sky news has a bit more info, burial at sea is an islamic tradition and also they didnt want his grave becoming a shrine
unfortunately there are plenty more nutters out there
No, it's not - but burial within 24 hours is, which is what I believe the newspeople refer to when they say "he was buried at sea within 24 hours in accordance with islamic tradition". But the burial at sea is to prevent a grave from becoming a shrine. Smart move I think.
The way they've handled this says a lot about Obama, actually. I imagine a Republican president would have put up pictures/video of the corpse, or brought it back to the US. Obama by not doing that kept his dignity (and the US moral high ground) (while at the same time probably ensuring his reelection). I imagine of course they've taken all the necessary dental records (and I've heard they've done DNA tests) to ensure beyond any doubt that it was indeed OBL.
...also, must've been some hard-corps pilots (probably 16th SOAR? any military types want to chime in with speculation?) who undertook a mission to fly under radar, at night, through mountainous terrain there and back...