OK, bin Laden is dead, let's go home

[MadHound]

Given that the reason we're currently in Afghanistan is to get bin Laden, then the news that bin Laden is dead should mean that we pack up and go home. After all, there's no other real good reason to be in Afghanistan (other than securing that phat gas pipeline, but shh! they don't want you to know about that). <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/04/27/2009-04-27_al_qaeda_leader_osama_bin_laden_may_be_dead_says_pakistani_president_zardari.html>

Yes, yes, bin Laden has been declared dead before, which is why I think that Zardari is simply repeating the obvious, that this old man, hooked up to a dialysis machine, simply couldn't survive in the backwoods of the Afghani backcountry.

Bin Laden has been declared dead before, and amazingly enough the pictures that we've seen of him since this first declaration of death have changed, radically.

Here's bin Laden, circa 2002
He is old, obviously ill, gaunt, looking like death warmed over.

Yet amazingly two years later, he was looking amazingly healthy and fit


So what happened in the meantime? Well, frankly I think that bin Laden died a long time ago, and that he's been replaced by a double. After all, our only reason for staying in Afghanistan is to get bin Laden, right. If he was dead, we certainly wouldn't have a legit reason to be there. Not to mention that bin Laden's death has been declared time and again by those people who should know, Afghan intelligence agents, <http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/06/karzai.binladen/>
the head of FBI counter intelligence <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2135473.stm>
Even Israeli intelligence, some of the best, and most motivated, has declared bin Laden dead <http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2002/me_terrorism_10_16.html>

So why are we still in Afghanistan? Oh, yeah, that whole "carpet of gold or carpet of bombs" thing that Powell promised so long ago, ramming a gas pipeline through the region at gunpoint.

Time for the US to acknowledge the truth and bring the troops home.

[malaise]

1. I still wonder with the Benazir Bhutto interview

with David Frost hasn't made it to M$Greedia.
Funny thing - the died not long after that interview.

[seafan]

8. And stony silence continues from *MSM* about the Frost-Bhutto interview.

Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden 'may be dead,' says Pakistani President Zardari, April 27, 2009



Benazir Bhutto identified Omar Sheikh as the murderer of Osama bin Laden., November, 2007


According to several reports, Bin Laden died in December, 2001. That was also the time Bush yanked personnel and equipment out of Afghanistan and sent them to Iraq.


It's obvious that Bush, since, continually used the specter of Bin Laden only as a means to frighten everyone, for political expediency. To announce his death would have put the brakes on Bush's cowboy imperialism in Iraq.




Bush quotes about Bin Laden:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'"
- G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

"...Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a county . Now he's maybe in control of a cave. He's on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we're going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that's what's happening. He's on the run, if he's running at all. So we don't know whether he's in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open -- we just don't know...."
- Bush, in remarks in a Press Availability with the Press Travel Pool,
The Prairie Chapel Ranch, Crawford TX, 12/28/01, as reported on
official White House site

Notice what happened to Bush's rhetoric after December, 2001 passes:

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, responding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)

So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you...I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. ---March 13, 2002

Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations.

Of course we're worried about Osama bin Laden. We're on the hunt after Osama bin Laden. We're using every asset at our disposal to get Osama bin Laden. ---- October 13, 2004, in the third presidential debate with Senator John Kerry

America will never achieve catharsis of this plague in our history unless George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney are prosecuted and punished.

[get the red out]

14. I wasn't shocked when she was killed after that

The interview was ignored then she was killed. Such a surprise.

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. Fox News: "Bin Laden Already Dead" - December 26, 2001

Fox News: "Bin Laden Already Dead"

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Death of bin Ladenism
By AMIR TAHERI
Published: July 11, 2002

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?

Even if he is still in the world, bin Ladenism has left for good. Mr. bin Laden was the public face of a brand of politics that committed suicide in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of innocent people in the process.

What were the key elements of that politics?

The first was a cynical misinterpretation of Islam that began decades ago with such anti-Western ideologues as Maulana Maudoodi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutb of Egypt. Although Mr. Maudoodi and Mr. Qutb were not serious thinkers, they could at least offer a coherent ideology based on a narrow reading of Islamic texts. Their ideas about Western barbarism and Muslim revival, distilled down to bin Ladenism, became mere slogans designed to incite zealots to murder.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFDE1230F932A25754C0A9649C8B63

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. I posted this down on the thread with a link to the interview.

[blm]

2. What happened? 2004 election theft would require a cover that Bin Laden wanted Kerry to win

when those paying attention knew damn well that no one helped Bin Laden and the terrorist cause more than BushInc.

Bin Laden's 'tapes' were always timed to provide Bush with the cover he needed to pursue the fascist agenda.

[MadHound]

4. I know that, you know that, now I just wish that this administration would acknowledge it,

Or at least bring the troops home. There is no reason for us to be there. Yet instead of drawing troops down, Obama is doubling down. Wonder why? Oh, yeah, that whole pesky pipeline thingy.

[get the red out]

13. The tape that suggested a particular book to read

The tape that suggested a particular anti-Bush book for Americans to read was probably the most obvious to me. (That one appeared sometime around the 2004 election) I tried to picture Bin Laden, on the run in a Pakistani cave pulling out a laptop and surfing the selections at Amazon to add a little something to his terrorist creed. I suddenly felt like our entire reality was a poorly scripted cross between Twilight Zone and Candid Camera.

[blm]

15. Bush's Bin Laden character referenced Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and the corpmedia piled on

as if Moore and Kerry were in league with "Bin Laden' and Al Qaeda to smear Bush.

[underpants]

3. Okay then good we can turn our attention to Emmanuel Goldstein

Seriously think of all the #3's we HAVE got

[MadHound]

5. Number 2's, number 3's

Actually it's about time that we snagged another number two (and please, I realize that it's out there for the taking, but no scatological references, please).

[CJCRANE]

6. IMO he probably died in the Pakistan earthquake in 2005

or shortly after due to lack of medical supplies.

It's epicenter was in the NW frontier region were he was supposed to be (was also the 14th largest earthquake in recorded history).

[peekaloo]

7. Boo$h's 'Weekend at Binny's'

or 'Mr Dead'.


a corpse is a corpse, of course of course, and no one can talk to a corpse of course, that is of course unless the corpse is the infamous bin Laden.

go right to the source and ask the corpse he'll give you the answer that Boo$h will endorse.......

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. In a 2007 interview with David Frost, Benezir Bhutto told Frost that Bin Laden was dead.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGAOH_E3aQQ

[dysfunctional press]

11. "no play for mr. gray..." maybe osama got tired of being reeeeeejected..?

and decided to go the 'just for men' route.

[L0oniX]

12. The MIC needs the boogie man ...fake or other.

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. According to President Obama, we are in Afghanistan to stop the Taliban from coming back to power

I'll take his word on this over your's thank you very much.