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In bin Laden killing, media -- as usual -- regurgitates false Government claims
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
by Glenn Greenwald

Virtually every major newspaper account of the killing of Osama bin Laden consists of faithful copying of White House claims. That's not surprising: it's the White House which is in exclusive possession of the facts, but what's also not surprising is that many of the claims that were disseminated yesterday turned out to be utterly false. And no matter how many times this happens -- from Jessica Lynch's heroic firefight against Iraqi captors to Pat Tillman's death at the hands of Evil Al Qaeda fighters -- it never changes: the narrative is set forever by first-day government falsehoods uncritically amplified by establishment media outlets, which endure no matter how definitively they are disproven in subsequent days.

Yesterday, it was widely reported that bin Laden "resisted" his capture and "engaged in a firefight" with U.S. forces (leaving most people, including me, to say that his killing was legally justified because he was using force). It was also repeatedly claimed that bin Laden used a women -- his wife -- as a human shield to protect himself, and that she was killed as a result. That image -- of a cowardly through violent-to-the-end bin Laden -- framed virtually every media narrative of the event all over the globe. And it came from many government officials, principally Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan.

Those claims have turned out to be utterly false.

. . .

High-strength marijuana plants have been found just yards from the luxury home of slain terror chief Osama Bin Laden.

Gone to pot: Bin Laden had in recent years suffered from kidney problems - could marijuana have been used by the war lord to relieve the symptoms of his illness?

Here's a quick note on the story floating around that, contra the White House, Osama bin Laden was captured by U.S. commandos before being shot to death.

Legitimate doubt has been cast on the official narrative of the raid ever since the Obama administration changed major details of what it claims happened. (A Pentagon official, for example, said Monday that bin Laden was firing a gun at U.S. forces from behind a human shield when he was killed. Now the White House says he was not armed and there was no human shield.)

The possibility that bin Laden was captured was raised in a report by an Arab news agency citing Pakistani officials describing an interview with bin Laden's young daughter, who was apparently at the compound:

The daughter has claimed that she watched as her father was captured alive and shot before being dragged to a US military helicopter, Arabic news network al-Arabiya quoted Pakistani officials as saying.

That, in turn, reminded me of a curious formulation used by President Obama at a public event Monday night:

But last night, as Americans learned that the United States had carried out an operation that resulted in the capture and death of Osama bin Laden, we -- (applause) -- you know, I think we experienced the same sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11.

Emphasis added. The reference to the "capture" of bin Laden could easily be a misstatement.

Bruce Dazzling wrote:

Day of the Dead: The Hit Man as Hero

Written by Chris Floyd
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 16:08

...We were told that the base coward used his wife as a human shield while he pumped hot lead at America’s boys. This was not true. There were no human shields – although Obama’s wife was shot in the leg, while another woman, wife to a bin Laden aide, was shot and killed by the agents.

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/obl-kill/obl-kill.htm

Police officers secure the perimeter, with a sealed gate into the compound and a house where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed late Monday, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Local residents showed off small parts of what appeared to be a U.S. helicopter that Washington said malfunctioned and was disabled by the American commando strike team as they retreated.

Media and local residents gather outside the house where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Local residents showed off small parts of what appeared to be a U.S. helicopter that Washington said malfunctioned and was disabled by the American commando strike team as they retreated, while Pakistan's leader on Tuesday denied suggestions that his country's security forces had sheltered Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

A photo taken by a local resident, shows the wreckage of a helicopter next to the wall of the compound where according to officials, Osama bin Laden was shot and killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Monday, May 2, 2011. Bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)

Pakistani soldiers remove the wreckage of a helicopter covered with it tarpaulin from a compound, where locals reported a firefight took place overnight in Abbotabad, located in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province May 2, 2011. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan on Sunday, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Obama said U.S. forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad north of Islamabad.

A tractor trolley carries the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed next to the wall of a compound where according to officials, Osama bin Laden was shot and killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Monday, May 2, 2011. Bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)

A Pakistani police officer talks to a motor cyclist at a security check post in Abbottabad, Pakistani on Monday, May 2, 2011. Osama bin Laden was holed up in a two-story house 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy in Abbottabad when four helicopters carrying U.S. anti-terror forces swooped in the early morning hours of Monday and killed him. (AP Photo/Mohsin)

It was a secretly developed stealth helicopter, probably a highly modified version of an H-60 Blackhawk. Photos published in the Daily Mail and on the Secret Projects board show that the helicopter's tail features stealth-configured shapes on the boom and tip fairings, swept stabilizers and a "dishpan" cover over a non-standard five-or-six-blade tail rotor. It has a silver-loaded infra-red suppression finish similar to that seen on some V-22s.

8bitagent wrote:Fucking knew it. I'm not a birther, but count me in as a deather. This crap stinks to high heaven and Im starting to think maybe the framing of Pakistan/bin laden died in 2001 stories arent so nuts.

NOONE should believe a damn word of these jackal liars. "Oh just trust us" Obama and WH staff say...yeah, thats what ya said about WMD's and al Qaeda ties to Saddam.
TOTAL BULLSHIT. "Burial at sea", how convenient!

ninakat wrote:

stickdog99 wrote:

Now that's more like it.

Conspiracy theory: NDP deputy leader Mulcair doubts U.S. has bin Laden photos

OTTAWA - The first burst of controversy from the next crop of MPs came not from a raw NDP rookie but from the party's experienced deputy leader who said he doesn't believe the United States has photos of Osama bin Laden's body.

Thomas Mulcair struck a conspiracy theory note Wednesday when he told CBC TV that U.S. President Barack Obama's version of the death of the terrorist mastermind is incomplete, if not untrue.

Obama said he has seen photos of bin Laden's corpse but releasing those photos would be akin to peddling gruesome trophies. Mulcair was doubtful.

"I don't think from what I've heard that those pictures exist," Mulcair said during an appearance on Power and Politics.

"I think that if there is something that went on there, it requires a full analysis, and we have to understand whether or not there was an action where there was an action in self-defence or whether it was something that is more in the style of a direct killing. And that has to do with American law and international law as well."

The U.S. says bin Laden was shot dead on Sunday by American commandos during a raid on a compound in Pakistan.

Some family members of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks thought it important to document bin Laden's death, as did some skeptics in the Arab world who doubted his demise in the absence of convincing evidence.

norton ash wrote:Obama
Alabama
Osama

Anticipating drama from the Dalai Lama.

Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama suggested that killing of Osama bin Laden by US was justified, a report said Wednesday, although his office sought to clarify the remarks.