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Americans have had a rude awakening. The military’s liquidation of Osama bin Laden a few days ago in a million-dollar, heavily secured compound close by a Pakistani military academy has brought home to many what had previously been understood by only a few: One of the nations officially deemed a key ally in the so-called “War on Terror” has been playing us for fools. It is called a double game and here’s how you play it: First, you cooperate in some respects with the United States in countering the “terrorists” the Americans seek to capture, kill, or at least neutralize....

U.S. and European intelligence officials increasingly believe active or retired Pakistani military or intelligence officials provided some measure of aid to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, allowing him to stay hidden in a large compound just a mile from an elite military academy. The suspicions cast light on where the U.S. is expected to focus as it investigates who might have helped bin Laden hide in plain sight in Abbottabad, a town about 40 miles from the capital Islamabad. Two senior U.S. officials and a high-level European military-intelligence official who have direct working knowledge of Pakistan's military intelligence agency,...

Usually when governments use misinformation, they use it to make themselves look good. The Obama Administration gets points for originality, insofar as it’s been using disinformation and misinformation to make itself look arbitrary, unlawful, helpless and stupid. Here’s jj’s great summary: (see FR Body of Comment area)

The photos are now widespread online and in newspapers, images of a confident President Obama striding toward the camera to announce the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Not so widespread, however, is the news that the photos weren’t from Obama’s actual history-making speech. According to a Reuters blog post, the photos were taken after Obama’s actual announcement, during a brief reenactment minutes later. ~SNIP~ The reenactment isn’t the only way the administration has edited its media rollout of bin Laden’s death. In a widely used photo of Obama and his national security team in the Situation Room, what...

Per Drudge...

The terse announcement came just after 9:45 p.m. Sunday from Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing the same message that had just been transmitted to the White House press corps. According to Brian Williams, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor, some journalists received a three-word e-mail that simply read, “Get to work.” *snip* That speculation was not aired out on television immediately, but it did erupt on Twitter and other social networking sites. Wishful thinking about bin Laden’s death ricocheted across the Web —...

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, 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.

How much overall boost did President Obama get from the capture of Osama Bin Laden? None, according to an exclusive Newsweek / Daily Beast poll encompassing 1,200 American adults, conducted in the two days immediately before the president’s Sunday announcement about the terrorist leader, and then the two days immediately after. Specifically, Americans like the way he handled the situation, giving him strong results in strength and decision-making (55 percent now term him a strong leader overall, and 63 percent do so in the area of terrorism). Yet he did not get any overall bump in terms of approval rating,...

President Obama didn’t see Osama bin Laden get shot but got word that he was killed after a team said “Geronimo,” the code word to signify the terrorist was captured, CIA Director Leon Panetta says. Panetta said in an interview with PBS that the officials in the Situation Room “didn’t know just exactly what was going on” for 20 to 25 minutes when the team sent to get bin Laden in Pakistan entered his compound on Sunday. “There were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information,” Panetta said. “But finally Admiral [William] McRaven came back and said...

U.S. officials reportedly have two sets of photos of a dead Osama bin Laden. The first set were reportedly taken at a military hanger after his body was removed from his compound in Pakistan. The second set of photos were reportedly taken on the USS Carl Vinson, shortly before his remains were lowered into the North Arabian Sea. News of the second set comes from a U.S. government official quoted by Fox News. The White House is still deciding whether or not to release a photograph of Usama bin Laden's body, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says Osama bin Laden was not armed when a Navy SEAL raiding party confronted him during an assault on his compound in Pakistan. White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that bin Laden did not have a weapon even though administration officials have said that bin Laden resisted during the raid.

Warning: Incredibly Graphic Here is an, as of yet, unconfirmed picture of the deceased Osama bin Laden. It is exactly how newspapers and our sources have described it: gruesome... I will give some space between the picture and words so that you do not accidentally see the picture if you do not want to. It is exactly how CNN reported the picture would look like: "Photos of OBLs body at a hanger after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive...

JAY-TALKING: Here’s what you need to know from Tuesday’s White House briefing with press secretary Jay Carney: -- The White House hasn’t released the photo of Osama bin Laden’s corpse because it is “gruesome” and could inflame enemies’ passions, Carney said. “We are making an evaluation of a need to do that because of the sensitivities involved,” he said. -- Carney wouldn’t even say whether President Obama has seen the photo. “I don’t want to get into who’s seen the photos or where they are,” he said. -- Underscoring the complicated nature of the American team’s attack on bin Laden,...

I turned FOX on at 2PM..caught the WH press briefing, and then the first few minutes of Shep Smith's program. The presser was a disaster. Unmitigated. Here's a fearless predicition..within one or two more news cycles, we will hear that the SEALS killed an unarmed Bin Laden who was trying to surrender. Several journalists tiptoed around the question, and Shep actually "wondered" aloud how an "old man" could have resisted SEALS. And as I type, he actually asked if this operation was "illegal."

Fast forward to a day in Anbar Province, Iraq. Mr. Pottinger, now an intelligence officer supporting an infantry battalion, is standing over the body of a high level al Qaeda operative that his unit has just killed. It was an intense and lengthy manhunt. Mr. Pottinger is rifling through the man’s pockets, looking for additional documentation. Nearby is the mangled body of the man’s guard, who moments before detonated a suicide vest in a last, and failed, effort to kill the attackers. “I was standing over this guy’s corpse, looking down at him and thinking of all of the resources...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Siren only

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. .... In another discrepancy, Brennan said during his on-the-record briefing that bin Laden’s son Khalid was killed in the...

The White House posted several images of President Obama and staffers planning and reviewing updates from the military raid that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden. The White House Flickr account has been used extensively during the Obama administration, showing us candid and behind-the-scenes images from the First Family’s daily lives as well as President Obama’s diplomatic work. In fact, the administration’s overall use of social media has been impressive. However, few pics from the account will ever get the attention garnered by this historic string of photos. These images show the palpable tension in the Situation Room...

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke at a military appreciation rally in Lakewood Monday evening. Palin took the stage and thanked the members of the crowd for their service. “Freedom is not free but a god given right” said Palin. “I thank you for being part of the solution.” She then addressed the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces. “One of the evil leaders of the Islamic extremists..has met justice at the hands of America’s finest.” She said. “We thank our president, we thank President Bush.” Palin also mentioned that America’s war...