Bin Laden Dead?

http://i54.tinypic.com/35cl6oj.jpg

There was speculation that OBL's youngest wife was in the house, and supposedly he was using a woman as a human shield and she died in a crossfire, so it sounds likely it was her.

daniel larison with the cold water

http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2011/05/02/fighting-the-hydra/

Obviously, losing prominent individual leaders hurts insurgencies and terrorist groups, but in the way we talk about these figures we tend to exaggerate greatly how important they are as part of the larger conflict. We have seen the latest version of this in the recent “accidental” assassination attempts on Gaddafi, as if Gaddafi’s death would force his sons to surrender rather than fight on. Indeed, the more that Americans come to believe that killing individual leaders is a ready-made solution to policy problems, the easier it will be to sell supposedly low-risk, promiscuous interventionism facilitated by missile strikes or special forces. It also helps to keep people from thinking very much about any of the other things that stoke jihadism and insurgency, and it encourages the false comfort that we just need to kill enough of the right people to prevail.

belatedly: this is awesome, & kinda like the michele bachmann thing whereby the argument rests not on one's compliance with law or receipt of information, but on the grace of the other side - bachman deigning to 'take him at his word', & ol' man frogbs equanimity in overlooking dumb laws and those who flaunt them

tbh I never really know what he's on about, he also believes that 9/11 was an inside job and all that. he was in the air force for a good 15 years and claims to have worked on the iraq war...to his credit he's been able to predict most of the major developements in the war and the mortgage crisis way ahead of time; i don't really take much of what he says too seriously but I don't really think he's racist either. if he is then he's getting some form of poetic justice because all three of his sons have either married or are engaged to women from different countries including pakistan

xp to Mordy - well done, and if my impressions of BBC World are anything to go by, you'll be on hourly in businessman's hotels worldwide for the next year or so

wait, Mordy's doing pr0n?

Exciting! I'll be a minor businessman hotel celebrity.

Also, how long before the first "kill Osama Scarface-style" mods/mission packs are released for Socom/MW2/etc? I remember the original batch of Counterstrike mods being out within 48 hours

be sure to wave a "recognizably human" flag

COUNTER TERRORISTS WIN

Next map: cs_Libya

i'm two-thirds white btw

― dell (del), Monday, 2 May 2011 15:33 (3 hours ago)

what, do you have two dads and a mom?

re: Obama's speech. Perfect for the non-elitist core he's trying to win votes from

or one parent full white & one 1/6 white

George F. Will, vindicating John Kerry:

Barack Obama, in his pitch-perfect address informing the nation that bin Laden is as dead as communism — never mind the cadaverous Cuban and North Korean regimes — rightly stressed that this is “the most significant achievement to date” against al-Qaeda, but that it “does not mark the end of” our effort to defeat that amorphous entity. Perhaps, however, America can use this occasion to draw a deep breath and some pertinent conclusions.

Many salient facts about the tracking of terrorism’s most prolific killer to his lair — some lair: not a remote cave but an urban compound — must remain shrouded in secrecy, for now. But one surmise seems reasonable: bin Laden was brought down by intelligence gathering that more resembles excellent police work than a military operation.

Granted, in nations as violent as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the line between military operations and police work is blurry, and military and other forms of intelligence gathering cannot be disentangled. Still, the enormous military footprint in Afghanistan, next door to bin Laden’s Pakistan refuge, seems especially disproportionate in the wake of his elimination by a small cadre of specialists.

more capn lorax itt imo

or one parent full white & one 1/6 white

― flopson, Monday, May 2, 2011 7:03 PM (42 seconds ago)

second part made me lol

or 3 1/3 parents

Turns out I had the wrong compound. Its actually 0.899 mi, 1.447 km from Pakistan's West Point according to the New York Times. No good Google accomodations reviews.

btw do you think Eric Holder personally ordered ObL to be taken dead only? Fuckabunchatribunals

jeezus, George Will sounding like Michael Moore 9-1/2 years ago.

That's pretty progressive for George Will

will has been letting his isolationist streak show for a long time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiDyrkU0WAQ

an onion classic

http://www.theonion.com/articles/osama-bin-laden-found-inside-each-of-us,1131/

Will has a survivor's script; his career is full of pivots away from potential self-immolations.

script = instinct

This is slightly bizarre. Two days ago i was reading a 'moronic Youtube comment' and someone actually wrote "Bin Laden is dead". It was just a throw away comment but the timing is wow for me.

Was it Bill Pullman? If so I might have an explanation but it's really confusing and includes Balthazar Getty.

I'm still interested in accidental twitter celebrity guy who was in abbottabad to get away from it all and ended up hearing the helicopters show up

he heard some helicopters

Wait, was that you, Mordy?

"It is a form of justice, and I like the fact that we did it..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd79AJWHMDI

yeah - mordechai <-- me

was it okay?

i feel like maybe i was a little flustered lol

They just played a brief clip of an unidentified American voice. If that was you, it sounded fine!

or 3 1/3 parents

duh, yeah! you people...

mordy if you can tell me exactly what time you were on I can get it for you

around 3:14-3:23

just joshing your chain del

(EST)

Obviously, losing prominent individual leaders hurts insurgencies and terrorist groups, but in the way we talk about these figures we tend to exaggerate greatly how important they are as part of the larger conflict.

So Osama bin Laden is the Bernie Madoff of radical Islam?

like i know i'm a midwestern rube who lives in an unimportant city, but (honest q) are ppl really expecting swift, successful retribution for this? i've never really bought the idea that obl was, like, a folk hero. dude facilitated terrorism, but i can't imagine he ~inspired~ it.

maybe i'm wrong, but i never got a "revolutionary" vibe
--cop a cute abdomen (gbx)

nah I more just meant 'lone gunman type decides this would be a good time to pull some shit'. I'm prob just paranoid tho.

Friend on FB put terrorist in scare quotes when describing OBL ("you know, I'm glad we killed this 'terrorist' and all but...")

hahaha wow

manson never actually killed anybody either

he was a freedom fighter, fighting freedom wherever it may be

so he wasn't here then?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=34.187546,73.242596&spn=0.001296,0.002216&t=h&z=19

http://www.dailyastorian.com/free/teacher-who-vowed-not-to-shave-until-bin-laden-was/article_a8860868-74d2-11e0-afbf-001cc4c03286.html

chris hedges: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/chris_hedges_speaks_on_osama_bin_ladens_death_20110502/

And here we go:

A leading Republican senator on Monday questioned the U.S. government's decision to dispose of Osama bin Laden's body within 24 hours.

Bin Laden, the former al Qaeda leader killed by U.S. forces on Sunday, was buried at sea within 24 hours of his death in accordance with Islamic law. Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, is skeptical of the decision.

"To me, that didn't make a lot of sense," Graham said during an interview with conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham.