Confused accounts of bin Laden's death harm White House

Reaction to the death of the al-Qaeda leader.

7:00AM BST 08 May 2011

SIR – President Barack Obama has shown tremendous courage in acting against Osama bin Laden. His opponents in the 2012 presidential election campaign will struggle to charge him with weakness.

However, since the news of the al-Qaeda leader's death was announced, the White House has damaged itself by releasing flatly contradictory versions of what happened.

It would have been better if the United States had planned how it was going to release news to the media after the attack on bin Laden.

The differing accounts mean that enemies of the West can accuse the United States of dishonesty, and give fuel to conspiracy theorists. In foreign policy decisive action is often followed by confusion, because no one thought to plan ahead.

Roger Clarke
Manchester

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