That Pesky DNA Confirmation of bin Laden

Yesterday I questioned how the U.S. government was able to so quickly claim that they had positively identified bin Laden’s body with DNA tests. Today, a professor at Howard Hughes Medical Institute chimes in on the subject:

“But does the government have earlier DNA that, for certain, came from bin Laden? Not likely, and so the next-best source is a sibling.

And in that case, says Stephen Quake, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor of applied physics and bioengineering at Stanford University, all the DNA analysis will say for sure is that the dead person is one of the many sons of Osama bin Laden’s father.”

Personally, I think that unless the government releases the DNA test results, this could be just one more of the usual lies from the government.

[Thanks to Travis Holte]

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6:14 am on May 3, 2011