In Today's Headlines

The AP reports "a new documentary reveals that a last-minute double-check of intelligence before" the Abbottabad raid by a "special 'red-team' of terrorism experts" cast doubts on whether Osama bin Laden was really in the compound, "primarily because they didn't believe he would risk having as many visitors as he did."  I don't doubt there is some truth to this, as even the intelligence analysts who discovered the compound only estimated it was eighty-percent likely that bin Laden was there.  But given that the Obama administration has lowered the probability estimates before to make the President's decision seem more courageous (which it indisputably was, thereby making their constant lowering of the probability so silly), until these red-teamers go on the record I'll remain slightly skeptical.  Either way, "Targeting Bin Laden" airs next Tuesday on The History Channel.

Also, yesterday an official in the Transitional National Council said its fighters had cornered Colonel Moammar Qaddafi in a desert redoubt 150 miles from the capital in Bani Walid and were exhorting him to give up.  Qaddafi's son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam (not to be confused with Yusuf Islam, ne Cat Stevens) immediately denied the claim, saying "Our leadership is fine.  We are drinking tea and coffee" somewhere in a Tripoli suburb.

Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam: Not on the run from Libyan rebels (as far as we know).