Bin Laden’s Real Goal: Bankrupt US

Pakistan jails Shakil Afridi for treason

(NEWSER) - The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA take down the world's most notorious terrorist will spend the next 33 years of his life in prison for his troubles. Dr. Shakil Afridi ran a vaccination program that the US used to verify Osama bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, reports Reuters , and Pakistan today slapped him with the stiff sentence for treason. Adding insult to injury, he was ordered to pay a fine of about $3,500—or spend an extra three and a half years behind bars, notes the AP . More»

Documents show he was frustrated with al-Qaeda

(NEWSER) - By the time SEAL Team Six ended his life a year ago, Osama bin Laden had grown pretty frustrated with al-Qaeda. The US today released some of the documents SEALs made off with when they raided bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, the Washington Post reports, and they reveal that the terrorist leader was upset by his network's attacks on fellow Muslims—and lack of attacks on Western targets. He believed the attacks, along with a clumsy media operation, were turning Muslims against al-Qaeda. More»

White House did, he reveals to Ellen DeGeneres

(NEWSER) - So much for spousal privilege. On the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, Hillary Clinton yesterday revealed that her husband had no idea the raid was going on. Today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show the former president himself backs that up in a discussion about how he found out, Radar reports. He explains that he "didn’t know about [bin Laden] until they told me"—they, meaning the White House. Hillary "never said a word." More»

Obama gives detailed interview about the terrorist leader's demise

(NEWSER) - It's the first anniversary of the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and MSNBC today released a series of interviews Brian Williams conducted with President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other top-ranking officials detailing their preparation for and reaction to the raid. "Ultimately, it was a 50/50 proposition as to whether this was actually bin Laden," Obama reveals. Speaking of the night he made the decision, he said, "There's no doubt that you don't sleep as much that evening." More»

Anniversary is nigh, and details keep trickling out

(NEWSER) - Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, and current and former US officials are apparently marking the date by revealing more tidbits contained in the 10,000-plus documents recovered from computers, hard drives, and storage devices found in his Abbottabad hideout. Many of them are old-hat (he wanted to kill Obama , he thought about rebranding al-Qaeda ). Other highlights:

• A former intelligence official tells the Washington Post that, according to his writings, bin Laden was none-too-pleased about an idea cooked up by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists: to build a "human lawnmower" out of a pickup truck and rotating blades that could be driven into crowds. Bin Laden "felt it conflicted with his vision for what he wanted al-Qaeda to be."