Pakistani intelligence could not
have been unaware that Osama bin
Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.
Pakistani intelligence could not
have been kept entirely in the dark
about the plot to kill Osama bin
Laden.
Despite all the public breast beating
and name calling, US and Pakistan
were very much working together.
The "treasure trove” of materials
recovered from the compound actually
yielded little. There were no garbage
bags filled with computers and
storage devices. And bin Laden's
wives and children were never
turned over to the Americans for
questioning by the Pakistanis.
Osama bin Laden's killing was
plain and simple about revenge for
2001. Osama bin Laden's killing
was about Barack Obama's re-
election campaign. One thing the
killing was NOT about was blowing
a hole in an intricate Al Qaeda web
with bin Laden as the mastermind
spider at its centre.
Basically ten years after 9/11, the
US forces killed a sick old man
whose value was mostly symbolic by
then.
A retired senior US intelligence
official tells Hersh "The truth is that
bin Laden was an invalid, but we
cannot say that.” Then the press
would say '"You mean you guys shot
a cripple? Who was about to grab
his AK-47?"
Age and illness does not excuse or
temper the horrific crimes bin
Laden masterminded any more
than it should excuse the records of
Nazi war criminals. But what Hersh
does is puncture the self-serving
mythmaking that surrounds the
operation.
In order for Obama to look like the
decisive American President taking
one of the "gutsiest calls of any
President in recent memory”,
Osama too had to be made larger-
than-life, far from a figurehead,
still an "active player” directing
"even tactical details of the group's
management.” Until then US had
been insisting that Osama was
largely a has-been, that al Qaeda
had splintered, his networks
disrupted, that his videos were not
so relevant anymore. But in death
Osama bin Laden had to be re-
inflated into the bogeyman of 2001.
But lies need lies. That
reconstruction required more lies to
prop it up.
The intrepid American Seals had to
push their way in through a firefight.
There was no firefight. The ISI
guards were gone removed at just
the right time by their bosses. In a
country where anyone high-profile
and wealthy have armed
bodyguards, it would beggar belief
that one of the most wanted men in
the world had no round-the-clock
protection. So a firefight had to be
invented. The attack on Abbottbad
needed to be Hollywoodized.
But an invented firefight needed
casualties. The US claimed that five
people died in that compound –
Osama bin Laden, a courier, his
brother, a bin Laden son, and one
of the women shielding bin Laden.
But apparently there was no
woman "shielding” him. The courier
was mythical and therefore needed
to be killed in the operation.
Then there was the problem with the
body. According to Hersh, the initial
deal with the Pakistanis was to keep
mum about the operation for a
week. And then say he had been
killed in a drone attack somewhere
in the Hindu Kush on the Afghan
side of the border. That would let
the Pakistanis off the hook when it
came to embarrassing questions
about their secret VVIP guest. But a
downed Blackhawk helicopter that
met with an accident and had to be
blown up in the Abbottabad
compound blew the cover on the
operation and Obama decided to
make his announcement sooner
rather than later.
But once he made the
announcement there was a body
problem. Hersh says a SEAL team
member had bragged that "they had
torn bin Laden's body to pieces
with rifle fire." And the remains
including "his head” were thrown
into a body bag and some parts
tossed out over the mountains of
Hindu Kush. That might have been
empty boast, part of the Seals
mythmaking. Or it might have been
true. But the administration could
not risk that story. Instead they
came up with the burial at sea with
full Islamic rites but Hersh says it's a
story with "no back-up support”. If
that had been the plan all along an
Imam would have been on the ship.
But then the administration would
stand exposed in its claim that it
fully intended to capture bin Laden
alive and not assassinate him. If
the Seals were to be believed there
was not much of bin Laden to bury
at sea anyway.
If there was one real casualty in the
whole affair it was a Pakistan
doctor named Shakil Afridi. His
perfectly legitimate hepatitis B
vaccination programme was named
as the way the US obtained bin
Laden's DNA. Afridi became the
sacrificial lamb because the US
wanted to protect its real CIA
informant Amir Aziz who had been
held by the Pakistanis. Afridi was
accused of treason and sentenced to
33 years by the Pakistanis. Other
vaccination programmes were
cancelled once this lie was put
forth. In taking out one terrorist,
long past his prime, the US and
Pakistan could have inadvertently
endangered the public health of
thousands. And that vaccination lie
will continue to live on – collateral
damage of a cooked up story that
will affect vaccination programmes
in remote areas.
Obama does not have to run for re-
election. He will likely face little
flak especially since his opponents
will not want to sound soft on bin
Laden. And there will be few tears
shed for bin Laden. Has-been or
not, his past finally caught up with
him. But if there is one silver lining
in the whole story it is that
Pakistan's duplicity was exposed. It
thought it could run with the hares
and hunt with the hounds but it was
caught with its pants down.
That's left Pakistan red-faced and
angry but India will shrug and say
"I told you so”. And there's one
other player probably not unhappy
about the way the Osama bin Laden
story ended. And that is Saudi
Arabia. That kingdom probably
would have been very unhappy if
bin Laden started singing about its
role in funding Al Qaeda in the first
place.
In the end Osama bin Laden took
his secrets to his watery grave. The
Pakistanis have got over their pique
and reluctantly started cooperating
with the Americans again as ISIS
steps up its attacks. The Americans
are back to funding the Pakistanis.
The Indians are back to fuming.
And there's no telling what the
death of bin Laden achieved
strategically except as a long-
delayed postscript to the story of
September 11 2001.
What is sad about Abbottabad 2011
was that was billed as closure to the
horrific reality of the Twin Towers
of 9/11 turns out to be a house of
cards propped up with lies built
upon lies.

Interesting. I hope one day we get to know the whole mystery surrounding Shekau of Boko haram.

nwafuluozoh:
Interesting. I hope one day we get to know the whole mystery surrounding Shekau of Boko haram.

I won't be surprised if gej was d sole sponsor of bh

In sumary 9/11 was a sham and Osama was America's creation and d fictitious death of Osama was d end of d movie scripted by d American power brokers

sebali:
In sumary 9/11 was a sham and Osama was America's creation and d fictitious death of Osama was d end of d movie scripted by d American power brokers

hmmmm....