Mission Accomplished? LA Skeptical After Bin Laden Pronounced Dead
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Crowds around the nation were still cheering the news of the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday, but many in the Southland say they still want proof that the elusive al-Qaida leader is really dead.
KNX 1070's John Brooks reports some surprise at the number of people who want the government to provide the public with irrefutable evidence after elite American forces claimed to have killed bin Laden in Pakistan.
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"It's good that he's dead," said on former Navy man who was serving during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. "I'll never forget when the towers came down."
Another man expressed doubts about the timing and the authenticity of the announcement, which he called a "stunt" to deflect public opinion.
"It made everybody happy in the midst of $5 gas...Everybody's acting like the Cubs won the World Series and storming the White House," he said.
"They're just a bunch of 'sheeple'," he added.
While many are satisfied that the accused mastermind behind the 9/11 mass murder is now dead, there are lingering questions in the so-called "alternative news" community, including:
- reports that a debilitating kidney disease put bin Laden in a Pakistani hospital for dialysis treatment the night before 9/11
- why Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan, said in 2002 that he believed bin Laden "is dead for the reason he is a ... kidney patient"
- why Benazir Bhutto said less than two months before her assassination in 2007 that bin Laden was murdered
Still, at least for one Angeleno, saying goodbye to a familiar face of evil was entirely welcome.
"Finally, we got him! Finally...he deserved more than death. I'm happy," he said.
What's your reaction? Sound off on the reports of bin Laden's death.
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