Bin Laden Audio: Scott Lucas on the BBC "Assassination, Conspiracy Theories, and Bad PR"

Two appearances today on the BBC, both moving from the killing of Osama bin Laden to questions of how the US carried out the operation (was it a planned operation?) and pictures of the dead Al Qa'eda leader (should they be released?).

My wider point: the importance of the escalating questions does not lie in any conspiracy theory. Instead, they point to the tension in the US-Pakistani relationship and problems for the American position in the country. If these are not addressed soon, any US "victory" from the death of Bin Laden will soon be replaced by a "defeat" for the American position in Pakistan.

BBC Shropshire: Audio is at the 2:08.08 mark

BBC West Midlands: Audio is at the 1:08.00 mark

The Death of Osama Bin Laden: EA's Coverage

Summary now moved to top of page....

Bin Laden Follow-Up: Waking Up to the Realities of Pakistan and Iran

Hamid Karzai, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Asif Ali ZardariThe real question now is whether the US and its allies will understand how deeply involved Tehran and Islamabad are in rejuvenating a dying insurgency in Afghanistan and turning it into a formidable force.

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Bin Laden Follow-Up: Obama Administration Frets About Withdrawal from Afghanistan & Tensions with Pakistan (But, Hey, We Sure Showed Iran)

UPDATE 0730 GMT: The Obama Administration's top journalist accomplices this morning? Reveal yourself, the editors and reporter Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post....

The headline blares, "Afghans Worry Bin Laden’s Death Could Weaken U.S. Resolve", and Partlow writes, "One persistent worry repeated here was that U.S. support for the war could erode at an accelerated pace now that America’s most wanted man is dead. With that decade-long goal achieved, Afghan officials said, the case for troop withdrawal becomes that much more convincing for Americans."

And how many Afghans does Partlow quote in what is effectively a PR piece for a continued US military presence?

Two. A "senior Afghan official" says, "Americans will forget Afghanistan again.” And Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s former interior minister, declares, “A warning to the United States and the rest of our NATO allies. This should not be seen as mission accomplished.”

Indeed, so intent is The Post on pushing this case that it includes, without apparent recognition, a quote that says something completely different:

President Hamid Karzai, who praised American troops for killing bin Laden, used the opportunity to reiterate his message that the locus of terrorism remains beyond Afghan borders. “For years we have said that the fight against terrorism is not in Afghan villages and houses. Stop bombarding Afghan villages and searching Afghan people.”

For some reason, I think that statement sends a far different message to the US military than "Please. Stay."

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Bin Laden Top 10 List: His Death and What's Next

1. His importance to the story of Al Qa'eda can’t be underestimated. Last summer at a private gathering, I heard a journalist who met bin Laden in the 1990s say that he had underestimated bin Laden’s central role, not just as the money man and spiritual leader of the organization but also in determining strategy.

2. Osama bin Laden was no longer central to the continuing threat of Al Qa'eda and AQ-inspired terrorism. 

9/11 ensured that. A massive gamble to shift the status quo in the Middle East, it ultimately shifted the focus of Al Qa'eda, as the organisation dispersed, with its leaders’ priority on survival. Those inspired by Al Qa'eda and bin Laden now in many ways represent the biggest threat.

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Guantanamo WikiLeaks Feature: The Youngest Detainee

Video of Omar Khadr's interrogation at Guantanamo

Detainee continues to provide valuable information on his father's associates, and on non-governmental organizations that he worked with in supporting Al-Qaida, as well as other major facilitators of interest to the US. Detainee has also provided valuable information on the Derunta, Al-Farouq and Khalden training camps, indicating that the detainee has been to and likely trained at these locations; and he continues to provide valuable information on key Al -Qaida and Taliban members.

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Yemen: How the Protests Stopped Up to $1 Billion in US Arms to Regime

The U.S. was on the verge of launching a record assistance package to Yemen when an outbreak of protests against its president led Washington to freeze the deal, officials say, marking a sharper turn in U.S. policy there than the administration has previously acknowledged.

The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House's largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh's allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group behind the failed underwear bombing in 2009 and the foiled air-cargo bombing plot in October.

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Libya: Getting the Rebels Wrong (Abdurrahman)

Photo: New York TimesThe recent remarks by Adm. James Stavridis, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, alleging "flickers in the intelligence of potential al Qaeda, Hezbollah" among Libyan rebels are indicative of a disturbing trend in much of the discussion --- and reporting --- on Libya over the past several weeks. Ambiguous statements linking Libya and al Qaeda have repeatedly been made in the media without clarifying or providing appropriate context to such remarks. In many instances, these claims have been distorted or exaggerated; at times they have simply been false.

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Top 10 List: Why Libya 2011 is Not Iraq 2003 (Cole)

1. The action in Libya was authorized by the United Nations Security Council. That in Iraq was not. By the UN Charter, military action after 1945 should either come as self-defense or with UNSC authorization. Most countries in the world are signatories to the charter and bound by its provisions.

2. The Libyan people had risen up and thrown off the Qaddafi regime, with some 80-90 percent of the country having gone out of his hands before he started having tank commanders fire shells into peaceful crowds. It was this vast majority of the Libyan people that demanded the UN no-fly zone. In 2002-3 there was no similar popular movement against Saddam Hussein.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Dragging Out the Day

2045 GMT: Doctors have suggested that regime forces in Yemen used a form of nerve gas on pro-democracy protesters in Sanaa in a violent clash on Tuesday night.

The soldiers fired warning shots into the air before shooting gas and, it is claimed, live bullets into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least 75.

“The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyzes them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief.

“We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 percent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa.

Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers.

“We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said.

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