# Are we already seeing fallout from the capture bin Laden's hard drives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845 "2011-05-05T15:47:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/21 "2011-05-06T15:38:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It isn’t the military that ultimately gives the orders though. Right. It’s the democratically elected leaders: here, the president, the last three of which have hardly been old men during their terms. > [@](#): > > And at any rate, historically plenty of such experienced military leaders have been willing to spend the lives of their soldiers like so many bullets. It’s quite clear that just having been in the military a long time doesn’t make someone care about the lives of the soldiers he controls. Since I’m more salesman than anything else, I think I’ll just drop the rope at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/22 "2011-05-06T15:44:46Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > If they have any sense, the phone numbers were for prepaid cellphones that were destroyed as soon as the news broke about Osama being killed. We don’t know if they had that much sense- and nobody knew bin Laden was dead until hours later. That could be a valuable period of time. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/23 "2011-05-06T16:17:30Z")
They had been following the courier for months, tapping his phone, well before they determined to attack bin Laden’s home. I’m quite confident they had other assets in place to capture everyone he had been in contact with. For all the shit John Kerry got for [advocating pursuing al Qaeda using police methods](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lU8lIM8aN8&feature=related), that is what works. This is a criminal organization, and we have excellent methods for dealing with those. The methods that work against the Mafia work against al Qaeda. And when you go after the leader, you mop up the lower levels at the same time. I’m confident the next several weeks will be very interesting, with successful raids against al Qaeda cells in the UK, Germany and other countries. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/24 "2011-05-06T16:18:20Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Seriously though, I’m having trouble reconciling all the talk that Osama had been out of the loop/inconsequential for years and him having all this awesome secret info on his computer. My impression was that he was still actively involved in managing certain aspects of Al Queda. I may be wrong, but I’d make an analogy to a CEO who keeps tabs on the high level “big picture” stuff, but doesn’t bother himself with lower level decisions. No cite handy right now, but in a recent article in “Foreign Affairs” it was mentioned that leaders of the various Al Queda “franchises” swear a personal vow to Osama. Also, if a franchise wanted to conduct an attack outside of their normal areas of operation, they had to clear it with “upper management”. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/25 "2011-05-06T16:19:47Z")
It’s starting to look like he was more involved than most people assumed- at least he had input or made suggestions. He wasn’t tactical guy in that sense. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845/26 "2011-05-06T18:56:57Z")
I just saw this in my in-box:[Al Qaeda plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack](http://www.theusdaily.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=1484992&type=home) OK, now Joe Biden is _pissed_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-already-seeing-fallout-from-the-capture-bin-ladens-hard-drives/580845.md?page=1)