Is Osama bin Laden really dead? Why the world needs proof

Taliban leaders say bin Laden has not actually been killed, citing insufficient evidence; the White House backtracks on several of its previous accounts of the operation that killed bin Laden (first there was the wife used as a human shield then there was not, OBL was using an automatic weapon, then he didn't even have one); and Native Americans object to his being codenamed "Geronimo" saying they find it offensive.

The discord in Washington is clear: CIA Director Leon Panetta says photographs of the dead body will be released; the White House says the photos are "gruesome" and will not be shown because they are potentially inflammatory. Just what is going on?

The Pakistani ISI gives a hugely conflicting account of the operation to the one given by US officials, saying there were several more people in the household and the US planned to take them all away but for the fact that one of their helicopters malfunctioned and they could not.

With all these conflicting accounts, even from the White House itself, who are we to believe? Or are we to believe anyone on the story that Osama bin Laden is dead? It has not even been clarified on how he resisted. Obviously, the White House is putting a political spin on events, changing its mind on that spin and putting out a different, contradictory spin. How are we to believe anything they say?

According to an article in London's Telegraph, ("Osama bin Laden dead: the mysterious Khan family who were 'good neighbors'" Peter Osborne) the closest neighbor to the Abbottabad compound never saw OBL in the five years he was meant to be living there and "did not believe Osama bin Laden was there." Are we to believe that Osama bin Laden never left his compound in those five years? That he lived as a virtual prisoner and depended wholly on his "courier"? How likely is any of this? Does it hold up to the scrutiny of common sense?

If he did live there, so close to the "Sandhurst Military Academy of Pakistan," it is more than obvious that he was living there with the knowledge of the Pakistani ISI. If he did in fact live there with their knowledge of the fact, it stands to reason that he would be able to travel under their protection (in whatever form that might take). Also, if the US intelligence community was to some degree aware of OBL's presence in that compound for 9 months, what are their reasons for not acting sooner? What transformed this possibility into so-called "actionable intelligence" has yet to be explained.

The US government owes the American public and the world some real answers and if President Obama abides by his promise of "open government" he will deliver this information. It is in his best interest, in the world's best interest, and in the best interest of national security. The administration must also release the pictures to put to rest any ideas (that are currently gaining momentum around the world) that Osama bin Laden is still living. This would do us all a lot of good, instead of merely offering conflicting accounts of what may or may not have happened. Mr. Obama, man up - show us the proof.