Bee's Note:
Now, with a president making claims that if it were not for his sound wisdom, bin Laden would never have been caught and killed. Really? Is Obama known for telling the truth about anything? I would believe the men who had boots on the ground that evening in Pakistan. However there is a problem, since those involved with the actual "killing" of bin Laden are no longer alive to tell their story. Members of Team 6 went down in a botched helicopter crash in Afghanistan shortly after the raid of bin Laden's home located in Pakistan. It was as if the Taliban had been given advanced notice of that particular helicopter heading towards their mission - a mission that normally, according to some interviewed, that Team 6 would not be involved in and there lies another questions: "Who gave the orders to place so many of our elite team on "one" helicopter?" Compare that to how many helicopters arrived at bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. Team 6 did not arrive at the compound in "one" helicopter.
As for the story of bin Laden's capture and killing, how many remember Saddam Hussein's capture? He was put on trial, found guilty of crimes against his own people, and hanged. The hanging is on video and the record of his trial erase many questions surrounding this Iraqi dictator. It does not leave much for the imagination, as his story is recorded by both written testimony and scenes of his execution.
CLASSIC LIBERAL
The "Classic Liberal" raises some very interesting "questions" about the death of Bin Laden - questions that will go unanswered for years to come (much like the JFK conspiracy theories). How many books and movies are out there about "Who killed JFK?".
Now, with a president making claims that if it were not for his sound wisdom, bin Laden would never have been caught and killed. Really? Is Obama known for telling the truth about anything? I would believe the men who had boots on the ground that evening in Pakistan. However there is a problem, since those involved with the actual "killing" of bin Laden are no longer alive to tell their story. Members of Team 6 went down in a botched helicopter crash in Afghanistan shortly after the raid of bin Laden's home located in Pakistan. It was as if the Taliban had been given advanced notice of that particular helicopter heading towards their mission - a mission that normally, according to some interviewed, that Team 6 would not be involved in and there lies another questions: "Who gave the orders to place so many of our elite team on "one" helicopter?" Compare that to how many helicopters arrived at bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. Team 6 did not arrive at the compound in "one" helicopter.
Team 6, the most elite military group in one fell swoop, is killed by the group claiming the downing of their helicopter, the Taliban! Does anyone find this story more strange then the killing of bin Laden? I, for one, find this story most disturbing and 50 years from today I believe questions surrounding the deaths of Team 6 members will remain a mystery, with many questions surrounding the deaths of these men unanswered.
As for the story of bin Laden's capture and killing, how many remember Saddam Hussein's capture? He was put on trial, found guilty of crimes against his own people, and hanged. The hanging is on video and the record of his trial erase many questions surrounding this Iraqi dictator. It does not leave much for the imagination, as his story is recorded by both written testimony and scenes of his execution.
How different from the secrecy surrounding the death of bin Laden! According to many Islamic leaders, bin Laden's burial at sea was not an "honorable" death for one who followed Islam, despite what Obama described as an "honorable" death for a Muslim. What else is a fabrication surrounding bin Laden's death and burial? We'll never know, because this administration inability to be transparent with the American people and for the sake of history, has a cloud over it so heavy, the light of day will never be one of President Obama's attributes. Historians will have to wade through mountains of lies when searching for the truth. The difference between the Bush administrations "capture" the enemy and Obama's "kill" the enemy is the difference between day and night; Bush never felt the need for cover-ups, while Obama covers-up every thing from his birth, up and through his handling of matters relating to America's security and this War on Terror.
Playing up the Osama bin Laden hit in his new campaign ad, President Obama has created yet another non-issue/non-controversy.
Obama's Bin Laden ad a low blow
The presidential campaigns are abuzz over a new campaign strategy by President Obama, who is playing up his decisiveness in the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden -- and suggesting that his Republican opponent Mitt Romney wouldn't have done the same. That's the theme rolled out recently by campaign pit bull (and Vice President) Joe Biden, and it's the topic of a new Obama ad that blogpreneur Arianna Huffington thinks is "despicable."
Romney's rather flippant response to all this -- "even Jimmy Carter would have given that order" to capture or kill Bin Laden, he told reporters at a campaign event Monday -- was pretty lame, but give his speechwriters time to catch up and he'll doubtless have something better. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is smart to play up Obama's superior experience and his proven correctness is pursuing Bin Laden. But implying that Romney might have ignored the architect of 9/11 is taking things a big step too far.
Authoritarian statist and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, isoutrageously outraged!
"I say any president, Jimmy Carter, anybody, any president would have, obviously, under those circumstances, done the same thing. And to now take credit for something that any president would do is indicative of take over campaign we're under -- we're -- we're seeing … So all I can say is that this is going to be a very rough campaign," McCain told Fox News in an interview set to air Monday night. "And I've had the great honor of serving in the company of heroes. And, you know the thing about heroes, they don't brag."
Those remarks largely mirror a similar claim made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier Monday. McCain has endorsed Romney's bid for the White House and served as one of his top surrogates on foreign policy issues.
Debt? Economy? Police state? No worries. We've got a good soap opera to distract us.
What was supposed to be an easy win—a victory lap on the anniversary of Bin Laden's death, trumping up the president's most militant moment—appeared to be slipping away.
The frustration—or, even anger—within the SEAL community is real, and has been brewing for months, particularly among a politically conservative core of operators. It started immediately after the raid, with questions among the Special Forces and intelligence community of whether the president should have waited to announce the kill to exploit the intelligence cache at Osama's compound. It simmered after a Chinook helicopter was shot down, killing 30 Americans, 22 of them Navy SEALs from Team Six.
Was it a coincidence, SEALs asked themselves, catastrophe hit Team Six so soon after being named as the team responsible for the killing?
The White House narrative on the Geronimo mission would soon come under scrutiny as well, after Chuck Pfarrer, a former member of Seal Team Six, published a book length account questioning the official version of the story. The controversial book was viciously attacked — a JSOC spokesperson called it a "fabrication" — and it was widely dismissed by the press.
What the pushback revealed, however, was an extreme sensitivity in the White House as to who would have the privilege to tell the Bin Laden story, best expressed in a compelling, if well stage-managed, story in the New Yorker …
But as the stagey outrage over the politicization of foreign policy from Mitt Romney and his Republican allies gained momentum … White House officials started to have their doubts. Was spiking the football, again, and again, and again, in a public such a good idea?
It wouldn't be surprising to see the website: navysealsagainstobama.com sprout up soon. Sure, military servicemen are accustomed to being exploited by both the left and the right. But … If the assault on the Bin Laden narrative continues, and if the anger expressed in private by the SEALs remains very public, the campaign might be forced to retreat.
So, a politician is making the bin Laden mission a political football … Outrageous!
It's a good thing public pensions are in order, so we don't have to talk about that. This is a Very Important Story. Certainly, our beloved Republicans would never ever ever politicize our, um, "national security," yet The Most Transparent Administration Ever™ is doing exactly that?
Unreal.
Wait a minute. Hold the phone. Come to think of it …
I don't recall any evidence whatsoever being presented that proves the hit on Osama bin Laden actually took place. I mean, who in their right mind believes a politician?
Paul Craig Roberts, May 13, 2011
The US government … finally told us the truth for once. Obama found Osama and had him murdered, apparently unarmed in his underwear, defended not by al Qaeda, "the best trained, most dangerous vicious killers on the planet," but by two unarmed women.
[I]f you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can let you have for a cheap price.
The government has created another reality for us proles. We won again. Us white hats got the black hat, just like in the western movie. Fantasy is better than fact, and us good guys are on a roll. It makes everybody happy, even those who have lost their jobs, their houses, their pensions.
Homeland Security says the next black hat will be "domestic extremists." The CIA says it will be the next al Qaeda leader, bin Laden's replacement … The neocon brownshirts say it is Pakistan … Hillary says it is China …
Airport Security will pat down more babies, feel more genitals, and radiate more air travelers.
Angelo M. Codevilla, March 2009
Seven years after Osama bin Laden's last verifiable appearance among the living, there is more evidence for Elvis's presence among us than for his. Hence there is reason to ask whether the paradigm of Osama bin Laden as terrorism's deus ex machina and of al Qaeda as the prototype of terrorism may be an artifact of our Best and Brightest's imagination, and whether investment in this paradigm has kept our national security establishment from thinking seriously about our troubles' sources. So let us take a fresh look at the fundamentals.
Negative evidence alone compels the conclusion that Osama is long since dead. Since October 2001, when Al Jazeera's Tayseer Alouni interviewed him, no reputable person reports having seen him—not even after multiple-blind journeys through intermediaries. The audio and video tapes alleged to be Osama's never convinced impartial observers. The guy just does not look like Osama. Some videos show him with a Semitic aquiline nose, while others show him with a shorter, broader one. Next to that, differences between colors and styles of beard are small stuff.
Nor does the tapes' Osama sound like Osama …
Above all, whereas Elvis impersonators at least sing the King's signature song, "You ain't nutin' but a hound dawg," the words on the Osama tapes differ substantively from what the real Osama used to say—especially about the most important matter. On September 16, 2001, on Al Jazeera, Osama said of 9/11: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." … But in the so-called "confession video" that the CIA found in December, the Osama figure acts like the chief conspirator. The fact that the video had been made for no self-evident purpose except perhaps to be found by the Americans should have raised suspicion.
FoxNews.com, December 26, 2001
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
Strangely,
Three months after they killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan and cemented their place in military legend, the SEALs suffered a devastating loss when nearly two dozen of the elite troops were among 30 Americans who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan early Saturday.
It was the largest number of American troops killed in a single day in the war. U.S. officials said the helicopter appeared to have been felled by enemy fire, and the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility. Seven Afghan commandos and a civilian interpreter also were killed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
No member of the Bin Laden raid team was among the dead, said a Pentagon official briefed on the casualties who was not authorized to speak publicly while families still were being notified. But he said 22 of the 30 were Navy SEALs, and a significant number were members of SEAL Team 6, the unit that conducted the Bin Laden raid and is made up of just a few hundred of some of the best-trained fighters in the U.S. military.
The "official story" has, of course, changed numerous times and continues to changetoo. Something is very wrong with the story. Also, the CIA has admitted to creating fake bin Laden videos, while others believe he was killed long ago.
There's simply no evidence the Obama administration had anything to do with killing bin Laden. No evidence at all. Yet we're wasting ink, pixels and breathe, arguing over "bragging rights" ?????
