National Post

Crack shot — shame about the paperwork: Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden could have had health care after all
The man who killed Osama bin Laden apparently did not know he was eligible for health care coverage when he complained to Esquire magazine the military left him uninsured — “Go [f—k] yourself,” the shooter says he was told.

But hours after the 15,000-word magazine article went viral Monday, a military publication reported the Navy SEAL is, in fact, eligible for five years of free coverage through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Megan McCloskey’s Stars and Stripes article was dedicated to debunking writer Phil Bronstein’s premise that all the shooter got from his employer and a “grateful nation” was this: “No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family.”

Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden describes moment he killed the al-Qaeda leader — and his life now without a pension or health care
A U.S. Navy SEAL who claims to have fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden has described for the first time the moment he shot the al-Qaeda leader twice in the head.

However, the anonymous shooter also told how his wife and family now lived in constant fear of their lives, and had taught their children to hide in the bathtub at the first sign of a revenge attack.

In a 15,000-word account, the unnamed member of SEAL Team 6 describes the huge elation — but also the deep personal cost — that came with being the man who killed bin Laden during the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011. (Getty Images)

Americans could die if bin Laden death photos are made public, judge cautions
Photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse and burial at sea, ordered to be kept secret by President Barack Obama, should be made public, a self-described conservative watchdog group told a federal appeals court.

Judicial Watch Inc., in arguments today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, said the Central Intelligence Agency has failed to demonstrate how images of bin Laden’s body — specifically those showing it cleaned and prepared for burial — would harm national security or reveal classified intelligence strategies.

Questions by two of the judges during today’s 40-minute argument signaled that the government properly determined that such images — even one of bin Laden shrouded in white garments in an empty room — might endanger the lives of U.S. soldiers and civilians and increase the likelihood of violence against allies. (AP Photo/File)

Jonathan Kay: Time to call Pakistan what it is — a state supporter of terrorism
Here in the West, the killing of Osama Bin Laden was considered a triumph. In Pakistan, where the al-Qaeda leader lived out his final years, attitudes are very different: On Wednesday, a Pakistani court brought down a guilty verdict against the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA locate bin Laden in May, 2011. Having been convicted of treason, Shakil Afridi now faces a 33-year prison sentence.

Each story like this brings fresh evidence that Pakistan, a nominal Western ally in the war on terrorism, actually is doing more to enable the jihadis than fight them. We don’t yet have definitive evidence to suggest that the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment was actively housing and protecting bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. But that certainly would have been in keeping with long-standing Pakistani policies.

Gary Clement’s top ten cartoons of 2011
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But mostly, it was the worst of times. Natural disasters, civil unrest, bloody suppression, financial catastrophe, political shenanigans, sexual indiscretion, 2011 had it all and then some.

It made my life as a cartoonist pretty easy, as all these events readily lend themselves to satire and mockery. Except for natural disasters.

‘Fairly extensive’ porn collection found in bin Laden compound
A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said on Friday.

The pornography recovered in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The officials said they were not yet sure precisely where in the compound the pornography was discovered or who had been viewing it. Specifically, the officials said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the materials. (DoD/AFP/Getty Images)

Bin Laden revenge bombing kills 80 in Pakistan
Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 80 people at a paramilitary force academy in the northwest on Friday, and vowed further bloodshed in retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in the country.

The first major bombing in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death on May 2, it will reinforce the common view that his elimination will not ease violence because al-Qaeda is not centralized and will keep inspiring groups, like the Pakistani Taliban, which are scattered globally and loosely bound by ideology.

“It’s the first revenge for the martyrdom of … bin Laden. There will be more,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Photo: Pakistani security officials examine the damaged vehicles outside the Frontier Constabulary (FC) main training center following a suicide and bomb attack in Shabqadar town, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Peshawar on May 13, 2011. (A. MAJEED/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistan knew of bin Laden raid 15 minutes into it: report
Pakistan became aware of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden 15 minutes after it had begun but did not know the target, Al-Arabiya television quoted Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying.

U.S. suspects ‘support network’ for bin Laden in Pakistan: Obama
“We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan,” U.S. President Barack Obama told the CBS television show 60 Minutes.

Licence to kill
The idea that the legitimacy of this brilliantly executed American raid might be cast into doubt by the dogmas of “international law” can only be described as quaint — the sort of debating point that would have been taken seriously when the Twin Towers were still standing. In 2011, it sounds only slightly less marginal than the idea that bin Laden still walks the earth.

Jonathan Kay: Bin Laden’s killing shows us the irrelevance of “international law”
This past week, the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair became a figure of ridicule for suggesting that the United States doesn’t have photos of Osama bin Laden’s body — presumably, in his imagination, because the al-Qaeda leader isn’t really dead. But Mr. Mulcair made another interesting comment about the U.S. raid, which did not get as much attention: “We have to understand whether or not there was an action of self defence or whether there was something that was more in the style of a direct killing and that has to do with American law and with international law as well.”

The idea that the legitimacy of this brilliantly executed American raid might be cast into doubt by the dogmas of “international law” can only be described as quaint — the sort of debating point that would have been taken seriously when the Twin Towers were still standing. In 2011, it sounds only slightly less marginal than the idea that bin Laden still walks the earth.

The exact moment when we knew “international law” had little to say about the war against terrorism came on November 3, 2002. That was the day an American Predator drone, flying high above the Yemeni outback 100 miles east of Sanaa, fired a Hellfire missile into a car containing al-Qaeda’s local commander, Abu Ali al-Harithi, and five jihadi comrades. Photos of the scene show a black hole in the ground where the car once stood — a suitable metaphor for the once-fashionable notion that “international law” trumps a nation’s right to defend itself. (Illustration: Richard Johnson/National Post)

Gary Clement’s Week in Review for May 1 to May 7

Posting before it is entirely too late…

Analyzing turnout: The ballot box balance
After hitting historic lows in 2008, voter turnout rose to 61.4% in Monday’s election as voters in northern Canada and suburban Ontario flocked to the polls in higher numbers than before. The Post analyzes some of the more surprising results

Bin Laden’s cult of hate will live on
Robert Fulford: Even in death, Osama bin Laden provides fresh reasons why the world should continue to fear the crazed fury of radical Islamists. To admirers, his accomplishments make him a heroic, exemplary figure

Al-Qaeda confirms bin Laden’s death
Al-Qaeda confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden Friday in an Internet message that vowed revenge on the United States and its allies, including Pakistan, according to the SITE monitoring service.

Five days after President Barack Obama announced bin Laden’s death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan, al-Qaeda vowed not to deviate from the path of armed struggle and said bin Laden’s blood “is more precious to us and to every Muslim than to be wasted in vain.”

“It (bin Laden’s blood) will remain, with permission from Allah the Almighty, a curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries,” the militant network said in a statement released on Islamist Internet forums and translated by SITE.

Photo: Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag in protest against the killing of Osama bin Laden in Multan, on May 6, 2011. (S S MIRZA/AFP/Getty Images)

The NDP’s volatile voice of experience
Thomas Mulcair, deputy leader of the NDP, has promised to take under his wing the raft of New Democrat rookies elected in Quebec Monday. But who is going to keep an eye on Mr. Mulcair?

As the party moved to control its message and shield some of its shakier new MPs from the media this week, it was Mr. Mulcair who committed the first major gaffe.

It could be said that Mr. Mulcair performed a service for his young charges with his puzzling comments on photos of a dead Osama bin Laden — deflecting attention away from them, their thin resumés and, in some cases, questionable nomination papers. But the incident illustrates the dilemma the NDP finds itself in following its unexpected success in Quebec.

NDP Opposition: Filling the Shadow Cabinet

National Post front page for May 5, 2011

Ex-bishop admits to importing child porn
The wonder drug that’s no drug at all
NDP MP raises Bin Laden doubts

Killing bin Laden was ‘national self-defense’: U.S.
The United States said Wednesday that killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was an act of national self-defense, countering allegations the raid by U.S. commandos on his Pakistani hide-out was illegal.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said bin Laden was a legitimate military target and he had made no attempt to surrender to the American forces that stormed his fortified compound near Islamabad on Monday, and shot him in the head.

“It was justified as an act of national self-defense,” Mr. Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing bin Laden’s admission of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

It was lawful to target bin Laden because he was the enemy commander in the field and the operation was conducted in a way that was consistent with U.S. laws and values, he said, adding that it was a “kill or capture mission.”

“If he had surrendered, attempted to surrender, I think we should obviously have accepted that, but there was no indication that he wanted to do that and therefore his killing was appropriate,” he said. (Photo Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

National Post front page for May 4, 2011

The Layton Bunch
Jack had better be nimble
PM can relax at last
President, aides had a view to the kill