A curious yet predictable part of the “Osama Bin Laden whacking” was the immediate chorus of people who wanted “proof” that he was dead.

One of them is a colleague of mine at The National, who in an op-ed piece that ran today said just that: “I would like to see some proof …”

Well, does this announcement constitute proof?

Al Qaeda … the actual murderous crew … released a statement, one promulgated on websites by and for terrorists, that agreed with the U.S. contention that Osama Bin Laden is dead

If my colleague doesn’t believe the U.S. government, perhaps she will believe Al Qaeda. Sounds silly to write, but isn’t that where we’ve arrived?

Or perhaps both sides of this saying the same thing is enough to convince her?

Her piece is not as obnoxious as the headline over it, and she did not write the headline.

And her skepticism over “official news” comes from her specific and unusual background — her father is an Arab, her mother is from eastern Europe, and she notes in her piece that growing up in the Arab world as well as the old Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc prompted a probably proper skepticism about anything a government says.

No doubt, there will be those who continue to believe Bin Laden is not dead. Though we’re guessing he won’t be making many personal appearances at training camps or shooting ranges from here on out.

Perhaps, however, Osama can take up residence in that hilltop home with Elvis. Apparently the missing Nazi Martin Bormann recently died of old age, and Elvis is looking for a roommate. Might be a bit tricky though because ultra-Muslims of Osama’s sort don’t like to hear music. And even though she is 112 and doesn’t come out of her room much, he won’t like sharing digs with Amelia Earhart. A woman, and all. But he might enjoy swapping “caper” stories with D.B. Cooper.

Some people will never believe he’s dead just because they are not capable of believing anything they haven’t seen with their own eyes — which is about 99.99999 percent of everything.