heaven."

Since 2001, more than 1,500 Americans have died supporting the war in Afghanistan, including 161 Californians, according to military databases. For the friends and relatives of those troops, the announcement that U.S. special forces had killed Bin Laden was cause for celebration. It was also an opportunity to reassess sacrifices, to wrest a historic and tangible result, at long last, from a murky war.

"He is a part of this," Stengel said of her son. "Every step he took over there was one step toward freedom. I believe that. I'll spend the rest of my life missing him. But his circle, his goal, is complete."

More at the link.

RELATED: "Osama bin Laden killing may shift Afghan strategy."

And that's Debra Burlingame above, who shares her thoughts and emotions on the death of Bin Laden.