<<<Back to: Washington DC: Find That Illusive Moral Compass and Give The World The TRUTH about 9/11
`Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. `
Aldous Huxley
There have been so many conflicting “facts” that I moved this news from my “9/11″ post to its own page. Many news tidbits may not make it here because they change faster than I can type. First, he was living in a “mansion”, then some sort of urban “farm” with vegetable gardens and cattle, and then a “command and control compound.” They hoped to capture him alive but he “resisted”, then he was not even armed, and then yes, he was captured but then they shot him in the head because the orders were “shoot to kill.” The only thing that hasn’t changed yet is how his corpse was disposed—they dumped him in the sea so as not to provide a place for building shrines by his followers. OMG, a body doesn’t need to be planted in the earth for people to build alters to the deceased! Threaded through all of this is the insistence that release of photos of the corpse, or audio of his voice, or whatever, by the Pentagon/WH , could “inflame Muslim sensitivities”. Bull pucky. The Western powers-that-be have been openly inflaming and overrunning the Middle East for the past ten years. We currently are eyewitnesses to the really mighty terrorists—Gaddafi, Assad, Saleh, and King al-Khalifa, (remember, it was mainly Saudis who participated in 9/11)—”leaders” the Western powers (who certainly can be implicated in terrorist force around the world) have been propping up for years and now threatening to “destabilize” the deeper agendas of NWO. The Pentagon/global banksters/corporatocracy are panicked about Middle East recent events and I sense that because of this, it may not be too long before some really important Truths emerge. Governments are armed to the teeth around the world and, yet we now have TWO majorly militarized countries caught with their pants down ( stand downs much more likely) connected with the OBL saga.
Finally, what has made America very special in this world is our system of law that brings the accused to Justice through a trial (as with the Nazi trials at the Hague) and in this case particularly, to have a much more complete record of testimony and a chance for the families of victims and the first responders to witness the prosecution of this man. Breaching another country’s sovereignty and executing the man, as evil as he was, is a slap in the face of the very foundation of our American constitution. Far more were involved in carrying out the 9/11 tragedy and had a trial been held, we would have had a much clearer picture of just who they were, including those in our own govt/military apparatus. That would have been Justice.
The death of OBL now prompts me to move this to an appendix of the 9/11 post. How this all unfolds over the next several months will be an interesting study.
Related post: Washington DC, Find That Illusive Moral Compass…..
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ADDED:
05/23/12
WaPo:
Pakistani doctor who helped CIA hunt for bin Laden sentenced to prison for treason
“Afridi failed to obtain the samples and didn’t know the target of the program, but U.S. officials said he nonetheless contributed to an intelligence operation that culminated in the May 2, 2011, killing of bin Ladenby a Navy SEALs team. “
“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March that Pakistan had no basis for holding Afridi. ‘His work on behalf of the effort to take down bin Laden was in Pakistan’s interests as well as in America’s,‘ she said.”
So, the U.S. leaks out this man’s name and this causes him harm. Then our State Dept. blathers out statements as though they are the collective President of Pakistan and make their “demands”. while simultaneously invading their country with drones…
Wait one. Julian Assange and Bradley Manning provided our world with a big dose of Truth with the release of Cablegate and war tapes that exposed incredible amoral, devious behavior. No one was harmed.
Either free Julian and Bradley or charge the U.S. government with leaking “classified” information.
BTW, it is so very doubtful that they killed OBL that day.
03/31/12
WaPo:
Bin Laden roamed Pakistan for 9 years, his widow says
“A newly surfaced confidential police report summarizing the testimony of bin Laden’s youngest wife, who was taken into custody after his death, has renewed debate over how the world’s most notorious terrorist could have eluded detection by Pakistan’s powerful security services. “
Not only the ISI, but the CIA and U.S. Secret Service – Pres. Bush was probably just a few miles way from the bin Laden clan when he visited Islamabad in 2006, if this story is correct [see 05/05/11 entry below]. Should we just believe that CIA/Secret Service did not have a clue about this? No way. Interesting how lie upon lie can eventually lead to Truth – these governments need to come clean.
03/26/12
FindLaw/AP:
Pakistani court to charge bin Laden’s family
“ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani court is set to charge five members of Osama bin Laden’s family with illegally entering and living in the country, their defense lawyer said Monday.”
“Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said previously that the children not involved in the case were free to leave Pakistan or could stay with their mothers for the duration of the trial.”
03/03/12
Guardian UK:
CIA tactics to trap Bin Laden linked with polio crisis, say aid groups
“An alliance of 200 US aid groups has written to the head of the CIA to protest against its use of a doctor to help track Osama bin Laden, linking the agency’s ploy to the polio crisis in Pakistan.”
” ‘The CIA-led immunisation campaign compromises the perception of US NGOs as independent actors focused on a common good, and casts suspicion on their humanitarian workers. The CIA’s actions may also jeopardise the lives of humanitarian aid workers in Pakistan,’ the letter said.”
Daily Kos:
Stratfor’s VP Claims bin Laden’s Body Sent to Delaware and Maryland
“In a series of emails released by Wikileaks yesterday from the Stratfor dump, Fred Burton, Stratfor’s Vice President of Counterterrorism and Corporate Security, claims that sources told him that bin Laden’s body was taken to Dover, Delaware and then to Bethesda, Maryland (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology).”
oh boy…
02/28/12
The Hindu:
‘ISI, Pak army knew of Osama hideout’
“In the leaked email, Burton informs Kamran Bokhari, Stratfor’s regional director for the Middle East and South Asia that the source, however, did not provide him with the names of ISI and Pakistan military officials who had knowledge of this arrangement for Osama bin Laden. At the same time, he asserted that the American intelligence knew about it.”
02/02/12
Atlantic Wire:
We May Get to See Some of Bin Laden’s Death Photos After All
“The American public may finally bear witness to some, but probably not all, of the postmortem images of Osama bin Laden taken on the night he was killed in Pakistan. That’s the conclusion of Dan Metcalfe, the former director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy, after reading the government’s response in a lawsuit from activist group Judicial Watch seeking ‘all photographs and/or video recordings’ taken during the raid in Pakistan.”
I would like to hear unrehearsed, not coerced, freely given testimony of the “widow” apparently with this man on that day. As far as I know, she has been completely absent from the media.
09/27/11
AP:
US tells court bin Laden photos must stay secret “In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.”
10/06/11
BBC:
Bin Laden death: ‘CIA doctor” accused of treason
“Dr Shakil Afridi is accused of running a CIA-sponsored fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was killed, to try to get DNA samples.”
“After questioning Dr Afridi, the commission said that in view of the record and evidence it was ‘of the view that prima facie, a case of conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason’ should be launched against him.”
“Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US.”
Every day that goes by brings yet another embarrassing, unconscionable statement from the U.S. Government, which is why collectively, OccupyWallStreet is going to turn the tables over in Washington DC until we weed out all the corrupt insanity residing there.
09/30/11
Salon Com:
Yemen: Al-Quaida’s al-Awlaki -The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens now a reality
“It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American
Yemen: Al-Quaida’s al-Awlaki -The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens now a reality Sep 30 2011
citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was “considering” indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even has any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki’s father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were “state secrets” and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki’s inclusion on President Obama’s hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that “it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing.”
Once WeThePeople succeed in prosecution of the Wall-Street banksters, a strong, unified fight will put the feet to the fire of Obama and this whole illegal, immoral, unjust system of “kill first, ask questions later.” As I write this, the word “Impeach” comes to mind – it could be on the horizon.
08/04/11
The Jurist:
The Geneva Conventions and the Death of Osama Bin Laden
“JURIST Guest Columnist Chibli Mallat of Harvard Law School says that recent reports of the operation resulting in the death of Osama Bin Laden have revealed that his killing violated longstanding doctrines of international law prohibiting killing outside the context of hostilities…”
“The killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011 is an event with a similar historic importance, feeding back on the world trauma that began ten years earlier. Rules must be applied evenhandedly, and in the absence of details on the operation, I had held back my initial unease towards the snippets of news reported in the press. The question was simple: what were the exact instructions to the team? Were they told to arrest Bin Laden if they could without risk to their lives, or were they told to kill him regardless? The former would conform to the laws of war; the latter would be in open breach of an established principle. Killing an enemy hors de combat, or “outside the fight,” is a war crime.”
“This week the most precise answer to date emerged. In an article by Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker, the critical moment is recounted in the following terms:
07/13/11 (reported 6/17/11)
MySinchew:
US drops charges against bin Laden
“Federal prosecutors dropped charges against Osama bin Laden from attacks spanning more than a decade, officials said in court papers filed in US District Court in New York Friday.”
“The charges included bin Laden’s role in the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.”
“None of the charges were related to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.”
If bin Laden was never charged on anything related to 911, then why have we trashed Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to find him based on the 911 attack? At the very least, one must really pause, draw in a deep breath, and demand a new, independent investigation into the 911 tragedy. This short blurb was buried in alter-news stories; that’s how quietly it was reported.
05/23/11
Netscape:
Pakistani troops retake naval base from militants
“The raid was one of the most audacious in years of militant violence in Pakistan. The insurgent’s ability to penetrate the facility rattled a military establishment already embarrassed by the unilateral American raid on bin Laden, and raised the possibility they had inside help.”
“The unilateral U.S. raid on bin Laden’s compound in the northwest Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad has triggered a strong backlash here against Washington, as well as rare domestic criticism of the armed forces for failing to detect or prevent the American operation. Pakistani leaders insist they had no idea the al-Qaida boss had been hiding in Abbottabad. This is the third major attack the group has claimed since the bin Laden killing. The others were a car bombing that slightly injured American consulate workers in the northwest city of Peshawar and a twin-suicide attack that killed around 90 Pakistani paramilitary police recruits.”
Why do I have this gut feeling that US/Israel are itching to plant a US military base in Pakistan in an attempt to keep their foothold militarily in the Middle East? Look how the standdown occurring on our own 9/11 led to obscene, illegal wars. In the midst of the unexpected (and glorious) Arab Spring and loud voices screaming to get us completely out of Afghanistan and Iraq, is it really a stretch to consider that elements in both Pakistan and US/CIA/Mossad/ISI have an interest in helping to create this terror? From the killing of OBL to now, something is wrong with this picture. This attack on the base was quite sophisticated. Time will tell.
05/14/11
CNS:
Pakistan lawmakers slam US after session with army
“Members of Pakistan’s Parliament slammed the United States on Saturday for the raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on their soil, but also demanded that an independent commission probe the debacle instead of one led by the country’s powerful armed forces.”
“The parliamentary resolution that emerged from the gathering termed the U.S. raid as an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty. It also criticized American drone strikes in Pakistan’s militant-riddled tribal areas, which many suspect Pakistan secretly allows while publicly denouncing.”
“According to [Minister Firdous Ashiq ] Awan, an air force official said the military learned ‘American planes were loaded with bombs’ and in the air in Afghanistan, ready to retaliate if Pakistani planes went after the U.S. helicopters sent after bin Laden.”
Begs the question: Why was our US military so keen to carry out this mission that they would risk an air war with Pakistan over it? As usual with spurious events, the entire episode produces far more questions than answers. Only if we forcefully demand a new, independent, full-supoena investigation into 9/11 will we even begin to unravel hidden threads that have caused our world to arrive at this juncture.
05/13/11
World for 9/11 Truth:
If Bin Laden’s death means closure, then Bin Laden is not dead because the 9/11 case is not closed. “Bin Laden’s death cannot bring closure to the fact that two skyscrapers collapsed to the ground in about 10 seconds each and that they both somehow found the energy to pulverize 90,000 tons of concrete. People forget that 90,000 tons of concrete was turned into fine dust that day and that not only is it impossible for jet fuel to do that, it is against all laws of physics. The Twin Towers collapsed at near free fall acceleration (way too fast), following the path of most resistance (straight down). 110 floors each and no floor found at the bottom. Nothing. All gone and pulverized leaving lower Manhattan with a layer of dust and debris. Laws of physics don’t magically bend or take a break because a plane hit a tower.”
05/09/11
Guardian UK:
Osama binLaden death: Afghanistan ‘had Abbottabad lead four years ago’
Osama binLaden death: Afghanistan ‘had Abbottabad lead four years ago’ (photo: Kamran Jebreili/AP) May 05, 2011
“Afghan intelligence believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an area close to Abbottabad four years ago – but no action was taken after the claim was furiously rejected by Pakistan’s president, Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief has said.”
“Agents working for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country’s intelligence service, worked out that the world’s most wanted man must be inside Pakistan proper, rather than the semi-autonomous tribal areas, as early in 2004, Amrullah Saleh told the Guardian.”
“But the former spy chief said that Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, was outraged at the suggestion that Bin Laden was hiding in such a prominent part of the country.In a meeting with Musharraf and Hamid Karzai the Pakistani president became furious and smashed his fist down on the table. He said, ‘Am I the president of the Republic of Banana?” Saleh recalled. Then he turned to President Karzai and said, ‘Why have you have brought this Panjshiri guy to teach me intelligence?’ ‘” [emphasis mine]
Well, this brings me back to one of my original questions: Are we to believe then that former President Bush went to Islamabad in March 2006 on a State visit (see below), with OBL within miles of him and the Secret Service/CIA did not know? I suspected that elements in the U.S. also knew his whereabouts and let him alone; he had served the purposes of getting us into these illegal wars. I certainly am not convinced otherwise at this time.
Pakistani PM Yusuf Raza Gilani address (to) parliament
Reminds me of an entry I originally posted in August 2010: 2010 and Beyond…
Astrologically, planet Uranus [Meet-up groups, social discussion, future planning] is now beginning the first of two major entries into the constellation of Aries (action, force, aggressively doing). We are beginning to see talk about the need for change becoming a worldwide coalition of action on ethically, morally, and ecologically guided change in politics, economics, military, social, and cultural aspects bringing together humanity, not separating it. Resignations, election upsets, and moves to both fire up the extremes and quell the restlessness are signs of major change. Pluto (media, corporate, mafia/ activity) in Capricorn opposing America’s Moon in Cancer (domestic issue, public relations) indicates that public relations efforts will be in damage control for quite a while as corporate, finance, government attempt to “paper over” Truth will find their plans thwarted at every turn.
Daily Kos:
Don’t Apologize, Greenwald. Don’t Back Down
“President Bush killed tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. President Obama has killed thousands, including many innocents. That’s just a fact. And many of those killings — drone attacks, summary executions, the killings in the Libyan misson formerly known as humanitarian — have arguably run afoul of international law. We should be able to talk about this without enduring flag-waving demagogy from fellow progressives.”
“The United States violates the sovereignty of any nation it so chooses in the name of fighting terrorism. Let’s say another country like Pakistan decided to wage a Great War on Drone Attacks. Citing the thousands killed or otherwise victimized by U.S drone attacks, Pakistan claimed the authority to violate U.S sovereignty and bomb in Nevada where the drones are controlled. Would it have the authority to do so — if not, why not?”
[emphasis mine]
Critical thinking at its best. Thank you Glenn Greenwald and Daily Kos.
Bloomberg:
Lack of Access to Bin Laden’s Widows Is Raising More Questions, U.S. Says
President Obama: “ ‘We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan,’ Obama said in an interview on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ program. “But we don’t know who or what that support network was. We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.”
Now, this kind of statement would have been right at the forefront in the aftermath of 9/11 if our government was an honest one.
Substitute America for Pakistan and one gets: We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of America, But we don’t know who or what that support network was. We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate… .
And two lines down in his news piece?
“Senator John Kerry, ….on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ program, said it was ‘very, very hard to believe that at some level there wasn’t somebody or some group in Pakistan who wasn’t aware of this.’ “
Nobody in government on 9/11 was going to allow such issues to come to Light, and they resist it now. Certainly, our congress members appeared absolutely impotent over raising these same questions about 9/11. Here in America, those who fight to get the very same type of independent investigation on 9/11 have been dubbed ”conspiracy nuts.” Enuf is enuf.
05/07/11
AJE:Was bin Laden’s killing and burial legal? “But what kind of threat or risk the unarmed bin Laden posed to the SEAL commandos during the firefight and whether such a threat warranted an act of self-defence, remain to be divulged.”
“On that point, White House press secretary Jay Carney commented that although unarmed, bin Laden was in ‘constant resistance’ “.
“Answering a question about how an unarmed man can resist, Carney said, ‘I think resistance does not require a firearm.’ “
“Whether constant resistance without a firearm constituted enough risk against US special forces has yet to be determined.”
CIA Admitted Making Fake OBL vid (a year ago)
05/06/11
The Atlantic
The Goal Was Never to Capture Bin Laden
“The SEALs’ decision to fatally shoot bin Laden — even though he didn’t have a weapon – wasn’t an accident. The administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive.”
“A bin Laden trial, even before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, would have attracted enormous media attention, potentially giving the terror mastermind a high-profile platform for spreading his extremist views, and also could have inspired more terrorist attacks. Given the political firestorm that erupted over Attorney General Eric Holder’s aborted plan to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammed in New York City, the administration was also wary of the congressional scrutiny that would have surrounded every decision it made about bin Laden’s legal fate.”
More likely, bringing bin Laden to trial would have revealed some Truths that would have led to more Truths about exactly who on this side of the pond helped engineer our own military defense stand-down that horrible day of 9/11/01. It’s not about OBL but much bigger—a power struggle between the Gmorks at the height of the pyramid over global banking power and control.
I don’t always agree with Michael Moore but many of his thoughts on this event are aligned with my own in his interview with Piers Morgan
Atlantic Council: European press critical of US attack against bin Laden “”
I also wonder if Iraq’s insistence that U.S. Troops leave Iraq might have fueled a decision to get OBL at this particular time, in order to “persuade” Maliki otherwise?
04/21/11 Anti-War Com Maliki Rules Out US MilitaryPresence in Iraq Past December: “US officials have repeatedly pressured Maliki to sign off on an extension that would keep US troops in the country through 2012, and possibly much longer, arguing that the country cannot fend off hypothetical external threats from unnamed enemies.”
“The decision to allow an extension would have been an extremely dangerous one for Maliki, as one of the key partners in his government, Moqtada al-Sadr, has condemned calls for the US to remain. Sadr even threatened a return to ‘armed resistance’ if US troops tried to stay beyond 2011.04/22/11 Xinhuanet: Iraq must make quick decision on U.S. troops presence; top U.S. military officer “Visiting U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen on Friday urged the Iraqi government to decide in “coming weeks” over the issue of U.S. troops presence after the end of 2011.”
” ‘If Iraq wants to keep some American troops in the country to offset its military vulnerabilities, I’m sure the U.S. government would welcome the discussions, but it needs to start very soon,’ said Admiral Mullen, adding ‘very soon’ means ‘the coming weeks.’ “This man’s monetary perspective is interesting so I am posting it FYI.
YouTubeFor no particular reason at all, my mind continues to go back to a recent story on Mubarak that would appear to have nothing to do with this event. Since there seems to be a “pull” to that story for me, I will post it on this page:
04/21/11 Court: Remove Mubarak name from public facilities “
In announcing the ruling, Judge Mohammed Hassan Omar said ‘people have uncovered Mubarak’s journey of corruption.’ ” ‘It has become clear that the size of the corruption (under Mubarak) that’s being uncovered every day exceeds by far anyone’s imagination,’ he said.”
05/05/11
The Nation PK:
Osama lived in compound 5-6 years: U.S.
“Osama bin Laden lived for the past five to six years in the compound deep inside Pakistan where the al Qaeda leader was killed by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser said on Tuesday.” [emphasis mine]
Wait a minute!
So, are they saying that OBL was living within kilometers of Islamabad at the very time G.W. Bush was in that city in 2006?!?
The Telegraph UK March 05, 2006:
Bush in Islamabad, Pakistan March 2006
“Speaking on his first visit to the country which the United States sees as one of its most crucial allies against al-Qaeda, Mr Bush reaffirmed what he called a ‘broad and lasting strategic partnership’ between Washington and Islamabad – forged after the September 11 attacks.”
Four months later (July 03, 2006), it is reported that: C.I.A. Closes Unit Unit Focused On Capture of Bin Laden
And these YouTube videos make it all the more surreal:
ABC reported in 2006 – Pakistan creates sanctuary for al Queda in North
CBS reported – French Newspaper Reports Osama Bin Laden Died in 2006 in Pakistan, Saudi Source
Then there is THIS report from a Wikileaks cable:
Wired Danger Room July 26, 2010: Chem Weapons Scare, Osama Clue in WikiLeaks’ War Docs
“13 months before, according to one of the WikiLeaks logs, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security got a tip about the man at the very top of the most wanted list: Osama Bin Laden himself. The informant said that Bin Laden “had been transported to Peshawar hospital in Pakistan for treatment, where he has died.”
05/04/11
This Is London:
Battle for custody over Osama bin Laden’s shot wife
“US special forces intended to take Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, the youngest of bin Laden’s five wives, with them after the raid on his compound. But their bid to gain crucial information about the al Qaeda leader’s activities was thwarted when a helicopter crash meant they had no room to take her. “
“In a further explosive development today, Bin Laden’s 12-year-old daughter claimed that the al Qaeda leader was shot dead in cold blood. Senior Pakistani security officials, quoted by the al Arabiya television station, said the girl had told them that her father had been captured, but then shot by the Seal team.”
This turn of events is going to bring out a-LOT of hidden things. Nuff said.
Man, I have a really, really, deep gut feeling that all of this is going to turn on its head bigtime. Incursion into a sovereign country under the nose of its leaders? Killing the unarmed OBL and quickly disposing him instead of bringing him to justice in the sight of the 9/11 families and responders, like civilized nations do? Nope, this was not about getting OBL per se, it’s about something much, much bigger—perhaps setting the stage to provide some new “coalescing event” as a pretext for going after Hamas-Fatah reconcilators or other newly created and vague “enemies” that become the new OBL. Just (admittedly) a jaded thought. I think this will be lose-lose for both republicans and democrats bigtime.
05/03/11
ArmyTimes:
U.S. used ‘multiple methods’ to ID body
“After the firefight that killed Osama bin Laden, the U.S. used ‘multiple methods’ to positively identify his remains, according to a senior Pentagon official who personally saw a photograph of the corpse. The official, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, declined to specify the methods of identification, but two Obama administration officials said DNA evidence confirmed the death.”
“The U.S. is believed to have collected DNA samples from bin Laden family members in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks that triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. It was unclear whether the U.S. also had fingerprints or some other means to identify the body on site.”
“The body was photographed before being buried at sea, although no images have been released by the Obama administration.”
“U.S. officials also said bin Laden was identified through ‘facial recognition,’ a reference to technology for mapping unique facial characteristics, but it was not clear exactly how the Navy SEAL troops performed the comparison.” …. “The U.S. official who disclosed the burial at sea said it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. 
PR backfire #3, “Let’s be perfectly as vague as possible here.” OBL had kidney disease. A full autopsy that matched his medical history would have been helpful but of course, they just dispose the body in the sea. I predict a really big backfire on this event will emerge by the end of November 2011.
NPR:
On Bin Laden Operation, What Did Pakistan Know? “So how much did Pakistan know about the early morning raid that killed Osama Bin Laden? A senior administration official said during an early morning briefing that the U.S. “shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan.” (Emphasis mine)However….. Wolf Blitzer’s CNN Interview below seems to grandly tout “Pakistani assistance.“
And…
TPM: Administration Backs Off Tale Of Osama Bin Laden Using Wife As Human Shield “It was a fitting end for the America’s most wanted man. As President Barack Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan told it, a cowardly Osama bin Laden used his own wife as a human shield in his final moments. Except that apparently wasn’t what happened at all.
Osama bin Laden’s body buried at sea
“Osama bin Laden, the long-time figurehead of the al Qaeda terrorist network, has been buried at sea after being killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan. Sources confirmed to CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that his body was released into the sea from a U.S. Navy vessel on Monday, likely into the Indian Ocean.”
Anagnorisis 2011-05-02 00:12 (Quote) This raises more questions than answers. Rhetorically the script was choreographed to embolden Barack Obama’s reelection potential, as stated, but gaps remain in chronology. CIA involvement would hardly be surprising, but when did the attack occur? How could DNA testing be accomplished so quickly? What part did Pakistanis play and on which side? Why would it requre 10 years to catch a public figure? Not quite an inverted “October Surprise”, the sequence is far too convenient for trust. The May 01 coincidence with Hitler’s death is preposterously pulp fiction. The midnight hour revelation is television drama simulation. We’ll have a plausible text but not a full disclosure till this is past history. (Unquote)
To that I add: Since it would seem much more credible to capture the man, bring him in for public questioning, why was the entire mansion attacked with phenomenal force. Why?SUPERMAN RENOUNCES US CITIZENSHIP! “The red-caped avenger, long mythologized as the embodiment of American strength and values,
shocks readers in the comic’s 900th issue by telling a White House official that he’s changing allegiance.’Which is why I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my US citizenship,’ he says. ‘Truth, justice and the American way’ — it’s not enough anymore.’ “
“”It’s part of a bigger trend of Americans almost apologizing for being Americans.”Charles Glass: An Expat Named Superman: “Superman, unlike the super guy in the White House, believed in the law. His pursuit of criminals usually ended not with him beating them to death (which he had more than enough power to do), but in turning them over to the police and the courts. Those who favor vengeance over justice, whatever the crime, might have preferred Superman to be a freelance executioner.
05/01/11
AJE:
Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan “US president Barack Obama said bin Laden, the most-wanted fugitive on the US list, has been killed on Sunday in a US operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.”
” ‘Tonight, I can report to the people of the United States and the world, the United States had carried an operation that has killed Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist responsible for killing thousands of innocent people,’ Obama said in a statement.”
Upon watching this announcement by President Obama, I had a clear sense that this was an “America, let’s rally ’round the flag” moment that comes at a time when most of the Middle East is rising up for freedom all over and “US-friendly” dictators (Saudi Bahrain comes to mind) are perched to fall. Guess it was time to usher out OBL and magnify the Taliban in the region. Terrorists are ugly and evil but certainly not limited to ME characters (i.e. Bush et.al). My hunch is that crucial Truths will emerge from sources who until now, kept under the radar. Personally, I will be watching for some other “high profile” figure suddenly gone missing. “PR Backfire” keeps running through my thoughts. While Gaddafi, Assad, Saleh, et. al. continue to slaughter and terrorize their own citizens, we now get to revisit the legend of “Osama” in a drumbeat in the run-up to US elections.
For some recent news posts regarding US/Pakistan, see: Dysfunctional Tragedy Inherent in the Function of War
