[qxcv]

> ...its hard to not think that Bin Laden won.

Only if bin Laden's aim was to strengthen the US surveillance apparatus and step up American military involvement in the Middle East.

[w_t_payne]

Or perhaps it was an attempt to destroy the idea that individual freedom and democratic accountability present an attractive alternative to an Islamic theocracy? Certainly, you can see how the very idea of personal freedom is an affront to an ideology based on submission to God and to religious authority.

What better way to discredit freedom than to turn it into an illusion?