Laurence Vance has some questions about bin Laden’s death:
The government is reporting that it buried the body of bin Laden at sea. Conspiracy theorists – and rightly so – are going to have a field day with this for years to come. How could the government do something so stupid as dispose of bin Laden’s body so quickly? Are we just supposed to have faith in the government when it says it had the body and positively identified it by a DNA test?
CNN has an article on their website attempting to explain why Osama bin Laden was buried at sea. From the article:
Osama bin Laden was buried at sea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier because there was no alternative to bury him on land within the 24 hours required by Islamic law, President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser said Monday.
The article goes on to say the following:
A senior Defense official said no country was willing or able to take bin Laden’s body for a funeral.
Which countries were asked to take the body? Seriously, I’d love for CNN to ask that question, and when the answer is given, go to the authorities of those countries and get them to confirm or deny that they were asked to take the body.
I’m certainly no expert on Islamic law, so I’ll concede it’s possible the sea burial really was the best course of action if you’ve made the decision to try to be respectful of Islamic law, but from the outside looking in, it certainly feels like a hasty attempt to get rid of the evidence. I also agree with the sentiment expressed by Vance that we have reason to be skeptical of the DNA test. Why not let an independent organization examine the body and perform its own DNA test to corroborate the government’s claims? Also, is there really no latitude within Islamic practice for burying a body beyond 24 hours? What do Muslim societies do when in the course of a normal forensic investigation the body is required to be accessible for a longer period of time? My concern is that while the American people are swept up in rejoicing and feeling united, they’re missing out on a healthy dose of skepticism.
