BULLETIN – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  Fox News is just reporting that Al Qaeda has confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden in an internet statement. 

This should save some of President Obama's bacon, fried beyond crispness in his administration's monumentally inept handling of statements following the bin Laden raid.  In fact, as London's Telegraph said this morning, "Because of the ham-fisted way in which the White House has handled the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's demise, a triumph is in danger of turning into a PR disaster."

Even an Al Qaeda statement, though, will not silence all conspiracy theorists.  In fact, some will undoubtedly say that the terror group is making the statement to protect bin Laden.  In another blunder, President Obama had bin Laden's body buried at sea within 24 hours of the raid, presumably to show respect for Muslim custom.  Once again he showed more regard for Muslim "sensitivities" than our own interests.  The dumping of the body, as Alan Dershowitz of the Harvard Law School said, "constituted the willful destruction of evidence.”  Had it been preserved, it could have been examined before a respected panel of experts, properly identified and then dispatched to Hell.

But the Al Qaeda statement will help.  And, of course, we won't see any new bin Laden music videos either.

May 6, 2011