Bin Laden Killing

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GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, ipsnews.net
Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He said today: “The U.S. could have had bin Laden delivered to another Islamic country or to the Organization of Islamic Conference in Saudi Arabia for a trial in mid-October 2001 but wouldn’t deal with the Taliban at that point. The Afghanistan war could have been avoided by negotiating with the Taliban for the ejection of al Qaeda from Afghanistan at that point.” See: IPA release “Are Obama and Clinton Being Honest About How Afghan War Began?

MOSHARRAF ZAIDI, mosharraf at gmail.com, @mosharrafzaidi
Zaidi is a writer in Pakistan who was just in Abbottabad. Seven hours before Obama’s announcement, he tweeted: “What was a low-flying heli doing flying around Abottabad Cantt at 0130 hrs?”

He said today: “Just getting back from Abbottabad. The response of people there was bewilderment. Sleepy little Abbottabad, with its picket-fenced, tree-lined streets, was home to Osama bin Laden. It is a most incredible revelation for most everyone I spoke to there. Unwitting pawns in a strange and complex global drama that is far from over for Pakistan’s poor people.”

ANAND GOPAL, anandgopal80 at gmail.com, anandgopal.com, @Anand_Gopal_
Gopal is an independent journalist based in Afghanistan and has reported for the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal.

CHRISTOPHER DAVIDSON, cmd at christopherdavidson.net, christopherdavidson.net, http://www.dur.ac.uk, @dr_davidson
A scholar in Middle East politics at Durham University, Davidson’s books include Power and Politics in the Persian Gulf Monarchies. He wrote the piece “Lords of the Realm: The wealthy, unaccountable monarchs of the Persian Gulf have long thought themselves exempt from Middle East turmoil. No longer.”

He said today: “The apparent demise of bin Laden should really be a non-story, given the highly fragmented nature of present-day Al-Qaeda and the consensus view that bin Laden was little more than a figurehead. However the impact of his death on authoritarian regimes in Middle Eastern and other Islamic countries will be significant, as he served an important and valuable role as a ‘bogeyman’ that could be wheeled out to justify … why brutal crackdowns and limits on political expression were often needed.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167