Thread: Start Of A Fresh Flood Of bin Laden Conspiracy Theories?

"Death By Water", Or The Start Of A Fresh Flood Of bin Laden Conspiracy Theories?

Submitted by Tyler Durden
05/02/2011 16:13 -0400
190 comments

Phlebas the Phoenician may not be Osama bin Laden, http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html but the circumstances of his untimely end are oddly comparable to those surrounding the expiration of the Al Qaeda leader. Yet is there more than meets the eye. Once again, it is Politico sounding the alarm horn on a issue that is sure to inflame the "conspiratorial" bent of the population. As Politico notes in its latest must read analysis of the Osama endspiel, "while the watery grave may help diminish bin Laden’s status as a martyr to his followers, it was already fueling conspiracy theories; as the administration resisted releasing even photographs of the slain terrorist leader on Monday, a predictable haze of myth and rumor had already, inevitably, began to rise around him." Yet even the most grounded can not help by ask: why not at least present his body briefly to the "free world" and then shoot him into outer space if necessary (for all those who buy the "no shrine" theory). Although at the end of the day, the mission is more than successful: the population has a brand new and truly enveloping distraction to keep its preoccupied with largely irrelevant, although very emotionally charged, issues for a long time.

From Politico: Conspiracies say bin Laden lives http://www.politico.com/news/stories/05 ... Page2.html

The decision to drop terror chieftain Osama bin Laden’s corpse into the Arabian Sea was the final meticulous step in a raid whose details were calculated to exert deadly force but also to achieve maximum effect in the propaganda war: the White House was careful to say bin Laden’s body had been treated according to Islamic tradition, but also to deny his followers a shrine.

But while the watery grave may help diminish bin Laden’s status as a martyr to his followers, it was already fueling conspiracy theories; as the administration resisted releasing even photographs of the slain terrorist leader on Monday, a predictable haze of myth and rumor had already, inevitably, began to rise around him.

The White House said Monday morning that it is running DNA tests on some element of Bin Laden’s remains, and that it’s debating releasing a photograph taken of him after the lethal U.S. raid on his Pakistani compound.

“The United States Government has not yet been made a decision on whether there will be a photo release,â€

As Pentagon Releases Details Of Osama Compound, Iran Claims bin Laden Killed Due To Risk Of Leaking Joint US-Al Qaeda Operations

by Tyler Durden
05/02/2011 12:23 -0400
208 comments

Minutes ago, the Pentagon released a 5 page powerpoint presentation showing exclusive details of the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was supposedly killed (and where the PCR test to confirm he was in fact "he", took about 1/20th the time it usually takes in leading US Universities). And even as the Pentagon collects kudos from the population for spending hundreds of millions and taking ten years to eliminate a person who is now largely irrelevant tactically (if not symbolically), Fars News out of Iran proposes an alternative explanation of everything that happened on Sunday night: "The West was fully satisfied with bin Laden's performance during the past years and today… it was obliged to kill him to prevent possible leakage of the priceless intelligence that he had," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Jahangirzadeh told FNA on Monday. Surely not something that the US public would want to hear...

From the Pentagon's just released powerpoint (full presentation here) http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/G ... iefing.pdf



And here is Fars News with a radical counterexplanation of what really happened:

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US has killed the Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a bid to prevent any possible leakage of intelligence and information about the US-Al-Qaeda joint terrorist operations, a senior Iranian legislator underscored on Monday.

"The West was fully satisfied with bin Laden's performance during the past years and today… it was obliged to kill him to prevent possible leakage of the priceless intelligence that he had," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Jahangirzadeh told FNA on Monday.

He mentioned that the West seeks to rebuild its damaged face in the international community, and reiterated that Bin Laden's survival could endanger the interests of the western countries and disclose their past and future clandestine operations.

Jahangirzadeh warned the world countries that the West has hatched a new plot to find new pretexts for invading and occupying the Muslim countries.

Obama announced on Sunday that bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Pakistan.

Obama said he had directed helicopter-borne US armed forces to launch an attack against a heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Sunday acting on a lead that first emerged last August.

"A small team of Americans… killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body," Obama said.

Senior US officials said that in addition to bin Laden, three adult males died in the raid, two who were believed to be couriers for the Al-Qaeda leader, and one who was said to be one of his adult sons.

One woman who was being used as a human shield was also killed, the officials said.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pentag ... king-joint

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Hackers, scammers exploiting bin Laden's death

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A Politico Exclusive: Getting bin Laden - How The Mission Went Down

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2011 10:58 -0400
492 comments

From Politico's Mike Allen

Getting Osama bin Laden: How the mission went down

The helicopter carrying Navy SEALs malfunctioned as it approached Osama bin Laden’s compound at about 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, stalling as it hovered. The pilot set it down gently inside the walls, then couldn’t get it going again.

It was a heart-stopping moment for President Barack Obama, who had been monitoring the raid in the White House Situation Room since 1 p.m., surrounded by members of his war cabinet.

“Obviously, everyone was thinking about Black Hawk Down and Desert One,â€

Taliban Vow Revenge

by Tyler Durden
05/02/2011 08:44 -0400
78 comments

And now, it is time for "happy nation" to be reintroduced to "police nation." From ABC.net: "Taliban leaders are warning of revenge attacks against the Pakistani government and foreign targets. "Now Pakistani rulers, president Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, said from an undisclosed location. Across the border in Afghanistan, president Hamid Karzai said bin Laden had paid the price for his actions. Mr Karzai said the killing showed that the Afghan insurgency was being led from training bases outside the country. He urged the Taliban to lay down their weapons and stop fighting. News of the killing of the Al Qaeda leader is still filtering across Afghanistan, where millions of people are illiterate or don't have access to radio and television. But many civilians are not expecting a reprieve from the violence across the country. The Taliban began its spring offensive yesterday, with a series of attacks, including a deadly blast by a 12 year old suicide bomber."

Next up: required clothing while passing through airport metal detectors: speedos.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/taliban-vow-revenge

Pictures Of bin Laden's Hideout Released

by Tyler Durden
05/02/2011 09:07 -0400
28 comments

From MSNBC.com: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... t-revealed

"Jonathan Woods writes: Many images from the compound reported to be the hideout of Osama bin Laden have surfaced. In addition to images of the compound, photos of portions of a helicopter have also been made available to us."





A crashed military helicopter is seen near the hideout of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after a ground operation by US Special Forces in Abbottabad on May 2.

Bill Dedman, investigative reporter for msnbc.com, reports that the operation Sunday went smoothly except for a mechanical problem with a U.S. helicopter, which was destroyed to protect intelligence information, senior officials said. Read: How the US tracked bin Laden.







http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pictur ... t-released

What's Next For The Critical US-Pakistan Relationship?

by Tyler Durden
05/02/2011 08:17 -0400
19 comments

From Stratfor http://www.stratfor.com/

Questions of Pakistani Cooperation In bin Ladin Strike

U.S. President Barack Obama announced late May 1 that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead and that the body of the jihadist leader is in U.S. custody. Obama said bin Laden was killed in a firefight with U.S. special operations forces in Abbottabad, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) north of Islamabad. Prior to Obama’s announcement, Pakistani intelligence officials were leaking to U.S. media that their assets were involved in the killing of bin Laden. Obama said, “Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we’ve done. But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding.â€

Osama Bin Laden Killed: Implications First Take

by Tyler Durden
05/01/2011 23:48 -0400
251 comments

From Stratfor http://www.stratfor.com/

Osama bin Laden Killed

The United States has killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and recovered his body, according to numerous media reports May 1 citing U.S. officials. U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to make an announcement on the subject. It is not clear precisely how bin Laden was killed or how his body was recovered, but the assertion that he is dead is significant.

Bin Laden had become the symbol of al Qaeda, even though the degree to which he commanded the organization was questionable. The symbolic value of his death is obvious. The United States can claim a great victory. Al Qaeda can proclaim his martyrdom.

It is difficult to understand what this means at this moment, but it permits the Obama administration to claim victory, at least partially, over al Qaeda. It also opens the door for the beginning of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, regardless of the practical impact of bin Laden’s death. The mission in Afghanistan was to defeat al Qaeda, and with his death, a plausible claim can be made that the mission is complete. Again speculatively, it will be interesting to see how this affects U.S. strategy there.

Equally possible is that this will trigger action by al Qaeda in bin Laden’s name. We do not know how viable al Qaeda is or how deeply compromised it was. It is clear that bin Laden’s cover had been sufficiently penetrated to kill him. If bin Laden’s cover was penetrated, then the question becomes how much of the rest of the organization’s cover was penetrated. It is unlikely, however, that al Qaeda is so compromised that it cannot take further action.

At this early hour, the only thing possible is speculation on the consequences of bin Laden’s death, and that speculation is inherently flawed. Still, the importance of his death has its consequences. Certainly one consequence will be a sense of triumph in the United States. To others, this will be another false claim by the United States. For others it will be a call to war. We know little beyond what we have been told, but we know it matters.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/osama- ... first-take

Meet The Man Who Live-Tweeted The bin Laden Operation Unknowingly

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-m ... nknowingly

Osama bin Laden's wife not killed in raid, White House says


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman killed during the U.S. raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan was not his wife and was not used as a human shield by the al Qaeda leader before his death, a U.S. official said on Monday, correcting an earlier description.

John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counter- terrorism adviser, told reporters earlier that the slain woman had been one of bin Laden's wives and had been used -- perhaps voluntarily -- as a shield during the firefight.

http://tinyurl.com/6j6ydzr

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Alister Bull; editing by Christopher Wilson)