It's now a real problem, with serious life-or-death consequences. From NBC News:
Users on several militant Islamic websites affiliated with al-Qaida have posted the name and photo of a former Navy SEAL identified as the author of an upcoming book on the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The posts called for his "destruction" in revenge for the al-Qaida founder’s killing.And we have Fox News to thank for endangering this American heroes life:
"We pray to Allah for his destruction sooner rather than later," said one of the posts.
"Oh Allah, make an example of him for the whole world and give him dark days ahead," read another.
Among the website publishing the death threats was the "Al-Fidaa" web forum, which al-Qaida uses to distribute its media and public communications, said Evan Kohlmann, an NBC News consultant and a terrorism analyst at Flashpoint Partners, a global security firm.
Fox News on Thursday identified the author of the book, which is titled "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden," as a 36-year-old former SEAL from Wrangell, Alaska. The Associated Press later said it had confirmed the author’s identity. (NBC News is not identifying the former SEAL.)Note from John: As Chris noted yesterday, Fox, which is a GOP propaganda outfit, could have been motivated by a desire to help Mitt Romney (ya think?).
Romney decided recently to use the killing of bin Laden as a "negative" for President Obama. This is a typical GOP election ploy - going after their opponent's strengths. An example was when Republicans mocked John Kerry, for having received a purple heart for being injured while saving a number of US service members in Vietnam, by putting fake little bandages on their faces during prime time at the GOP convention - and no one in the GOP stopped them, in fact they apparently facilitated it.
This time, Romney and the GOP are mocking the killing of Osama bin Laden and how President Obama handled it (apparently, killing OBL, a few years into office, when GWB couldn't pull it off (and basically gave up shortly after 9/11 - Bush actually called off the hunt for bin Laden only six months after September 11) is a "bad" thing).
Keep in mind that Mitt Romney, following in George Bush's footsteps, said he would have never ordered the successful raid against bin Laden in Pakistan.
The only problem? This Navy SEAL, who led the raid on bin Laden, was writing a book about the raid that most likely would have shown the world exactly how President Obama handled the raid (excellently, per the admiral who oversaw the operation). So the Navy SEAL, this American hero, had to be stopped at all costs, lest he undercut Mitt Romney's apparently embarrassment over the US - over President Obama - having killed bin Laden when Romney said he would have let bin Laden go.
So what happens next? Fox "magically" gets the name of the SEAL and leaks it, knowing full well that Al Qaeda would threaten to kill this man and his family. And voila, only 24 hours later, Al Qaeda has now threatened him.
Mitt Romney made this happen. It was Romney's initial decision to let bin Laden go, and it was Romney's decision to mock the commander in chief, President Obama, for having caught bin Laden. And as a result, the GOP noise machine went into full gear to take down anyone who stood in the way of Romney's smear on the commander in chief and our troops.
So now an American hero and his family are in danger because Mitt Romney didn't have the guts to order the raid on bin Laden.
