Getting it wrong about bin Laden

All the so-called ‘experts' really were wrong about bin Laden

Most of what we were told over the last decade turns out to be wrong. Miniter has a theory about why that is true:

Reflecting back on each of these fables about bin Laden, a common thread emerges. Each of them first appeared in the Pakistani press before migrating onto America’s television screens. Can that be a coincidence?

RTWT. Lots of interesting stuff.


I think that this might be the most significant myth:

How many times have you heard how religious or pious bin Laden was? Such a carefully crafted religious reputation certainly helped al Qaeda’s recruiting efforts, but it’s unclear why so many Western experts took this claim at face value. They certainly would not have used these adjectives about any Western leader without really compelling proof. Again, evidence from bin Laden’s lair shows how wrong the experts were.


An extensive library of pornographic videos, most of it of fairly recent vintage, was recovered in the electronic files of bin Laden’s computer, according to Reuters.

It suggests that David Gelernter was on to something when he wrote this:

We now learn that suicide bombers are told to expect a heaven full of comely virgins as their next assignment. To the suicide-murderers, those waiting virgins are real as dirt. The killers call themselves "martyrs," but in their own minds they are the next thing to sex criminals. "Pardon me, sir or madam, do you know why I plan to murder your child? Because the authorities are offering me great sex--and, after all, I don't get many opportunities."


People who think this way are shielded from view, up to a point, by their own sheer evil. They are painful to contemplate. We instinctively look away, as we do whenever we are confronted with monstrous deformity. Nothing is harder or more frightening to look at than a fellow human who is bent out of shape. And moral deformity is the most frightening kind by far

Miniter has a new book out that looks like it could be a must read. C-SPAN has an hour long interview with him here.