How to permanently delete a Facebook account?

[Shay, The Xeon Reverse Engineer]

I'm so over social networks now. I've quit sites like Myspace already. It was easy on there because I wasn't associating with my real life friends anyhow. But I'm having a very hard time quitting Facebook forever. The main problem is that my best friends are on there and we have had thousands of messages and hundreds of pictures that are memorable to me. And I don't really want to lose them but I know I will have to if I plan to have Facebook permanently delete my information and profile.
Should I permanently delete my facebook account? If so, what are some guides....etc that will help me delete it?
I'm somehow try to delete it to prevent the stress, You know. It's a drama-queen. Should I quit it?
Thank you.

[Max]

https://www.facebook.com/deactivate.php

[Orion]

If you deactivate your account, your timeline disappears from the Facebook service immediately. People on Facebook won't be able to search for you, though some info, like messages you sent, may still be visible to others. We also save your timeline information (ex: friends, photos, interests, etc.) in case you want to come back.

If you don't think you'll use Facebook again, you can request to have your account permanently deleted. Please keep in mind that you won't be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you've added. Before you do this, you may want to download a copy of your info from Facebook. Then, if you'd like your account permanently deleted with no option for recovery, log in to your account and fill out this form.


---So that is from the official site; in the end they keep all data on you, regardless of what they tell you; since they use it for marketing and all.

[v]

You can actually download all your stuff from Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=116481065103985

That being said, you can "deactivate" your account afterward, but you can't delete it.
I.E: Hide your account from everyone else as if it doesn't exist anymore. . . to reactive, simply log in again.
http://www.facebook.com/help/214376678584711/


Furthermore, anything that you have ever posted on Facebook cannot be deleted in anyway. So if you post a comment, and then delete it afterwards. . . while you and your friends won't see it again, a copy of your deleted comment WILL BE STORED IN A FACEBOOK SERVER SOMEWHERE.

A while ago I remember reading about a police investigation where the police asked Facebook about posts and information Facebook has about a suspect in crime. Facebook supplied a full report of anything that the suspect has EVER posted.