Over the weekend, CBS’ 60 Minutes offered an in-depth profile on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, a man who is, very likely, best known for his role as CIA Director — a role that saw him presiding over the covert operations that resulted in the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden. As Secretary of Defense, Panetta is the person who would be responsible for launching a nuclear missile from the so-called “Doomsday Plane” should the President give the order.

Pakistan is blaming NATO aircraft for gunning down roughly two dozen soldiers at two separate military posts near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. President Asif Ali Zardari harshly condemned the attacks, and in retaliation Pakistan has closed off border crossings that were previously used by NATO forces to ship supplies to troops from Afghanistan.

As the second foreign policy debate of the 2012 elections picked up speed, Rep. Michele Bachmann landed the first blows of the night on Rick Perry in an exchange on America’s relationship with Pakistan in which she declared the candidate’s take was “highly naive.” Perry, who had been arguing that the Obama administration was handing Pakistan “blank checks,” was not able to strongly retort to Rep. Bachmann, as she delivered the most quotable line of the night so far: “Pakistan is too nuclear to fail.”

We’ve come to expect people like Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman to inject reality into the Klingon High Council meeting that is any GOP discussion of foreign policy, but at Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, the reality check came from unexpected sources. At least on the issue of Pakistan, Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum torpedoed the chest-thumping of their rivals with bewildering clarity.

On May 1st, a Sunday night here in the U.S., the world learned from President Barack Obama that terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden had tracked, found and ultimately killed by an elite force known as “Team Six.” In the months following that announcement, more details about the mission to locate bin Laden have slowly, gradually trickled out into the public.

Now, a fascinating piece published in the New Yorker provides further insight into the planning — and steel nerves — required to capture a terrorist mastermind.

One of the nice things about having a Bill of Rights is that it specifically lays out freedoms given to the people and the press. The U.S. Constitution declares that freedom of speech and freedom of the press can never be infringed upon. Unfortunately, if you live in a nation where this is not clearly stated, you can legally censor media outlets without fear or repercussion.

Where to begin. It’s not that weird for a former president to offer up some insight on the field of candidates in the next election, but, you know, usually we’re not talking about a former president of Pakistan. But on today’s Situation Room, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has one of the stranger pundit interviews you’ll see. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf going all David Gergen and sticking his neck out to predict that Texas governor Rick Perry‘s running. “I did get that impression,” he tells Blitzer.

Never accuse the CIA of being uncreative (because they’ll find out about it): The agency set up a fake vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan as part of its efforts to obtain DNA evidence proving that terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden and his family were hiding in the suburban neighborhood.

A Pakistani doctor working with the operation was able to gain access into the now-notorious Bin Laden compound, but was unable to gather DNA samples from either the ol’ bearded one himself, nor his family members. Maybe the CIA should have taken a page from Britain’s MI6 and set up a bake sale instead.

Among the wonderful tidbits U.S. officials have discovered sifting through the materials seized in Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound is this: he totally hogged the house’s one-and-only air conditioner. “Bin Laden’s rooms did have the only air conditioner in the compound, in a region where summer temperatures can top 100 degrees,” reports the Associated Press. Oh, you bastard.

With the caveat that the odds of finding “the good stuff” are now extremely low, a CIA forensic team once again entered Osama bin Laden‘s Abbottabad compound yesterday for a final combing through of the terrorist’s dwelling. This time, however, they were accompanied by a Pakistani ISI troop– a sign that the governments of both nations are attempting to patch up the grievances erupting from America’s unannounced visit to the compound last month.

Activists from Codepink, the woman-led anti-war group, appeared at Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee gala last night to protest his position that re-implementing Israel’s borders as they were in 1967 would be “indefensible.”

President Barack Obama‘s mideast speech today riled up many on the right for what they considered his heavy hand on Israel, but tonight Bill O’Reilly highlighted a parallel trend to his disapproval from the right: his approval ratings among Muslims appear to be in decline as well. Given that O’Reilly characterizes his foreign policy as “coddling the Muslim world,” he found the phenomenon difficult to explain, and asked Muslim commentators to weigh in.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appeared on Morning Joe and raised some eyebrows on a bunch of issues with the panel interviewing him. Paul joined Newt Gingrich’s dislike of Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, but for the complete opposite reason: “it just wasn’t enough for me,” Paul said, yet “at least he’s going in the right direction.” Although when the conversation turned to foreign policy things got even more interesting.

Among the various items recovered from Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound is a handwritten journal kept by the terrorist leader.

The journal includes revealing information about the state of Al Qaeda. For instance, bin Laden, evidently concerned over increased fragmentation within the terrorist network, encouraged the group’s members to find new ways of attacking the United States, urging them, for example, to look into targeting smaller American cities and trains in addition to airplanes.

The former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, told ABC News’ Chris Cuomo that elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agencies and military may have helped protect Osama bin Laden, but Musharraf insisted the U.S. was wrong to stage its assault on the bin Laden compound without Pakistan’s consent. “No government can accept a violation of their sovereignty,” Musharraf said.

Bloomberg is reporting that Pakistan will allow U.S. interrogation of Osama bin Laden‘s wives taken into custody after the U.S. mission in Abbottabad that resulted in the killing of the al Qaeda. This came up last night on CNN’s AC 360 and guest Fareed Zakaria told host Anderson Cooper that this was perhaps a way for Pakistan to diminish the deep embarrassment of having bin Laden ostensibly caught hiding in plain sight in their country.

Rosie O’Donnell is making some waves suggesting America may have become the type of “monsters” we loathe with our targeted killing of Osama bin Laden. Uncomfortable with the wild celebrations last week of “drunken fraternity boys” celebrating Bin Laden’s death in New York and Washington, Rosie also reveals that she expects America to be an example for how we want other countries to act and was disappointed we were not the leader of morality and fairness here.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on Face the Nation today and was asked what he made of the possibility that Pakistani authorities did not know Osama bin Laden had been hiding in their country, basically in plain sight within a massive compound dwarfing nearby homes.

According to Fox News, explosions have been heard near Osama bin Laden‘s former compound in suburban Abbottabad, Pakistan, prompting speculation that Pakistani authorities may be attempting to destroy the the facility that once harbored the terrorist leader and several of his family members.

One theory behind this is that the government is taking steps to ensure the compound does not become a shrine to bin Laden sympathizers.

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, making the rounds of the Sunday shows, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the large amount of data recovered in the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While Americans have been treated to video of bin Laden the (non)couch potato channel-surfing from his creepy uncle den, Donilon told David Gregory that there’s a lot more where that came from, and summed it up colorfully, saying of the find, “”It’s about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.”

John Yoo,the Bush administration official who wrote the famed “torture memo,” has somehow squished himself into the news cycle after declaring that killing bin Laden was a mistake on CNN. After that testy exchange with Eliot Spitzer, he appeared on Fox News’ Journal Editorial Report today expressing concern over the Obama administration’s light hand on terrorists, comparing their interrogations to “what goes on in police stations.”

A member of the bin Laden family is coming forward to give a new account of the events surrounding the raid on Osama bin Laden‘s Abbottabad compound. Safia bin Laden, one of the terrorist leader’s daughters, is said to have told Pakistani officials that her father was alive when he was captured, then killed at point-blank range on the ground floor of the compound.

Many on the right (and some on the left) often joke that the real leader of the liberal commentariat is not one of their own, but Jon Stewart, and Lawrence O’Donnell just gave the “funny ’cause its true” joke this much more ammunition: after opposing the release of Osama bin Laden‘s death photo, O’Donnell reconsidered the matter tonight after watching last night’s Daily Show.

The Senate may have recently, and unanimously, passed a resolution honoring those involved in the successful raid on Osama bin Laden‘s Abbottabad compound (including President Barack Obama and former president George W. Bush), but the House apparently has no plans to follow suit. The move stems from a resolution, passed in January, that sought to put an end to passing the type of congratulatory measures some in the GOP felt “clogged up the House floor.”

SEAL Team Six, the name given to the elite group that successfully raided Osama bin Laden‘s Abottabad compound, is, by design, shrouded in secrecy. So it’s quite – discreetly adjusts tin-foil helmet – well-timed that, now, when the team is enjoying (quietly, and away from the general public) the good cheer and accolades coming its way, a new memoir by a former SEAL Team Six member is hitting bookshelves. The book, due out this month, promises to offer some insight into the workings of this mysterious, highly-trained group.