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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr.'s talk show from Dallas yesterday, discussing the biological problems of Osama bin Laden.  It's here.

MAY 3,  2011

ABOUT TIME – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:  President Obama has reportedly invited former President George W. Bush to join him at Ground Zero in New York on Thursday.  However, Mr. Bush has declined the invitation.

It's also reported that Nancy Pelosi has telephoned former President Bush to thank him for his role in the ultimate elimination of Osama bin Laden.

Clearly, Democrats have been stung by the criticism, correct, that they lacked class in the way Mr. Bush's role was downplayed in Mr. Obama's initial announcement of the successful bin Laden raid.

As for Bush declining Obama's invitation, no reason was given.  There could be any number of reasons, including the possible feeling that was being used.  Or, perhaps, he felt the focus should be on the current president.

It is gratifying to know, though, that at least some people are starting to recognize George Bush's contribution.

May 3, 2011       Permalink

BOTCHING IT – AT 9:03 P.M. ET:  It was to be expected that conspiracy theorists and America haters would come out of the woodwork after bin Laden's death, but did we have to help them so much?

It's now been acknowledged that some of the key statements made by administration members describing the killing of bin Laden were wrong.  He did not have a gun, the woman he used as a shield was not his wife, and she was not killed.  The man who misled us was John Brennan, Mr. Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser.  In that position, Brennan should be most sensitive to the impact of inaccurate statements that later have to be withdrawn.  They lead to an explosion of conspiracy theories and accusations.  Brennan has made inaccurate statements before in his job, and should now be eased out of the administration.  He just doesn't cut it.

The administration has botched the aftermath of the brilliantly conducted raid that got bin Laden.  Contradictory statements, and a curious lack of understanding that absolute proof had to be provided have now set off a wave of skepticism.  True, no matter what we did there would be doubt in some quarters, especially in the Mideast, where conspiracy theories are often a substitute for thought.  But again, we made matters worse.

It was not necessary for bin Laden to be dumped into the ocean within 24 hours of death.  There is a limit to how much "sensitivity" we had to show.  It would have been better to keep the body for a few days to provide absolute proof of death.  Identification by family members might have been done.  The body could have been examined by a neutral authority from say, the World Health Organization or the Red Cross.   This part of the planning was not good. 

Now there is controversy over whether the death photos of bin Laden should be released.  I have no answer.  On the one hand, they could provide proof to some.  On the other hand, release of the pictures will immediate provoke cries of "Photoshopped." 

I suspect that some photos will have to be released, and that other evidence will have to be provided.  Apparently, there are very sophisticated DNA tests that can be conducted, with samples we already have, that should settle the matter, but of course people can claim they were faked.

We will never satisfy everyone, but we did very little to satisfy even mild skeptics.  I have no doubt whatever that bin Laden was killed in that raid.  What conspiracy theorists never tell you is that the kind of conspiracies they dream up would normally require a cast of hundreds or thousands, none of whom ever leak a word.  But we simply could have done better in this case.  I hope some hard evidence remains that the president can present to the world.

May 3, 2011       Permalink

MORE OF THE USUAL SUSPECTS – AT 7:31 P.M. ET:  Warlike words in the city of peace from a representative of the "religion of peace."  Another reminder from the real world – not the world of political correctness – of what we're up against: 

An imam from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem vowed to take revenge over "the western dogs" for killing
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday.

In a Youtube video uploaded by the imam he said: "The western dogs are rejoicing after killing one of our Islamic lions. From Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the future caliphate will originate with the help of God, we say to them – the dogs will not rejoice too much for killing the lions. The dogs will remain dogs and the lion, even if he is dead, will remain a lion."

Great wisdom, deeply thought out.  We must understand other cultures, mustn't we?

The imam then verbally attacked US President Barack Obama saying: "You personally instructed to kill Muslims. You should know that soon you'll hang together with Bush Junior."

"We are a nation of billions, a good nation. We'll teach you about politics and military ways very soon, with god's help," he vowed.

Some two dozen Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pay tribute to slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

About 25 people holding pictures and posters of bin Laden rallied outside a Gaza City university. The crowd included al-Qaeda sympathizers as well as students who said they opposed bin Laden's ideology, but were angry at the US for killing him and consider him a martyr.

Hamas police did not interfere in the demonstration.

COMMENT:  Now maybe President Obama will learn what it's like to deal with this kind of irrationality, as President Bush learned.  We assume it will have an impact.

May 3, 2011       Permalink

THE POLITICS OF IT – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  Already, and understandably, we are seeing some members of the punditry examine the political implications of the bin Laden action for President Obama.  The reactions range all the way from the moronic - one of the "ladies" of "The View" suggested that we just cancel the 2012 election because Obama has it – to dubious assertions that this will have no effect at all.

It will have some effect, if only the line, "He got bin Laden."  The line will have some impact in strengthening Obama's sometimes dubious national-security credentials.  Beyond that, it is difficult to know how many votes, if any, this episode will change.

Some have cited history.  It is true that George H.W. Bush had enormous approval ratings after the first Gulf War, and went on to lose the 1992 presidential election.  But Bush 41 had an anemic personality and the first Gulf War, fought to "liberate" Kuwait, didn't draw the passions that bin Laden did.

A more appropriate comparison is probably the 1942 midterm elections, occurring only 11 months after Pearl Harbor.  The country was involved in the war effort, fighting desperately both the Japanese in the Pacific and, by the time of the election, the Nazis in North Africa.  Under President Roosevelt's leadership, we had already pulled off the Doolittle raid on Tokyo and a spectacular naval victory at Midway. 

And yet, Roosevelt took a beating in the 1942 midterm elections.  The Democrats lost 45 House seats and retained only a slender majority, even losing the popular vote.  The new House, sworn in at the start of 1943, had 222 Democrats and 209 Republicans.

As usual, only a third of the Senate was up, but, there too, the president suffered losses.  The Democrats lost eight seats, but still retained a sizable advantage in the new Congress, with 58 Senate seats to the GOP's 37, with one Progressive.  (That adds up to 96.  Please note that Alaska and Hawaii had not yet become states.)

Roosevelt's majorities eroded because of grumbling over the war and loss of support in some ethnic communities.  America was never quite as united as some sugar-coated histories tell us.  It never is, any more than Britain was completely united.  Britain threw Churchill out in 1945, before the war even ended.  Roosevelt was losing popularity in part because he'd served so long.  He did get reelected in 1944, but not by an overwhelming margin, considering America's dramatic path to wartime victory.

No way to predict, then, how Obama will do next year.  We do know that military success doesn't always translate into political victory, especially if that success occurs long before the election.

May 3, 2011      Permalink

FROM WEIRD TO WEIRDER – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:  If you want to see printed proof of how far gone the Iranian regime is, just consider its take on the killing of Osama bin Laden, as reflected in the party-line press:

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US has killed the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a bid to prevent any possible leakage of intelligence and information about the US-Al-Qaeda joint terrorist operations, a senior Iranian legislator underscored on Monday.

"The West was fully satisfied with bin Laden's performance during the past years and today… it was obliged to kill him to prevent possible leakage of the priceless intelligence that he had," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Jahangirzadeh told FNA on Monday.

So bin Laden was a secret ally of the United States.  As Johnny Carson used to say, "I did not know that."

He mentioned that the West seeks to rebuild its damaged face in the international community, and reiterated that Bin Laden's survival could endanger the interests of the western countries and disclose their past and future clandestine operations.

Jahangirzadeh warned the world countries that the West has hatched a new plot to find new pretexts for invading and occupying the Muslim countries.

COMMENT:  This is the kind of stuff that's fed to the Iranian people.  And stuff like it is fed to many residents of the "Arab street" throughout the Mideast.  This twisting of minds creates profound problems for us, but receives virtually no attention from the American media, which seems to have little interest in how public opinion is actually formed, especially in dictatorships.

May 3, 2011        Permalink 

LET'S GET IT RIGHT, FELLAS – AT 8:50 A.M. ET:  We still, as a nation, bask in the glow of bin Laden's termination, but already the conspiracy theorists and borderline mental cases are at work, casting doubt, demanding super-proof and raising the kinds of questions previously reserved for George W. Bush. 

Unfortunately, some information botches aren't helping matters.  From The Politico:

The White House backed away Monday evening from key details in its narrative about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including claims by senior U.S. officials that the Al Qaeda leader had a weapon and may have fired it during a gun battle with U.S. forces.

Officials also retreated from claims that one of bin Laden’s wives was killed in the raid and that bin Laden was using her as a human shield before she was shot by U.S. forces.

At a televised White House briefing Monday afternoon, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said bin Laden joined in the fight that several residents of the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound put up against the Navy SEALs during the 40-minute operation.

“He [bin Laden] was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don’t know,” Brennan said.

At a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day, a senior defense official said bin Laden used a woman as a human shield so he could fire shots. “He was firing behind her,” the official said.

In another background briefing early Monday morning, a senior administration official also said bin Laden put up a fight. “He did resist the assault force. And he was killed in a firefight,” the official said.

However, during a background, off-camera briefing for television reporters later Monday, a senior White House official said bin Laden was not armed when he was killed, apparently by the U.S. raid team.

Another White House official familiar with the TV briefing confirmed the change to POLITICO, adding, “I’m not aware of him having a weapon.”

“The bottom line is the team that entered that room was met with resistance and took appropriate action,” said a third American official.

COMMENT:  If they don't get their stories straight, conspiracy theories will grow.  All we need is stories in the Muslim world claiming that bin Laden was "murdered" in cold blood, despite putting up no resistance. 

And the hard left waits in the wings, ready to pounce with its own "narrative."  Consummate wackjob Cindy Sheehan is already out with a claim that bin Laden isn't dead.

The White House has got to produce a clean story, and I'm afraid pictures of the dead bin Laden may have to be released. 

Bin laden's physical size was unique in the Arab world – he was a very tall man in a society of shorter men, and tha fact alone is compelling.  But let's get all the evidence out to silence the unbelievers, who see profits and books ahead.

May 3, 2011       Permalink

VICTORY UP NORTH – AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  Americans, to put it mildly, do not follow Canadian politics very closely.  But Canada is one of our closest allies, shares our longest border, and is our largest trading partner.  It also has, today, a remarkably pro-American prime minister in Steve Harper.

Canada just held a national election and Harper's conservatives won a clean majority in Parliament, meaning he can govern without forming a coalition.  This is rare in a country that tends to tilt left, but Harper has done it, and it's good news for the Yanks:

TORONTO (AP) - Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper won his coveted majority government in elections Monday that also marked a shattering defeat for the opposition Liberals, preliminary results showed.
Harper, who took office in 2006, has won two elections but until now had never held a majority of Parliament's 308 seats, forcing him to rely on the opposition to pass legislation.

While Harper's hold on the 308-member Parliament has been tenuous during his five-year tenure, he has managed to nudge an instinctively center-left country to the right. He has gradually lowered sales and corporate taxes, avoided climate change legislation, promoted Arctic sovereignty, upped military spending and extended Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.

Elections Canada reported preliminary results on its website, giving the Conservatives 164 seats, which will give Harper four years of uninterrupted government.

"It's stunning. We're elated," Conservative lawmaker Jason Kenney said in an interview with CBC. "We'll be a government for all Canadians."

The leftist New Democratic Party was projected to become the main opposition party for the first time in Canadian history with 106 seats, in a stunning setback for the Liberals who have always been either in power or leading the opposition.

Former colleagues of Harper say his long-term goals are to shatter the image of the Liberals—the party of former Prime Ministers Jean Chretien, Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau—as the natural party of government in Canada, and to redefine what it means to be Canadian.

Harper, who comes from the conservative western province of Alberta, took a major step toward that goal on Monday night as the Liberals dropped to 35 seats from 77, according to the preliminary results.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff congratulated Harper and New Democrat leader Jack Layton and accepted responsibility for the "historic defeat."

"I will play any part that the party wishes me to play as we go forward to rebuild," said Ignatieff, who even lost his own seat in a Toronto suburb.

Stephen Clarkson, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said Harper will now be considered a transformative figure in Canadian history.

"It's a sea change," Clarkson said.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.  It's the western Canadian provinces that provide the conservative base in Canada, but we've even seen conservative strides in Toronto, a liberal city, just as we saw conservative strides under Rudy Giuliani in New York.  Issues like high crime drive even traditionally liberal voters to the right.

The news is not all good.  The New Democrats, who made great strides, are a typical European leftist party with an aloof attitude toward the United States.  Fortunately, they're in a minority and not a current threat.  It will be up to Steve Harper to make short work of them and expose them for what they are, a throwback to the 1960s.

May 3, 2011     Permalink

MAY 2,  2011

SECURITY REDUCED? – AT 9:53 P.M. ET:  It seemed to me that the security at Grand Central Station, a major target, was far less when I left for home than when I arrived.  I have no explanation for this.   New York is going through a severe budget crunch, and maybe that was a factor.

It's still all bin Laden all the time.  The ultimate reality show.  President Obama is coming to Ground Zero later this week, his visit symbolizing the end of the bin Laden saga.  It's a good political stroke as well.  He'll be photographed with cops, firemen and other emergency personnel, and once again we will see Obama the "moderate" presented to the electorate.

One of the most inspiring things today was to see the number of college students out demonstrating on behalf of America.  Even the most elite of college newspapers, the Harvard Crimson and the Columbia Spectator, featured bin Laden's end on their front pages, and showed photos of students cheering. 

As the news of Osama bin Laden's death began to spread late Sunday night, images of college students celebrating across the United States started to pour into CNN iReport. From waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas at Yale University to a chorus of voices rising above Penn State University, the mood among campuses was electric.

"It was crazy, everyone was so unified and excited," said Colleen Russo, who joined around 400 other Denison University students in Granville, Ohio, to celebrate the news. They sang patriotic songs, shot off fireworks and cheered "USA! USA!" until the wee hours of the morning.

Although the majority of undergrads were just elementary school students when the September 11 attacks occurred, it seems the significance of bin Laden's death is not lost upon them.

"I remember I really lost my innocence that day," said Russo.

The 21-year-old psychology major explained that she grew up knowing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bin Laden's death, 10 years later, "[is] kind of like closure for me," she said.

"The attacks happened at an age where I was just beginning to understand world politics,” said West Virginia University student Puthiwadh Owen Huot, who was in 7th grade and living in Washington D.C. at the time.

He watched thousands of rowdy students fill the streets of Morgantown, West Virginia, chanting, honking car horns, and, in some cases, setting couches on fire.

"People are celebrating like crazy where I am," said Huot. "I think its more of a mob mentality and students are just looking for a reason to celebrate."

Vanderbilt University student Chris McDonald, 22, said he was moved by seeing images of other college students reacting to the news.

It has been reported that professors watching the demonstrations were treated for shock and given the last rites of the Young Socialists Club.

May 2, 2011       Permalink

NEW YORK ON ALERT – AT 5:46 P.M. ET:  I'm writing this from a park bench just outside Central Park, on Fifth Avenue.  I'm going to hear a private talk in a few minutes on some of the creative shenanigans on Wall Street. 

I left Grand Central Station a short time ago and, yes, the security was much heavier than usual.  I saw knots of police officers with bomb-sniffing dogs, and I witnessed one traveler pulled over to have his bags inspected.  I did not hear any ACLU members shouting "Fascism!" but that may happen on the way back.  Some of the nursery schools haven't let out yet.

Obviously, security like that cannot stop a suicide bomber, but it can deter a terrorist who'd like to see tomorrow.  I was glad to see the cops, who looked pretty serious about their work.  New Yorkers tend to take these things in stride.  No one seemed particularly bothered.

I have what I call the "48-hour rule."  It holds that it takes about 48 hours after a major news event for the left to get reorganized and start spouting its line.  We're seeing some early signs.  We'll see if the rule holds.

May 2, 2011     Permalink

THE USUAL SUSPECTS – AT 10:35 A.M. ET:  While most sane people are shedding no tears over the death of Osama bin Laden, there are those who are indeed all choked up.  Included in this exclusive club are the leaders of Hamas, which controls Gaza, and has just entered into a unity agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank.  From Reuters:

GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Monday condemned the killing by U.S. forces of Osama bin Laden and mourned him as an "Arab holy warrior."

"We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters.

Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden's al Qaeda and Hamas, Haniyeh said: "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."

COMMENT:  The sound you hear is Jimmy Carter and like-minded Hamas sympathizers rushing to explain away that statement.  We should remember what Haniyeh said the next time we're informed that Hamas is really a swell group of guys who are misunderstood in the West.

No misunderstanding those words.

May 2, 2011       Permalink

THE HISTORIC PRECEDENT – AT 10:02 A.M. ET:  The erasure of Osama bin Laden marks the second time in the lifetime of many of us that the United States has mounted a spectacular operation to kill someone who masterminded a military attack on the United States.

On April 18, 1943, the United States launched Operation Vengeance to kill Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who'd planned the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.  The operation was based on intelligence reports that told us of Yamamoto's travel plans in the Solomon Islands, in the southwest Pacific.  A flight of Army Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning twin-engine fighters was sent out, and intercepted Yamamoto's plane in exactly the spot and at exactly the time the intelligence reports predicted.  Yamamoto's aircraft crashed on the island of Bougainville, later taken by American troops.

Yamamoto's death had a devastating impact on the morale of the Japanese Navy, equivalent, one distinguished naval historian has written, to losing a major battle.  The crash site of Yamamoto's plane is preserved to this day, and has become a tourist attraction.

May 2, 2011       Permalink

LIVE TWITTERING THE BIN LADEN OP – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  This story is going viral.  A Pakistani guy live Twittered the bin Laden operation without realizing what it was.   From London's Telegraph:

Sohaib Athar, who uses the Twitter handle "ReallyVirtual", recorded the helicopter attack that led to the death of the al-Qaeda leader.

At 1am local time, he noted on his Twitter page that a helicopter was hovering overhead, a "rare event" in sleepy Abbottabad.

The noise from the aircraft was annoying, and he tweeted: "Go away helicopter – before I take out my giant swatter :-/".

But the commotion only got worse.

Minutes later he wrote: "A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S"

Then, when the sound of the helicopter stopped following an explosion, he tweeted "seems like my giant swatter worked !"

In a few exchanges with other Twitter users he wrote: "the few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani ".

And: "Since taliban (probably) don't have helicpoters, and since they're saying it was not 'ours', so must be a complicated situation".

Shortly later he went offline for a few hours, returning in the morning to work out what had happened.

He retweeted a post from Munzir Naqvi: "I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected."

Soon another Twitter user had confirmed the news. Mr Athar tweeted "RT @ ISuckBigTime: Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. ISI has confirmed it [[ Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood :-/"".

COMMENT:  Watch this guy become a 15-minutes-of-fame American TV star. 

May 2, 2011       Permalink

MYSTERY – AT 8:27 A.M. ET:  There will be many mysteries to come out of the bin Laden operation, but one that is featuring prominently this morning involves the question of how much Pakistan actually knew about bin Laden's whereabouts, and whether elements within the Pakistan government were actually helping him.  From the L.A. Times:

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan –— The fact that Osama bin Laden was killed not in the tribal badlands of northwestern Pakistan but in a small city just north of the capital is likely to raise new suspicions in Washington about how much the country's security establishment knew of his whereabouts — and whether elements of it assisted him.

For many years, the hunt for Bin Laden focused on the rugged tribal areas along the Afghan border. Instead, he was killed in the city of Abbottabad, in a neighborhood near the Pakistan Military Academy, the training center that has produced many of the country's powerful military leaders.

Right near the training center?  I wonder how many cadets were brought in for inspiration.

That Bin Laden was caught in the heart of the Pakistani state may deepen the mistrust between the U.S. and its nominal anti-terrorist ally, which is the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Officials in Washington have long accused the Pakistani government and its security bodies of providing sanctuary and other means of support to militant groups that were closely allied with Al Qaeda and helped the terrorist organization hide and operate there.

In July, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly accused the Pakistani government of less than full cooperation in the hunt for Bin Laden.

Clinton did not charge that top government officials were protecting the Al Qaeda leader, but instead said she believed that elements of the bureaucracy had to know where he was hiding.

A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters at the White House late Sunday said no Pakistani forces were involved in the operation to kill Bin Laden and that Pakistan was not told of the mission beforehand.

COMMENT:  Pakistan is insisting this morning that the bin Laden operation was an entirely U.S. affair.  Obviously, the Pakistan government fears retaliation from the huge number of fanatics residing in the country should they suspect that their own country was involved in killing the Islamist matinee idol.

May 2, 2011       Permalink

DETAILS EMERGE – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  We don't have all the details on the American operation that killed bin Laden, but some facts are known.  It is widely reported that Navy SEALS were involved.  From CNN:

(CNN) -- In the dark of night, U.S. helicopters approached a high-walled compound in Pakistan on a mission to capture or kill one of the world's most notorious terrorist leaders.

Less than 40 minutes later -- early Monday morning in Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden was dead, along with four others inside the complex, and the U.S. forces departed with the slain al Qaeda leader's body to fulfill a vow that originated shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Speaking from the White House Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the successful raid. Senior administration officials provided further details on the assault on the compound they believe was built five years ago for the specific purpose of hiding bin Laden.

The compound is in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The city sits in a mountainous region of Pakistan and is not heavily populated. Many of the residents are army personnel.

While senior administration officials would not offer a breakdown of the U.S. mission's composition, a senior defense official said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved.

And...

The mission ordered Friday by Obama encountered outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, the senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a seven-foot privacy wall, they said.

Months of intelligence work determined that the compound was custom-built to hide a high-value terrorism suspect, almost certainly bin Laden. The officials noted there was no telephone or Internet service at the dwelling, which was valued at more than $1 million, and its occupants burned their trash, rather than leave it out for collection like other area residents.

And...

U.S. officials said they used a number of methods to identify the body as bin Laden.

One official said it was clear to the assault force that the body matched bin Laden's description, but they used "facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity."

A senior national security official told CNN that they had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."

I wonder if Hollywood will now make a movie, or will the "artists" out there consider the theme too pro-American?  I think all bets are off.

We also await the first book claiming that bin Laden is alive and playing poker with Elvis.

May 2, 2011        Permalink

BIN LADEN APPARENTLY BURIED AT SEA – AT 7:38 A.M. ET:  As Staples says, "That was easy."

News reports say that Osama bin Laden, biologically impacted yesterday by an American team, has been buried at sea.  This is entirely logical, and it's not the first time the oceans have been used to swallow up a demon.  When Israel executed Adolph Eichmann, the organizer of the Holocaust, he was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.  The purpose:  A burial site on land can become a shrine. 

A number of leaders, including Angela Merkel of Germany and David Cameron of Britain, have praised the American operation that led to bin Laden's final chapter.  But it is reported that Al Qaeda websites, and those of fellow travelers, are filled with outrage and anguish.  Thus, American officials have alerted U.S. embassies around the world to take special precautions.  Those precautions will extend to the United States itself.  Retaliatory attacks are expected.  From WaPo:

WASHINGTON — The State Department early Monday put U.S. embassies on alert and warned of the heightened possibility for anti-American violence after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan.

In a worldwide travel alert released shortly after President Barack Obama late Sunday announced bin Laden’s death in a U.S. military operation, the department said there was an “enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counterterrorism activity in Pakistan.”

Americans are reacting with understandable glee, and with a sense that justice has been done.  However, we have yet to hear from Code Pink or the ACLU.

May 2, 2011     Permalink