Raid On Osama More Productive Than Thought ?

If the raid on the mansion in Pakistan had resulted in nothing more than the death of Osama bin Laden, it would have been well worth it. The murderer had escaped justice for far too long. Al-Queda would still exist and mostly likely would try to retaliate against this country (or one of our allies), but it still had to be done.

But it looks like more than just the death of Osama bin Laden was accomplished in the raid by U.S. forces. It is now being reported that a veritable treasure-trove of information was also seized in the raid by the Navy Seals. Politico says that officials have told them that "special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightening raid that killed bin Laden."

This material is currently being viewed and evaluated at a secret location in Afghanistan. One U.S. official said, "Hundreds of people are going through it now. It's going to be great even if only 10 percent of it is actionable."

That is great! Osama was the top person in al-Queda, and it is very likely that he would have had information on the entire network of terrorists operating under the al-Queda label. And if so, this could be the thing that breaks the back of that terrorist organization.

We in the general public probably won't know what information is there -- perhaps for several years. The authorities will want to use this information in every possible way before releasing any of it, and that is just what they should do. I hope it is valuable and means the end of al-Queda (and I find it hard to believe it would only be computer games and downloaded movies -- after all, this is al-Queda's top dog).

But even if there is enough information there to virtually eliminate al-Queda, it will not mean the end to terrorism. Although al-Queda was the worst terrorist organization, they were far from the only one. It would still be a huge step though, and it would put all the other terrorist organizations on notice that they could be next. And that's a good thing.