It's a busy work day for BTD and me. Here's an open thread, all topics. welcome.

What a faux headline from the AP, "Diary: Bin Laden eyed new targets, big body count." From the body of the article:

Intelligence officials have not identified any new planned targets or plots in their initial analysis of the 100 or so flash drives and five computers that Navy SEALs hauled away after killing bin Laden.

....Officials have not yet seen any indication that bin Laden had the ability to coordinate timing of attacks across the various al-Qaida affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Somalia.

They can't even conclude AQAP and the other al Qaida groups paid attention to his musings. AQAP is far more relevant and operational than Osama. [More...]

The media should stop paying so much attention to Osama's son Omar (who seems out for money and fame and had little if any connection to his father in the past decade) and more to Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula. Who cares Omar and his mother sue the U.S.?

AQAP leader Nasser al-Wahishi posted a new threat to Americans and Jews today.

"Do not think of the battle superficially... What is coming is greater and worse, and what is awaiting you is more intense and harmful," Wahishi said, according to a SITE translation.

"We promise Allah that we will remain firm in the covenant and that we will continue the march, and that the death of the sheikh will only increase our persistence to fight the Jews and the Americans in order to take revenge."

President Obama's poll bump won't last long if they succeed. Things that will make them even madder: Killing Anwar al-Awlaki (here's their past threat on that) or mistreating Osama's wives. The killing of Osama bin Laden has opened up a whole new can of worms.

The ACLU reports the Dream Act has been reintroduced in Congress.

The DREAM Act would provide affordable post-secondary education and military service opportunities for young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school....The reintroduced bill includes a critical provision that would restore states’ authority to determine students’ residency for purposes of higher education benefits, a provision that was removed from the bill voted on by the last Congress.

Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty of all 14 counts in his insider trading trial. His bond was continued until sentencing, with a condition of home confinement. His lawyer promises an appeal.

Prosecutors say his sentencing guideline range is about 19 1/2 years. Sentencing is set for July 29.

Pakistan and the U.S. say they are still in dialogues over the U.S. "interviews" of Osama bin Laden's three wives. What's holding it up and why does Pakistan say it has not yet received a formal request for access?

My guess: The U.S. is not just asking for permission to interview the women in Pakistan. It wants to extradite them to the U.S. for interrogation. The State Department is now making statements about the women and the interview requests. Why would they be involved if extradition was not on the horizon? State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said yesterday: [More....]

Travelled yesterday. Busy the next few days. Travelling again on the weekend. In short, not much posting from me for the next week.

Open Thread.

The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza bin Laden, may have escaped from the compound during the raid at Abbottabad. ABC News reports Hamza is unaccounted for. (More on the Hamza confusion here and here.)

Hamza, who reportedly was living at the compound, along with his mother who is in Pakistani custody, has not been accounted for. Some say he was removed by the commandos along with Osama bin Laden -- with conflicting reports on whether he was dead or alive when captured. [More...]

Newt Gingrich is running for President. Does anyone care? I don't. He's got so much baggage he doesn't have a prayer.

Republicans today blocked the nomination of James Cole as #2 at the Justice Department. The vote is here.

President Obama will stand at the U.S. Mexican border tomorrow, and according to the Washington Post, take credit for "cracking down on illegal immigration."

The president is expected to reel off what his aides say is evidence of an unprecedented focus on border security: hundreds of millions of dollars spent since he took office on high-tech fencing, aerial drones and a doubling of the border patrol since 2004. The result, aides say, has been a steep decline in illegal incursions and plummeting crime rates in U.S. border communities from Texas to California.

How depressing. All of it. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

India today released its dossiers on the five new defendants in the upcoming federal terror trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, charged with conspiracy in the Mumbai bombings and planned attack in Denmark. Rana will be on trial by himself, as none of the others have been arrested. David Headley, aka Daood Giliani, who was originally a defendant, will be the star witness against Rana, having cooperated and pleaded guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and extradition to India or Pakistan.

The dossiers, available here, expose the connections between Lashkar e Tayyiba (leT) and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). [More...]

Bump and Update: CNN reports a U.S. official has confirmed that the other two wives in the Osama bin Laden compound are, as I have been speculating for a few days, Khairia Saaba otherwise known as Umm Hamzah and Siham Sabar, also known as Umm Khalid. CNN reports a Pakistani intelligence source has told them today that Pakistan will allow the U.S. to interview (interrogate) the wives only if their home countries approve. (Yemen and Saudi Arabia are the home countries.) The AP reports differently, and says Pakistan will allow the U.S. to question the wives.

Original Post: Pakistan to Send Bin Laden's Widow Back to Yemen

The U.S. may not get its wish to interrogate the 29 year old widow of Osama bin Laden, Aml Ahmed Abdul Al-Fatah Al-Sada of Yemen. Pakistan officials say she will be returned to Yemen after they complete their questioning of her.[More...]

Paul Krugman has ignited a debate about whether the catastrophic decade we have lived through (and continue to suffer from) was due to "the Elites" or "the People." Kevin Drum writs:

Who's to blame for our fiscal problems of the past decade? Paul Krugman says elites deserve a lot more of the blame than the general public, but Dan Drezner disagrees: the public, he says, was in favor of tax cuts and in favor of the Iraq war, so they deserve a big chunk of the blame too. [. . .] Despite this broad support, nobody was crying out for either huge tax cuts or invading Iraq until George Bush and the rest of the GOP started talking them up. But the polling evidence is pretty clear that it was far from sufficient. Nothing about public opinion changed in 2001. The only thing that changed was the occupant of the Oval Office.

I want to provide a further example -- in 2009, the public was strongly for taking action against the financial sector. Indeed, the President famously remarked to the bankers ""My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." And indeed, so the Obama Administration remains, for reasons only Geithner can explain. Apparently on this issue, it's ok to note that Presidents are not powerless bystanders. We were Bush'd. And now we've been HAMP'd. Thanks to the VSPs.

Speaking for me only