Just for today let us pretend that we are Americans. We are the victims of that atrocious deed, known all over the world as September 11th, or 9/11. For nine years we have used all our might to catch the man who planned and sponsored those terror attacks on our very own soil but we couldn’t catch him. We waged, or are still waging two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all in the haunt for him. We have lost thousands of servicemen and contractors caught in the line of fire in these war zones. Then just when we were beginning to lose hope that this arch-terrorist, the epitome of all evil will never be caught, we got him.
We got him so red-handed that in a matter of minutes members of our secret elite squad SEALS had killed him. Then from the tension-soaked situation room of the White House, our president and commander in chief took over. He gave immediate orders that this mass murderer, this arch-enemy of our country and our values was a Muslim whose religion said had to be buried within 24 hours, so our special squad had to observe that. They were also ordered to make sure that they wash his corpse, wrap it in a white shroud and pray for it in accordance with Islamic rites, because this master criminal deserves it. The only catch is that they should bury him at sea, because the world can’t afford to have his tomb turned into a shrine by his disciples and admirers. And so Usama bin Laden, Saudi dissident millionaire, master-terrorist, killer of our brothers, parents and neighbours got his well- deserved decent burial, but in a watery grave somewhere in the Caspian sea.
Does all this make sense? To me it sounds loony (America’s short for lunatic) but all the Loony Tunes cartoon series I’ve watched over the years fade into insignificance compared to this tale above. Yes, like the White House spokesman had assured, even without giving us pictures of the dead Usama, we should know that we will never see him alive. But that is not because their commandos had killed him on May 2nd. Like countless others, I am convinced that Usama had died years ago. My belief stems from an email forwarded to me from my late friend Hindu Rufa’i Waziri, then a BBC staff living in the UK. I received the email soon after the death of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani president. The substance of the email was that Ms. Bhutto might have been killed because of a verbal slip she made a few days to her death. In an interview with a famous British talk show host Benazir reportedly said something like ‘Now that Bin Laden is dead ... etc.’ and those determined to keep it a secret till they had accomplished their goals couldn’t let her repeat her slip. Others are of the opinion that Bin Laden died as early as December 2001. Which will not be a surprise given that at the time he was said to be on dialysis due to kidney failure at least three times a week. Even the release of his will by a Saudi magazine, Al-Mujallah early in 2002, as reported by the British Guardian of May 4th 2011, supports a death as early as 2001 because Islamic wills, al-wasiyya are never made public until after confirmed death.
While the actual time of Bin Laden’s real death might remain a subject of speculation, proof of the fact that the Americans didn’t kill him are more than obvious in the hasty burial and the refusal to give out even pictures of his corpse. Writing in the World Street Journal of May 6th 2011, Alan M. Dershowitz, a Law professor at Harvard, argued that burying Bin Laden so hastily at sea amounts to tampering with the evidence. In his article titled ‘Mishandling Bin Laden’s body’, he argued that the best evidence one can ever have in a murder case is in the body of the victim. Unless these commandoes had something to hide in the body of Bin Laden, they should have delayed his burial till all necessary investigations were completed. Also kicking against the argument that the state of Usama’s corpse could inflame passions and pose a security threat, Mr. Dershowitz wrote ‘There is no real risk that the photographs will inflame Muslim or Arab sensibilities any more than the photographs of Saddam Hussein did.’
So why, you may ask, was it necessary for the Obama government to stage-manage the second killing of Bin Laden and deceive the world? The simple answer is that Barack Obama is in trouble on all fronts. A dismal economic record, low approval rating (it was 46%) at the time of the alleged killing, total disappointment from jobless blacks and his failure to stop a very expensive war in Afghanistan. In his article of April 27th 2011, titled ‘Obama’s broken promise?’USA Today’s columnist Dewayne Wickham argued that Obama had failed on his promise to help blacks gain employment. In his own words, ‘Finding work for the jobless is the best anti-poverty program this nation can mount. But while the Obama administration spends 2 billion dollars a week fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan –and spent 608 million dollars in the first 17 days of its involvement in Libya-it can muster neither the money nor the will to combat black unemployment.’
To this bleak picture of Obama’s performance, add the continued criticism of his administration’s inability to leave Afghanistan and you have the perfect recipe for a Bin Laden death hoax. With less than two years to another presidential election, only something of 9/11 proportions can save Obama, and so it was staged. Since the second killing of Usama on May 2ND his approval rating have soared and even if he were to bow in to pressure and leave Afghanistan, he can afford to say ‘mission accomplished’ because he has now ‘killed’ Bin Laden.
This might sound far-fetched to some, but since it had happened before, some of us know that US authorities are capable of such deception. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, US forces claimed that the man behind the killings in Iraq was the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq called Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi. Pepe Escobar, a journalist wrote his piece, Al-Zarqawi, Bush’s man for all seasons, in which he argued that it was impossible for Zarqawi to head Al-Qaida in Iraq because he had died in 2002. Americans ignored Escobar’s claim and continued to call Zarqawi the mastermind of all evil in Iraq. Then in 2005 American occupation forces stormed into a house in Haditha, Iraq and killed twenty four members of the same family in cold blood. When news of the murder of Haditha 24 broke, their shrouded shapes, big and small, young and old, male and female were flashed all over our TV screens, causing global outrage, the second killing of Al- Zarqawi was quickly staged the following day. Of course it eclipsed all other news items that day and the issue of Haditha 24 was quickly forgotten, never to be heard of again. But even Iraqi journalist Omar al-Farisi had written to say that Al-Zarqawi had died before the US invasion of Iraq.
Still how about the TV footage showing where Bin Laden was found and killed, some may ask. For answer to this I will refer us to the dramatic rescue of Private Jessica Lynch from the hands of her Iraqi captors eight years ago. Soon after the fall of Saddam in April 2003, we were treated to this daring raid by America’s brave commandos. But the young lady, who had a conscience couldn’t live with herself after what the American authorities concocted. Jessica Lynch came clean with the story that she was the victim of a motor accident, and it was her Iraqi rescuers who took her to the hospital, got her treated and then handed her back to her compatriots. So the film we saw was just a studio production, much like what comes out of Hollywood daily. In the same way must we see the Bin Laden murder scene. Indeed as early as September 11th we had seen this fake footage trick when a picture of Palestinians in Gaza, dating back to the Gulf War, was shown and described as a celebration of the 9/11 attacks. Lots of negative comments trailed the ‘gleeful few’ as they were described, but journalists with valuable film records soon proved the footage was ten years old.
Lies and deceitful manoeuvring of evidence are actually the stuff American global politics are made of. This much was emphasised by pioneer female journalist Emma Goldman, who in her article of March 1917, titled ‘The promoters of the war mania’ criticised the government of Woodrow Wilson for dragging the US into that ‘European mass murder’ called the World War 1. Then, the pretext was the US had joined the allied forces in defence of the ‘freedom of the seas.’ And so what was the freedom of the seas all about?
In Emma’s own words, ‘Would it not be well to look into this magic thing ‘the freedom of the seas’ before we sing patriotic songs and shout hurrah? The only ones that have benefitted by the Freedom of the seas are the exploiters, the dealers in munition and food supplies. The freedom of the seas has served these unscrupulous American robbers and monopolists as a pretext to pilfer the unfortunate people of both Europe and America. Out of international carnage, they have made billions, out of the misery of the people and the agony of women and children, the American financiers and industrial magnates have coined huge fortunes.’ This was written almost 100 years ago, but its every bit as relevant today because American presidents are still waging wars under false pretences like the ’War on Terror’ only to serve their military-industrial complex.
Obama might think his a second term assured by staging the Bin Laden death hoax, but it’s one loony tune too many. And we are not deceived.
Just for today let us pretend that we are Americans. We are the victims of that atrocious deed, known all over the world as September 11th, or 9/11. For nine years we have used all our might to catch the man who planned and sponsored those terror attacks on our very own soil but we couldn’t catch him. We waged, or are still waging two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all in the haunt for him. We have lost thousands of servicemen and contractors caught in the line of fire in these war zones. Then just when we were beginning to lose hope that this arch-terrorist, the epitome of all evil will never be caught, we got him.
We got him so red-handed that in a matter of minutes members of our secret elite squad SEALS had killed him. Then from the tension-soaked situation room of the White House, our president and commander in chief took over. He gave immediate orders that this mass murderer, this arch-enemy of our country and our values was a Muslim whose religion said had to be buried within 24 hours, so our special squad had to observe that. They were also ordered to make sure that they wash his corpse, wrap it in a white shroud and pray for it in accordance with Islamic rites, because this master criminal deserves it. The only catch is that they should bury him at sea, because the world can’t afford to have his tomb turned into a shrine by his disciples and admirers. And so Usama bin Laden, Saudi dissident millionaire, master-terrorist, killer of our brothers, parents and neighbours got his well- deserved decent burial, but in a watery grave somewhere in the Caspian sea.
Does all this make sense? To me it sounds loony (America’s short for lunatic) but all the Loony Tunes cartoon series I’ve watched over the years fade into insignificance compared to this tale above. Yes, like the White House spokesman had assured, even without giving us pictures of the dead Usama, we should know that we will never see him alive. But that is not because their commandos had killed him on May 2nd. Like countless others, I am convinced that Usama had died years ago. My belief stems from an email forwarded to me from my late friend Hindu Rufa’i Waziri, then a BBC staff living in the UK. I received the email soon after the death of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani president. The substance of the email was that Ms. Bhutto might have been killed because of a verbal slip she made a few days to her death. In an interview with a famous British talk show host Benazir reportedly said something like ‘Now that Bin Laden is dead ... etc.’ and those determined to keep it a secret till they had accomplished their goals couldn’t let her repeat her slip. Others are of the opinion that Bin Laden died as early as December 2001. Which will not be a surprise given that at the time he was said to be on dialysis due to kidney failure at least three times a week. Even the release of his will by a Saudi magazine, Al-Mujallah early in 2002, as reported by the British Guardian of May 4th 2011, supports a death as early as 2001 because Islamic wills, al-wasiyya are never made public until after confirmed death.
While the actual time of Bin Laden’s real death might remain a subject of speculation, proof of the fact that the Americans didn’t kill him are more than obvious in the hasty burial and the refusal to give out even pictures of his corpse. Writing in the World Street Journal of May 6th 2011, Alan M. Dershowitz, a Law professor at Harvard, argued that burying Bin Laden so hastily at sea amounts to tampering with the evidence. In his article titled ‘Mishandling Bin Laden’s body’, he argued that the best evidence one can ever have in a murder case is in the body of the victim. Unless these commandoes had something to hide in the body of Bin Laden, they should have delayed his burial till all necessary investigations were completed. Also kicking against the argument that the state of Usama’s corpse could inflame passions and pose a security threat, Mr. Dershowitz wrote ‘There is no real risk that the photographs will inflame Muslim or Arab sensibilities any more than the photographs of Saddam Hussein did.’
So why, you may ask, was it necessary for the Obama government to stage-manage the second killing of Bin Laden and deceive the world? The simple answer is that Barack Obama is in trouble on all fronts. A dismal economic record, low approval rating (it was 46%) at the time of the alleged killing, total disappointment from jobless blacks and his failure to stop a very expensive war in Afghanistan. In his article of April 27th 2011, titled ‘Obama’s broken promise?’USA Today’s columnist Dewayne Wickham argued that Obama had failed on his promise to help blacks gain employment. In his own words, ‘Finding work for the jobless is the best anti-poverty program this nation can mount. But while the Obama administration spends 2 billion dollars a week fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan –and spent 608 million dollars in the first 17 days of its involvement in Libya-it can muster neither the money nor the will to combat black unemployment.’
To this bleak picture of Obama’s performance, add the continued criticism of his administration’s inability to leave Afghanistan and you have the perfect recipe for a Bin Laden death hoax. With less than two years to another presidential election, only something of 9/11 proportions can save Obama, and so it was staged. Since the second killing of Usama on May 2ND his approval rating have soared and even if he were to bow in to pressure and leave Afghanistan, he can afford to say ‘mission accomplished’ because he has now ‘killed’ Bin Laden.
This might sound far-fetched to some, but since it had happened before, some of us know that US authorities are capable of such deception. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, US forces claimed that the man behind the killings in Iraq was the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq called Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi. Pepe Escobar, a journalist wrote his piece, Al-Zarqawi, Bush’s man for all seasons, in which he argued that it was impossible for Zarqawi to head Al-Qaida in Iraq because he had died in 2002. Americans ignored Escobar’s claim and continued to call Zarqawi the mastermind of all evil in Iraq. Then in 2005 American occupation forces stormed into a house in Haditha, Iraq and killed twenty four members of the same family in cold blood. When news of the murder of Haditha 24 broke, their shrouded shapes, big and small, young and old, male and female were flashed all over our TV screens, causing global outrage, the second killing of Al- Zarqawi was quickly staged the following day. Of course it eclipsed all other news items that day and the issue of Haditha 24 was quickly forgotten, never to be heard of again. But even Iraqi journalist Omar al-Farisi had written to say that Al-Zarqawi had died before the US invasion of Iraq.
Still how about the TV footage showing where Bin Laden was found and killed, some may ask. For answer to this I will refer us to the dramatic rescue of Private Jessica Lynch from the hands of her Iraqi captors eight years ago. Soon after the fall of Saddam in April 2003, we were treated to this daring raid by America’s brave commandos. But the young lady, who had a conscience couldn’t live with herself after what the American authorities concocted. Jessica Lynch came clean with the story that she was the victim of a motor accident, and it was her Iraqi rescuers who took her to the hospital, got her treated and then handed her back to her compatriots. So the film we saw was just a studio production, much like what comes out of Hollywood daily. In the same way must we see the Bin Laden murder scene. Indeed as early as September 11th we had seen this fake footage trick when a picture of Palestinians in Gaza, dating back to the Gulf War, was shown and described as a celebration of the 9/11 attacks. Lots of negative comments trailed the ‘gleeful few’ as they were described, but journalists with valuable film records soon proved the footage was ten years old.
Lies and deceitful manoeuvring of evidence are actually the stuff American global politics are made of. This much was emphasised by pioneer female journalist Emma Goldman, who in her article of March 1917, titled ‘The promoters of the war mania’ criticised the government of Woodrow Wilson for dragging the US into that ‘European mass murder’ called the World War 1. Then, the pretext was the US had joined the allied forces in defence of the ‘freedom of the seas.’ And so what was the freedom of the seas all about?
In Emma’s own words, ‘Would it not be well to look into this magic thing ‘the freedom of the seas’ before we sing patriotic songs and shout hurrah? The only ones that have benefitted by the Freedom of the seas are the exploiters, the dealers in munition and food supplies. The freedom of the seas has served these unscrupulous American robbers and monopolists as a pretext to pilfer the unfortunate people of both Europe and America. Out of international carnage, they have made billions, out of the misery of the people and the agony of women and children, the American financiers and industrial magnates have coined huge fortunes.’ This was written almost 100 years ago, but its every bit as relevant today because American presidents are still waging wars under false pretences like the ’War on Terror’ only to serve their military-industrial complex.
Obama might think his a second term assured by staging the Bin Laden death hoax, but it’s one loony tune too many. And we are not deceived.
