On Not Spiking the Football

In justifying his refusal to release any photographic evidence of the killing of Osama Bin Laden by American forces, President Obama has said that “We don’t need to spike the football” and “We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.” Okay. But then why is America supporting the rebels in Libya? In a previous post, I pointed to a video clip showing what appear to be anti-Gaddafi “demonstrators” parading around the charred remains of a Libyan soldier.

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Regrettably, the incident documented in the above clip appears not to be an exception. There is extensive evidence that “spiking the football” is in fact standard practice in rebel-controlled territories. Below, for instance, is equally disturbing footage, which shows a black African prisoner being lynched and his body then hung from a fence for public display. (See beginning at 4:15 of the clip for the public display of the body.) I discuss the episode in an article on video evidence of rebel atrocities on Pajamas Media here.

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Here is yet another clip that appears to show rebels or rebel sympathizers displaying the bodies of dead Libyan soldiers.

Perhaps the most horrifying of the rebel atrocity videos shows a prisoner being beheaded in front of a cheering crowd in a public square in the rebel capital of Benghazi. Similar photographic material is likewise available. “Trophy photos” available on Flickr show killed and hideously maimed Libyan soldiers. All of this material is readily accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

As noted in my article on rebel atrocities, the fact that the rebels would glorify their “kills” and flaunt their abuse of enemy soldiers is one of numerous indications of the Jihadist inspiration of the eastern Libyan rebellion. For Jihadist groups like Al-Qaeda, it is standard operating procedure to publicize their brutality. Terrorizing their opponents is, after all, one of their principal aims.

Obviously, the Americans who are demanding to see photographic evidence of Bin Laden’s demise are not doing so in the same spirit. They do not want to “spike the football” and they do not want to gloat. They simply want proof.