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| India-Pakistan |
| US holds photos of slain bin Laden, weighs release |
| 2011-05-04 |
| [Dawn] Still-secret photos of the dead the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water... show a precision kill shot above his left eye, a US official said, as fresh details emerged of an audacious American raid that netted potentially crucial al Qaeda records as well as the body of the global terrorist leader. President Barack B.O.Obama is going to ground zero in New York to mark the milestone and remember the dead of 9/11. Patience and persistence -- characteristics normally attributed to al Qaeda -- proved decisive in America's decade-long hunt for bin Laden, whose fate was sealed in 40 minutes of thunderous violence, years in the making. According to the US account, the assault team came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that might tip US intelligence to al Qaeda's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. The CIA is already going over the material. Obama, who approved the extraordinarily risky operation by Navy SEALs against bin Laden's Pakistain redoubt and witnessed its progression from the White House Situation Room, his face heavy with tension, reaped accolades from world leaders he'd kept in the dark as well as from political opponents at home. Republican and Democratic leaders alike gave him a standing ovation at an evening White House meeting that was planned before the assault but became a celebration of it, and an occasion to step away from the fractious political climate. Obama plans to visit New York on Thursday. "Last night's news unified our country," much as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, did, Republican House Speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!'Boehner ... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans... said earlier in the day. Obama later appealed for that unity to take root as the US presses the fight against a terrorist network that is still lethal -- and now vowing vengeance. The episode was an embarrassment, at best, for Pak authorities as bin Laden's presence was revealed in their midst. The stealth US operation played out in a city with a strong Pak military presence and without notice from Washington. Questions persisted in the administration and grew in Congress about whether some elements of Pakistain's security apparatus might have been in collusion with al Qaeda in letting bin Laden hide in Abbottabad. The administration weighed whether to release photos of bin Laden's corpse and video of his swift burial at sea. Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistain and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive. US officials say the photographic evidence shows bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away part of his skull. He was also shot in the chest, they said. This, near the end of a frenzied firefight in a high-walled Pak compound where helicopter-borne US forces found 23 children, nine women, a bin Laden courier who had unwittingly led the US to its target, a son of bin Laden who was also slain, and more. Bin Laden had lived at the fortified compound for six years, officials said, putting him far from the lawless and harsh Pak frontier where he had been assumed to be hiding out. The only information about what occurred inside the compound has come from American officials, much of it provided under condition of anonymity. They said SEALs dropped down ropes from helicopters, killed bin Laden aides and made their way to the main building. Obama and his national security team monitored the strike, watching and listening nervously and in near silence from the Situation Room as it all unfolded. "The minutes passed like days," White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said. US officials said the information that ultimately led to bin Laden's capture originally came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe. There, agency interrogators were told of an alias used by a courier whom bin Laden particularly trusted. It took four long years to learn the man's real name, then years more before Sherlocks got a big break in the case, these officials said. Sometime in mid-2010, the man was overheard using a phone by intelligence officials, who then were able to locate his residence -- the specially constructed $1 million compound with walls as high as 18 feet topped with barbed wire. US counterterrorism officials considered bombing the place, an option that was discarded by the White House as too risky, particularly if it turned out bin Laden was not there. Instead, Obama signed an order on Friday for the team of SEALs to chopper onto the compound under the cover of darkness. In addition to bin Laden, one of his sons, Khalid, was killed in the raid, Brennan said. Bin Laden's wife was shot in the calf but survived, a US official said. Also killed were the courier, another al Qaeda controller and an unidentified woman, officials said. Some people found at the compound were left behind when the SEALs withdrew and were turned over to Pak authorities who quickly took over control of the site, officials said. They identified the trusted courier as Kuwaiti-born Sheikh Abu Ahmed, who had been known under the name Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Within 40 minutes, the operation was over, and the SEALs flew out -- minus one helicopter, which had malfunctioned and had to be destroyed. Bin Laden's remains were flown to the USS Carl Vinson, then lowered into the North Arabian Sea. Bin Laden's death came 15 years after he declared war on the United States. Al Qaeda was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 224 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 Obama said there was no need to release the photographs or gloat. "There's no need to spike the football," he said. "we don't think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference." Well, how about at least getting the story straight about what happened? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-05-04 15:08 |
| #9 I guess Donald Tramp should ask for it. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-05-04 15:08 |
| #8 And the answer is... "no". |
| Posted by: tu3031 2011-05-04 14:50 |
| #7 The whole post-mission has been baffling. I mean, why spike the ball so soon? If it was also an info grab - first why brag about it, then why not wait 23 1/2 hours (the 24 hour rule or whatever) to give services maximum time to study before showing a photo of a distinguishing characteristic if there is no head and live feed of the catapult launch of the corpse with phalanx salute. Or just live broadcast that, no caption, let people wonder what the heck that was about, then after the long knives are sheathed to satisfaction, spike the ball. I find it baffling that an administration, headed by lawyers, seem stunned that Americans, who are used to being presented evidence for claims, would be interested in evidence in claim. Like you joked about, Mr. President, this is a country which believes in Roswell aliens and faked moon landings - and perhaps they can never be satisfied - but lumping the well intentioned people who like evidence into that category is, well, a bit insulting in and of itself. Personally I feel I have a good grasp on the whys and why nots...I mean, why show a broken pez dispenser but as above there were a number of ways to present evidence. From a man who campaigned openly about the distrust of government. (shakes head) Beaten to the delivery by a baseball game because he couldn't be on-time. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-05-04 14:30 |
| #6 Call in Trump to clear up the fog of war. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-05-04 13:57 |
| #5 Something doesn't smell right. The photos are not going to be released? There are lots of versions of what happened. UBL had a weapon and fired. He didn't have a weapon but resisted. He hid behind a woman. He threw a woman towards a Seal Team member. The body had to be treated with deference to Muslim burial requirements but then was dumped in the sea. Muslim standards require a person who died at sea be buried at sea; otherwise on land with their head towards Mecca. Another version has UBL pleading for his life. The Pakis claim no firefight. The 12 year old daughter claims her father was executed. British news says UBL fired from his bedroom. Wait a damn minute! Wasn't all this captured on video in real time. Wasn't Panetta watching this entire raid at CIA headquarters as it unfolded? Personally, I'm glad UBL is dead whatever the details. But I'd like some honesty, transparency, and forthrightness from my friggin government. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-05-04 13:56 |
| #4 Release the frickin' photos, Bummer. Do it now. Every minute that you delay fuels the speculation that this whole story is a hoax. It has already become another issue and we don't need more issues. We need to know that bin Laden is no longer a threat. DO NOT GOON THE RELEASE OF THESE PHOTOS THE WAY YOU DID WITH YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE. DO THE RIGHT THING. DO IT NOW. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-05-04 11:39 |
| #3 Bin Laden's remains were flown to the USS Carl Vinson, then And good riddance. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2011-05-04 11:16 |
| #2 Officials were reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistain... Lemee get this straight. The US has been trying to kill UBL for over a decade. This specific op was planned and replanned with meticulous precision for nine months. The brightest military and diplomatic minds worked day and night to anticipate every possible contingency. And yet we're supposed to believe that after all the discussions and coordination this administration still can't decide on releasing the photos? I mean really now..."inflame Islamic sentiment"...really? Aren't you the guys that keep telling us that Bin Laden was an anathema to Islam? Sumpin don't smell right. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2011-05-04 11:09 |
| #1 Forget the PC BS and release the damned photos and be done with it. I wouldn't worry about islamic sensibilities; I'd worry about American sensibilities. The jihadists had no qualms about showing the beheadings of innocent people while they were still living. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-05-04 08:36 |