MB Civic

You may have noticed that I added a parenthetical question mark to my comment re the report of OBL’s death. It is not that I believe that Obama is lying about OBL being dead; after all, that claim could be easily debunked by a new videotape of OBL. Rather, it is that it is impossible to be certain that OBL has not been dead for quite some time, and that Obama chose to time the announcement for maximum benefit. I will expound on that theory in a piece later this week.

In the meantime, I wanted to address certain statements and claims made by the media as the story unfolded, and put the lie – or at least serious question – to those claims. I address only three at this time, but may address more in coming days.

Claim #1: “”George W. Bush made capturing bin Laden the centerpiece of his administration after 9/11. Americans will remember his comments about ‘smoke him out’ and ‘dead or alive.'” – Numerous news reports re OBL’s death

Really?

“Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just…a person who’s now been marginalized…You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him…I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure…Capturing him is not a top priority use of American resources…I truly am not that concerned about him.” – GWB, 2002

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Claim #2: “Osama bin Laden, the man who masterminded the 9/11 attacks…” – Numerous news reports re OBL’s death

Really?

“The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it. I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons. I have been living in the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan and following its leaders’ rules. The current leader does not allow me to exercise such operations.” – OBL, 9/17/01

“I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle.” – OBL, 10/16/01

The only two alleged sources that claim that OBL had actually taken “credit” for the 9/11 attacks were a videotape allegedly found in December 2001, and an audiotape broadcast by al Jazeera in September 2002. Re the videotape, many experts do not believe the man in the video is OBL: he is clearly shorter, heavier, healthier and speaks with a different tone than OBL. Re the audiotape, many audio experts, including at the IDSIA, believe to a 95% certainty that the audiotape is a fake.

Finally, the FBI’s Most Wanted poster for OBL does not even mention 9/11. When asked why in June of 2006, Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI, said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.”

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Claim #3: “Osama bin Laden is the leader of Al Qaeda…” – Numerous news reports re OBL’s death

Really?

“I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all…We haven’t heard from him in a long time…He’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed…I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.” – GWB, 2002

“In the past five years, Al Qaeda’s strength has been weakened considerably, and along with it the prestige and power of Osama bin Laden. Many Al Qaeda factions have broken off, and bin Laden is seen mostly as a figurehead rather than an active operational leader.” – CIA Assessment of Al Qaeda’s strength, 2006.

“Al-Qaeda’s leadership is weaker than ever and as few as 50 members of the terror group are in Afghanistan.” – CIA Director Leon Panetta, June 2010

“What exactly al-Qaeda is, or was, remains in dispute. Author and journalist Adam Curtis contends that the idea of al-Qaeda as a formal organization is primarily an American invention. Curtis contends the name “al-Qaeda” was first brought to the attention of the public in the 2001 trial of bin Laden and the four men accused of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa: “The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organization. These were militants who mostly planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin Laden used the term “al-Qaeda” to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans had given it.” As a matter of law, the U.S. Department of Justicce needed to show that bin Laden was the leader of a criminal organization in order to charge him in absentia under the…RICO statutes. The name of the organization and details of its structure were provided in the testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, who said he was a founding member of the organization and a former employee of bin Laden. Questions about the reliability of al-Fadl’s testimony have been raised by a number of sources because of his history of dishonesty, and because he was delivering it as part of a plea bargain agreement after being convicted of conspiring to attack U.S. military establishments. Sam Schmidt, one of his defense lawyers, said: “There were selective portions of al-Fadl’s testimony that I believe was false, to help support the picture that he helped the Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organization was. It made al-Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to prosecute any person associated with al-Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden.” – Wikipedia

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Again, these are just three of the broadest, most specific claims being made axiomatically by the media. There are others, and I will address them in future posts.

In the meantime, a question to consider:

Obama claims OBL was killed in a firefight at a compound in Pakistan, that the U.S. took possession of the body, and that the body was “buried at sea” (only hours later!).

Why the rush to “dispose of the evidence?” The most important “kill” of the decade – and no photo?

After 9/11, we were asked to take the president’s word that OBL was the “mastermind” of the attacks. We were asked to take the word of the FBI that the “black box” from Flight 93 revealed “passenger heroics” that helped take that flight down. We were asked to take the word of a conflict-of-interest-compromised Commission and individuals in the U.S. government that the “official story” was, in fact, the official story.

Now, we are being asked once again to take the president’s word that what he is telling us is true. I have no trouble believing that Obama is a Christian born in Hawaii. However, I am more than just a tad skeptical with respect to this particular issue. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And as GWB so perfectly added after mangling that adage: we won’t get fooled again.

Peace.