WASHINGTON - Politico reports: “The White House backed away Monday evening from key details in its narrative about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including claims by senior U.S. officials that the Al Qaeda leader had a weapon and may have fired it during a gun battle with U.S. forces.

“Officials also retreated from claims that one of bin Laden’s wives was killed in the raid and that bin Laden was using her as a human shield before she was shot by U.S. forces.”

PERVEZ HOODBHOY, hoodbhoy at lns.mit.edu
Hoodbhoy is professor of physics at Quaid-i-Azam University and just wrote the piece “The curious case of Osama bin Laden.”

JUNAID AHMAD,  junaidsahmad at gmail.com
Ahmad is assistant professor of law at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. He said today: “Bin Laden was was not the cause of the radical escalation of American militarism after 9/11, simply the pretext. … The Pakistani military and the U.S. have been playing a cat and mouse game at least since the Raymond Davis affair, and this is a part of it. … All the propaganda coming from the account: He lived in a mansion, he used women as human shields etc. is meant to discredit him and show his remaining followers that he lived as a king while he sent others to die.”

SAMEER DOSSANI, sameer.dossani at gmail.com
Asia policy coordinator at ActionAid International, Dossani is now traveling in Asia. He said today: “I doubt this will be a blow for jihadism. This [Afghanistan] is a tribal conflict. When one side scores a blow, the other will seek to take revenge ten times over. Without some kind of mediation process between Pashto and non-Pashto Afghans, this is going to get worse before it gets better.”