On Bin Laden's Lingering Face

Morgan Meis being characteristically wise, over at The Smart Set:

The most surprising thing about the death of Osama bin Laden was his funeral. Islamic law declares that a person must be buried within 24 hours of death. "We are ensuring that it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition," Time reported a U.S. official as saying, "This is something that we take very seriously. And so therefore, this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

Bin Laden was buried at sea, presumably so that there will be no burial site, no country that owns him, no place on Earth could be associated with him ever after. The sea gets him, being the only place capacious enough to take on the burden. There is dignity in having done it this way. Not dignity for him, but dignity for us. It is understandable that people want to celebrate the death of a man who scared us, who was the author of a traumatizing act of violence, who plotted the deaths of thousands and dreamed of the deaths of thousands upon thousands more. But I am not sure that celebrating death ever does anything very good for the one who celebrates.

I shuddered for the souls of the men at Saddam Hussein's execution. The footage is, now, widely available on the Internet. It was captured surreptitiously on a cell phone video camera. Saddam is brought into a dingy room in what looks like a basement. He is bustled toward a noose and begins praying. Some of the people standing below begin to shout. They are calling out, "Muqtada," in reference to Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious and political leader. Saddam says the name Muqtada back to them and then asks, "Do you call this courage?" Another person yells at Saddam to go to hell. He replies, "the hell that is Iraq?" Then he goes back to praying. All of a sudden, the trap door beneath Saddam opens and he plummets. He is gone. It is impossible to watch that footage without feeling that Saddam stole his dignity back in those final moments. The people in the room gave Saddam the opportunity to do it. They gave him a moment to be the honorable one in death. It lessened those men, those witnesses. They became small in the face of the ultimate thing, the death of a human being.

The last few days have seen a lot of talk about whether or not it is appropriate to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden. I would phrase the question in a different way. What does it do to one human being to celebrate the killing of another human being, whatever the circumstances? What happens inside you, how does it make you feel? Is that something you want to feel? Is it a way you want to be?

By http://www.3quarksdaily.com/

The 1980s mujahideen, the Taliban and the shifting idea of jihad: This isn't Jihad

The 1980s mujahideen, the Taliban and the shifting idea of jihad It is not Jihad it is Islam hijacked just like we have with perverted Christianity on our side.

Letter written by Noman Benotman, a former commander in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who fought beside Osama against Russia! He wrote this 8 months ago but you have to read what a real lover of Islam feels about the betrayal and dishonor Bin Laden has brought to his people and Islam.

The terrorist who said no to Bin Laden:You have lost your way! You are messing around with the DNA of Islam itself. I was impressed when I saw this interview on TV. It is obvious this man was a key high level player before 9/11 and was in on the meeting running up to it. This discussion was about an open letter written by Noman Benotman, a former commander in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and a former associate of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In al Qaeda strategy meetings in Kandahar in 2000, Benotman warned the al-Qaeda leadership of ‘total failure' to realize their aims and called on bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to abandon violence. As you know they did not and he is out for good reason. He was at the high level meeting running up to 9/11, the Davos or terrorism and said no to Osama you will be defeated, this is not about Islam this is not Jihad.

He comes out now and says no this must stop. We are not winning and I was right. We have betrayed Islam. We are killing the very people and cause we were supposed to be fighting for. Knowing our response to past attacks they thought our response would be 200 missiles or so, so they took the chance. Needless to say they did more damage and killed more people than they thought they would and this is just beginning unless the Islamists quit because we must fight for our lives.

Noman Benotman loves and respects Bin Laden but like Al Zawahiri Al Qaeda number two he does not think Bin Laden is very smart. However, he does not have to be. He got this so called Jihad going and has incited the Islamist rancor he intended. whether he's Dead or alive the battle on. For Islamists this has taken on a life of its own. If indeed Bin Laden is alive as we are led to believe, only he can stop this. In reality he is the greatest enemy of his people.

Bin Laden is solely responsible for all this war death and destruction. He's no frigging hero to Muslims. They should hunt him down themselves and end this! Noman considered himself a freedom fighter and he was. He fought alongside Bin Laden against the Russians but said these wars have nothing to do with Islam. It is purely political and it is time to lay down arms, 100% and end all this senseless violence.

We know this but Noman says Al Qaeda and now Islamists of all stripes offers meaning to those who have none and gives them a cause but has nothing to do with Islam or Jihad. This all boils down to communications and I agree but Islamists are not interested in communicating. They are interested in our destruction. violence is their communication.

Osama stop bring shame on Islam. Stop killing your own people. Stop bring death and destruction on them. You forsook Mullah Omar who invited you into Afghanistan to give you protection. Bin Laden used Afghanistan for his own personal war against the west, the US, and Israel. This is not Islam , this is not Jihad. Restore Muslim integrity, end this now!
An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden -- by Noman Benotman

* Osama Bin Laden is now dead, he has betrayed Islam and defamed and betrayed Muslims and their religion. His personal vendetta against the west will continue fueled by his death and fought by extremists who have nothing else to do. Fighting the west gives them a purpose. If it is to stop Islam must step up and police itself.

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

This "Dead Osama Bin Laden" Photo Is Floating Around [AND IT'S PROBABLY FAKE]

Courtesy of TPM:

Once President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces on Sunday, it didn't take long for fake photographs of the terrorist leader's corpse to start circulating. Websites and newspapers fell for them. And so did, apparently, U.S. senators.

Three senators who claimed to have seen a photograph of bin Laden's post-mortem are now backtracking, or flat out admitting that they were duped.

One of the senators is a key decision-maker on national security issues. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said earlier today that he had seen a photo of a slain bin Laden, describing it in some detail without casting any doubt on its authenticity. But sure enough, he now admits he saw a fake.

"I was shown a picture -- it looked like a picture of bin Laden," Chambliss told TPM. "It appeared to be accurate but it was not."

Chambliss said the photo was electronic and someone -- not a senator or government official -- had shown it to him, but he declined to elaborate.

Jesus, Saxby Chambliss is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, you would think he could tell when he was looking at a fake. Guess not.

You know this means that many of YOU are far more intelligent than some of our Senators, since you were all telling each other both yesterday and today that those photos were fake. 

Go ahead.  Give yourselves those pats on the back. You deserve it.

If you click here you an see how the image was faked.

And of course this is just another indication as to why it was a smart move for the White House to decide against releasing the REAL pictures of the dead Bin Laden. No telling what certain photoshop dabblers would have done with THOSE images.
 
Posted byGryphen

Was The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden Legal?

International intrigue.

The use of deadly force against Bin Laden is unlikely to be challenged in an American court. But the White House’s account of the operation suggests it is mindful of legal issues. The al-Qaeda leader is said to have “resisted during the raid” – although it is not clear how he did so, as he is also said to have been unarmed.

Assassinations are banned under both US and international law. Extrajudicial killings are only allowed in an armed conflict.

According to British law professor Philippe Sands QC, of University College London, much will turn on what Pakistan knew and authorised, what the US objectives were, and what happened when they confronted Bin Laden.

Until the facts are established, it is unclear whether the raid and its consequences were legal or not, Mr Sands adds.

The US can certainly argue that it was entitled to take action to protect its citizens against a deadly enemy.

“Even if the use of deadly force was unlawful, international law recognises that there are exceptional circumstances where necessity precludes wrongfulness, and this will be said to be one of those case,” Mr Sands told the BBC.

by dekerivers

Fallout from Bin Laden's Death and What Did Pakistan Know?

Fallout from the death of Osama bin Laden continues to ripple throughout the world. Bin Laden's burial at sea has been criticized, even though that's a far better fate than the nearly 3,000 who were murdered at the World Trade Center. Some criticize that the US was too respectful, while others claim the US was not respectful enough. To me, that says that the US got it right - and I believe that the burial at sea was necessary to eliminate any possibility that his burial site could be treated as a rallying point.

As new details of the raid continue to leak out, the real questions are being pointed in the direction of Pakistan. What did they know and when did they know that bin Laden was living large in their country?

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari submitted an op-ed in the Washington Post today in response to the US mission that killed Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbotabad, just miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Let us be frank. Pakistan has paid an enormous price for its stand against terrorism. More of our soldiers have died than all of NATO’s casualties combined. Two thousand police officers, as many as 30,000 innocent civilians and a generation of social progress for our people have been lost. And for me, justice against bin Laden was not just political; it was also personal, as the terrorists murdered our greatest leader, the mother of my children. Twice he tried to assassinate my wife. In 1989 he poured $50 million into a no-confidence vote to topple her first government. She said that she was bin Laden’s worst nightmare — a democratically elected, progressive, moderate, pluralistic female leader. She was right, and she paid for it with her life.

Some in the U.S. press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists we claimed to be pursuing. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn’t reflect fact. Pakistan had as much reason to despise al-Qaeda as any nation. The war on terrorism is as much Pakistan’s war as as it is America’s. And though it may have started with bin Laden, the forces of modernity and moderation remain under serious threat.

My government endorses the words of President Obama and appreciates the credit he gave us Sunday night for the successful operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. We also applaud and endorse the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that we must “press forward, bolstering our partnerships, strengthening our networks, investing in a positive vision of peace and progress, and relentlessly pursuing the murderers who target innocent people.” We have not yet won this war, but we now clearly can see the beginning of the end, and the kind of South and Central Asia that lies in our future.

Only hours after bin Laden’s death, the Taliban reacted by blaming the government of Pakistan and calling for retribution against its leaders, and specifically against me as the nation’s president. We will not be intimidated. Pakistan has never been and never will be the hotbed of fanaticism that is often described by the media.

Zardari is in a real tough position right now. He's got to simultaneously defend his country from claims that he was harboring al Qaeda's top dog, claiming that he was providing assistance (unidentified and uncorroborated by US officials who have studiously stated that they shared no aspects of this mission with any other country, including Pakistan), and has to be worried that the Islamists will try to topple his government because of its existing ties with the US (a belief that the government is complicit with the US even if there was no actual). Given the way that Pakistanis love their conspiracy theories (even more than the nutjobs who think Osama wasn't real, wasn't killed, or any permutation thereof), all kinds of speculation is rampant in Pakistan right now over what Pakistan's government knew and when did they know of it.

Fact is, no one really knows what the Pakistani government knew about bin Laden's location, but it is highly suspicious that he was able to live in relative comfort in a compound just yards from the country's military academy and where military personnel go to retire. It is plausible that members of the military or the ISI were complicit in keeping bin Laden's whereabouts hidden but it once again indicates the difficulty of trusting the Pakistani government to reveal key details. Those questions are being asked by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle - and they have good reason to ask those questions. Similar questions are being asked by other countries, including the UK.

Zardari is right to state that his country has been ravaged by Islamic terrorists, particularly Taliban and al Qaeda. Yet, each time the Pakistani government (whether under Zardari or his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf) cracks down, it doesn't go far enough to eliminate the threat. It does just enough - anything more and the Islamists in the Pakistani government (Parliament, military, ISI) would thwart further action.

He further claims that radical Islamist parties make up a small fraction of his government, but that overlooks those other groups that lean towards radicalism and who do not condone crackdowns against the Islamists.

Pakistan barely maintains control over the frontier provinces, which are overrun with Taliban and have hosted al Qaeda for years on end. Efforts to thwart the Taliban have met with mixed success - and the body count among Pakistani soldiers is quite high and

The country can't align itself too greatly with the US for fear of assassinations or coups to install a more Islamist government, but doing nothing allows the Islamists free reign in the frontier provinces.

The question of what Pakistan knew and who knew might be revealed in the treasure trove of intel captured by the special forces team that carried out the mission. They recovered numerous computers, hard drives, thumb drives, and other intel that can be critical to unraveling the logistical network and other contacts, as well as identifying other key members and locations. It could also shed light on other planned or contemplated targets.

Bin Laden's death may also result in a reappraisal of ongoing military operations by the ISAF in Afghanistan, including the possible withdrawal of troops earlier than 2014. I think that would be a serious mistake, considering that al Qaeda and the Taliban remain a serious threat, and allowing them safe haven is a mistake.

Posted bylawhawk

Did the Saudis (order Pakistan to) sell out Bin Laden?

Osama Bin Laden apparently lived in Pakistan for much of the past ten years. With all due respect to President Obama's pride in the US forces who got Bin Laden, it should be obvious to all that the United States suddenly found Bin Laden now because someone chose to turn him in. But who? Asia Times' Spengler blog believes that Bin Laden's activities in Yemen were threatening Saudi interests, and therefore the Saudis ordered the Pakistanis - who may yet be the principal Sunni ally for Saudi Arabia - to turn Bin Laden in.

In short, while al-Qaeda had drawn funding from both Saudi and Iranian sources, in present circumstances its activity tended to serve Iranian rather than Saudi interests. Support for terrorism, moreover, is a two-way street: precisely because Saudi Arabia was "a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda", Saudi intelligence knows something about the recipients of their money.

The Saudis, moreover, have an interest in cleaning up the terrorist associations of the Pakistani military. As the Saudi cold war with Iran grows increasingly hot, Riyadh may look towards Islamabad for military support. Asia Times Online has reported that the Bahrain National Guard already is recruiting Pakistani mercenaries. (See Pakistan ready for Middle East role, April 2.)

And there is speculation that Saudi Arabia in a pinch might ask for Pakistani troops, and also that Riyadh might source nuclear weapons technology from Pakistan to counter Iran's nuclear program. Where else might the Saudis go for support in a war with Iran? The Saudis cannot trust the United States. King Abdullah reportedly was enraged that Obama pulled the rug out from under Mubarak, a longstanding American ally. And they cannot trust the Turks, who have become the region's spoiler.

Pakistan's military capacity and urgent need for money make it the Sunni power most amenable to Saudi interests. That is one more reason to clear the deck of unreliable elements like Bin Laden.

Ironically, Bin Laden appears to be a casualty in the great Arab breakdown of 2011. We can only guess as to the details of his demise, and may never know the entire truth. But it is a fair conclusion that he was crushed between the tectonic plates now shifting in the Muslim world.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Bin Laden's Legacy

Christopher Hitchens has a nice piece about the death of Osama bin Laden over at Slate:

If you tell me that you are staying in a rather nice walled compound in Abbottabad, I can tell you in return that you are the honored guest of a military establishment that annually consumes several billion dollars of American aid. It's the sheer blatancy of it that catches the breath.

There's perhaps some slight satisfaction to be gained from this smoking-gun proof of official Pakistani complicity with al-Qaida, but in general it only underlines the sense of anticlimax. After all, who did not know that the United States was lavishly feeding the same hands that fed Bin Laden? There's some minor triumph, also, in the confirmation that our old enemy was not a heroic guerrilla fighter but the pampered client of a corrupt and vicious oligarchy that runs a failed and rogue state.

Also check out Eight Mysteries About the Killing of Osama bin Laden or you can actually find the full article also at Slate.

Posted byWriter

Who Killed Osama Bin Laden? A Story Of US Delight And Pakistan Duplicity

OSAMA bin Laden is dead. He was killed in a fire fight in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Someone in an elite US force killed the world’s most wanted man. Who fired the bullet that  killed bin Laden? We will know one day.
As for the head of Al Qaeda, well, he wasn’t that hard to find. Abbottabad is a town of 80,000 people, 120 km from Islamabad:

Abbottabad became and is still an important military cantonment and sanatorium, being the headquarters of a brigade in the Second Division of the Northern Army Corps. The garrison consisted of four battalions of native infantry (Gurkhas) and four native mountain batteries

Were the Pakistanis protecting him? What else do we know about the palce?

This photo taken on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 shows the home of Abdul Hameed in Abbottabad, Pakistan from where Indonesian al-Qaida-linked militant, Umar Patek, was arrested in Jan. 2011. Patek was on the run from a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head, for allegedly helping mastermind the 2002 suicide bombings of nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people.

What else?

Abbottabad is in northwest Pakistan, one of the first towns on the famed Karakoram Highway that leads to the Himalayas and China and less then a day’s drive from the Afghan border. During the era of British rule, it was a major garrison town and it remains so today, with Pakistani troops now occupying the barracks built and lived in by the region’s former rulers.
Officials did not say how or why Patek ended up there, but his arrest followed the detention of an alleged al-Qaida facilitator in the town called Tahir Shehzad, who worked as a clerk at the town’s post office, a squat building just across the road from the British-era St. Luke’s Church.

So. Bin Laden was pretty easy to spot?

Pakistan probable cricketers are being trained for preparation of Twenty20 series and the Champions Trophy and fitness of the players is specially being focused.
The training camp is being held at a beautiful place of Abbottbad where the probable players went through the extensive practice of batting, bowling and fielding. They were told the finer points of technique in every department of the game.

What odds Bin Laden has spent the last few years watching cricket?

 

At last everyone in the US can rejoice that the mass murderer who wanted to kill Americans is dead. What say the rappers?

“Osama dead!?!” Lupe Fiasco tweeted. “Afghan operation done now!?? Now kill wack schools and US imperialism.”
“USA is at it again, number one in the rankings of killing championships. Stealing the gold in the murder olympics and the crowd goes wild!” Public Enemy rapper Chuck D. tweeted.

Here’s the official line from the US Department of Defense:

President Barack Obama announced Sunday, May 1st, 2011 at 11:34pm EST that the infamous terrorist Osama Bin Laden is dead. He was killed in a compound outside of Islamabad, Pakistan. He was killed by U.S. military forces on May 1st, 2011 in a firefight, and those forces took possession of the body. No civilians were harmed in this attack.

Leslie Cannold doesn’t get it:

I am an American & American values I learned growing up were that state sponsored extra-judicial killings were wrong.
If we found Arab street repellent when they celebrated 9/11, and I definitely did, how do we justify our celebrations now?
A $25 million bounty on Osama’s head sounds like an inducement to extra-judicial killing to me.
Celebrating death is in poor taste, period.

Jihadis stick to the script:

Members of Jihadist internet forums said retaliation would follow if reports of bin Laden’s dmeise were confirmed. “Oh God, please make this news not true,” wrote one member. “God curse you Obama. . . Oh Americans … it is still legal for us to cut your necks.”
Another wrote: “Osama may be killed but his message of Jihad will never die. Brothers and sisters, wait and see, his death will be a blessing in disguise.”

While jihadis carry on being jihadis, the US has “disposed” of the body. Not buried it. Disposed of it – like you do with rubbish.
And he is dead. Isn’t he?



What next? Well, there is always the fear:

Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West if their leader and world’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden is nabbed.  A senior al-Qaeda commander has claimed that the terror group has stashed away a nuclear bomb in Europe which will be detonated if bin Laden is ever caught or assassinated, according to new top secret files made public by internet whistleblower WikiLeaks.

What next? And should we believe anything we are told? Have we made Mincemeat of Bin Laden..?

By http://www.anorak.co.uk

Bin Laden’s body buried at sea

by News Source on May 2, 2011

Brian Whitaker reports:

The dilemma of what to do with Osama bin Laden’s body appears to have been quickly resolved if reports that he has been buried at sea prove correct.
Burying him on land could have led to his grave becoming a centre of contention as well as raising questions about where he should be buried.

“Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult,” a US official said, adding: “So the US decided to bury him at sea.”
Fears about Bin Laden’s burial place turning into a shrine for Islamists were probably unfounded, since the Wahhabi/Salafi tradition rejects such things. Even Saudi kings are buried in unmarked graves.

Senior US officials initially told news agencies that his body would be disposed of in accordance with Islamic tradition, which involves ritual washing, shrouding and burial within 24 hours.
Although the swift burial complies with Islamic custom and should therefore avoid causing any offence in Muslim countries, the apparent haste could lead to claims that the person killed was not really Bin Laden – though the US authorities have taken DNA samples and appear to have no doubts.

The 24-hour rule has not always been applied by the US in the past. For example, the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein – sons of the Iraqi dictator – were held for 11 days before being released for burial.

Burial at sea is rare in Islam, though several Muslim websites say it is permitted in certain circumstances.

One is on a long voyage where the body may decay before the ship reaches land. The other is if there is a risk of enemies digging up a land grave and exhuming or mutilating the body – a rule that could plausibly be applied in Bin Laden’s case.

For sea burial, according to alislam.org, the body should be lowered into the water “in a vessel of clay or with a weight tied to its feet”. The website adds: “As far as possible it should not be lowered at a point where it is eaten up immediately by the sea predators.”

Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake

Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two yearsAmelia Hill
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 May 2011

So, his death was Photoshopped, and his corpse "buried at sea."....OK.
Now, I have a bridge I would like to sell you; can we talk?

"An image apparently showing a dead Osama bin Laden broadcast on Pakistani television and picked up by British newspaper websites is a fake.

The bloodied image of a man with matted hair and a blank, half-opened eye has been circulating on the internet for the past two years. It was used on the front pages of the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, though swiftly removed after the fake was exposed on Twitter.
It appears the fake picture was initially published by the Middle East online newspaper themedialine.org on 29 April 2009, with a warning from the editor that it was "unable to ascertain whether the photo is genuine or not".....

The Guardian was one of the few sites to hold back from using the manipulated image on its front page, reporting the picture's existence in its live blog but questioning its legitimacy....."