Hooray. I guess I’d be more jubilant about the death of Osama bin Laden if only what this Pakistani interviewee says were not so damn true:
Zero transparency, the body conveniently disposed of at sea (to prevent martyr-worship at his grave, or so the official story goes), and of course, the annoying triumphalist “heroes” narrative dominating the media over here yet again. These are just a few of the things that are already starting to bug me. (I’m sure I’ll be able to think of more as they emerge.)
The Pakistani angle, however, is good to have, especially this part:
According to his Twitter stream @reallyvirtual, Sohaib Athar moved from Lahore, Pakistan to the resort town of Abbottabad to take a break from the rat race. It seems he didn’t move far enough. On Sunday, Athar found himself smack in the center of one of the year’s biggest news events.
[…]
A 33-year-old IT consultant, Athar was on Twitter when the sound of a helicopter flying overhead drove him to write a series of frustrated notes. Over the next few hours, he compiled rumors and observations about an event that would soon have the world riveted: Athar tweeted the secret operation that killed Osama bin Laden. “I am just a Tweeter, a guy awake at the time of the crash,” he wrote after the world noticed he had a front seat to history and inundated him with questions and messages.
So of course, I hied me over to his twit-stream, and found…
Start reading from the bottom and scroll up. That’s what he tweeted at the time of the attack on the compound where Osama was lodging. Here are some of his later ones:
Unidentified helicopter; probably not Taliban, because they don’t have any (good to know!). Not Pakistani military, either. CIA? Well, of course. Who else?
Then comes a slightly confusing (confused?) part:
Very interesting. He notes that it’s not a a drone; too noisy. The “purposeful” circling is also a dead giveaway: the ‘copter was homing in on its target. Later, he talks about a second one being shot down:
The link to the news story of the “crash” is here. Map of the “crash” site here. This may have been a cover story, to keep the lid on until Osama’s death could be confirmed. Still, it’s useful to help us see just how disinformation can be used, especially as an incident is just going down (no pun intended.)
And here, things really start to get interesting:
“Rumors”. I predict we won’t be hearing as much about that “second helicopter that went down” now…
…that the truth has at last leaked out. Some of it, anyway.
Meanwhile, it sounds like poor Sohaib Athar is overwhelmed by all the media attention he has inadvertently drawn to himself. Follow him on the tweeter if you like (I certainly will), but give the guy a break; he’s only a messenger by accident. Don’t pester him. If there’s anything new he can share with you, I’m sure he will.
BTW, I see by my ClustrMap that I have quite a few readers in Pakistan. I would really like to hear from you, whether there is any additional information you care to share (especially about that rumored second helicopter), or whether you just want to give your point of view (let’s face it, the major media over here probably won’t cover THAT angle!). Whatever you want to say, I’m all ears. Please feel free to drop a comment in the slot below, and welcome!
The Arabs have a saying ” the dog came back to bite the master” the CIA, the US and Israel created, supported and condoned many of these right wing Fundamentalist Muslim groupings to counter the National Liberation Movements such as the PLO and the Left all over the world.
The taking out of one person will not change much, the master shot the dog in this case. maybe…someone else who was assassinated thinks he died long ago.
David Frost interview Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden was Murdered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg
Funny thing, I was just listening to that interview as the confirmation e-mail for this came in! David Frost doesn’t bat an eye at that revelation, nor does he pursue it. I found that remarkable — if I had heard that the most wanted man in the world was dead, I’d be all over that. But since the man she identifies as Osama’s killer was another (alleged) al-Q operative, it’s a no-go zone. That would mean giving away the fact that al-Q is, top to bottom, a CIA production.
And of course, Mme. Bhutto was killed soon after giving that interview, too. “Terrorists” who “hate democracy” get the blame for so many things…
When I heard about Bin Laden’s body being buried at sea I though it was a bit suspicious, but then I heard that Islam instructs that the deceased be buried within 24 hours. I suspect that the hit squad that knocked him off were under instructions to make this as low profile as possible in terms of the possible blowback it might engender. If they had flown the body back to the US or something, it may have raised a ruckus in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Terry Jones-style. Still, it would have been good if the squad nipped off a bit of skin or hair to match it with the FBI’s sample.
I don’t think he was buried at sea in accordance with the one-day rule of Islamic custom; in fact, sea burial goes against their custom unless the person died on board a ship. That wasn’t the case here. They disposed of him for other reasons–the official one is that they wanted to prevent martyr-worship at his grave. But the real one, I think, is simply to get rid of the evidence quickly, so that the cover story they concoct won’t be questioned by the media. And of course, it wasn’t. The “heroes” narrative is holding sway, as I figured it would.
As for blowback, that’s gonna come no matter what happens to the body. They trumpeted this; they’re gonna get something back for it. What and when remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that there will be a huge adverse reaction. Not so much for the death of Osama the man, I think, as more a show of outrage over this imperial war and its ongoing support for puppet governments which are democratic in name only. This is why they were so reluctant to embrace the democratic movements of the Arab Spring–the last thing the US really wants is for these people to govern themselves. They’ve even said as much: “We have to stay in Afghanistan because they can’t govern themselves!” What they’re not saying is that they MADE those people unable to govern themselves, on purpose. The Afghans and Pakistanis must be chafing, knowing that.
”They disposed of him for other reasons–the official one is that they wanted to prevent martyr-worship at his grave. But the real one, I think, is simply to get rid of the evidence quickly, so that the cover story they concoct won’t be questioned by the media.”
But what is it that you think they would have to hide?
(turns out, apparently, the body was flown to Afghanistan where a DNA test was performed, or ”so they claim”, as some might say)
Come on people, they killed Osama bin Laden.