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Excerpt - GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, July 24 (Reuters) - A driver for Osama bin Laden was not told of any rights against self-incrimination under years of interrogation, FBI agents told the Guantanamo war crimes court on Thursday. "Our policy at the time was not to read Miranda rights," FBI special agent Robert Fuller said in testimony at the U.S. military commission trial of Salim Hamdan on charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Fuller was referring to the Miranda v. Arizona U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1966, which held that potential criminal suspects in custody...

6:55 p.m.: Obama leaves his hotel to make his way to the Victory Column, where he to give his speech. Around 100,000 people are reported to be awaiting him there.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to reporters on his plane at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 24, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young

OBAMA VISITS WESTERN WALL IN OLD CITY JERUSALEM... ARRIVES AT 5:08 AM LOCAL TIME [10:08 PM ET]... SUNRISE... SHOUTING MAN: 'JERUSALEM IS NOT FOR SALE, OBAMA'... MOB SCENE... CHAOS... BOWING HIS HEAD IN PRAYER... PLACES NOTE IN WALL... POSES FOR PHOTOS... LOTS OF SHOUTING... LEAVES 5:20 AM... DEVELOPING...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A Republican state senator from South Carolina is being criticized for a post on his blog that shows photos of Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden wearing similar clothing, along with a line that states the difference between the two is "a little B.S." The image was posted on Sen. Kevin Bryant's blog on Friday without an explanation from the politician. It appears to be a photo of a T-shirt, with images of bin Laden and Obama wearing turbans and the words "OBAMA" AND "OSAMA," with the "B" and "S" each highlighted in red. The American-Arab...

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) pauses during a ceremony in Janusz Korczak Square at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, July 23, 2008. Obama began a visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday pledging staunch support for Israel and saying that if elected, he would work to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process. REUTERS/Jim Young (JERUSALEM) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA

On this morning's "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, co-host Tiki Barber asked guest Dan Rather about his feelings regarding the recent Jesse Jackson imbroglio -- his "off mike" comments about Barack Obama. In the middle of praising Jackson, Rather referred to Barack Obama as "Osama bin Laden" -- and none of the four "Morning Joe" co-hosts reacted (nor did Rather). Question: Will the media pick this up? That one of America's longest-serving network news anchors referred to one of the two presidential candidates as the world's most wanted terrorist -- and no one in the room seemed to notice? While you...

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama attends a meeting with Iraq's President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad July 21, 2008. REUTERS/Wathiq Khuzaie/Pool (IRAQ)

The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens. The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved...

Speaking at a Town Hall Meeting in New Mexico today, July 15, 2008, Sen. John McCain vowed to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice for his crimes against America . . . (see video) This is the kind of grit and determination we need in a President. John McCain has the resolve and strength to do what he says he will do. This is the McCain who needs to keep showing up at every appearance on the campaign trail, and on television.

Dignified, yes, but there is no way that he is a saint Well, at least that's out of the way. The July 21 New Yorker magazine cover of a turbaned Barack Obama, Angela Davis-Afroed, AK-47 accessorized spouse Michelle, Osama bin Laden portrait on the wall, and American flag burning in the fireplace drew predictable howls of protest from the Obama and opponent McCain presidential camps. With the "Politics of Fear" satirical take on the Obamas, didn't the magazine publish what many people are thinking, figuratively, or literally? I'm not satisfied with the complaints that the New Yorker gave comfort to...

The magazine says the cover art, featuring Barack Obama and his AK-47-toting wife in terrorist garb in the Oval Office, with a portrait of Osama bin Laden above the mantel and an American flag burning in the fireplace, "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign." But the Obama campaign is denouncing the cover, saying The New Yorker's editors might believe the picture is "a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," but it is fact "tasteless and offensive."

Bernie Mac said some things that didn’t jive with Obama’s crowd and got a negative reaction for it. Bernie Mac’s show at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago didn’t fly so well on Friday night as he appeared for a fund-raiser for Barack Obama. In one of his jokes he said, “My little nephew came to me and he said, ‘Uncle, what’s the different between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?’ I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but I said, ‘Go upstairs and ask your mother if she’d make love to the mailman for $50,000,’” reported the Associated Press. This...

Just three weeks ago, Barack Obama said that he would not make Osama bin Laden into a martyr if he was captured. Today, Barack Obama suddenly thinks the death penalty would be keen-o for OBL. In a CNN interview, Obama said that although he was not a death-penalty proponent, he thinks murdering 3,000 Americans justifies an execution: If he was captured alive, then we would make a decision to bring the full weight of not only US justice but world justice down on him. And, uh, I think that I’ve said this before, that I am not a cheerleader for...

Chip East/Reuters; Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThere's jealousy and maybe a bit of bitterness underneath Jesse Jackson's disparaging remarks at Barack Obama.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in interview excerpts released Friday that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should be executed, if he is ever captured alive. The Illinois Senator told CNN that the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks in 2001 should face the full weight of US and global justice. "I am not a cheerleader for the death penalty," Obama said. "I think it has to be reserved for only the most heinous crimes, but I certainly think plotting and engineering the death of 3,000 Americans justifies such an approach." "I think this is a big hypothetical, though...

Defense officials are criticizing what they say is the failure to capture or kill top al Qaeda leaders because of timidity on the part of policy officials in the Pentagon, diplomats at the State Department and risk-averse bureaucrats within the intelligence community. Military special operations forces (SOF) commandos are frustrated by the lack of aggressiveness on the part of several policy and intelligence leaders in pursuing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top henchmen, who are thought to have hidden inside the tribal areas of Pakistan for the past 6½ years. The focus of the commandos' ire, the...

DETROIT, July 5 (UPI) -- Muslims in the Detroit area are upset that neither of the presumptive major party presidential nominees has made an effort to reach out to them. The area has one of the largest and most visible Muslim communities in the United States. In recent campaigns, candidates have addressed meetings or met with local religious leaders, The Detroit News reports. "Any candidate should address the issues of American society, not a particular religion," said Dr. Abdul Raheman Nakadar, a retired cardiologist who publishes The Muslim Observer. "But when you ask a certain group for support, then you...

Washington: Two officials of the US intelligence agency CIA have claimed that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was on death bed as he suffered from a terminal kidney disease, and may live only for a few months. The intelligence agency also managed to get the names of some of the medications Bin Laden was taking. One of the two CIA officials familiar with the report that came out six-nine months ago, quoted it as saying, “Based on his current pharmaceutical intake we would expect that he has no more than 6-18 months to live and impending kidney failure.” Pakistan...

The United States has a standing agreement with Pakistan that CIA-operated Predator drones may strike Osama bin Laden's hide-out without prior permission from Islamabad, according to people familiar with the arrangement. One source said the free hand - an exception in a country politically sensitive to U.S. counterterrorism operations - was granted by President Pervez Musharraf early in the war if the U.S. locates bin Laden in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas, where he is thought to be hiding.... DRONE

Chalk up another mis-speak - Obama/Osama...

"Emily Hussein Nordling," her entry now reads. With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name. Mr. Obama may be more enthusiastic, judging from his response at a Chicago fund-raiser two weeks ago. When he saw that Richard Fizdale, a longtime contributor, wore "Hussein" on his name tag, Mr. Obama broke into a huge grin, Mr. Fizdale said. "The theory was, we're all Hussein," Mr. Obama said to the crowd later, explaining Mr. Fizdale's gesture.

The e-mail landed in Danielle Allen's queue one winter morning as she was studying in her office at the Institute for Advanced Study, the renowned haven for some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The missive began: "THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO."

The 2008 race for the Democratic nomination for the presidency looks like a classic pursuit of the Moron Vote. This seems crude to say, so perhaps we should call it the "mentally challenged vote" or the "clueless vote". Why do I term it so? Consider where the winning Democratic candidate, Barak Obama, stands on issues most Americans care about. In numerous cases he takes positions that seem based on the assumption that voters are idiots, or else those positions show a serious lack of understanding on his part. On second thought - and in the interest of striking a blow...

Chris Matthews: Terrorist Tape Came From Obama -- Er, Osama -- Headquarters By Greg Sargent - June 24, 2008, 6:48PM Hmmm. This, from Chris Matthews, might be the most comically awful Obama/Osama scrambling we've seen this cycle... Said Matthews: "We had a recording come out of the Obama headquarters -- not Obama, I'm sorry...Bin Laden, Bin Laden -- it came out of Bin Laden's headquarters over there in Pakistan..."

For months, Barack Obama's campaign has repeatedly, and not always successfully, tried to swat away references to Barack "Osama," the mutating of the candidate's name into the similar-sounding moniker of the world's most-wanted terrorist. Some of the mixups have been made accidentally (as when Sen. Ted Kennedy did it). Some have been made maliciously by Obama's critics (as when Rush Limbaugh did it). One mixup, with potentially vast effect, apparently belongs to the unintentional category and gained wide currency this week: The spell-checker in Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail software recommends that users replace the word "Obama" with "Osama."

Obama on Osama: 'Don't make him a martyr' Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says if Osama bin Laden is captured alive, the United States should bring him to justice but in a way that avoids turning the al-Qaeda leader into a martyr.

June 19, 2008 -- NAME-BRAND journalists have let Barack Obama make any claim he chooses about Iraq, Afghanistan or coping with terrorism without pinning him down for details. Yet many of his comments and positions seem stunningly naive about national security. Given that this man may become our next president, shouldn't he explain how he'd do the many impressive things he's promised? This week, Obama claimed, again, that he'd promptly capture Osama bin Laden. OK, tell me how: Specifically, which concrete measures would he take that haven't been taken? How would he force our intelligence agencies to locate bin Laden?...

McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann today on a conference call noted that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said he didn't want to make Osama bin Laden a martyr. "The last I checked, a martyr is someone who dies for a cause or someone who is killed for a cause," Scheunemann said. "It seems that Senator Obama is ruling out capital punishment."

Suspected Al Qaeda leader Abu Qatada is celebrating his release from prison with the release of a book in which he urges Muslims to commit terrorist attacks in the West. In the 71-page tract, published in English translation on the internet, he repeatedly claims that fighting jihad, holy war, is obligatory for all Muslims and urges them to 'terrorise' non-believers. Security sources say his clear incitement to violence makes a mockery of the decision to set him free. The preacher of hate, who has been described as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was released on bail from Long...

Obama Camp Explains Bin Laden's Rights...Again June 18, 2008 4:03 PM ABC News' Sunlen Miller, Teddy Davis, and James Gerber Report: Two more Obama advisers acknowledged Wednesday that Osama Bin Laden would be extended Habeas Corpus rights if the al Qaeda leader were brought to Guantanamo Bay. The Obama advisers were quick to add, however, that this reading of Bin Laden's rights, which was established by last week's Supreme Court ruling and would be binding on the next president no matter who wins in November, does not mean that the man who claims credit for the 9/11 terrorist attacks would...

Obama advisers say bin Laden can appeal to U.S. civilian courts Barack Obama has expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of civilian prosecution of terrorism suspects, and his advisers said Tuesday that if Osama bin Laden were captured, he too should face civilian prosecution. – AP Bill Sammon, The Examiner 2008-06-18 07:00:00.0 Current rank: # 13 of 6,452 WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain. Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen....

Two stories that were in the news yesterday offer interesting opportunities for speculation. Note: what follows is exactly that, speculation.

President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House. Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source. Bush arrives in Britain today on the final leg of his eight-day farewell tour of Europe. He will have tea with the Queen...

It isn’t a comforting assessment. A "Western military analyst" was asked earlier this month about reports that Osama Bin Laden was seen on the slopes of K2, the world’s second highest mountain on the Pakistan-China border, or in the Khost Province of Afghanistan. His response was stunning in both its honesty and its frustration. "We don't have a clue where he is or even may be,” the Western analyst said. “We have had NO credible intelligence on OBL since 2001. All the rest is rumor and rubbish either whipped up by the media or churned out in the power corridors...

12, 2008 EXCLUSIVE: Who is Mohammed Al-Churbaji?:; Islamic Terrorist "Mr. Mom" Mohammed Al-Churbaji, Dad of Obama Fundraiser Worked for Azzam, Bin Laden * How hard it is to get rid of known terrorists in our midst and how easy it is for a deported Al-Qaeda terrorist to return to America; * How corrupt U.S. embassy officials get away with re-admitting terrorists into the U.S.; * How easily terrorists and their families gain acceptance by our society, including the Barack Obama Presidential campaign; * How America's universities are not tools of moderation for Muslim foreigners, but breeding grounds for terrorist fraternization...

The report of a Predator-launched missile strike in the Mohmand region of Pakistan follows a strike three weeks ago in the Bajaur area just to the north. Check out satellite imagery of the areas in question. This is some of the baddest of the badlands in Pakistan, and a great place to hide if you are Osama bin Laden. Or maybe it used to be. Local Taliban leader Umar Khalid recently signed a peace deal with Pakistan and has stated that there are no foreign fighters in the area. After the missile strike, maybe he's right.

Slow news day, have fun!http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=108953

An interesting tidbit now that Obama is the nominee and in light of Bush's congratulations today for Obama: ”Jan Schakowsky told me about a recent visit she had made to the White House with a congressional delegation. On her way out, she said, President Bush noticed her ‘Obama’ button. ‘He jumped back, almost literally,’ she said. ‘And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a 'b.' And I explained who he was. The President said, 'Well, I don't know him.' So I just said, 'You will.' " (New Yorker, 5/31/2004)

Granny was the first to go. Then Uncle Jeremiah, and now the whole darn Church. Considering her, shall we say, somewhat wacky statements, is the beautiful Michelle Obama the next to be thrown under the bus in the Messiah's unflagging quest for the White House? If so, how would he do it?

PATNA, India (Reuters) - An elephant named "Osama bin Laden" that has killed more than 11 people and injured dozens over the past few months was shot dead in Jharkhand, officials said on Saturday. The wild male elephant, had been terrorising villagers in two states, destroying their crops and homes. Forest officials and a police team tracked down the rogue jumbo in Jharkhand late on Friday, where it was shot dead, Ravi Ranjan, a senior government official said. "Yes, Osama has finally been killed and it took us 20 bullets to silence him," Ranjan told Reuters from Jharkhand on Saturday....

The Dubai-based satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is reporting that Osama Bin Laden has been “located� by US intelligence in the Kararakoram – a mountain range that spans the borders of Pakistan, the Kashmir and China (K2 is one of its peaks). There was a high-level meeting last week in Doha including General Petraeus, the recently-nominated Commander of US Central Command, and it is reasonable to speculate that – if there is truth to the report – it flows from this piece of intelligence. Whether the latest rumours about the tracking down of OBL have foundation will quickly become apparent....

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay Barack Hussein Obama's come to our house to stay

A top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region. "The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by a satellite television network. Funeral prayers have been said for Osama bin Laden over the years with one reported by a Pakistani news organisation, and another in an Egyptian newspaper as far back as December 2001. This report quoted an official of the Taliban saying that he had suffered serious...

Is Osama bin Laden a rebel against the Saudi Arabian ruling class or a model member of it? That question lurks behind “The Bin Ladens,” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer Steve Coll. The world’s most famous terrorist owes his fortune and his standing to a family business that Coll calls “the kingdom’s Halliburton.” Like Halliburton, the Saudi Binladin Group specializes in gigantic infrastructure projects. Government connections are the key to the family’s wealth. So you would assume they would react with unmixed horror to a radical son, like the duchess in the Noël Coward song: You could have...

Osama vs Obama 20 May 2008 06:05 pm Well: one person agrees with Bush's and Cheney's and Lieberman's loathing of Iran. (he links to an external site, showing Osama's hatred of Iran.)

May 19, 2008 Categories: Barack Obama Sen. Robert Byrd endorses Obama The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd says. He said he has "no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher." Byrd, 91, a master of Senate rules and Iraq war foe, has spent much of his political career repenting the...

DUBAI, May 18 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden will issue a "very strong" statement to Muslims across the world soon, an Islamist website said on Sunday. "A very strong statement to the Islamic nation by the lion of Islam sheikh Osama bin Laden," read a banner posted on the al Qaeda-linked website. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations to continue the fight against the Jewish state and its allies and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Bin Laden said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the heart of...

NEW YORK (AP) — Terror leader Osama bin Laden will release a new Internet message dealing with Israel and the Palestinians, a terrorism monitoring group said Thursday. The announcement of the impending comments by the head of al-Qaida was posted on Web sites often used by terror groups, the SITE Intelligence Group said. Bin Laden's statement will be titled, "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the State of Israeli Occupation" and will be addressed to the "Western peoples," SITE said. Al-Qaida messages usually follow within 72 hours of such announcements. The terror network has...