One of Osama’s sons, Omar, 30, has reacted to the killing of his father, Osama bin Laden, saying his father was not killed by the US, in the Navy Seals raid in Pakistan.

This is the first time any member of Osama’s immediate family will respond to the death of their father.

In a statement, Omar said the US violated international law by the alleged killing of OBL in his home.

Omar bin Laden

Below is the statement:

Statement from the family of Sheikh Osama bin Laden

I Omar Ossama Binladin and my brothers the lawful children and heirs of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) have noted wide coverage of the news of the death of our father, but we are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead. Therefore, with this press statement, we seek such conclusive evidence to believe the stories published in relation to 2 May 2011 operation Geronimo as declared by the President of United States Barrack Hussein Obama in his speech that he authorized the said operation and killing of OBL and later confirmed his death.

If OBL has been killed in that operation as President of United States has claimed then we are just in questioning as per media reports that why an unarmed man was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world. If he has been summarily executed then, we question the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated but USA has set a very different example whereby right to have a fair trial, and presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law has been sacrificed on which western society is built and is standing when a trial of OBL was possible for any wrongdoing as that of Iraqi President Sadam Hussein and Serbian President Slobodan Miloševic’. We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems and crime’s adjudication as Justice must be seen to be done.

It is also unworthy of the special forces to shoot unarmed female family members of Binladen killing a female and that of one of his son.

Most importantly, when it is a common knowledge that OBL’s family is residing at one place outside KSA, why they were not contacted to receive his dead body. His sudden and un witnessed burial at sea has deprived the family of performing religious rights of a Muslim man.

Finally, now that the operation is concluded we wish the Government of Pakistan to release and hand over all minors of the family and all the family members are reunited at one place and are repatriated to their country of origin, especially female members of the family to avoid further oppression and we seek international support to that effect.

Without agreeing to the ways of OBL as to how he professed, believed and operated, We Omar Ossama Binladin, and my brothers, the lawful children of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) herewith demand an inquiry under UNO to reach to the accuracy of the facts as stated by United States into the fundamental question as to why our father was not arrested and tried but summarily executed without a court of law. We are putting these questions to the United Nations, OIC, President of United States that a necessary evidence is presented to the family in private and or public to make us believe what they claim, and all the remaining family members are repatriated and united after necessary initial investigation.

In making this statement, we want to remind the world that Omar Ossam Binladin, the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances. Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks. As he condemned our father, we now condemn the president of the United States for ordering the execution of unarmed men and women.

Failure to answer these questions will force us to go to International forum for justice such as International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice and UN must take notice of the violation of international law and assist us to have answers for which we are lawful in seeking them. A panel of eminent British and international lawyers is being constituted and a necessary action may be taken if no answers are furnished within 30 days of this statement.

Funny children!!!

If they believe their father is not dead and he is to be presumed innocent, then they should tell him to come out of hiding and engage the US in a legal battle to prove his innocence of all alleged crimes.

So OBL should be given a fair hearing? How? Has he not always claimed responsibility for all the alleged crimes?

This Omar is a coward! He is saying he has always disgreed with his father on killings and violence, even thought it wasn't public knowledge. This will not get anybody's sympathy. He really thinks America will buy that dummy and not still come after him as the successor to his father as per Al-Qaeda leadership.

I think these guys just want an excuse that the release of the pictures/evidences will provide to perpetrate more acts of terrorism. God punish them all!

X-factoria:

Funny children!!!

If they believe their father is not dead and he is to be presumed innocent, then they should tell him to come out of hiding and engage the US in a legal battle to prove his innocence of all alleged crimes.

So OBL should be given a fair hearing? How? Has he not always claimed responsibility for all the alleged crimes?

This Omar is a coward! He is saying he has always disgreed with his father on killings and violence, even thought it wasn't public knowledge. This will not get anybody's sympathy. He really thinks America will buy that dummy and not still come after him as the successor to his father as per Al-Qaeda leadership.

I think these guys just want an excuse that the release of the pictures/evidences will provide to perpetrate more acts of terrorism. God punish them all!

@XFACTOR, I DISAGREE WITH U.ARE WE ALL NOT AWARE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S CRIMES?WASNT HE ARRESTED ND TRIED? I STILL THINK THE U.S MADE A MISTAKE BY KILLING HIM (DATS IF ACTUALLY THEY ARE THE ONES THAT DID THE KILLING).THERE IS SOMETHING THE U.S ARE NOT TELLING THE WORLD.WITH ALL THE WEAPONS AND MACHINERY AT THEIR DISPOSAL, THE LEAST THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IS FOR THEM TO TRY OSAMA BIN LADEN.NO MATTER HOW HARD THEY (U.S) TRY, THE TRUTH MUST DEFINITELY COME OUT.LETS JUST WAIT AND SEE.

mikeywise:

@XFACTOR, I DISAGREE WITH U.ARE WE ALL NOT AWARE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S CRIMES?WASNT HE ARRESTED ND TRIED? I STILL THINK THE U.S MADE A MISTAKE BY KILLING HIM (DATS IF ACTUALLY THEY ARE THE ONES THAT DID THE KILLING).THERE IS SOMETHING THE U.S ARE NOT TELLING THE WORLD.WITH ALL THE WEAPONS AND MACHINERY AT THEIR DISPOSAL, THE LEAST THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IS FOR THEM TO TRY OSAMA BIN LADEN.NO MATTER HOW HARD THEY (U.S) TRY, THE TRUTH MUST DEFINITELY COME OUT.LETS JUST WAIT AND SEE.

Guy, which trial are you talking about? how dare you compare the crimes of Saddam to that of Osama? Was Saddam a terrorist? Were his crimes ever outside his country?
How can a human being with very painful and gruesome manner kill over 3000 innocent humans ( including children and pregnant women) on thesame day and at once and you are talking about he should have been tried? If your wife and son were part of the dead you wouldn't write what you just did. If Osama did not think human life sacred why should his be thought so. Abegi!

@op
did you compose that yourself?

humebuloe:

One of Osama’s sons, Omar, 30, has reacted to the killing of his father, Osama bin Laden, saying his father was not killed by the US, in the Navy Seals raid in Pakistan.

This is the first time any member of Osama’s immediate family will respond to the death of their father.

In a statement, Omar said the US violated international law by the alleged killing of OBL in his home.

Omar bin Laden

Below is the statement:

Statement from the family of Sheikh Osama bin Laden

I Omar Ossama Binladin and my brothers the lawful children and heirs of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) have noted wide coverage of the news of the death of our father, but we are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead. Therefore, with this press statement, we seek such conclusive evidence to believe the stories published in relation to 2 May 2011 operation Geronimo as declared by the President of United States Barrack Hussein Obama in his speech that he authorized the said operation and killing of OBL and later confirmed his death.

If OBL has been killed in that operation as President of United States has claimed then we are just in questioning as per media reports that why an unarmed man was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world. If he has been summarily executed then, we question the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated but USA has set a very different example whereby right to have a fair trial, and presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law has been sacrificed on which western society is built and is standing when a trial of OBL was possible for any wrongdoing as that of Iraqi President Sadam Hussein and Serbian President Slobodan Miloševic’. We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems and crime’s adjudication as Justice must be seen to be done.

It is also unworthy of the special forces to shoot unarmed female family members of Binladen killing a female and that of one of his son.

Most importantly, when it is a common knowledge that OBL’s family is residing at one place outside KSA, why they were not contacted to receive his dead body. His sudden and un witnessed burial at sea has deprived the family of performing religious rights of a Muslim man.

Finally, now that the operation is concluded we wish the Government of Pakistan to release and hand over all minors of the family and all the family members are reunited at one place and are repatriated to their country of origin, especially female members of the family to avoid further oppression and we seek international support to that effect.

Without agreeing to the ways of OBL as to how he professed, believed and operated, We Omar Ossama Binladin, and my brothers, the lawful children of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) herewith demand an inquiry under UNO to reach to the accuracy of the facts as stated by United States into the fundamental question as to why our father was not arrested and tried but summarily executed without a court of law. We are putting these questions to the United Nations, OIC, President of United States that a necessary evidence is presented to the family in private and or public to make us believe what they claim, and all the remaining family members are repatriated and united after necessary initial investigation.

In making this statement, we want to remind the world that Omar Ossam Binladin, the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances. Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks. As he condemned our father, we now condemn the president of the United States for ordering the execution of unarmed men and women.

Failure to answer these questions will force us to go to International forum for justice such as International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice and UN must take notice of the violation of international law and assist us to have answers for which we are lawful in seeking them. A panel of eminent British and international lawyers is being constituted and a necessary action may be taken if no answers are furnished within 30 days of this statement.

what a joke, OP

@XFACTOR, I DISAGREE WITH U.ARE WE ALL NOT AWARE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S CRIMES?WASNT HE ARRESTED ND TRIED? I STILL THINK THE U.S MADE A MISTAKE BY KILLING HIM (DATS IF ACTUALLY THEY ARE THE ONES THAT DID THE KILLING).THERE IS SOMETHING THE U.S ARE NOT TELLING THE WORLD.WITH ALL THE WEAPONS AND MACHINERY AT THEIR DISPOSAL, THE LEAST THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IS FOR THEM TO TRY OSAMA BIN LADEN.NO MATTER HOW HARD THEY (U.S) TRY, THE TRUTH MUST DEFINITELY COME OUT.LETS JUST WAIT AND SEE.

@mikeywise,
i wish a member of ur family or a loved one was at the site of his crime on 9/11 and i also wish u were in the same room and building that day osama met his death. most of us here think and reason through their anus and as such will never make use of their senses. what kind of trial are u suggesting for osama? the bible says, those who live by the sword die by sword. osama where ever he is now, will be happy for living and dying for what he believes in of which he has been expecting that day so what on earth are u talking about and since when have u become his spokesman? osama made us a promise that no one will ever catch him alive and that happened so is anyone supposed to regret for him? if the lives of osama means more to u than those thousands he has killed all these years, then u need a psychiatric to look at u very well.

Did the son go to school or is it the journalist?

1025:

@mikeywise,
i wish a member of your family or a loved one was at the site of his crime on 9/11 and i also wish u were in the same room and building that day osama met his death. most of us here think and reason through their anus and as such will never make use of their senses. what kind of trial are u suggesting for osama? the bible says, those who live by the sword die by sword. osama where ever he is now, will be happy for living and dying for what he believes in of which he has been expecting that day so what on earth are u talking about and since when have u become his spokesman? osama made us a promise that no one will ever catch him alive and that happened so is anyone supposed to regret for him? if the lives of osama means more to u than those thousands he has killed all these years, then u need a psychiatric to look at u very well.

@1025, i never said am a spokesman for Osama bin laden.I only said what i think is the right thing to do.why would America preach human right wen they dont have dat in them.how many people did sadam hussein killed by his actions and inaction?what finally happened to him.we all know dat even if OSAMA was given a trial,he will most likely end up the way he did.we have gone past dat stage,the stage where jungle justice is the order of the day.my brother ,no hard feelings but u really need to watch your words especially in a public forum like dis,we are all here to learn or teach not to abuse and call names.

The Osama kids are simply playing International Politics. I wish them luck.

By Marjorie Cohn

When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, “Justice has been done.” Mr. Obama misused the word "justice" when he made that statement. He should have said, "Retaliation has been accomplished." A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word "justice" implies an act of applying or upholding the law.

Targeted assassinations violate well-established principles of international law. Also called political assassinations, they are extrajudicial executions. These are unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework.

Extrajudicial executions are unlawful, even in armed conflict. In a 1998 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted that “extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war.” The U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned extrajudicial executions.

In spite of its illegality, the Obama administration frequently uses targeted assassinations to accomplish its goals. Five days after executing Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama tried to bring “justice” to U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has not been charged with any crime in the United States. The unmanned drone attack in Yemen missed al-Awlaki and killed two people “believed to be al Qaeda militants,” according to a CBS/AP bulletin.

Two days before the Yemen attack, U.S. drones killed 15 people in Pakistan and wounded four. Since the March 17 drone attack that killed 44 people, also in Pakistan, there have been four drone strikes. In 2010, American drones carried out 111 strikes. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that 957 civilians were killed in 2010.

The United States disavowed the use of extrajudicial killings under President Gerald Ford. After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disclosed in 1975 that the CIA had been involved in several murders or attempted murders of foreign leaders, President Ford issued an executive order banning assassinations. Every succeeding president until George W. Bush renewed that order. However, the Clinton administration targeted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, but narrowly missed him.

In July 2001, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel denounced Israel’s policy of targeted killings, or “preemptive operations.” He said “the United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that.”

Yet after September 11, 2001, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer invited the killing of Saddam Hussein: “The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less” than the cost of war. Shortly thereafter, Bush issued a secret directive, which authorized the CIA to target suspected terrorists for assassination when it would be impractical to capture them and when large-scale civilian casualties could be avoided.

In November 2002, Bush reportedly authorized the CIA to assassinate a suspected Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. He and five traveling companions were killed in the hit, which Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described as a “very successful tactical operation.”

After the Holocaust, Winston Churchill wanted to execute the Nazi leaders without trials. But the U.S. government opposed the extrajudicial executions of Nazi officials who had committed genocide against millions of people. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, told President Harry Truman: “We could execute or otherwise punish [the Nazi leaders] without a hearing. But undiscriminating
executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt, fairly arrived at, would . . . not set easily on the American conscience or be remembered by children with pride.”

Osama bin Laden and the “suspected militants” targeted in drone attacks should have been arrested and tried in U.S. courts or an international tribunal. Obama cannot serve as judge, jury and executioner. These assassinations are not only illegal; they create a dangerous precedent, which could be used to justify the targeted killings of U.S. leaders.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her latest book, “The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse” was published earlier this year by NYU Press.
http://warisacrime.org/content/targeted-assassination-osama-bin-laden

The legality of killing OBL is a strong debate on all the major news agency. Please always cross checks your words before posting it here Someone was even quoting the Bible, please dont mention Bible with OBL's name if it were a mistake before

Since we have established that it is right to hunt for people that kill people by the thousands when are they going to post a wanted dead or alive sign on George Bush's head i mean the guy is responsible for nore deaths than OBL

[size=14pt]7 Stages of Grief, [/size]

1. SHOCK & DENIAL-->- This is where he is at the moment
You will probably react to learning of the loss with numbed disbelief. You may deny the reality of the loss at some level, in order to avoid the pain. Shock provides emotional protection from being overwhelmed all at once. This may last for weeks.

2. PAIN & GUILT-
As the shock wears off, it is replaced with the suffering of unbelievable pain. Although excruciating and almost unbearable, it is important that you experience the pain fully, and not hide it, avoid it or escape from it with alcohol or drugs.

You may have guilty feelings or remorse over things you did or didn't do with your loved one. Life feels chaotic and scary during this phase.

3. ANGER & BARGAINING----> We pray he skips this part
Frustration gives way to anger, and you may lash out and lay unwarranted blame for the death on someone else. Please try to control this, as permanent damage to your relationships may result. This is a time for the release of bottled up emotion.

You may rail against fate, questioning "Why me?" You may also try to bargain in vain with the powers that be for a way out of your despair ("I will never drink again if you just bring him back"

4. "DEPRESSION", REFLECTION, LONELINESS-
Just when your friends may think you should be getting on with your life, a long period of sad reflection will likely overtake you. This is a normal stage of grief, so do not be "talked out of it" by well-meaning outsiders. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving.

During this time, you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. You may isolate yourself on purpose, reflect on things you did with your lost one, and focus on memories of the past. You may sense feelings of emptiness or despair.


5. THE UPWARD TURN-
As you start to adjust to life without your dear one, your life becomes a little calmer and more organized. Your physical symptoms lessen, and your "depression" begins to lift slightly.

6. RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH-
As you become more functional, your mind starts working again, and you will find yourself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by life without your loved one. You will start to work on practical and financial problems and reconstructing yourself and your life without him or her.

7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE- ---> Hopefully He will get here 
During this, the last of the seven stages in this grief model, you learn to accept and deal with the reality of your situation. Acceptance does not necessarily mean instant happiness. Given the pain and turmoil you have experienced, you can never return to the carefree, untroubled YOU that existed before this tragedy. But you will find a way forward

Most of those Bin Laden kids now need to go look for their biological father.

Just like MKO's children, most will find that their mothers were cheap who.res who after screwing around outside claimed Bin Laden was the culprit.

A man that has been involved in jihad in 1 form or the other since the early eighties - yet its claimed he had time to father so many kids? I dont think so.

Secondly, when last did any of those his so called children lay eyes on the man? Yesterday?

2mch:

[size=14pt]7 Stages of Grief, [/size]

1. SHOCK & DENIAL-->- This is where he is at the moment
You will probably react to learning of the loss with numbed disbelief. You may deny the reality of the loss at some level, in order to avoid the pain. Shock provides emotional protection from being overwhelmed all at once. This may last for weeks.


2. PAIN & GUILT-
As the shock wears off, it is replaced with the suffering of unbelievable pain. Although excruciating and almost unbearable, it is important that you experience the pain fully, and not hide it, avoid it or escape from it with alcohol or drugs.

You may have guilty feelings or remorse over things you did or didn't do with your loved one. Life feels chaotic and scary during this phase.

3. ANGER & BARGAINING----> We pray he skips this part
Frustration gives way to anger, and you may lash out and lay unwarranted blame for the death on someone else. Please try to control this, as permanent damage to your relationships may result. This is a time for the release of bottled up emotion.

You may rail against fate, questioning "Why me?" You may also try to bargain in vain with the powers that be for a way out of your despair ("I will never drink again if you just bring him back"

4. "DEPRESSION", REFLECTION, LONELINESS-
Just when your friends may think you should be getting on with your life, a long period of sad reflection will likely overtake you. This is a normal stage of grief, so do not be "talked out of it" by well-meaning outsiders. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving.

During this time, you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. You may isolate yourself on purpose, reflect on things you did with your lost one, and focus on memories of the past. You may sense feelings of emptiness or despair.


5. THE UPWARD TURN-
As you start to adjust to life without your dear one, your life becomes a little calmer and more organized. Your physical symptoms lessen, and your "depression" begins to lift slightly.

6. RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH-
As you become more functional, your mind starts working again, and you will find yourself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by life without your loved one. You will start to work on practical and financial problems and reconstructing yourself and your life without him or her.

7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE- ---> Hopefully He will get here  
During this, the last of the seven stages in this grief model, you learn to accept and deal with the reality of your situation. Acceptance does not necessarily mean instant happiness. Given the pain and turmoil you have experienced, you can never return to the carefree, untroubled YOU that existed before this tragedy. But you will find a way forward

ROFLMAO this is so funny.


@Topic, blood is indeed thicker than water.

The conspicuously timed death of Osama bin Laden coincides with Leon Panetta being nominated as secretary of defence and Obama's upcoming fund-raising drive for re-election
The tip on bin Laden's whereabouts came in back in 2010. You have to assume the house was under surveillance. If they thought they "bagged him" they would be watching closely and choosing the right time to deep six the target (I actually wrote this lead paragraph sentence before reading this "Breaking News" from the Washington Post: "CIA had secret outpost in Abbottabad".

"The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by US special operations forces this week (US officials)," the newspaper reported.

Both Afghan agents and Pakistani intelligence now say they told the US about the house as early as 2009.

So, they knew he was there. That was a reason drones weren't used.

The CIA wanted a more controlled high profile and dramatic intervention for public consumption, for what, in the end, was a marketing campaign – marketing the centrality of the agency's role in a war whose main audience is not on the battlefield, but in the homeland.

They needed a heroic narrative to revive support for a war they have been losing, and a scalp to sell to a conflict-weary and disillusioned population. It is no surprise that the Seals labelled OBL "Geronimo", reviving memories of fighting guerrilla-style Indian wars. Muslim renegades are apparently our new "savages".

The Native Americans took their enemy's head and hair – Donald Trump, beware; we shoot out their eyes and waterboard their brains.

The target was not "the terror mastermind" but the American people. It was an exercise in political mobilisation and perception management. It was the ultimate media operation, relying on many of the tactics used in Iraq that I document in my film "WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception".

We are as conscious about what we say as what we do, we always fashion a propaganda storyline demonising the enemy who is often compared to Hitler. Bin Laden lived in a "million dollar mansion" (it cost $48,000 to buy six years ago). He was heavily armed (he wasn't). He hid behind female human shields (he didn't). Who cares about facts, this was a TV orchestrated event. The Daily Mail in London complained that their raising questions led to being derided as "cheese eating surrender monkeys".

They could have captured him, but that would lead to the hassle of putting him on trial. Besides, what if he revealed his long connection with the CIA and US officials? Can't have that. So the kill order was given, along with a quick disposal of the body, mafia-style (as in "sleeping with the fishes".

The legal justification was self-defence, an argument that any government can use to dispatch its enemies.

Timing is everything

Why was it done, and why now?

It was certainly not because al-Qaeda is ascendant. Our experts believe only 100 of them remain in Afghanistan, where their capacity has been diminished. Remember: al-Qaeda is not a centralised top-down machine but a decentralised and sophisticated network.

We can only surmise all the factors, but the larger context here has fallen away with the focus on the narrowness of the dirty details, many calculated to inspire enthusiasm for the bravery and heroism of the death squad, but not any reflection of the strategy and larger context of the events.

Even as the cover stories about what happened fell away into the foggy soup of covert action and its contradictions, it devolved into to a case of excuses about haste – 'he said that but didn't mean it'. Even as the raid inspires mass euphoria and self-righteous blood lust, the full meaning of it is missing in a media that is much better at the how than the why.

First of all, this operation reflected the reorganisation of the national security state with the CIA taking over from the soldiers. This operation was Leon Panetta's last hurrah as Spook-in-Chief before he uses his covert ops portfolio to take over the Pentagon.

Second, that most hyped soldier's soldier, Generalissimo David Petraeus, who has failed to end the insurgency in Afghanistan (and who is now warring on Pakistan) is being moved into Panetta's job. A Navy Seal Commander has now been promoted to the Central Command.

The bottom line: public accountability and open disclosure has become a thing of the past. No wonder the ongoing campaign to 'get WikiLeaks' before it exposes more secrets.

Creating an image

As the military privatises wars, and, in effect, goes underground, there is a recognition that, despite the size of our forces and the power of our technology, we have, in effect, been losing to peasants with suicide belts and unconventional tactics we continually underestimate.

Writes former assistant Treasury secretary Paul Craig Roberts:

Americans are too busy celebrating to think, a capability that seems to have been taken out of their education.

Americans are so enthralled over the death of bin Laden that they do not wonder why information gleamed years ago would take so long to locate a person who was allegedly living in a million-dollar building equipped with all the latest communication equipment next to the Pakistani Military Academy. Allegedly, the "most wanted criminal" was not moving from hide-out to hide-out in desolate mountains, but ensconced in luxury quarters in broad daylight. Nevertheless, despite his obvious location, it took the CIA years to find him after claiming to have gained information of his whereabouts out of captives in secret prisons. This is the image of the CIA as the new Keystone Cops.

Like the Canadian Mounties, in the end, Navy Seal Unit 6, armed with lethal weapons and an attack dog, got their man – with not inconsiderable collateral damage – in what the New York Times called an "extremely one-sided encounter".

It was, let's admit, a liquidation, right out of the KGB playbook.

Politically – and yes, there was a political agenda here too – the bin Laden operation was part of a chain of calculated presidential promoting exercises including the announcement of his re-election campaign and massive fund-raising effort, his deals with the Repubs on the budget, the release of his birth certificate, his interview with Oprah, his shakeup of sorts of the Pentagon, his bringing the CEO of GE and William Daley into the White House, on and on.

The "new" Obama wants to be seen as a warrior, not a wuss, as long as he is not forced to go after Wall Street. Right now, his victory is viewed widely for what it is; vengeance. Or in the words of the street, "payback."

Nailing bin Laden has to be seen in the context of his Spring offencive grounded in symbolic advances, to get his poll numbers up and his campaign rolling, to make him look invincible, and to "triangulate" by moving to the centre and pre-empting/co-opting the right. He now has Bush and Cheney praising him.

Concludes Roberts:

Obama needed closure of the Afghan war and occupation in order to deal with the US budget deficit. Subsequent statements from Obama regime officials suggest that the agenda might be to give Americans a piece of war victory in order to boost their lagging enthusiasm. The military/security complex will become richer and more powerful, and Americans will be rewarded with vicarious pleasure in victory over enemies.

Adds Tom Engelhardt:

Consider it an insult to irony, but the world bin Laden really changed forever wasn't in the Greater Middle East. It was here. Cheer his death, bury him at sea, don't release any photos, and he'll still carry on as a ghost as long as Washington continues to fight its deadly, disastrous wars in his old neighbourhood.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115614515651422.html

Disclaimer: In case you wonder, I am not now nor have I ever been a supporter, sympathiser or rationaliser of Osama bin Laden's violent jihad. The fact that I feel I have to even write this should give readers insight into the climate of permissible discussion. I am not unhappy to see OBL moving on to the next world. Good riddance, but we need to analyse this event more closely. Will it help end the war or will "our success" convince the Pentagon it needs to be expanded? The issues of the raid's legality need to be discussed.

The USA didn't kill that man for nothing.  Either like other CIA agents, he has a new life with new name etc or he was killed on spot to keep some secrets secrets,

9jaganja:

The USA didn't kill that man for nothing.  Either like other CIA agents, he has a new life with new name etc or he was killed on spot to keep some secrets secrets,

GBAM!!!

Mynd44:
Since we have established that it is right to hunt for people that kill people by the thousands when are they going to post a wanted dead or alive sign on George Bush's head i mean the guy is responsible for nore deaths than OBL

May you never know peace all the days of your life for siding with a terrorist like OBL.

Killing Osama bin laden was the best thing that happened to the world.

Why are you cursing him Because of his opinion.

olayinkadavid70:
May you never know peace all the days of your life for siding with a terrorist like OBL.