Quote Originally Posted by Steve the Planner View Post
But this idea of us actually coming to possess OBL troubles me. Better to leave him in his spider hole, IMO. If we have him, and we administer our "justice" to him, we will be in the same troublesome spot to many other audiences as the progressive Pakistani governor arguing to drop the blesphemer sentence. Jesus may have advised putting the stones down, but more than one was thrown in his name.

I'm all for leaving OBL in his spider hole. If something unofficial (virtual natural causes) occurred to him, that is one thing. I personally don't want him in US custody subject to US prosecution, just because, at some point, we could do without a next wave of Jihadis chasing a revived martyr.
I thought of that, and it would be a problem. It would be ideal for all concerned if they simply turned him over in a plastic bag, but that might be too much to ask.

Of course a starting position is seldom where a negotiation ends, and just because we start with "you turn over the bad boys and we leave" doesn't mean we wouldn't settle for having some lesser bad boys turned over and the key individuals placed in a position where they could be removed in a drone strike and subsequently identified, which would save face for them and trouble for us. Of course in a few weeks the whole sordid deal would come out on Wikileaks, but we'd survive and it would be better than having them on trial in the US.