He was our kind of guy until he wasn’t, an ally during the Cold War until he no longer served our purposes. The problem with Osama bin Laden was not that he was a fanatical holy warrior; we liked his kind just fine as long as the infidels he targeted were not us but Russians and the secular Afghans in power in Kabul whom the Soviets backed.
But when bin Laden turned against us, he morphed into a figure of evil incarnate, and now three decades after we first decided to use him and other imported Muslim zealots for our Cold War purposes, we feel cleansed by his death of any responsibility for his carnage. We may make mistakes but we are never in the wrong. USA! USA!
A Monster of Our Own Creation
WH won't release bin Laden death photo
President Barack Obama has decided not to release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden, he said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," amid concerns that the gruesome image could prove inflammatory.
Obama's decision was reported on the CBS News Web site Wednesday after the president sat for an interview with the news magazine program. Releasing graphic images of bin Laden's corpse after his shooting in a U.S. raid on his compound could have dispelled doubts that bin Laden is indeed dead. The worry, though, was that it would feed anti-U.S. sentiment.
Feds accuse Deutsche Bank of massive mortgage fraud
The government accused the bank and its subsidiary MortgageIT of lying about the quality of some mortgages that were to be insured by the government. With the government insurance, Deutsche Bank and MortgageIT were allegedly able to sell weak mortgages for more than they were worth. Because the mortgages were weak, the FHA has been forced to honor insurance policies on the loans.
"You can always get someone up on charges if you work hard enough given all the regulations we have," says Ed Novak, an attorney at Polsinelli Shughart. "I don't buy that the financial industry has so weakened the statutory framework of this country that we can't pursue something."
'Hundreds jailed for degrading Syria'
Human rights groups say hundreds of ordinary Syrians have been jailed for "degrading the prestige of the state" amid an intensifying crackdown on anti-government protests.
Hundreds of detainees received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday while mass arrests continue, to pre-empt further unrest on the Muslim day of prayer on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
FDA approved Big Pharma drugs without effectiveness data
A case in point: it turns out that only about half of the new prescription medications pushed onto the market over the last decade had the proper data together for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - yet the FDA approved them anyhow.
The researchers found that only about half of 197 eligible approved NMEs between 2000 and 2010 had comparative efficacy data available at the time they were approved to be marketed.
Meanwhile, another recent study throws needed light on the limited data behind the safety and effectiveness of some Big Pharma drugs.
Israel killed 1,300 kids in Gaza: UN
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories says Israel has killed 1,300 Palestinian children since 2000.
Richard Falk announced the figure during a press conference in the Jordanian capital city of Amman late on Monday, the Palestinian News Network reported on its website.
In his latest report, Falk noted that in 2010, the Israeli army's gunfire and shelling of the Gaza Strip claimed the lives of 17 children.
Since his appointment in May 2008, Falk has faced hindrances by the Israeli regime, which has refused to cooperate with the rapporteur in his field missions.
Boy, two, with brain cancer is 'cured' after secretly being fed medical marijuana by his father
A desperate father whose son was suffering from a life-threatening brain tumour has revealed he gave him cannabis oil to ease his pain. And he has now apparently made a full recovery.
The little boy had to have arduous chemotherapy treatment to reduce the growth, which had drastic side effects including seizures and a blood infection.
His distraught parents were repeatedly told he was likely to succumb to the illness because the condition was so bad.
Who Was Osama bin Laden?
It is important to understand this great historical figure and his jihad mission. Osama bin Laden was a close associate and student of respected Palestinian theologian, Abdullah Azzam, who coined the term "al-Qaeda." Azzam's work elaborated upon the ideas of Sayed Qutb, the Egyptian founder of modern Arab-Islamic political religious thought. Qutb is comparable to John Locke in Western political development. Both Azzam and Qutb were serious men of exceptional integrity and honor. Qutb predicted that the struggle between Islam and materialism would define the modern world. He embraced martyrdom in 1966 in rejection of Arab socialist politics. Drawing upon Qutb's ideas, Azzam preached mutual responsibility for each other among all Muslims worldwide. Azzam successfully organized an international volunteer effort to defend Afghanistan from the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s under the banner of Islam and with the US as an ally. He was killed in 1989.
Canadian Bishop to face child pornography trial
Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy and their advocates say the trial of a Canadian Roman Catholic bishop who faces child pornography charges is a step in the right direction.
Bishop Raymond Lahey's trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in an Ottawa court - a rare case of high ranking Canadian Church official facing charges over sexual misconduct.
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