Ding-Dong, bin Laden's Dead

So Osama bin Laden is dead.

Buried at sea, with the body handled “per Islamic tradition,” according to the news. Don’t quite sure what that means, but the government has made pains to ensure that was communicated clearly. (Apparently, it has to do with the Muslim belief that a body must be buried within a day of death. The burial at sea, I assume, has to do with US desires that his body not be exhumed and venerated among radicals.)

His death, of course, will be denied by those who supported him, and by others. Per CNN:

One resident in the city of Lahore said Monday she was stunned to hear bin Laden was in the country.

"But was it really him?" the woman said.

A senior national security official told CNN that officials had multiple confirmations that the body was bin Laden's, saying they had the "ability to run images of the body and the face."

That’s a refrain, I’m sure, we’ll hear more and more often as time passes. Some so-called photo experts are already claiming bin Laden's "death" photo is a fake. UPDATE: The deniers have their first A-lister: Cindy Sheehan. And there are things like this, with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood -- a major force behind that country's revolution earlier this spring -- condemning the bin Laden "assassination." So the circle keeps a-comin' as we all knew it would.

Nonetheless, a victory for the United States after ten years and two wars and a lot of death, not the least of which are the 3,000 or so souls who died in New York City, Alexandria, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001.

President Obama, of course, was jubilant.

And this time, it’s our turn to cheer in the streets.

Per Time magazine, former President George W. Bush had this to say of the news:

"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done."

And maybe Richard Thompson has an explanation as to how he was able to elude capture for so long.

Then there's this guy, Abbottabad resident and IT wonk Sohaib Athar, who live-tweeted the raid on bin Laden's compound without knowing what was going on. Instant celebrity for him, the poor sap.