Osama Bin Laden and the Burden of Proof

Sunday’s mission to infiltrate and extract Osama bin Laden was by all measures a success. But in the nearly decade-long process that led up to this moment, there’s a new debate raging over how intelligence officials went about finding the world’s most hunted terrorist.  The latest reporting by journalists suggest detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in secret prisons in Europe were interrogated to obtain any information about bin Laden’s whereabouts –  including the identity of his courier. Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA’s bin Laden division and author of the book “Osama bin Laden,” explains that it wasn’t surprising that bin Laden was in Pakistan. “Pakistan has never had any interest in helping us kill, capture, or apprehend Osama bin Laden, because it was bad for their country’s national interests. And the U.S. government has known that all along, both under Republicans and Democrats,” he says. “But we’re hostage to the Pakistanis; this whole blow-up in the Congress will blow over pretty quickly, because we’re dependent on them for land routes to resupply our troupes in Afghanistan.