If our dealings with Pakistan are hampered by the same flawed assumptions we used in our hunt for Osama bin Laden, the road ahead for Washington and Islamabad is likely to be rocky. Over at Small Wars Journal, Will Chalmers, a research assistant at the Centre for Security, Armed Forces and Society at the Royal Military College of …
osama bin laden
The Outing of the SEALs Has SecDef Ticked Off
Remember when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got that question about “hillbilly armor” in 2004 from a soldier in Kuwait complaining about lousy protection for troops in the war in Iraq? And Rumsfeld’s timeless response: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have.”
It turns out the question, from a member of …
Pakistan: indispensable to US security?
I am amazed at how quickly the Obama administration is going out of its way to assure everyone that we’re sticking with Pakistan for the long haul no matter what. No discussion and little explanation, it’s just assumed that Pakistan becomes the new indispensable partner that anchors US national security, even as every day reveals …
“Under The Sea” With bin Laden
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dDtRnstrefE]
OK…so it’s juvenile. But it includes a nice shot of our X’ed-out Osama bin Laden Time cover, so it can’t be all bad.
Osama Is Dead, but ‘bin Ladenism’ Endures in Southeast Asia
So is Osama bin Laden’s death likely to end his brand of terror in southeast Asia? Unfortunately, according to Maria Ressa, an expert on the topic, no. Check out her interview with colleague Emily Raulala on Time’s Global Spin blog.
1 in 11,800,000,000,000,000
DNA samples collected from his body were compared to a comprehensive DNA profile derived from bin Laden’s large extended family. Based on that analysis, the DNA is unquestionably his. The possibility of a mistaken identity on the basis of this analysis is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion. I’ll let you count the zeroes.
— Senior …
The Silence from Pakistan
There was a more important story over the weekend than the U.S. propaganda effort to demystify Osama bin Laden by releasing five silent video clips. It involved another kind of quiet coming from Pakistan worth noting, as Karin Brulliard did in Saturday’s Washington Post:
In a nation that is home to an alphabet soup of militant
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Right out of John Boyd’s strategy: disconnect, isolate & disempower your enemy
The account emerging from the Pentagon regarding Osama Bin Laden’s life in that million-dollar compound reads like the last days of Howard Hughes. The guy had been reduced to puttering around with his plots on his computer and dying his beard in anticipation of his great comeback video. He is videotaped …
The Lessons of bin Laden
After a decade of Osama bin Laden, the lessons he taught us crystallized over the weekend, a week after his death at the hands of the U.S. military. They became clear when the Obama Administration released some of his homemade videos. Administration officials said they showed bin Laden to be a hands-on leader of al Qaeda, still in …
The Woman Who Tried to Save bin Laden From the SEALs
Fascinating piece by Time vet Tim McGirk on Osama bin Laden’s fifth wife — and clues she offered about her husband that U.S. intelligence might have missed:
With the benefit of hindsight, it seems that U.S. counter-terrorism experts spent years trying to decipher the name and the whereabouts of bin-Laden’s elusive courier when
…
Commando Dogs: Going After bin Laden — And IEDs
The mystery mutt who accompanied the SEALs on their mission to Osama bin Laden’s lair is coming in for a fair amount of attention. After all, people love their dogs, and if one can help take out the world’s most wanted terrorist, all the better. Their noses know: the dog’s keen sense of smell, to sniff out …
How Is Osama bin Laden Like Anita Bryant?
They both were too identified with the groups they fronted: al Qaeda and Florida orange growers…according to a strange piece in Adweek.
Avenging bin Laden’s Death…
…is going to take longer than you might think, according to colleague Bruce Crumley over at Time’s Global Spin.