Well, it's being accepted as true that Osama bin Laden has been killed. Huh.
I'm feeling tired and overwhelmed and needing a short break already, and this... So I haven't followed up much. But from what I gather, he was tracked down to his mansion is Islamabad and killed in a gun battle some days ago. Pictures were taken to prove it, and he was then buried at sea, to avoid his grave becoming a shrine.
This was finally announced just as Muammar al-Gaddafi's son Seif was reported to be killed in a bombing raid in Tripoli that looks a bit like an illegal assassination attempt. Some skeptic suspect the death of Seif was a hoax by his father's people to garner sympathy or impugn NATO.
But then within 24 hours the nation that called that shot revealed their coup of cutting off the head of the version of al Qaeda that struck New York on September 11.Weird in too many ways for me to say anything really brilliant about.
So, just in the last few days, the US ambassador at the UN passed on the most transparent of propaganda to try and convince reluctant allies to support their Libyan campaign to protect innocent civilians - from viagra-fueled gang rape.
This having no hope of working, the US apparently chose to gun it and grossly violated their already-straining mandate, hitting a house col. Gaddafi was in, killing his son and three of his son's young children.
This is sure to cause problems, like mass anger among the portion of Libya's innocent civilians who love the leader, and burning of embassies. But that has already come and in turn is being used to expel diplomats and such, isolating Libya further. It's not a nation anymore to the "civilized world," only a thing to be smashed some more until it falls quiet and can be plundered in peace.
And now this third propaganda victory for the regime that somehow feels even more ominous a portent against it than the others proved to be.
As "little grey rabbit," a commentator at a forum I frequent, said:
Perhaps we should take a moment to congratulate Muammar Gadaffi, the visionary leader who first asked Interpol to issue an arrest warrent for Osama bin Laden in 1996.Indeed, they ain't friends.
It has been a long fight for Gadaffi, but this surely must be a day for him to savour - in the midst of his private grief. And a moment for us to reflect if only we have listened to the wise words of Brother Muammar, how many Americans would still be alive today?
I do wonder what this will do for morale of the Libya freedom fighters' front-line al Qaeda types? Some of them are veterans of the US-and-UK-backed 1996 attempt on Libya. This ambitious but failed endeavor drew together the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the CIA (via asset Khalifah Heftar and the PFSL), al Qaeda and MI6 (via Annas al-Liby), plus others in a Benghazi-based Islamist uprising and assassination attempt on Gaddafi.
On the 15-year anniversary it started with pretty much the same cast (minus al-Liby), but greased in with color revolution and "Arab Spring" conditioned expectations, plus French, Qatari, and other input early on. And "social media." And, after the enterprise was deemed too big to fail, it was bailed out with NATO tactical air support.
No this story is not real: its another fraud...Bin Laden died late in 2001,and has not been seen since...
ReplyDeletethe big question, is why this event now? what does it serve?
Hey, thanks for a comment.
ReplyDeleteI can't completely rule out what you're saying, but let's say I'd rather not go there to argue it one way or the other.
It appears I had some details wrong, but that wasn't the point, really. The timing, I have to say is interesting. Just going by what they say, the president had intel on bi Laden's location, but waited to decide. He vetoed a bomb strike, wanting a raid with possible capture.
Someone apparently got other intel on Gaddafi's location. At about the same time, Obama apparently ordered both assassination attempts. What kind of ballsy, and evil, move is that? I don't like the message this sends, and I hope only that cooler heads might be able to prevail now.