WikiLeaks Email Claims Bin Laden’s Body Not Dumped at Sea3

In May of 2011, the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was immediately followed by an intense debate over the disposal of his body. The Obama Administration said that Bin Laden’s corpse was put in a bag and buried at sea, “in keeping with Islamic practices.”

Now, though, WikiLeaks’ release of Stratfor emails shows that Fred Burton, the company’s Vice President, didn’t believe the party line and informed members of the company’s mailing list that Osama Bin Laden’s body was “Dover bound,” referring to the Dover Air Force Base (also the site to which American soldiers’ slain overseas are brought).

Another email from Burton said Bin Laden’s corpse was “bound for Dover, DE on CIA plane” and “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda.”

Technically, this would likely have referred to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, as the AFIP operations were folded into Walter Reed as part of a consolidation plan.

If this information is proven true, it would be significant for several reasons, not the least of which would be the Obama Administration’s repeated claims that the body was disposed of at sea.

It would add yet another layer of intrigue to Dover Air Force Base, which itself is already facing intense scrutiny for its mishandling of corpses and disposal of remains at a Virginia landfill.