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On InTrade -- the prediction market site where people bet on various outcomes -- the odds Obama is re-elected exploded higher last night after the news of Osama Bin Laden's capture and death. Check it out. And this is the point where serious political analysts say things like: Well, it's a long way until the election and that it's ultimately the economy that will decide things. And there's probably some validity to that. But obviously this was a huge moment for the President, and the contrast he can draw -- working on this plan for months -- compared to the...

Where has Osama bin Laden been for the last 10 years? That is a question that most of us want answered because of where he was found; living comfortably in a huge mansion in a city with a large Pakistani military base and in an area where there were many retired Pakistani officers. Abbotabad is about 80 miles from Islamabad and is hardly "remote." It is considered a suburb of the city and has a population of 80,000. It is very possible that sometime in the last couple of years, bin Laden fled from the rugged Northwest Frontier Provinces because...

As someone who lost friends on 9/11 (my office was then on the 82nd floor of Tower Two), knowing that the man responsible for the brutal murder of nearly 3,000 Americans is dead is deeply satisfying. It is even more gratifying knowing his death came as a result of American military action. In the long term, I believe there is tremendous value in announcing to all those planning to do us harm that we will never stop coming after them. In a very Roman manner, the United States proved to the world that we will never stop searching and that...

Upon waking up this morning, and being told by a family member that the master-mind of the horrific September 11, 2001, attacks, Osama Bin Ladin has been killed in an American military operation in Abbottabad in northwestern Pakistan. Truly today in the United States of America, this is a very good day, at last, JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE. JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE by having Osama Bin Ladin hunted down and killed for the families and friends of the 3,000 people who were killed on September 11, 2001, ten years ago this coming September 11, 2011.

Repeatedly, the cable news stations say OBL, his son and two courriers were the only people killed. Did his vaunted guards cut and run? BTW, a 40 minute fire fight is long time sitting in OBL's box. Seals are exceedingly well trained and can shoot the eye out of a mosquito - surely there have been a much higher body count.

RIYADH – Saudi Arabia is holding talks with Iran to repatriate Osama Bin Laden’s daughter to the Kingdom after she took refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran, said Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs. “We consider this to be a humanitarian issue,” he told a news conference. “We are negotiating with the Iranian government on this basis,” he said.He was speaking at a joint conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu here Saturday. Iman Bin Laden, 17, recently fled from a family compound near Tehran to the embassy in hopes of leaving Iran, where she, several siblings and...

During Wednesday's Justice Department oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stumped Attorney General Eric Holder on what should have been a fairly routine question for America's top law enforcement official. Maybe more surprisingly, NPR reported it at its website. As NPR's Frank James noted, "The exchange started with Graham stumping Holder with a question one would have thought the attorney general would have been prepared for." I quite agree (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Steve Malzberg): --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-S.C): Can you give me a case in United States history...

Just 23 days before a crooked fundraiser helped Sen. Barack Obama buy his Chicago mansion, a billionaire bagman for Saddam Hussein wired millions into the crook's account. "Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from . . .

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of one of two war crimes charges on Wednesday but acquitted him of the other, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the aftermath of World War II.

Excerpt from book: “The anthrax spores in the letter to Daschle were so professionally refined, the Central Intelligence Agency believed the powder must have been sent by an experienced terrorist organization, most probably Al Qaeda, as a sequel to the group’s September 11 attacks. During a [October 17] meeting of the White House’s National Security Council that day, Cheney, who was sitting in for the President because Bush was traveling abroad, urged everyone to keep this inflammatory speculation secret. ... They thought Cheney had already been lethally infected. ... *** Cheney in particular was so stricken by the potential for...

"I say there are two sides in the struggle:" wrote Osama bin Laden in one of the bombastic manifestoes that have so signally failed to unite the Islamic masses under his leadership. "One side is the global Crusader alliance with the Zionist Jews, led by America, Britain and Israel, and the other side is the Islamic world." President Ahmadinejad sees it the same way: America, Britain, and Israel are out to destroy everything that gives meaning and decency to the world. This isn't just about power. The United States, says bin Laden, has "the worst civilization witnessed in the history...

Sunni Muslims Standing in Unity with Shiite Hezbollah By Chris Zambelis The latest crisis in the Middle East involving Hezbollah and Israel and ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq has focused attention on an emerging divide between Sunnis and Shiites. The positions of heads of state in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan, among others, who represent predominantly Sunni populations, in not taking a stronger stance in opposing Israel lends credence to the theory that Sunnis are tacitly siding with Israel against Hezbollah in order to check Shiite and, by extension, Iranian influence. In reality, the opposite is the case. Regional...

Islamic Radicalism in Mexico: The Threat from South of the Border By Chris Zambelis The ongoing controversy surrounding the debate over illegal immigration and border security issues in the United States, specifically as it applies to the porous U.S.-Mexico frontier and the status of millions of undocumented workers and other migrants that enter the country each year from Mexico, continues to dominate headlines. Although the overwhelming majority of those entering the United States from Mexico each day are in search of opportunity, many observers worry that it is only a matter of time before al-Qaeda exploits this vulnerability for its...

organized islamic radical assassins working alone? this is a real threat we need to contemplate more seriously.

Egypt Attacks May Indicate Emerging Sinai Bedouin Insurgency By Chris Zambelis Egypt appears to have scored a number of successes in recent weeks in its war against Islamist militants. Counter-terrorist units and police converged on an olive grove in the mountainous area known as Gabal al-Arish on the outskirts of the northern Sinai coastal town of al-Arish last week after receiving a tip that members of the obscure Tawhid wal-Jihad (Monotheism and Struggle)—one of the main groups implicated in the deadly April attacks in Dahab and other strikes in Sinai—were hiding from the authorities (al-Sharq al-Awsat, May 9). After a...

U.S. Places Two Pakistani Charities on Terrorism Watch List By Chris Zambelis On April 27, Washington announced a decision to place two Pakistan-based Islamic charities operating in the United States on its terrorism watch list. The organizations implicated are the Jamaat ud-Dawa (JUD, the Call Group) and its public services branch Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK—People's Services Administration). Both groups are accused of having links to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT, Army of the Pure), one of Pakistan's largest and most well-organized radical Islamist groups operating in Kashmir with alleged ties to al-Qaeda in South Asia (Daily Times, April 28). The move will authorize U.S....

Radical Networks in Middle East Prisons By Chris Zambelis Prisons have traditionally been breeding grounds for some of the world's most violent street gangs and organized criminal organizations. The hostile and dangerous environment of prison life inspired the creation of a diverse array of well-organized gangs and networks that thrived behind prison walls in everything from extortion, drug and weapons trafficking, smuggling, gambling and other illicit activities. In a testament to their organizational capacity and reach, many gangs spread to prisons outside of their place of origin and continue to flourish among seasoned members released into the general public. Originally,...

Sinai Bombings Mark Latest in Pattern of Symbolic Attacks in Egypt By Chris Zambelis Last week's deadly explosions at a popular restaurant, café and supermarket frequented by tourists in the Egyptian city of Dahab in the Sinai Peninsula appear to fit the pattern of terrorist attacks targeting Cairo's lucrative tourism infrastructure. As a critical source of income for the country's fledgling economy, radical Islamists have often targeted Egypt's tourist industry in an effort to sow domestic unrest and to undermine the Hosni Mubarak regime. As of now, no individual or organization has claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed over...

Dr. Paul L. Williams is a former consultant to the FBI on organized crime and terrorism. Since then, he has become an award-winning investigative journalist and written several books. A central point of his latest book, “The Al Qaeda Connection”, is that Osama Bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons and smuggled them into the US through Mexico with the help of the MS-13 criminal group for use in a plot known as “American Hiroshima.” RM: Much has been written about the "American Hiroshima " report. How did you first learn about the plot? PW: I have a unique background. I...

Remember that day. Remember our fellow Americans who suffered. Remember our resolve as a nation. Remember who did this to us. Remember to cherish your freedom and those who fought to keep us free.