TRULY DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – AT 9:11 A.M. ET:  The United States was granted limited access to some of the wives of bin Laden – what a great TV series – and Andrew Malcom of the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket blog has a solid report, with an appropriate bit of irony:

Americans question 3 Osama bin Laden widows, but they are reported openly hostile for some reason...

...The trio of females with a range of assorted children were living together in the million-dollar Bin Laden housing compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan...

...CNN is reporting that American intelligence officers were finally permitted to question the three women Thursday. But only in the presence of Pakistani intelligence officials and only with the three women together.

Standard interrogation procedures would involve questioning the women separately to acquire, compare and contrast details of their stories and play them off against each other. The presence of Pakistani intelligence operatives would likely inhibit the spilling of any details on how they might have been protecting the world's most wanted man living near the country's main military academy.

Bin Laden actually had at least 20 children with his five wives, but he was separated from two of the spouses. One of Bin Laden's sons was killed in the SEAL raid. Bin Laden himself came from an extended family of 53 siblings from 23 women married to his father.

COMMENT:  Remember, we must respect the culture.  I wonder if they allow one wife with 23 husbands.  No, no, I didn't ask that.

The Pakistanis are not being cooperative.  They've been playing a double game, and Pakistan, for a variety of reasons, seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into extremism. 

And yet, President Obama is expected to renew his "outreach" to the Muslim world next week, in a major speech.  His first "outreach" campaign, launched by a speech in Cairo, has been a colossal failure, and it occurred at a time when Obama still had a glowing international reputation.  Now, his image in the Muslim world tarnished by his need to be an actual president of the United States, and not a "citizen of the world," Obama tries still one more outreach.  Give me odds on the chances for success.

May 13, 2011