Bin Laden's Home Videos

These are some extremely boring home videos. The sound on the videos was zapped so it couldn't be used as propaganda, according to NBC. Read the Defense Department briefing on the tapes:




NBC narrates, reports on the trove of information netted in the raid:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bin Laden Says He Did It

Not only is Osama bin Laden a murderer, he's an idiot. I'm so sick of this guy.

Loveless and Twisted Osama bin Laden

Bin Laden was a brute of a father. This statement from bin Laden's son Omar, who wrote "Growing up bin Laden" describes most extremists--they love to hate: "My father hated his enemies more than he loved his sons."

The mother and son write that the kids grew up in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Afghanistan without laughter or toys, were routinely beaten, and lost their pets to painful death from poison gas experiments by their father's fighters.

When they became young adults, their father asked them to volunteer for suicide missions. When Omar protested, bin Laden was quoted as replying: "You hold no more a place in my heart than any man or boy in the entire country. This is true for all my sons."

It was then, Omar recounted, that he "finally knew exactly where I stood. My father hated his enemies more than he loved his sons." Read more at MSNBC

With all that's happened lately, the CIA attacks, the underwear bomber, I'm thinking bin Laden is going to be captured in short order. The CIA must be rip roaring ready to finally get this guy.

Bin Laden Son Killed by U.S. Missile Strike?

Bin Laden's son may have been killed and a U.S. soldier was killed today. War is so stupid.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Karzai and Zardari on Meet the Press

The U.S. and Pakistan created the cancer--the Taliban, which grew from the 1980s U.S. war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, says Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president.
The U.S. went away without finding a cure for the cancer, he said. It's pretty clear that Zardari is bitter and he appears to believe that fighting the Taliban falls mostly on the U.S.
David Gregory presses Zardari on sympathies for the Taliban and nuclear weapons. Zardari doesn't think there should be any conditions attached to U.S. aid. Gregory asks: where is Osama bin Laden? Zardari says you tell me. Zardari finally says that he thinks bin Laden is dead. I think so too. This is the full broadcast:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Pakistanis have fled their homes because of the fighting:

Right Wing Controls Media In Pakistan

For a primer on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the whole region, listen to this NPR interview with Pakistani journalist, Ahmed Rasheed.
Among some of the things he talks about are:

The right wing conspiracies in Pakistan. The right wing controls the media.

Bin Laden is the strategizer, not the day to day guy. It would be symbolic and meaningful if the US captured him.

Rasheed suggests Obama is going to encourage a regional solution, which he says is the only way to address the problem.

Negotiations with Taliban and the U.S.

Europeans are excited about Obama and will give him leeway.

Bin Laden's Goal of $144 Oil Comes True

How ironic.

Here's a conservative talk show host, Michael Smerconish, railing against the Bush administration on the Iraq war. He also says McCain offers more of the same and he agrees with Obama on "this issue." We wouldn't want to get carried away and think he agrees with Obama on other issues.