I have to chime in here and say that you really need to put the word “allegedly” in there.

Oh, I’m no conspiracy theorist — in fact, my interactions with such almost always involve me being the boring skeptic.

It’s simply that the government did not choose to provide us with any evidence at all — not a single photo, not a frame from the video cameras that apparently all the “SEALs” were carrying, nothing. More, the immediate story that they told us was full of dramatic details like Bin Laden being shot when he came out firing using his wife as a human shield — details that they later recanted with no explanation as to how they could have been so wrong, given they were all seeing live footage from the scene.

The new story was that they were instructed to shoot Bin Laden, even if he surrendered, unless he was naked(!), a detail so weird that I didn’t trust my memory and looked it up. Considering that Bin Laden had no idea that they wanted to see his penis in order not to kill him, they might as well have said, “No surrender accepted”, so it’s unclear why they gave us that rather twisted comment.

Absent any evidence at all, and given that the information comes from one source, the US government, who has relentlessly lied to us in the past, it’s impossible to make a reasoned judgement on whether this story is true or not.

And there are a lot of questions hanging. For example, Bin Laden made a series of videos mocking Bush. In the last video, Bin Laden is not looking well — he mouths a lot of generic threats, and then the camera freezes and a voice goes on to talk about current events over a still picture.

My assumption was that Bin Laden had died — hardly unreasonable since he needed constant dialysis. This strengthened as years went by with nothing from Bin Laden. In particular, when Obama won, I felt the fact that there was no video from Bin Laden mocking his old enemy Bush was strong evidence that Bin Laden was already dead.

So what’s my theory? Oh, I don’t have one. I really have no idea what the truth is. If I had to bet, I would probably bet that the story is at least close to the official story, but I really have no idea, because the US government has chosen not to give us any hard information at all. I really just don’t know.

So I use the word “allegedly” — to keep me and everyone else honest.

Just a quibble! Thanks for your usual high-quality, passionately committed writing.

And remember, if the SEALs invade your compound, show them your penis and maybe you can live.😃