Osama bin Laden Helped Plan the Mumbai Terror Attack

A lot of documents and computers were collected by US Special Forces during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan — the raid in which bin Laden was killed. A little of the information from those materials is now dribbling out, and it shows bin Laden was still actively plotting attacks while hiding (and/or being hidden) from the civilized world.

The Hindustan Times reports that Osama bin Laden helped plan the November 26, 2008, terror attack on Mumbai, India, in which 166 people were killed. Pakistan terrorism expert Bruce Reidel noted this also “suggested a much larger direct al-Qaeda role in the planning of the Mumbai attacks than many assumed.”

Bin Laden planned the attack in close coordination with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, whose group carried out the attack. That resulted in the pictures we'va all seen, like the one in this report.

The Long War Journal notes “the documents raise new questions about the former al Qaeda master's ties to elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment”, noting that Pakistan's ISI military intelligence organization had used Saeed's group “to wage a proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir during the 1990s.” And many have noted the proximity of bin Laden's home to the Pakistani military academy.

Mandatory Contracts & Other Stupidities

Sometimes things just come together. The most recent is this item from the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web:

We Have Always Been at War With the Individual Mandate

The email we got yesterday from the Obama campaign is a real humdinger. Signed by campaign manager Jim Messina and carrying the subject line "Mitt Romney," it's actually an attack on Rep. Paul Ryan, this month's Emmanuel Goldstein. We especially love this point:

5. Romney [i.e., the Ryan budget] would end Medicare as we know it--replacing it with a voucher scheme that would drive profits for insurance companies by forcing seniors to purchase private insurance.

Imagine, forcing someone to buy private insurance! Oh, the horror!

That takes a lot of brass, coming from the same people that rammed down our collective throats a bill forcing everyone — not just seniors — to purchase private insurance. That's why, as already noted, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid couldn't get their bill passed without ramming it down everyone's throat, against the will of a substantial majority of the people.

Making matters even more absurd is that ObamaCare was and remains so unpopular that it could not be passed without bizarre procedural shenanigans and extreme legislative bullying. As a formal matter, ObamaCare's enactment was an exercise in representative democracy, but as a substantive one, Congress has seldom acted in a more unrepresentative way.

And now we find out that, far from being cost-effective, Obamacare is bending the medical cost curve up and will add trillions to the national debt once it comes into full effect. So Nancy Pelosi was right — they had to pass the bill so we could find out what's in it — and everything we've found out has said it's a lot worse than we thought.

Happy Easter!

Crucifixion was supposed to end the threat Jesus of Nazareth posed to the status quo is Israel.

But this crucifixion was not the end. Somehow the most humiliating possible execution was recast as a badge of honor.

The joy of the Resurrection renews the whole world!

Happy Easter!