Today's Headlines and Commentary

Let’s begin with the Tarek Mehanna news. The Massachusetts gentleman who was convicted of traveling to Yemen in search of a terrorist training camp and for spreading Al Qaeda’s message of love and friendship has been sentenced to 17 and half years in prison, says the Boston Globe. The New York Times reports that Pakistan’s divided parliament has come together over one important issue--presenting the United States with a list of demands. These included--you guessed it!--an end to all covert and overt operations in the country, as well as an apology from the Obama administration for the American airstrikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. No mention, though, of an apology to Obama for harboring Osama bin Laden or for, more generally, the negligence and coddling of terrorists that necessitates all those covert and overt actions. Politico’s Josh Gerstein tells us that CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston’s speech at Harvard Law School omitted one detail—the fact that one of Bin Laden’s wives was shot in the leg during the raid, and according to her brother, has now lost use of that leg. Gerstein also links to this video of Bin Laden’s family under house arrest that was aired on Al-Arabiya last week. The Atlantic Wire discusses the many revisions that have taken place in administration accounts of what happened that night. The Associated Press reports that an Albanian gentleman in Brooklyn with the most excellent name of Agron Hasbajrami “has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge in New York after admitting he tried to go to Pakistan to join a radical jihadist insurgent group.” He faces up to 15 years in prison and deportation. The AP says that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is considering holding presidential elections a year earlier than scheduled to avoid a power vacuum at the same time as the drawdown of international forces. From the Department of National Security Non-Threats: All that hype about North Korea’s rocket launch was for nothing. CNN tells us that the rocket broke up soon after its launch. Although “the failure raise[s] fears that North Korea could try to salve the wound to its national pride by conducting a new nuclear test,” according to the Washington Post. In the meantime, though, we get to say "nanny, nanny boo boo!" From the Frenemy Press: Pakistan’s Express Tribune covers Pakistan’s recommendations on further relations with the United States in depth. This piece, meanwhile, states that the chances of a halt to U.S. drone strikes are slim. And just in case you were worried about DHS ammunitions purchases, the NDAA, surveillance of the Occupy movement, and the killing of Trayvon Martin--and whether "US government agencies are planning another 9/11 style attack, as the administration continues losing control of its citizens"--the Iranian English-language Press TV has the answer in today's Moment of Conspiracy Zen.