Osama bin Laden

Debra Burlingame: Obama’s bin Laden photo and burial decisions ‘play right into’ enemy’s hand

Debra Burlingame, the sister of pilot Charles “Chic” Burlingame III whose plane was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, discussed with Neil Cavuto today yesterday President Barack Obama’s decision to not release Osama bin Laden’s death photos and to give him a respectful sea burial.

Before watching the video, consider this: America is allegedly at war against al Qaeda and its violent affiliates; Obama (and Bush before him) is not at war alone against this enemy. Killing bin Laden was a major tactical victory and we, America, needed to use it to demoralize the enemy towards total victory. And we needed to exploit whatever intelligence that was gathered during the operation. So, what did this adminstration do? They bragged about the kinds of intelligence gathered at the scene for the sole purpose of domestic political popularity and undermined the intelligence value of what was gathered. Obama and his administration deserve condemnation for putting their political aspirations ahead of the interests of protecting the American people and defeating the enemy.

Obama has stated that al Qaeda’s ideology is “a perversion of Islam,” bin Laden “murdered Muslims on September 11,” and the latter “was not a Muslim leader.” Why give a perverted, mass-murdering, non-Muslim a religious ceremony in line with Muslim tradition?

Nothing has been found of 1,125 of those slaughtered on 9/11; their families had no body to respectfully prepare, to pray over, or to properly lay to rest. My wife lost her brother that day. I would have bagged bin Laden up, weighed him down, and tossed him over the side with the garbage.

Debra Burlingame: 40-minute sea burial ceremony for Osama bin Laden ‘ridiculous’

AG Eric Holder testified that Osama bin Laden “Was not a Muslim leader,” this morning before the House Judiciary Committee, echoing President Barack Obama’s remarks Sunday evening while announcing the al Qaeda leader had been killed by U.S. Navy SEALs.

If that is true, then why did bin Laden receive a a 40-minute sea burial in line with Muslim traditions? Debra Burlingame asked that question this morning on WMAL radio. She added, “Why are we going to give him that kind of respect? Since when does the U.S. military engage in religious care for the body of someone they’ve killed essentially on the battlefield? … The Obama administration needs to get their act together on their political correctness gone wild in terms of Muslim outreach.” Listen to the whole thing: