Bozell Column: Osama's Controversial Aftermath
It’s inevitable that the joy and national unity over the killing of that monster bin Laden would cool. Already we’re debating the journalistic and political ramifications. On Wednesday, President Obama told CBS he wouldn’t “spike the football” by releasing photos proving Osama is dead.
I agree with the President, as much as that pains my friend Sean Hannity and other conservatives (and non-conservatives like Juan Williams). Some argue that it will put to rest any conspiracy theories that this is but a hoax. No it won’t. Let’s go back to the American killing of Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay in 2003. To deal with the paranoia and disbelief of Iraqis, the military allowed access to the bodies...after they did facial reconstructions to make the sons look more like they did before their faces were shot off. Guess what? None of that helped with many Iraqis, who continued to express skepticism. The failure of the Hussein sons to reappear (and now Osama) should be proof for the doubters, not so for fanatics. Before he had birthers; now we’ll have deathers.
Is the inherent risk of greater violence by the release of the pictures worth it? Reuters gained access to some grisly pictures of dead men at Osama’s compound. I look at them and see pictures of dead killers, murderers of innocent men, women and children – and I’m glad they’re dead. Many milllions of Muslims will see pictures of what appear to be defenseless, innocent men – and will be outraged. Perception is everything. Why fuel it?
Why not just say – proclaim – Osama bin Laden’s dead, and we’re happy with the result? On the broader question, we can ask our media to please develop a consistent standard for these things. Why aren’t they going nuclear against Obama’s (correct) decision? Whatever happened to their “right to know”? On August 4, 2005, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press proclaimed a coalition of 14 media organizations and public interest groups they organized – including CBS, NBC, and The New York Times – had filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the ACLU in U.S. District Court in New York urging the release of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos. The RCFP also filed an amicus brief for the release of detainee-abuse photos in prisons other than Abu Ghraib, which the Obama administration agreed to release in April of 2009.
"The government has taken the position in this case that the more outrageously the behavior exhibited by American troops, the less the
public has a right to know about it," complained RCFP executive director Lucy Dalglish. So far, in the first day since the White House
announced it would not release the photos, there’s no objection from the RCFP.
Liberal journalists have favored gruesome images when the dead are American troops. In both wars with Iraq, in 1991 and in 2003,
former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite insisted it was terrible (even “criminal”) that “we’re still not seeing the bloodletting.” In 2006,
CNN chose to show video, apparently made by Iraqi insurgents, of American soldiers being shot by a sniper. I don’t recall the liberal
journalists or Sen. Obama raising objections to that.
Under the liberal standard here, it seems political: the “right to know” matches neatly with the need to embarrass (or “hold accountable”) the Bush administration. Embarrassment or accountability isn’t so urgent at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in the Osama case.
Team Obama also faces a curious controversy over Osama’s quick burial at sea, achieved so as to satisfy Muslim religious traditions.
Once again, unlike many conservatives, I didn’t have an early objection to showing that respect – not to Osama, but to the faith he
supposedly upheld. A quick glance at American military procedures for the burial of internees suggests a burial according to the religious
rites of the deceased. That’s simple American decency.
But if it will help, upset conservatives can go to al-Jazeera and discover they’ve found Muslims who think the burial at sea was horrendous. Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University, called the sea burial an "absolute violation" of Islamic traditions, and an unwise decision that (naturally) mars America's image.
"Islamic law traditionally allows disposing of a corpse at sea only if the person dies on board ship and there is no possibility of
getting the body to dry land before it decomposes," added Marion Katz, professor of “Islamic law, gender and ritual” at New York University.
Patriotic Americans could surely unite around the notion that we can treat the enemy dead with respect, as we would want our dead respected. We shouldn’t do that as a deep bow to Islam, and Obama should stop this foolishness of stating that bin Laden wasn’t really a Muslim leader.
I don’t care what he was. He’s dead. Hooray.
- Brent Bozell's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Bin Laden is a Sabotuer and
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 9:20am.
Bin Laden is a Sabotuer and terrorist and deserves no respect. I say we should have put him on display like the old west outlaws were.
Or like Vlad the impaler,
Submitted by bassndude on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 9:37am.
Or like Vlad the impaler, stuck him on a big stick up his backside and displayed him at Ground Zero!
Save a SeAL, club a liberal/troll!!
Regarding pictures
Submitted by Chandran on Sat, 05/07/2011 - 12:36am.
Will the Washington strongman at least promise to release the pictures around October 2012 when it wont be as insulting to muslim sensitivities
Love that byline:
Nuke em til they glow; then shoot em in the dark
Enough
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 9:29am.
Enough self-flagellation. This evil POS killed thousands of people all over the world in his personal quest for something and is now DEAD! Good and thanks be to Allah for allowing him to be killed by America's best.
why say anything-
Submitted by JIMMY1660 on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 9:38am.
we were not there-must have been someone else.
the crashed helo-a set up.
why tell anyone the in-tell gathered.
why confirm SEALS were anywhere but training in SOCAL
deny deny deny.
whose is to garner credit or blame-who cares.
keep us safe-i do not care how you do it-just do it.
and tell me nothing-its okay.
What a crock.
Submitted by wizardjr on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:06am.
OBL should have been brought back to NYC and dragged through the streets while New Yorkers jeered and spit on his carcas. Then he should have been soaked in pigs blood and reduced with strong acid. The residue should have been publically flushed down a toilet.
Enough of this, "We're better than that," nonsense. We need to go Old School Roman on these cockroaches and any other enemies of America. We seem to have lost our public will to stand up for America as if we should be embarassed. Screw that and the horse it rode in on.
Double standard stinks
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:05am.
I don't need to see pics, don't care either way, bin Laden's death doesn't mean much more than symbolism at this point, but I heartily agree, it would be nice if there were no double standard about these things. I hate the left, and, yes, Obama is one of 'them', and how they push, push, push to show us in a bad light with every turn.
Release the photos
Submitted by KyWriter on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:11am.
The families of 9/11 and of every soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who came home in a sealed box deserve something tangible, something concrete to show that at least some justice has been meted out. It is the last phase of their catharsis, and as bloody and gory and even as nearly unrecognizable as the putrid remains of bin Laden may be, they need these photos. They need to see that he was not superhuman, not omnipotent, not beyond the reach of mortals. They need to see the exposed brain, the evulsed tissue, the ragged edges of bone. It will show them and the world that despite all the mythology, this wretched creature was still only human and just as vulnerable as the next guy to the wrath of the country he so despised and so injured. Even the very religious will have to admit that there is something about justice, especially in this case, that transcends religion, and this final proof is needed to show that justice is still possible in this world.
There is no way that the
Submitted by bassndude on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:18am.
There is no way that the photo's, or at least one of them, will not be made public, at some point. Things like that have a way of leaking out. To many people have seen these photos. Some one at some point will leak one of them. If they are not ordered by FIOA to be released.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal/troll!!
Many people today are
Submitted by Dave. on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:49am.
Many people today are reluctant to question things and speak their minds because they are terrified of being tagged with the “conspiracy kook” label, which is the exact result their accusers are looking for.
And in the case of this particular president, fear of the "racist" charge probably plays into this as well, as all through the campaign and even to this point in his presidency, many conservatives remain reluctant to be vocally critical of Obama, or even question his actions publicly.
I reserve the right to question anything my government tells me, and if that makes me a conspiracy kook in the eyes of some, then so be it.
This administration is infested with reflexive liars, and there is almost nothing I would put past them.
They may very well have taken out OBL in that raid, but I am not willing to take this administration’s word for it, and especially not this particular president’s, who has demonstrated repeatedly that his word isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit, or cold urine.
I’ll believe OBL was present and killed during that raid when I see 110% irrefutable evidence of it, not because a bunch of government employees worried about their job security tell me he was.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Dave
Submitted by Model850 on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 4:22pm.
Not to be contentious but what would constitute "110% irrefutable evidence" for you?
I'm curious because at this point it just seems that no such evidence can be produced, especially since the corpse was sent to the bottom of the ocean.
DNA? What would/does that prove since no independent sample can be obtained and tested (presumably against known blood relatives since it's unlikely there is a sample of OBL's actual DNA lying around some lab somewhere).
Pictures? This day and age way too easy to fake to constitute truly irrefutable evidence.
Eyewitness testimony? Unreliable at best since it cannot be corroborated.
Video of the burial at sea? Who's to say what was inside that weighted bag committed to the depths?
I don't doubt OBL is out of circulation. Dead or just in captivity in some deep, dark hole it matters not to me. He obviously will never again make a live public appearance. There may not be much of anything about the Obama WH to trust but you can be sure of this: The announcement of bin Laden's death would never -- NEVER -- have been made if there were ANY possibility of his surfacing and embarrassing Obama. NEVER.
I don't care that much, but
Submitted by Ruths husband Ben on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 10:54am.
I don't care that much, but the hypocrisy makes me sick. Was Bin Laden a Muslim leader? Every stinking politician says no, that he just hijacked the religion for his own purposes (which is false in itself). So, why give him a Muslim funeral? Why not give him a good Jewish one. Boy, you know that would sting!
Won't show the death pictures because it will be used as a recruiting tool by Al Queda and lead to more deaths. Didn't have the same problem with the Abu Ghriab pictures.
If we can see the death pictures of his associates, then there is no reason not to show the death pictures of Bin Laden. Personally, I could use some new wallpaper on my computer. But it doesn't matter that much, I just wish they would stop b.s.ing the American people.
I don't care when or how he
Submitted by hillbillyhatfield on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 11:03am.
I don't care when or how he was put out of comission. One less terrorist is always a good thing.
I just have one question. How did they get his DNA first to test it to see it was him. No one seems to know. So where did we get it.
I totally agree
Submitted by dknolte on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 1:56pm.
The attack was not some police action, it was war and America completed its task to kill Bin Laden. We certainly didn’t need him alive to enjoy an American trial, as it would have been a circus. Every legal cockroach would have come out of the woodwork to get a piece of it.
I’m not fond of Obama, but I think he made the correct choice not to publish the images. We don’t need to prove to anyone Bin Laden is dead. America knows it, and no matter how many people will want proof, it’s not necessary. It’s done. To bury the body at sea was perfect. It will reduce the hysteria by not having a body for Bin Laden’s followers to swoon over.