Tag Archive for Debra Burlingame

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:

Bush era detainees interrogations led to Osama bin Laden

The Washington Post has reported:

The operation hinged almost entirely on the hunt for a single man: a courier working out of Pakistan who had been trusted by bin Laden for years. U.S. analysts and operatives spent years figuring out the courier’s identity, senior administration officials said, concluding that he was a former protege of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The courier “in particular had our constant attention,” one official said. Detainees “identified this man as one of the few al-Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden, indicated he might be living with or protecting bin Laden,” the official said. But until four years ago, the United States was unable to track him down or uncover his real name. Two years ago, U.S. officials narrowed down the region in Pakistan where the courier was working, senior administration officials said.

During a Fox News interview late last night, Debra Burlingame said, “We need to ask our national security leaders and the President, frankly, why we don’t have an interrogation program; right now we have no interrogation program on its feet.”

Osama bin Laden’s body was then buried at sea.