Now that the smoke has cleared and the drama has died down, can we cut to the chase? The good ol� land of liberty, which collects taxes on your labor and sends your kids into foreign lands regardless of your permission, just lied to you - and did it with unabashed proficiency. This was no sleight of hand...no Houdini-like trickery but rather, in-your-face deception. The bin Laden legend lives.

America deceives with the precision of a surgeon - the cut so precise you feel no pain. Americans have been desensitized to deceptions past by the anesthesia of nationalism�flag-waving and cheering at the state-sanctioned murder of a human being, Osama bin Laden.

Though framed as our number one nemesis we�ve been led to believe - with no ascertainable evidence - that ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead. The grand wizard (of Oz) has told us all we need to know: that bin Laden is dead.

Now that you�ve won, what are you going to do next? �I�m going to Disneyland!� It�s been recorded that bin Laden�s killers, Navy SEAL Team 6, will be immortalized - awash in merchandise that only Disney can do. I ask, �How can you immortalize something you�ve never seen?� Oh, you do that through fairy tales�

Now, if bin Laden�s killing is factual and we�re to take our country at face value, then how are we to trust the selectivity in the release of the treasure trove of thumb drives and tapes confiscated from bin Laden�s Pakistani hideout? Whenever governments pick and choose what version of the facts you get, then you should be suspicious. Playing with the facts has only strengthened the legend of bin Laden.

Some of us believe the USA�s objective is to demoralize al-Qaeda by demystifying bin Laden. The only problem is that the picking and choosing of facts discredits the narrative. The storyteller is now the teller of fables. Do we understand the harm that�s being done? The truth has become propaganda.

More importantly, what does that say about a nation of people who easily swallow anything put in front of them? What part of democracy is that? How can we trust the word of a government with a track record of lying to obtain covert, illegal objectives?

Through the Freedom of Information Act and the declassification of documents, we�ve learned about Iran-Contra, the Gulf of Tonkin, FBI surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr., mythical tales of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch - and the mother of all disinformation: the reasons for going to war in Iraq�all denied until exposed. Can you say Fred Hampton?! COINTELPRO was a coordinated government cover-up of the highest degree... and, we should trust �them?�

Black Panther Party leader, Fred Hampton, was shot at point blank range during an early morning raid in Chicago in 1969. The FBI, under the leadership of the infamous J. Edgar Hoover, reported that Hampton fired on Chicago police as they approached his apartment door.

Naturally, the government�s account garnered public support for Federal agents; they justifiably acted in self-defense - had the storyline been true. However, declassified documents with committed journalism exposed a different truth: the government�s own account of that 1969 police killing revealed that multiple holes from police bullets riddled the wall above Hampton�s bed and the Panthers fired only one shot that night - a single shot fired from member Mark Clark�s gun, discharged reflexively after police shot him while he was on security duty in the apartment. The methodology is eerily similar to the capture/kill of bin Laden. I repeat, �We should trust �them?�

Moreover, how could we dismiss the first-hand account of bin Laden�s wife - who was there? Contrast her account with the government�s initial story: They told us he was armed and in attack mode. She said he was unarmed, retreated, and they chased him down and executed him.

Only after intense congressional and public skeptics questioned the account did the government release �a more accurate� account of the incident. It�s now reported that the Navy SEAL�s helmet cams showed bin Laden retreating from confrontation and unarmed when shot in the head. The video doesn�t lie.

Our government says trust us. Is that reasonable when our government revises history to only give us its good parts? That�s how I mislearned the discovery of America.

Is it not time for us to call for accountability? Is it not time for us to confront hypocrisy? Is it not time for us to excise the purveyors of half-truths? Is it not time for us to replace those who betray our principles of freedom, justice and equality?

I find it a travesty that you would trust US(A). I find it an insult that we - US(A) citizens - are asked to trust US(A). I find it impossible to trust US(A). As long as you keep eating the tainted meat of propaganda, �they� will keep on feeding you - feeding US(A).

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Perry Redd, is the former Executive Director of the workers rights advocacy, Sincere Seven, and author of the on-line commentary, �The Other Side of the Tracks.� He is the host of the internet-based talk radio show, Socially Speaking in Washington, DC. Click here to contact Mr. Redd.