The Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty depicting the hunt for Osama bin Laden opened everywhere in the United States this weekend. Coincidentally, the date it opened was also the eleventh year anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Much has been written about the film throughout the past month, particularly how it shows torture helped the US government obtain the information necessary for eventually finding Bin Laden. Less has been written about the vigilantism of the film.

In a process where the military judge can allow facts to be introduced into evidence for trial which are well known or can be proven, the government asked the judge to take notice of multiple pieces of evidence that show how the government intends to tie Manning’s alleged leaks to aiding terrorism.

On Christmas Eve, a US drone attacked a vehicle and killed at least two suspected al Qaeda militants in the southern Bayda province of Yemen. The attack happened in the early evening in the country. It was believed a “mid-level al Qaeda Yemeni operative,” Abdel-Raouf Naseeb, was one of the men killed. It was the first strike in Yemen in 47 days, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

This past week, the Justice Department announced that HSBC Bank had agreed to forfeit $1.256 billion and “enter a deferred prosecution agreement” for engaging in money laundering that involved the financing of drug cartels and groups with ties to terrorism. The agreement indicated there would be no criminal prosecution. Not one bank executive or lower-level banker would be put on trial and possibly sentenced to jail for his or her role in allowing money to be transferred to drug cartels or terrorists.

Meanwhile, that same day, Nima Ali Yusuf, 26, a Somali woman who fled war-torn Somalia when she was a child, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sending $1,450 to “members of a terrorist organization in her native country.”

A congressional committee held a hearing on the security failures that led to the killings of four Americans at a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11.

It was Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, who had the fortitude to call attention to the real reasons why US personnel were vulnerable.

Today the US State Department pulled out all of their government personnel from Benghazi – essential personnel and non-essential alike. In the wake of the attack on the US consulate, they have determined the city too unsafe, even after residents drove militia groups operating in Benghazi from their bases. The FBI has still not reached the site of the consulate attack as part of their investigation.

US intelligence agencies have officially described the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11 that killed four Americans as a planned terrorist attack carried out by militants friendly to Al Qaeda. That’s distinct from it being an Al Qaeda attack, though the decentralized (and also battered) nature of the organization means that such a thing doesn’t exist anymore.

Fatster’s famous files of news from June 12, featuring stories about, Syria, Yemen, al Qaeda, Pakistan supply routes, Russian protests, Dr. Doom, Christine Lagarde, US Treasury charts, homeowner protection, Obama’s list, Jeb Bush, and more,

A recent edition of the PBS program “FRONTLINE” examined how Al Qaeda has taken over cities and rugged mountain areas of Yemen and taken advantage of civil unrest in the country brought about by the Yemen uprising that began the spring of last year. The edition followed journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as he courageously traveled to meet with members of Ansar al-Sharia, a group that is believed to be composed of members affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Today is Memorial Day, the last day of the three-day weekend. Veterans and community groups will remember those who died in battle and, as they have done for more than a century, will place small flags on graves.

But, for most of America, Memorial Day is a three-day picnic-filled weekend that heralds the start of Summer, just as Labor Day has become a three-day picnic-filled weekend that laments the end of Summer.