Bin Laden: A Breakthrough with Many Doubts

I recently wrote a comment on Il Giornale’s site regarding bin Laden’s death in which I examine the consequences and express other doubts. I present it here again in full, adding a consideration. The photo of the swollen corpse of Bin Laden is false, and the same Pakistani television channel that diffused it earlier has retracted it. It’s the first time that a spin operation has been exposed in real time.

Here are my comments during the heat of the moment:

Justice has been served. And it’s significant that the one to announce Osama bin Laden’s death was Barack Obama. Listen to his words: “So his demise should be welcomed by all those who believe in peace and human dignity.” And again: “Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.” I’m not certain these are the words of a Nobel Peace laureate, much less that of the political left, who years go had covertly expressed some doubts about the authorship of the 9/11 attacks. They are words that evoke the notable “We’re going to get him dead or alive” that George Bush pronounced. They killed him, but in these situations no one regrets it.

The country that became united post-9/11 celebrates together today. Perhaps it was too much. Was it really necessary to act as if they had just won the World Cup? Those choirs, those carousels in the piazzas, those waving flags leave a strange sensation. From Europe I can’t help but feel perplexed. Just bad taste? Human exaggeration? Perhaps at this juncture America also demonstrates its other soul: that of a country which, despite promoting itself as a bulwark of democracy and civil rights, maintains the cowboy spirit of the Western frontier. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The good destroys the bad and celebrates its death. A spirit that 9/11 reignited in the people. But this is also America; this is also Obama. How strange his destiny is: that he should have gone down in history as the “good” president and instead he’s secured himself a place in the history books as the man who closed the deal with the Greatest Terrorist. Justice, certainly, but most importantly, vengeance.

With some unanswered questions. The first: With bin Laden dead, is the threat of Islamist terrorism dead too? The answer, for now, is no. The intelligence services in these hours are on alert, fearing that the followers of Osama might strike to honor the death of their leader or perhaps to carry out retaliation that has been in the making for a long time. The next hours will be crucial to understanding whether Islamist terrorism is in a position to carry out a sign of retaliation. But it would be the backlash of an organization still in shambles. Bin Laden’s death also brings the final, invisible, yet powerful blow against the only specter able to plan and conduct a war against the United States.

Yes, it closes an era, but there also exists another Islamist terrorism inspired by al-Qaida, one that is operationally disconnected and powered by scattered cells composed of spontaneous groups that act independently and who are less dangerous but more difficult to intercept. It’s against this type of terrorism that the West intends to fight at length.

The second question concerns the timing. Why did it take 10 years to capture the most hunted man in the world? Ten years ago bin Laden was a very sick man who needed dialysis, a sophisticated medical procedure. It’s impossible that he remained hidden for a decade in the caves of Pakistan, and indeed they found him in a villa. Who has protected him all this time? And why? Have the Pakistani intelligence services played a double game? How is it possible that the CIA has been so slow? Today the world celebrates a political triumph — not the workmanship of American intelligence. Also the operation of the blitz is really puzzling: Why bury bin Laden at sea? Why not just declare that the photo of a swollen-face bin Laden was false?

Of course — and this is the third question — it would have been much better if bin Laden had been captured alive, to finally know the truth about 9/11. Even today black holes still linger in the reconstruction of the most spectacular attack in history. Inconsistencies, black holes regarding the design, implementation, recruitment of the bombers: For years we’ve lacked a clear vindication. And it’s never been known why bin Laden has not been seen in videos, given that the movies released in recent years have been manipulated. Osama himself could have explained these mysteries; with his death these are likely to remain unsolved forever. Indeed, given the strange manner of his end, a new era of doubt and suspicion threatens to begin.

Tomorrow. Today the United States only thinks about celebrating.

America has won. America rejoices. It’s come out of a nightmare. It finds confidence in itself, its values, in the belief that with dedication and determination anything is possible. It fell, and it raised itself up. Maybe this is the conclusion of the decade of great fear; maybe another one has begun in the name of mass euphoria. It’s the same America that, having settled its score with bin Laden, sends a clear message to the world: Woe to those who challenge us. And those who imagine it in decline, weakened by a decline both economic and financial, are mistaken: At the top of the world there is always the United States — even if the country is driven by the “pacifist” Obama rather than the “warmonger” Bush.