PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

Criminals and other people running from the law often make one or two big mistakes that lead to their downfall. The job of those trying to catch them, like the police, is to watch carefully for those mistakes and then pounce as quickly as possible when they happen. The death of bin Laden, however, indicates that he might have been found much sooner. To say he was hiding “in plain sight” understates the actual case. His compound only 35 miles from Islamabad might as well have had an al Queda flag flying from it. Well, perhaps his error wasn’t that great, but here is The TerryReport  commentary:

It seems that bin Laden made a huge mistake in, first, having a compound built for himself and his family and, second, living there when it so obviously appeared to be something set aside and clearly walled off from the world. The fact that it had no telephone or Internet connections would raise suspicions anyway. Most people around the world who are rich enough to build themselves a one million dollar compound want to be connected vitally 24/7 because it is important to their business or financial interests. I wonder if there was some sort of cover story created to tell the people around there as to what the house was being used for and whether that story was thin around the edges, easily taken, that is, for a lie.

One of the ways police officers catch criminals is....they pick up the guy who is running away from the scene of the crime. If a criminal stops running or hides in a place where the police are not looking, it is much more difficult to catch the person. Bin Laden created a situation for himself that amounts to running: standing out in a crowd. It seems obvious that he must have had some protection for local sources, like the Pakistani military or local police. It is a wonder he wasn't caught sooner, unless this area is considered off limits to outsiders (I don't know the answer).

I understand completely that this was necessarily a kill or be killed operation, because they could not risk bin Laden getting away, but the greatest victory would have been to take him alive and bring him back here. That would be the ultimate humiliation. Of course, he would have been a very difficult prisoner to deal with (a massive understatement).

I join those who are not at ease with what appeared to have been a celebration of his death. This, rather, was a celebration of a victory and one of joy that this man with his mangled ideas and hatreds will not be around any more to plan and fund future attacks. I don't believe it is the equivalent of joyous celebrations that took place in various parts of the middle east when the World Trade Center towers fell. Yet, the world should remember this: Americans grow weary of being denounced and taunted around the world.

While many, including nations that consider themselves our friends, see only base motives behind America's many military involvements, those same nations are quite ready to accept the shield that America's money and military power offer them. It is difficult for some of those who consider peace first as a path for our nation to hold back the anger many here feel, especially when civilian targets are the first objective of misguided warriors like bin Laden. I believe it is quite correct to say that the U.S. has not used its power in an attempt to dominate the world (as others did and we might have, if we had wished) I am also pleased that we have the will and the military capability to let those know who would attack us that there can be no rest and no safe haven. Those helicopters over Pakistan carried the hopes of a grateful nation.

Doug Terry, 5.3.11

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