Bin Laden Is Dead, Questions Remain

Following the announcement of the death of the leader of an amorphous Islamic organization, the questions are in fact mounting in the same way that the operation was carried out.

A tad proud, the president of America solemnly announced yesterday that the U.S. is removed from harm from Osama bin Laden, Public Enemy No. 1. Nobody is going to shed a tear; nevertheless, certain questions remain regarding the way the operation was carried out by Navy SEALS (an elite corps of Marines put to use especially for missions involving anti-terrorism, reconnaissance, or unconventional warfare), as indicated by American sources, upon the sudden discovery of bin Laden’s refuge, though his body is missing (buried at sea, the same sources explain).

Actually, the burst of action by the Navy SEALS raises more questions than answers for this enigma, remaining in its entirety and surrounding the former CIA agent who devoted body and soul to his sponsor country: the U.S.

In fact, the Navy SEALS operated on behalf of the CIA (former employer of bin Laden) and under its director Leon Panetta. This is in fact the tip of the iceberg, though it hardly explains the timing of the operation carried out in the most secret manner that no notification of it would be made to a seemingly sovereign nation: Pakistan. On Pakistani soil, the foreign (American) commandos took action. Then, there was the rash outcome involving dropping into the sea the body of the one who, until there is better information, will pass for bin Laden. The same American sources then gave a wealth of details on the opulent villa, the residence of the fugitive, “much in demand” by every police force on the planet, while bin Laden was blithely living 80 kilometers from Islamabad, the seat of government. The most paradoxical thing is that bin Laden was living in a village situated in Abbottabad, a garrison town, where a military academy is located.

Questions: How was a man, so much in demand by the world, able to live for so long and so tranquilly in the heart of town, where the army is omnipresent? Or was it that the Pakistani intelligence services were as clueless as to have had no hint? Unless the intelligence services were accomplices of the al-Qaida leader in failing to properly inform the government of Pakistan.

Already, acting behind the backs of the Islamabad government, the U.S. is suspicious of the loyalty, if not the honesty, of Pakistani leaders. To doubt is now permissible, especially when American sources confirm that the villa in question has been spotted and monitored since August 2010, and all this without the Pakistan government being informed. A Pakistan that, so we are told, is a first-line ally of the U.S. in the fight against terrorism. Such terrific trust between allies!

Another mystery: Why were bin Laden’s friends and family not allowed to identify the body, which was immediately buried at sea? In face of skepticism from the press and from observers, a senior American official confirmed that the DNA analysis enabled Osama bin Laden’s death to be confirmed.

This is possible. Yet it does not explain why the family was not allowed to identify the body. Now, is it natural for bin Laden’s body to be thrown into the ocean? The American officials furthermore confirmed that funeral services took place off the coast of Oman where bin Laden’s body was put into the water in conformance, they say, with “Muslim tradition” and precisely to avoid having his tomb (if he had been buried in the ground) turned into a “shrine.”

Now then, Al Azhar [University], a lofty place in Islam, is not in agreement with this interpretation of Muslim tradition. “If it is true that his body was thrown into the sea, Islam is entirely against it,” confirms Mahmoud Azab, advisor to the grand imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of inter-religious dialogue. “Islam is totally against this type of behavior,” he adds.

The U.S., for reasons that are its own, has therefore decided to conclude the “bin Laden” chapter. But this leaves questions open that will lead to every speculation but without the certainty of having the right answers.