SEAL Team Six parachuted into Somalia under cover of darkness Wednesday and rescued an American woman and a Danish man from an outdoor camp where they were being held by Somali pirates, the official said.

The same team executed the mission last May in which al-Qaida leader bin Laden was killed.

The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the top secret operation.

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The U.S. Justice Department filed a motion on Monday to dismiss a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, who requested the images.

“We shouldn’t throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists,”  Tom Fitton President of Judicial Watch said in a statement. “The historical record of Osama bin Laden’s death should be released to the American people as the law requires.”

Read more at the New York Daily News.

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In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.

The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch’s lawsuit because the records the group wants are “wholly exempt from disclosure,” according to the filing.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, accused the Obama administration of making a “political decision” to keep the bin Laden imagery secret. “We shouldn’t throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists,” Fitton said in a statement. “The historical record of Osama bin Laden’s death should be released to the American people as the law requires.”

The Associated Press has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to review a range of materials, such as contingency plans for bin Laden’s capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the May 1 assault on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and copies of DNA tests confirming the al-Qaida leader’s identity. The AP also has asked for video and photographs taken from the mission, including photos made of bin Laden after he was killed.

The Obama administration refused AP’s request to quickly consider its request for the records. AP appealed the decision, arguing that unnecessary bureaucratic delays harm the public interest and allow anonymous U.S. officials to selectively leak details of the mission. Without expedited processing, requests for sensitive materials can be delayed for months and even years. The AP submitted its request to the Pentagon less than one day after bin Laden’s death.

In a declaration included in the documents, John Bennett, director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said many of the photos and video recordings are “quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse.” Images were taken of bin Laden’s body at the Abbottabad compound, where he was killed by a Navy SEAL team, and during his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, Bennett said.

“The public release of the responsive records would provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the United States with information to create propaganda which, in turn, could be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defense and foreign relations of the United States,” Bennett wrote.

Navy Adm. William McRaven, the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a separate declaration that releasing the imagery could put the special operations team that carried out the assault on bin Laden’s compound at risk by making them “more readily identifiable in the future.” Before his current assignment, McRaven led the Joint Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of the military specialized counterterrorism units.

..

Political pundits and critics have questioned whether the country’s senior leadership knew and did not disclose of  Bin Laden hideout since news that Bin Laden was found hiding in the Pakistani Garrison town of Abbottabad, a small city located about 30 miles from the country’s capitol.

Such assertions have complicated an already tenuous relationship between the Obama administration and Pakistan, a key ally in the War on Terror.

Working to lay such claims to rest, Gates told reporter, “somebody knew,” but said it is irresponsible to wage accusations on the Pakistani government without justifiable evidence.

Read More At NYTimes

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WASHINGTON — United States Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates stated that there was no evidence that anyone in the upper echelons of Pakistan’s leadership knew that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in their country.

The New York Times reports:

“I have seen no evidence at all that the senior leadership knew,” Mr. Gates said. “In fact, I’ve seen some evidence to the contrary.”

Asked if the Pakistani senior leadership should pay a price for apparently not knowing that Bin Laden was there, Mr. Gates replied swiftly. “If I were in Pakistani shoes, I would say I’ve already paid a price — I’ve been humiliated, I’ve been shown that the Americans can come in here and do this with impunity,” he said.

At the same news conference, Mr. Gates said that there had been too much public discussion about the details of the raid and that there were concerns about security for the families of the Navy Seal members who had carried it out.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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“Adel clearly has operational experience but he does not have the intellectual or charismatic side that bin Laden had.”

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The pornography recovered in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The officials said they were not yet sure precisely where in the compound the pornography was discovered or who had been viewing it. Specifically, the officials said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the materials.

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The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours’ drive from the scene of the bombing.

“We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident,” Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press in a phone call.

The bombers blew themselves up at the main gate of the facility for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped but front-line force in the battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups like the Pakistani Taliban close to the Afghan border. Like other branches of Pakistan security forces, it has received U.S. funding.

Sixty-six of the dead were recruits, said police officer Liaqat Ali Khan.

The scene of the blast was littered with shards of glass mixed with blood and human flesh. The explosions destroyed at least 10 vans the recruits were boarding to go home for a break at the end of a recent training session.

Khan said at least 80 people died in the attack, while around 120 were wounded.

It was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death in a May 2 U.S. raid in the city of Abbottabad, and one of the deadliest to hit the country ever.

Militants had pledged to avenge the killing and launch reprisal strikes in Pakistan.

Ahsan, Taliban spokesman, suggested the attack was aimed as punishment against Pakistani authorities for failing to stop the unilateral U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, something that has sparked popular nationalist anger.

“Also, the Pakistani army has failed to protect its land,” he said.

The explosive vests were packed with ball bearings and nails, police said.

A vegetable vendor at the site said some recruits were seated in white minivans and others were loading luggage atop the vehicles.

“There was a big blast,” he said. “I saw smoke, blood and body pieces all around.”

Police official Nisar Khan said a suicide bomber in his late teens or early 20s set off one of the blasts.

“The first blast occurred in the middle of the road, and after that there was a huge blast that was more powerful than the first,” said Abdul Wahid, a 25-year-old recruit whose legs were wounded in the blasts.

He said he was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosions.

“After falling, I just started crawling and dragging myself to a safer place … along the wall of a roadside shop,” he said.

The Sept. 11 mastermind and at least four others were killed by U.S. Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, a garrison city not far from the capital. Bin Laden is believed to have lived in the large house for up to six years.

Pakistani officials have denied knowing he was there but have criticized the American raid ordered by President Barack Obama as a violation of their country’s sovereignty. To counter allegations it had harbored bin Laden, they have pointed out that tens of thousands of their own citizens have died in suicide and other attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, when Islamabad became an ally of the U.S. in taking on Islamist extremists.

Many of the attacks in Pakistan have targeted security forces, but government buildings, religious minorities, public places and Western targets have also been often hit.

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According to information seized during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, Al-Qaeda considered attacking U.S. trains on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

NBC.com reports:

The information about a possible train plot is the first intelligence revealed from the trove of material found in the attack on bin Laden’s compound. Officials said they found what they call “aspirational” items — things al-Qaida operatives were interested in trying to make happen.

A government advisory obtained by NBC News and sent Tuesday to the rail industry said that as far back as February 2010, al-Qaida was contemplating “an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary” of the 9/11 attacks.

U.S. officials report no recent intelligence indicating that such a plot is active.

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No, I am not.

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Yes, Obama and Osama sound a lot alike. But the reason for the consistent confusion of these names by award-winning journalists, seasoned copyeditors, and political thought leaders is not that simple. The repetition of this blunder is a Freudian slip that shows how far we have not come in terms of living the dream of a post-race America. A dream that many Americans ironically believe Barack Hussein Obama represents. (I wonder what Obama Bin Laden thinks.)

The challenge of keeping Osama and Obama straight might stymie the average American, but this inaccuracy has been replicated twice by FOX news, and by more respected sources like BBC, CNN and Salon. The staffers of these newsrooms are supposedly at the top of their game — and none of them can distinguish between an “s” and a “b”? The article commissioned by Salon is a detailed excuse for these inaccuracies, but doesn’t explain why these gaffes curiously don’t happen when people of European descent are involved.

There is something deeper at work here. Something achingly familiar. The overwhelmingly white news creators who confuse “Obama” with “Osama” are a sad reminder of the fact many still subconsciously believe “all brown people look alike.” This inability to notice the differences between people outside of one’s race is far more common than even liberal people want to admit. But we have all experienced it – being called the only other black person working in the same office, or being told by a stranger that you look “just like” an African-American celebrity that you bear no resemblance to. Calling Obama “Osama” reeks of this common human tendency.

The American Psychological Association posted a report on our penchant for generalizing, stating that “people place inordinate emphasis on race categories–whether someone is white, black or Asian–ignoring information that would help them recognize people as individuals.” This incapacity of the American news media to see people as individuals because of their race is a documented circumstance. A few recent examples include:

-In March of this year, The New York Post ran a picture of Keri Hilson with a story about Mary J. Blige.  Simple human error, of course.

-In August of 2010, the same paper published an extensive piece featuring BET founder Bob Johnson and Desiree Rogers, who had just been named CEO of Johnson Publishing.  The problem is that there was no connection between them, except that the name Johnson was involved, and they are both black.  So all black people look alike, and are somewhat related?  Explain that, linguists.

-And don’t forget the confusion of black newbie actress Rutina Wesley with veteran thespian Regina King in an Emmys photo caption in 2010. This mix-up stung the latter star so much that she penned a wrathful open letter to the media community. Maybe that happened because both of their names begin with “R.” Probably not.

The confusion of Obama and Osama demonstrates this propensity in the media towards mixing up all brown people, and their often “foreign” names. It’s an extension of the subconscious stereotyping that often takes place between whites and non-whites in this country. The fact that this is happening in such a public way is the only aspect of the situation that is new. Making excuses for it unfortunately isn’t new at all. (By the way, the editors of Salon should read my post on studies proving racism actually exists, and is often subconscious. They could have saved on linguists’ fees.)

These messy slips of tongue have stained the victory of our first black president with a shady reminder that there is something about him people will always see as different, because he is black with a Muslim name. This lurking attitude is unacceptable at this time from our culture creators.

This nation was designed from its roots to be the one place on earth where a human being could come from another culture and develop a new life based on earned status while retaining the best of one’s previous identity. The reason we have O’Briens, Olssons, and Zimmermans is because everyone comes from someplace else, and worked to fit in while loving who they are. And that worked pretty well, if you were white. Now is the time to extend that form of love between all racial groups by promoting true understanding of “foreign” names, foods, religions, holidays and other cultural aspects that infuse our great nation with its enriching diversity.

Names like Singh, Ali, and Abood should no longer feel so foreign – nor should the souls that bear these names. Recent U.S. Census results have made it clear that we need to get more comfortable pronouncing names like Rodriguez. We can open our hearts and minds to different kinds of people by retraining our ears and eyes to distinguish the differences between them. Seeing our differences clearly is a key way to demonstrate that we respect our varied citizens as full people.

So please Salon, and all you other large, professional news organizations: No more excuses. Get on the multi-racial bandwagon. Talk about the similar sounds between the Obama and Osama names, but also think about the underlying issues that make you seek out round-a-bout explanations for what is apparent, yet hard to admit. Get it together, and keep your brown people straight.  It might help if you hired some.

And knowing that you have these issues, get an extra proofreader.

Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter.

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The statement said al Qaeda will “continue on the path of jihad, the path walked upon by our leaders, and on top of them” bin Laden “without hesitation or reluctance.

Read entire article at CNN.com

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Religion gives God a bad name.

Unfortunately, all some crackpot usually has to do to get a following is cloak himself in one or more tenants of an existing religion and folks will follow him like he’s the New Prophet.

And the problem is there are, quite simply, so many tenants.

Like, let’s say Osama bin Laden tried to justify his actions by using the Qur’an and saying that in ordering the bombing of the World Trade Center, he was only following Surah 2:256 which says: “Warfare is ordained unto you, although it is hateful unto you.”

The counter argument is, of course, Surah 2:190 which says: “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors.”

Is it possible that bin Laden knew one Surah well and missed the other one entirely? Not if he was as stern a believer in Sharia as he was rumored to be.

He also must have missed Surah 6:151 which says: “Slay not the life which Allah hath made sacred, save in the course of justice.”

It would be difficult to argue that death was a warranted justice on 9/11 for nearly 3,000 people, specifically when you consider that, by percentages alone, anywhere between 12 and 69 of those people must have been fellow Muslims.

Most importantly, as a holy man, bin Laden had a responsibility to act according to Surah 22:108-109 which reads: “Say: It is only inspired in me that your God is One God, Will ye then surrender (unto Him)? But if they are averse, then say, I have warned you all alike…”, but bin Laden didn’t get around to “warning” America about her evil self until he did so in a letter written in October of 2002.

By anybody’s math, that’s clearly after 9/11/2001.

So was Osama bin Laden a “true” Muslim?

Well, he certainly didn’t go by the book.

But of course, like Surah 74:38 says: “Every soul is a pledge for its own deeds.”

Personally, I’m just trying to follow Surah 2:282 which says: “…No scribe should refuse to write as Allah has taught him, so let him write…”

Amen.

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Roland Martin talks with Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, about details being released on the acquisition of Osama Bin Laden.

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Roland Martin talks with Major General (Ret.) John Hawkins about the death of Osama bin Laden.

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“When the twin towers came down, I was horrified and I was glued to that television set for several days,” Weddle said during an interview with KOMO News in June of 2003. “And (I) realized that not only was I not taking showers, I wasn’t shaving.”

Weddle says that’s when he decided not to shave until Osama bin Laden was captured or killed because he wanted those around him to remember the terrorist attack.

VIDEO:

Read entire story at ABC15.com

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Newark, NJ mayor and President Obama supporter, Cory Booker to pointed towards future commitment to peace:

Melissa Harris-Perry, Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University also expressed feelings of loss and anger – but ultimately conveyed a hopeful outlook:

Check out more tweets from other notable figures at TheLoop21

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Obama’s comments on Sunday night were clearly directed not just to the American public but to the world, evoking images of the horror of 9/11 in an effort to dampen any possible al Qaeda propaganda value from bin Laden’s death.

By contrast, the tactics and the rhetoric of Bush’s “war on terror” — most notably his decision to invade Iraq and the torture of Muslims in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere had served as al Qaeda’s most potent recruiting tools.

And to a nation of people who, nearly ten years after the terrorist attacks in America, are overwhelmingly despondent about both of the wars launched by Bush, Obama was at long last able to deliver something that, at least for a moment, seemed like victory: “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda,” he said.

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1) Obama got his man. Nothing irks Republicans so much as a Democrat they can’t paint as being soft on crime or terrorism. Obama’s hit on Osama Bin Laden will go down as one of the most masterful  military operations in American history. No one is shooting this sheriff.

2) The GOP doesn’t have their man. Or woman. For all the fire and brimstone of the Tea Party movement in the 2010 mid-term elections, the Republicans have not yet produced a viable candidate for 2012. Sarah Palin — who has the best brand recognition, the goodwill of conservatives, and the added bonus of being a woman — has phased herself out of the running with each attempt to cash in on her fame. Michelle Bachman is too crazy even for the crazies. Trump has been slapped back into reality (TV) by Obama’s one-two combination: the Correspondents Dinner and the killing of Osama bin Laden. Mitt Romney is about the only sane one, and he has all the mojo of a dead fish. Unless Bloomberg decides to run as a Republican, it ain’t gonna happen for them.

3) The economy is looking up. We know that sensible people disagree on this assertion. But if you look at the general direction of the important indicators, the odds are in Obama’s favor as the sitting president who presided over a miraculous recovery, albeit incomplete.

4) They’ve got no way to get Black and Latino voters. With the census data going the way it is, its increasingly difficult to win national elections without people of color. And now that the “birther” movement has made it clear that brown and black skinned people — no matter how high they rise in American society — may be called upon to prove their citizenship, Republicans have basically told young multiculturals that they are not welcome in the party, nor in their vision of the nation.

5) Fox News needs ratings. A Republican in the White House will deprive Fox News of its cherished target. And with Glenn Beck on the wane, can they really afford to let Fox wither?

In fact, come to think of it, the Republicans should just concede 2016 as well, unless they can field a candidate who can make the peace with a younger, more multicultural America.

Click here for NewsOne’s latest updates on death of Osama Bin Laden

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The graffiti, which included comments like “Go Home” and Osama Today Islam tomorow(sic)” was found hours after Pres. Obama anounced that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden.

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These militants, known as the mujahideen would rebel the Russians out of Afghanistan and later become the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

One of the most prominent members of he mujahideen was a wealthy son of a Saudi Arabian businessman named Osama Bin Laden.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski visited Afganistan in 1979 and met with Bin Laden and even took a picture with him. Brzezinski would tell the mujahideen

We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours, you’ll go back to it one day because your fight will prevail, and you’ll have your homes and your mosques back again. Because your cause is right and God is on your side.

The BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Russian journal Demokratizatsiya have all written that the CIA and U.S.A. funded and supported Bin Laden during the Afghan war.

Former British Foreign secretary, Robin Cook said:

Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.

Several other authors, journalists and statesmen have all made the claim that Bin Laden was funded, armed and trained by the CIA to fight off the Russians.

After Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, U.S. funding of the mujahideen increased significantly and CIA Paramilitary Officers played a big role in training, arming and sometimes even leading mujahideen forces.

The CIA trained the mujahideen in many of the tactics Al Qaeda is known for today, such as car bombs, assassinations and other acts that would be considered terrorism today.

The U.S.A. would fund Gulbuddin Hekmatyar a mujahideen leader and alleged heroin dealer who worked closely with Bin Laden. Hekmaytyar and his political party/paramilitary group would receive more than $600 million from the USA. Author, Alfred McCoy, would claim that the CIA supported Hekmatyar in his illicit heroin trade to allow him to fund the mujahideen.Like Bin Laden, Hekmatyar has also become an enemy of the U.S., waging a war against coalition forces in Afghanistan after 2001.

America must learn from the foreign policy mistakes of our past. These mistakes have lead to the creation of our enemies, such as Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noreaga, and Osama Bin Laden. The enemy of our enemy is not always our friend, most often they become our enemies too. As America gives aid to rebels in Libya and other countries we must be cautious not to create another Bin Laden.

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A further irony during my stop is that Ziggy Marley, singer, songwriter, and son of the legendary reggae artist Bob Marley, happened to be performing in Memphis that afternoon, and too was drawn to Dr. King’s final life moments. So there we were, me and Ziggy, discussing briefly, the pull we both felt to pay our respects to Dr. King.

A few hours later the president, Barack Obama, announced to America, and the world, that Osama Bin Laden, the assumed mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3000 people, mostly Americans, at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and via a plane crashing in the state of Pennsylvania, had been murdered by American forces.

I have very vivid memories, like most of us, of that awful day. I had given a speech the night before at Syracuse University, and was planning to board a plane back down to New York City that morning. But that would not happen. As I talked on the phone with my dear friend April Silver, I flipped on my hotel television set, at her urging, and, at that very instant, one and then a second plane crashed into the Twin Towers. Shock and complete numbness are not adequate words to describe what I felt. When I finally made it back to New York on September 12th, it was aboard an Amtrak train because airplanes were not going anywhere at that point. Never in my life did I think I would witness Manhattan, New York City’s busiest and most crowded borough on any given work day, so completely absent of people on the streets. It was utterly surreal.

Link: America, United And Divided In Celebration

And more surreal, over the next several weeks, were the crowds of people gathering at Union Square and other spaces, posting pictures of loved ones lost or missing, of Americans of various backgrounds coming together in ways previously unseen (I knew two individuals who died at the Twin Towers). Also very surreal were the sudden and over-the-top displays of patriotism, the instant anti-Muslim backlash (and physical attacks on people who appeared to be Muslim); and not long after George W. Bush and his administration leading America, step by step, into Iraq and Afghanistan, with thousands of young military personnel losing their lives.

Now America is also engaged in Libya, we are watching revolt and revolution happen throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa, against leaders and governments our nation has often supported or propped up, even as their citizens were being denied very basic human and civil rights. Finally, there is the endless war between Israelis and Palestinians, their collective song about “peace in the Middle East,” which never seems to come to fruition in spite of the conversations from both sides of this historical and very bloody beef.

So when President Obama announced the murder of Osama Bin Laden, by covert operations carried out by military personnel and under the charge of America’s Central Intelligence Agency, I understood why some Americans took to the streets cheering, celebrating, waving flags. And I understood why family members of those nearly 3000 who lost their lives feel a profound sense of justice, 10 years later. Osama Bin Laden is the poster boy for evil committed against America.

To that end, Mr. Obama’s speech was direct, forthright, and he used the sort of words and phrases I’ve heard from American presidents including Reagan, Clinton, and George W.: “securing our country,” “our sacrifices to make the world a safer place,” and “our resolve.” I don’t doubt Mr. Obama’s sincerity, but it certainly also was clear he was reading a teleprompter or, dare I say it, a script. A script that said we, America, somehow have the moral authority to murder when we’ve been wronged.

Article continues after gallery:

I respectfully disagree with that position, with the notion that might create right. No matter how evil someone or their actions may be, I just cannot celebrate violence in any form. If it is wrong in my Brooklyn, New York community where violence is completely out of control—from gun violence to domestic violence to bullying—then it is also wrong globally. That is why I feel where Mr. Obama was incorrect in his speech, and where we’ve been incorrect, for a very long time, as Americans, is thinking that other nations, or terrorists, or this or that enemy, are simply picking on us because of our “freedoms.” There are enough articles, blogs, books, and documentary films out there, if one actually cares to research American history and American foreign policy, to let one know we’ve been, on numerous occasions, as violent toward others as others have been toward us. And, yes, we’ve even started quite a few of the clashes ourselves. This is not just some one-way street with our nation as the helpless, hapless victims. For sure, as Mr. Obama spoke, I thought about Dr. King’s famous and controversial speech on Vietnam, about his call for nonviolence everywhere, not just in America, of how we as a nation, in many ways, were the biggest purveyors of violence on the planet. Dr. King was roundly attacked and ostracized for his words, but I feel he was profoundly prophetic. 43 years since his assassination, the scenes have changed but the themes remain largely the same. Our nation just cannot get itself out of the endless loop of violent madness and mayhem. And you begin to wonder if we really want to, if we are so addicted to violence as the solution for conflict that we think there is no other way?

That is one of the main reasons why when Barack Obama was elected president on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, there was a worldwide outpouring of joy. People of all creeds saw not just the historic election of a Black man, a biracial man, in America, but the hope, the possibility, that he would be different, would do different, than his presidential predecessors. That Barack Obama would be, could be, a Dr. King-like figure, one who would work to bring people together, who would use diplomacy, as Nelson Mandela had in post-apartheid South Africa, instead of bombs, love instead of violence, with peace as the prime objective instead of chaos and confusion.

Link: Obama, America Must Stay Vigilant

Moreover, we seem to forget that much of the world does not really care much for America. There is the perception that we are arrogant, that we are the self-appointed global police, even if it is sometimes under the cover of NATO or this or that coalition. These feelings were not birthed in a vacuum. If we just examine the Egyptian revolt from earlier this year it becomes clear why people feel the way they do. We financed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak for three long decades, turned our heads on his abuses of power and the people, then initially announced we were standing by him until it became clear Egyptians weren’t having it. In other words, we cannot continue to claim we believe in democracy in America, while simultaneously condoning and aiding the opposite overseas. Nor can we continue to claim democratic values at home when poverty, attacks on workers and labor unions, horrific public schools, and a depressed economy and high unemployment have essentially created the same climate of citizen discontent in places like New York and Wisconsin as they have in the Middle East. No, Mr. Obama is not responsible for society problems, but he is the president, the leader, now, so it is his watch that demands changes. And action.

I believe it is for that reason Mr. Obama was given, extremely prematurely, a Nobel Peace Prize just a mere 9 months into his presidency. The feeling, perhaps very naively, was that he would transform America, and the world. I believe he still can, and I definitely am supporting President Obama for re-election in 2012. But Barack Obama, nor the American government, is above criticism or accountability. In his speech the president stated, “We are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to.” I agree. But I say we need to set our mind to being a different kind of nation in these early years of the 21st century, a nation that pushes peace instead of war, a nation that ceases to dwell in the us-versus-them mentality, and instead sees the collective humanity of the global community. Either we are going to be bridge builders or bridge destroyers. And the death of Osama Bin Laden is not cause for glee, street parties, or fist bumps. Nor should we foolishly be emailing images of Ground Zero of Bin Laden celebrations. What, precisely, is the point of that? And what does it say about our collective souls, as Americans, where death and murder becomes cause for happiness and merriment? Bin Laden being dead is not going to bring back those nearly 3000 lives. Our mission should be how do we prevent such a thing from ever happening again, what steps can we take as a government, as an American, to create goodwill on the planet?

So, at present, and in spite of Bin Laden’s murder, violence, war, and terrorism are not over, not by a long stretch. None of that will end until we help to make those things end. Our current mindset and foreign policy approach will only lead to more dead young American soldiers, more attacks on Americans here at home and abroad. And the entire world, including us, will be perpetually distrustful, forever looking over our shoulders and living a life in fear, that fear framed by metal detectors, security cameras, and sharp glances at people who appear to be different from you and I, whoever you and I think we are. And what, seriously, does any of that have to do with our democratic principles; with this grand experiment we call American democracy?

Perhaps that is why “founding father” Thomas Jefferson said, “Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.” In other words, yes, Osama Bin Laden is dead, but now we have a very unique opportunity to go a different course, to create a lasting legacy of peace, in our lifetimes.

That is the great challenge for Mr. Obama. That is the great challenge for us all—

Kevin Powell is an activist, public speaker, and award-winning author or editor of 10 books, including Open Letters to America (essays) and No Sleep Till Brooklyn (poetry). Kevin lives in Brooklyn, New York. Email him at kevin@kevinpowell.net or follow him on Twitter @kevin_powell

It’s what the Christian Right and the Tea Partiers accuse Obama of being: Secret Muslim. Foreigner. Traitor.

It’s also what some in the Muslim world may have branded Obama for failing to adopt the faith of his fathers.

And now that Obama has martyred the Muslim world’s foremost zealot — exasperating his enemies at home and infuriating them abroad — he has become more than ever a target for the rage of those who see their triumphalist worldview being vanquished before their eyes.

Click here for NewsOne’s latest updates on death of Osama Bin Laden

Link: The 11 Most Compelling 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

OPINION: Obama, Osama, And The Second Crack Commandment

Obama, as America’s first Black president, has always required extra vigilance from the team that protects his life; a vigilance that has been found lacking on a number of occasions. After this, he will need double. In fact, we are all marked. All Americans must keep their eyes peeled now for danger. In our airports and on planes. On public transportation and in public spaces. On the streets and in our harbors.

Stay aware. Be safe. We won a milestone victory yesterday, but the War of Worldviews is not over just yet.

Dan Charnas is the Editorial Director of NewsOne.com, and the author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library/Penguin, 2010).

Click here for NewsOne’s latest updates on death of Osama Bin Laden

Link: The 11 Most Compelling 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

OPINION: Obama, Osama, And The Second Crack Commandment

Click here for NewsOne’s latest updates on death of Osama Bin Laden

On my blog in 2008, just weeks before Obama’s election, I wrote about the Bush /Republican war strategy:

Instead of using covert operations and espionage that might create real intelligence about terrorists, they launch hamhanded, full-scale invasions of countries, which is kind of like trying to swat a fly with a construction crane.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were questionable by any moral, ethical standard, or religious or otherwise. But  a few of us Americans in the hip-hop generation saw in those campaigns the violation of another code of conduct, lesser known but no less true:

Number Two: Never let em know your next move/
Don’t you know bad boys move in silence or violence?

– “Ten Crack Commandments,” The Notorious B.I.G.

The Republicans of Bush and Cheney’s ilk fancied themselves tough guys, and caricatured liberals and Democrats as pie-in-the-sky peaceniks and wimpy warriors. But these conservative chicken hawks were terrible at war. Their “smoke-em-out yeee-hah” cowboy foreign policy ultimately cost the world exponentially more lives than were lost on 9/11 and didn’t focus on the people who truly threatened our homeland. The neo-cons, armchair warriors all, didn’t know the first thing about true grit.

Link: The 11 Most Compelling 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Even Biggie could have told them: The conflicts of the 21st century require the patience, forethought, caution, and most importantly, the reticence that Obama promised to bring to bear. Last night, those philosophies triumphed over Bush’s brutal bombast and imprudence.

Like many liberals, I’ve found Obama’s tragic flaw to be his addiction to moderation and his compulsive need to be seen as a conciliator. But the War on Terror has proved to be one area where his restraint has proven potent, and deadly to his enemies. I only wish he’d move in for the kill with his domestic political enemies to push the policies that the weakened middle class and poor so desperately need.

He might. Obama has proven, once and for all, that he understands the value of stealth, and — in a life or death situation — is surprisingly good with the knife.

Dan Charnas is the Editorial Director of NewsOne.com, and the author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library/Penguin, 2010).

Click here for NewsOne’s latest updates on death of Osama Bin Laden

Link: The 11 Most Compelling 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

A U.S. official says Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.

After Bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.

The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, did not immediately say where that occurred.

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Osama Dead

CAIRO – Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.

In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring “the wheels of the American economy” to a halt.

He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for “drastic solutions” to global warming, and “not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change.”

Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic. The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.

The al-Qaida leader also targeted the U.S. economy in the recording, calling for a boycott of American products and an end to the dollar’s domination as a world currency.

“We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible,” he said. “I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America.”

He argued that such steps would also hamper Washington’s war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.

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CAIRO – Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden described President Barack Obama as “powerless” to stop the war in Afghanistan and threatened to step up guerrilla warfare there in a new audiotape released to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

In the 11-minute tape, addressed to the American people, bin Laden said Obama is only following the warlike policies of his predecessor George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and he urged Americans to “liberate” themselves from the influence of “neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby.”

The tape was posted on Islamic militant Web sites two days after the eighth anniversary of the 2001 suicide plane hijackings. The terror leader usually addresses Americans in a message timed around the date of the attacks, which sparked the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan the same year, and then in Iraq two years later.

Bin Laden said Americans had failed to understand that al-Qaida carried out the attacks in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel. If America reconsiders its alliance with the Jewish state, al-Qaida will respond on “sound and just bases.”

The Saudi construction magnate’s son-turned “holy warrior” and his deputies have frequently sought to wrap al-Qaida in the Palestinian cause, seeking to draw support in the Arab world, where the issue is one of the public’s top concerns.

Al-Qaida has also sought to depict Obama as no different from Bush, who was widely despised in the Arab world for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and his close support of Israel. Obama has won greater popularity in the region, giving a landmark speech in Cairo in June, moving to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and taking a somewhat harder stance on Israel in the peace process.

“If you end the war (in Afghanistan), so let it be,” bin Laden said. “But if it is otherwise, all we will do is continue the war of attrition against you on all possible axes.”

“You are waging a hopeless and losing war for the benefit of others, a war the end of which is not visible on the horizon,” he said, according to a translation of the tape Monday by SITE Intelligence Group, a terrorist-monitoring firm, and by The Associated Press.

Bin Laden, who is believed to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, said the current White House is merely following the Bush-Cheney strategy to “promote the previous policies of fear to market the interest of big companies.”

When Obama retained the Bush administration’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “reasonable people knew that Obama is a powerless man who will not be able to end the war as he promised,” bin Laden said.

Bin Laden devoted much of his address to discussing U.S. connections with Israel and castigated Americans for failing to understand that the issue was behind al-Qaida’s animosity. As he often does in his addresses, he cited books by American scholars and others that he said support his claim. Such citations also serve to show he keeps close watch on current events and media despite being a fugitive in a war zone.

“The delay in your knowing those causes has cost you a lot without any result whatsoever,” he said. “This position of yours, combined with some other injustices, pushed us to undertake the events of (Sept. 11).”

“Ask yourselves to determine your position: Is your security, your blood, your children, your money, your jobs, your homes, your economy, and your reputation dearer to you than the security of the Israelis, their children and their economy?” he said.

If Americans realized the extent of the suffering “suffering from the injustice of the Jews … you will realize that both our nations are victims of the policies of the White House,” which he described as “a hostage” to interest groups and companies.

The message was issued late Sunday by al-Qaida’s media wing, Al-Sahab, in a video in which the audiotape plays over a still picture of bin Laden. IntelCenter, another company that monitors terrorist propaganda, said the message is the 49th release by Al-Sahab in 2009. Al-Sahab is averaging one release every five days so far in 2009, IntelCenter said.

Watch The Video

Osama bin Laden urged Somalis on Thursday to overthrow their new president, issuing a statement that clearly outlines al-Qaida’s ambitions in a nation long feared to be a haven for the terrorist network.

Bin Laden’s 11 1/2-minute audiotape was entirely focused on Somalia, an impoverished country in the Horn of Africa that has been in chaos for nearly two decades, torn apart by warlords and Islamic militant groups. In January, parliament elected President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, in hopes that he would unify the country’s factions.

Bin Laden Urges Jihad on Israel

“I think people who were skeptical that al-Qaida has ambition in Somalia will now have to think twice,” Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank in Nairobi told The Associated Press.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have warned of al-Qaida’s growing ties with the powerful al-Shabab group, which frequently battles government troops and militia allies and attacks African Union peacekeepers in the country. Last year, the U.S. State Department added al-Shabab, which means “the Youth,” to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

“These are people who believe in the idea of permanent jihad and permanent war with the West,” Abdi said of al-Shabab. “Any engagement with the West is tantamount to renunciation of the faith.”

Ahmed’s election as president has been welcomed by the United Nations and Washington. His predecessor, Abdullahi Yusuf, resigned in December over his failure to stop the Islamic insurgency, and he went into exile.

In the audiotape, bin Laden told Somalia’s militants that “you are the first line of defense for the Islamic world in its southwestern part; and your patience and resolve supports your brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Islamic Maghreb, Pakistan and the rest of the fields of Jihad.”

Somali President Quits Due to International Pressure

For years, Islamic militant groups have battled Somalia’s feeble U.N.-backed central government, which controls only a small part of the seaside capital, Mogadishu. All public institutions have crumbled and the once-beautiful city is now a gun-blasted shantytown. The lawlessness gripping the nation of 9.5 million people also has allowed piracy to flourish offshore in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Ahmed is a moderate from the Islamic opposition and has succeeded in drawing several other groups out of the insurgency. The aim is to isolate hard-line militants, particularly al-Shabab, which controls much of the country and has been blamed for imposing a harsh brand of Islam on the regions it controls. Rights groups say a 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death last year after Islamic militants accused her of adultery.

In the audiotape, bin Laden lashed out at Ahmed as a turncoat and tool of the United States, saying his election was “induced by the American envoy in Kenya,” a reference to the U.S. ambassador in Nairobi.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger had no immediate comment on the audiotape, which was the third from bin Laden this year. The last one was released on March 14.

Ahmed “turned … to partner up with the infidel” in a national unity government, bin Laden said. He accused Ahmed of abandoning his religion by entering the government.

Ahmed “must be dethroned and fought,” bin Laden said, adding that militants are obliged to “continue fighting the apostate government.”

Spokesmen for Ahmed and other Somali government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The recording, titled “Fight on, Champions of Somalia,” was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum where al-Qaida often releases messages from bin Laden and other top leaders.

Ahmed emerges from a coalition of Islamic militants known as the Council of Islamic Courts, which brought a semblance of peace to Somalia for six months in 2006. But two years ago, troops from U.S. ally Ethiopia invaded Somalia and removed the union because of feared links to al-Qaida. Militants launched a bloody insurgency against the Ethiopians and their ally, the weak U.N.-backed central government.

Ethiopian troops withdrew in January as part of an elaborate U.N.-brokered deal to bring onboard Islamic moderates and dissident lawmakers.

Somalia is nearly 100 percent Muslim, but most of its people are moderates and chafe against rules prohibiting music, sports and even chewing qat, a narcotic leaf popular in the country.

Mogadishu resident Abdulqafar Ismail Ali said bin Laden should withdraw his call for more fighting.

“Osama should not lecture us on Islam. We are Muslims,” said Ali, 28. “We are tired of wars and hostility in Somalia. It is not the time to topple the government.”