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Osama Bin Laden is Dead

2011-05-02 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: World affairs (also: Personal life) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic, self promotion

Hank tells how he learned of Osama bin Laden's killing during a Mario Kart game, then, setting aside the implications, lists what is known about the operation (no torture or rogue agents, a months-long process, an attempt to capture him) and admits he is happy about the death though he knows he should not be.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; Hank's great Sunday, May 1, and learning of bin Laden's death mid-Mario Kart

  • ★★ Hank says Sunday, the first of May, was a fantastic day: breakfast downtown with Katherine, a part in friends' movie, Win Win, and A Clash of Kings on his porch. — 00:00:01 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Hank calls Win Win, the new Paul Giamatti film, awesome and a really good movie. — 00:00:20
  • ★★★ While Katherine was in the bathroom during a Mario Kart Wii game, Hank checked Twitter and ended up watching Obama's address with the Mario Kart music playing. — 00:00:31 · Twitter, Barack Obama, Katherine Green
  • ★★★ Barack Obama (quoted): In his address Obama announces that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. — 00:00:41 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Calling it a surreal moment, Hank admits he and Katherine high-fived, then raced the 100cc Banana Cup, which Katherine won. — 00:00:45 · Katherine Green

00:00:57 — What is actually known about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, before the spin cycle

  • ★★ With the news only hours old, Hank thinks discussing implications (such as high-fiving over a death) is premature and wants to cover what is actually known before the spin cycle. — 00:00:57
  • ★★★ Despite Jack Bauer trending on Twitter, Hank says bin Laden's death involved no rogue agents, weird intelligence activities, broken international treaties or torture. — 00:01:18 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank calls torture a notoriously bad information-gathering technique. — 00:01:24
  • ★★ The operation was a long, thought-out, months-long process of gathering information and putting it together with great deductive minds, Hank says. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ CIA operatives and the Navy SEALs involved tried to take bin Laden alive but could not, according to Hank. — 00:01:44
  • ★ Hank jokes that his guess for when the raid becomes a made-for-TV movie is a minimum of six months. (joke, hedged) — 00:01:49
  • ★★ Five people were killed in the attack, Hank says: four al-Qaeda members and a woman used as a human shield by one of them, which he calls horrible. — 00:01:54
  • ★★ Hank says Ayman al-Zawahiri remains al-Qaeda's number-one man, long its chief of operations, but per his reading and leaked CIA documents lacks bin Laden's charismatic following. (hedged) — 00:02:05
  • ★★ Hank thinks al-Zawahiri might find it hard to keep the loyalty bin Laden held together in al-Qaeda, which could be a pretty good thing. (hedged) — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Obama ordered the assault just before flying to Alabama to survey tornado damage, and during the attack phoned Pakistan's president to tell him, without asking permission. — 00:02:27 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank cannot imagine Donald Trump making that phone call and is glad Barack Obama was in charge just then. — 00:02:46 · Donald Trump, Barack Obama

00:02:55 — Hank's mixed feelings: he should not be happy at a death, but is; sign-off

  • ★★★ Not waxing poetic on the morality of assassination, Hank says his emotions are mixed: he knows he should not be happy at another human's death, but he is. — 00:02:55

00:03:19 — End screen: answering 'when is Hank's first album coming out', reprinted shirts, next album in June

  • ★★ Answering a much-liked question on John's last video about when his first album comes out, Hank says it came out years ago and shows his second album and its reprinted shirt. — 00:03:23
  • ★★ Hank says his next album will hopefully come out the month after this one, in June. (hedged) — 00:03:46

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: al-Qaeda · Barack Obama · Killing of Osama bin Laden · Osama bin Laden

Also: People: Asif Ali Zardari · Ayman al-Zawahiri · Donald Trump · Jonathan Coulton · Katherine Green · Paul Giamatti

Works: A Clash of Kings · First of May · Mario Kart Wii · Win Win

Organizations: Central Intelligence Agency · Twitter · United States Navy SEALs

Concepts: torture

Places: Alabama

Events: 2011 Super Outbreak

Characters: Donkey Kong · Jack Bauer · Yoshi

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