I listened to NPR's fresh air yesterday and learned from a purlitzer winning war photographer how a single photo of dead US Marines in Somalia right after "Black Hawk down" gave inertia to Al Qaeda that has gathered momentum ever since.

The standard military dis information procedure in the form of a cynical lie that no public desecration of the bodies of Marines had taken place.

In response bin Laden's gunmen took the bodies and body parts on a second parade through Somalia streets.

The AP photo was taken.

The photographer did not even think it would be carried in the press when he learned that it was now at the heart of White House decisions to avoid any more "embarassments" from Africa following the Hutu genocide.

The US disengaged and FBI agents on bin Laden's heels were pulled out of Somalia.

Ossama bin Laden could now prove the US lied and further brag to the radical Islamic world that several small defeats (Embassy and Cole bombings) would in fact defeat the great Satan of America.
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It was a great interview full of powerful emotions and personal pathos.
I highly recommend giving it a listen on npr 'fresh air' archives.






Of course the world would also be changed if Mohhamed did not have stomach cramps the day he wrote the jihad and infidel verses of the Koran, but thats another story.