Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden's son and heir apparent is no longer under house arrest in Iran and is believed to have joined his father in Pakistan, Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell said Friday. U.S. counter-terrorism officials said it was unclear whether Saad bin Laden had escaped custody in Iran or was released by the Islamic government.

Re "Capitalizing on disaster," Opinion, Jan. 27 Naomi Klein urges progressives to reinstate the populist movement to combat right-wing ideologues, who she believes have exploited desperate countries into accepting capitalism as the solution to their social ills -- a theory she refers to as "disaster capitalism." But just because countries deregulate their economies does not mean they have been exploited.

Who says religion and political cartoons don't mix? A bounty of such blessings were bestowed this week. Rob Rogers couldn't pass over the five-year mark of the Iraq war. Signe Wilkinson's biblical imagery was the best of the flock of Barack Obama observations. And I confess to resurrecting a seasonal visual cliche but beg forgiveness because bracketology is indeed a religion in some parts.

Life, as Kierkegaard pointed out, can only be understood retrospectively, but we must live it prospectively. It's a disjunctive paradox, as true for the lives of nations as it is for those of individuals. Steve Coll's stunningly researched and grippingly told new book, "The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century," is the kind of history that naturally gives rise to such large thoughts.

Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri denied Wednesday that the terrorist network had killed innocent people, but also said any such deaths were unintentional -- or necessary. His comments came in a 90-minute audio response billed as the first installment of answers to more than 900 questions submitted online.

Osama bin Laden lives among friends, follows news on satellite television or the Internet and reads books about American foreign policy; this much can be safely inferred from his periodic audio and video statements. His latest topical punditry surfaced just a few weeks ago on jihadi websites when he addressed violence in Gaza and the pope's travels.

Filmmaker-gadfly Morgan Spurlock is back with the warm, amusing -- and decidedly mistitled -- "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" As with "Super Size Me," Spurlock comes nowhere near his stated intention in the new pseudo-documentary. But while his earlier effort had more to do with self-promotion than exploring the real-life consequences of American eating habits, "Where in the World" has a soft center that cushions the filmmaker's poor aim.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan may have been only a driver for Osama bin Laden, but the legions of bit players in Al Qaeda are what has allowed the terrorist leader to succeed, an FBI agent testified Friday. "Without people like Mr. Hamdan, Bin Laden would enjoy no support, he would not enjoy protection and he probably would not have been able to elude capture up to this point," Special Agent George M. Crouch Jr. told the military jurors hearing the first U.S. war crimes case in 60 years.