Candidates Show G.O.P. Less United on Goals of War

At New York Times:

DERRY, N.H. — The hawkish consensus on national security that has dominated Republican foreign policy for the last decade is giving way to a more nuanced view, with some presidential candidates expressing a desire to withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible and suggesting that the United States has overreached in Libya.

The shift, while incremental so far, appears to mark a separation from a post-Sept. 11 posture in which Republicans were largely united in supporting an aggressive use of American power around the world. A new debate over the costs and benefits of deploying the military reflects the length of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the difficulty of building functional governments and the financial burden at home in a time of extreme fiscal pressure.

I noticed this, and I wondered a bit about Michele Bachmann on foreign policy. She hardly sounds like a neocon, but I think that's good. We've been in Afghanistan for almost 10 years, and that's hard to sustain politically. Look for a lot of folks to declare victory and advocate a rapid drawdown.

Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants Who Assisted Bin Laden Operation

Via Astute Bloggers, "UNREAL BREAKING NEWS: PAKISTAN ARRESTS CIA'S INFORMANTS WHO AIDED ASSASSINATION OF BINLADEN."

And the link to the New York Times, "Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid."

Over the past several weeks the Pakistani military has been distancing itself from American intelligence and counterterrorism operations against militant groups in Pakistan. This has angered many in Washington who believe that Bin Laden’s death has shaken Al Qaeda and that there is now an opportunity to further weaken the terrorist organization with more raids and armed drone strikes.

But in recent months, dating approximately to when a C.I.A. contractor killed two Pakistanis on a street in the eastern city of Lahore in January, American officials said that Pakistani spies from the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI, have been generally unwilling to carry out surveillance operations for the C.I.A. The Pakistanis have also resisted granting visas allowing American intelligence officers to operate in Pakistan, and have threatened to put greater restrictions on the drone flights.

And follow the links for the whole thing.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Key Al Qaeda Operative in 1988 Embassy Bombings, Killed in Somalia

At Atlanta Journal Constitution:

NAIROBI, Kenya — The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who didn't immediately realize he was the most wanted man in East Africa, officials said Saturday.

The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed — a man who topped the FBI's most wanted list for nearly 13 years — is the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Mohammed had a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the Aug. 7, 1998, embassy bombings. The blasts killed 224 people in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans also died.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who was on a visit to Tanzania on Saturday as Somali officials confirmed Mohammed's death — called the killing a "significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa.

"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere — Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, and our own embassy personnel," Clinton said.

More at that link above, although I think the same lessons apply now that applied after the Abbottabad raid: Targeted killings don't kill the Al Qaeda organization. Depending on whom you talk to, global jihad constitutes an amorphous, multi-faceted terror network, with many alliances of convenience and substantial ties to state actors, such as Pakistan. There's lots of work to do in that sense. See, for example, Jayshree Bajoria, "Pakistan's New Generation of Terrorists."

U.S.-Born al Qaeda Spokesman Adam Gadahn Calls for Attacks on Americans

Blazing Cat Fur had his YouTube account suspended for posting this video of Adam Gadahn:

ABC News has the background, "New Al Qaeda Video: American Muslims Should Buy Guns, Start Shooting People." (Ilyas Kashmiri, mentioned as a remaining top al Qaeda leader, has now been killed in a U.s. drone attack.)

And Amy Alkon covered this:

Gotta love those silly "COEXIST" bumper stickers, which include Islam in among the other religions, despite the fact that Islam's mission (per the Quran and Hadith) is not "coexistence" but the conversion or death of all who do not believe as they do.

More at Quoth the Raven: "GOOGLE/YOUTUBE SUSPENDS BLAZINGCATFUR WHILE SUPPORTING JIHAD."

Osama Bin Laden's Pornography Stash!!

The dude was all lubed up and ready to go!!

At Reuters, "Exclusive: Pornography found in bin Laden hideout: officials" (via Jawa Report and Memeorandum).

Added: Jonah Goldberg holds out for more evidence, and suggests the big find will be if Osama starred in any porno tapes:

The titles write themselves: “I Jihad To Have Her,” “72 Virgins Gone Wild,” “OBL’s Hot Qtub Party,” “Abbottobad Girls,” “Sheep Are For Practice,” etc.

Bin Laden on Killing Americans

At LAT, "Osama bin Laden's journal contains his thoughts on killing Americans":

Osama bin Laden kept a personal journal in which he contemplated how to kill as many Americans as possible, including in terrorist attacks against Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, according to U.S. officials.

The handwritten journal was part of a vast cache of digital and printed material hauled away from Bin Laden's hide-out after U.S. Navy SEALs killed him last week in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

One official said Wednesday that the trove provided "terabytes" of new information about Al Qaeda.

The official described the journal as full of planning ideas and outlines of potential operations — "aspirational guidance" on how to kill the maximum number of people rather than specific proposals or plots that were actually underway.

In one passage, Bin Laden wondered how many Americans would have to die in U.S. cities to force the U.S. government to withdraw from the Arab world. He concluded that it would require another mass murder on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks to spur a reversal in U.S. policy, an official said.

The officials declined to provide details about potential plots in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bin Laden discussed an operation in Washington, one official said, "because of its iconic value."

Read it all at the link upstairs.

Show the Proof, Mr. President

It's so elementary.

See Peggy Noonan, "Americans don't want to 'spike the ball.' They want to show they crossed the goal line."

Here is the fact of the age: People believe nothing. They think everything is spin and lies. The minute a government says A is true, half the people on Earth know A is a lie. And when people believe nothing, as we know, they will believe anything. We faked the moon landing, there was a second gunman in Dallas, the World Trade Center was blown up in a U.S.-Zionist conspiracy, Hitler grew old in Argentina.

There will always be people who believe conspiracy theories, and with the Internet there will be more. They are impervious to evidence. But people who care about the truth need to be armed with evidence to refute them.

Mr. Obama misunderstands all this. He tells Steve Croft Sunday on Sixty Minutes that showing photos of the dead Osama would be to "spike the football." "We don't trot this stuff out as trophies." Trophies? Who does he think we are?

It's not about pride, it's about proof. "We got him, shot him and immediately threw him in the sea" is not enough. The U.S. government should release all the evidence it has that does not compromise security. Pictures of Osama are said to be gruesome. Then get the least gruesome one and put it out. Release the DNA evidence, incriminating information found in the house, and pictures of the raid. If there was a passport under the mattress, make it public. And let the SEALs tell their story. Allow them, if they are willing and eager, to go on "Nightline," "Frontline" and "60 Minutes." If they cannot be identified or don't wish to be, put a blue dot over their faces, filter their voices, and don't use their names.

All of this should be put in one big package and released to the world. In this way you give the nation and the world data, and a lot to talk about. That talk will crowd out and diminish conspiracy theories and deather denialism.

Americans don't want to spike the ball. They just want to show they crossed the goal line.

Al-Qaeda Vows Revenge

And that's after President Obambi bent over backwards not to inflame Islamist sensibilities.

See USA Today, "Al-Qaeda confirms bin Laden's death, threatens new attacks." (At Memeorandum.) Plus, a video report at CNN, "Al Qaeda, in Web message, confirms bin Laden's death."

Changing Reports on Bin Laden Raid

At Toronto Star:

Re: U.S. won’t release bin Laden photos, president says, May 5

It is somewhat disconcerting to hear the ever-changing reports from American officials regarding the death of Osama bin Laden. First, he was killed by Navy Seals following a firefight at his compound. Later it was announced that there were no armed guards at his compound. First, one of his wives was used as a human shield and was killed in the battle. Later it was stated that she wasn’t used as a human shield but was shot in the leg. First reports from American officials were that when the Navy Seals broke into his bedroom, he picked up a gun and was shot in an exchange of fire. Later it was reported that he wasn’t armed.

Although few in the western world will shed any tears over his death or the manner in which he was killed and his body dumped into the sea, it is important that we in the West observe the rule of law. If bin Laden was not armed and was not killed “in the crossfire,” then he should have been captured and put on trial for his crimes against humanity. This practice was properly observed with Saddam Hussein and the world didn’t fall apart.

Saul D. Paton, Toronto

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":

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."

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).