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Eagle

Best of the Web: White House Struggles to Get Story Right on Raid

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© The Associated Press / Carolyn KasterWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney pauses during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2011.
Killing Osama bin Laden was a big victory for the U.S., but how exactly the raid went down is another story - and another, and another.

Over two days, the White House has offered contradictory versions of events, including misidentifying which of bin Laden's sons was killed and wrongly saying bin Laden's wife died in gunfire, as it tries to sort through what the president's press secretary called the "fog of combat" and produce an accurate account.

Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that officials were trying to get information out as quickly as possible about the complex event witnessed by just a handful of people, and the story line was being corrected.

"We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you. ... And obviously some of the information was, came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on," Carney said.

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Can US Offer Final Proof Of Osama's Death?

bin laden
© UnknownCan US Offer Final Proof Of Osama's Death?

The circumstances surrounding Osama bin Laden's reported death raise urgent questions over how the US is so sure it got its man.

US officials have said DNA testing has proved the al Qaeda leader was killed in a villa in Pakistan.

They have also identified him by facial recognition.

But photographs of Bin Laden after his reported death have not been released.

The fact his body was buried at sea has so far only added to the speculation, although as a Muslim, he had to be laid to rest as quickly as possible.

Under Islamic law, people can only be buried at sea if they died there, or if there is a risk their body will be exhumed or dug up if buried in the ground.

Take 2

Best of the Web: Osama bin Laden's Second Death

bin laden,celebration
© AP

If today were April 1 and not May 2, we could dismiss as an April fool's joke this morning's headline that Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan and quickly buried at sea. As it is, we must take it as more evidence that the US government has unlimited belief in the gullibility of Americans.

Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?

Consider also the claims, repeated by a triumphalist US media celebrating bin Laden's death, that "bin Laden used his millions to bankroll terrorist training camps in Sudan, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, sending 'holy warriors' to foment revolution and fight with fundamentalist Muslim forces across North Africa, in Chechnya, Tajikistan and Bosnia." That's a lot of activity for mere millions to bankroll (perhaps the US should have put him in charge of the Pentagon), but the main question is: how was bin Laden able to move his money about? What banking system was helping him? The US government succeeds in seizing the assets of people and of entire countries, Libya being the most recent. Why not bin Laden's? Was he carrying around with him $100 million dollars in gold coins and sending emissaries to distribute payments to his far-flung operations?

Eye 2

Best of the Web: Osama Bin Laden Raid? Resident, Witness Says Not True

Local residents dispute circumstances of Osama bin Laden's death:


2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Has Bin Laden been dead for 7 years - and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on terror?

The last time we heard a squeak from him was on June 3 this year.

The world's most notorious terrorist outsmarted America by releasing a menacing message as Air Force One touched down on Saudi Arabian soil at the start of Barack Obama's first and much vaunted Middle East tour.

Even before the new President alighted at Riyadh airport to shake hands with Prince Abdullah, Bin Laden's words were being aired on TV, radio and the internet across every continent.
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© EPAGenuine picture: Osama Bin Laden in October 2001

It was yet another propaganda coup for the 52-year-old Al Qaeda leader. In the audiotape delivered to the Arab news network Al Jazeera, Bin Laden said that America and her Western allies were sowing seeds of hatred in the Muslim world and deserved dire consequences.

It was the kind of rant we have heard from him before, and the response from British and U.S. intelligence services was equally predictable.

They insisted that the details on the tape, of the President's visit and other contemporary events, proved that the mastermind of 9/11, America's worst ever terrorist atrocity, was still alive - and that the hunt for him must go on.

Bad Guys

Flashback Best of the Web: Osama bin Dead Awhile

The next time the CIA comes up with another Osama bin Laden videotape, you might want to compare their images of the alleged al-Qaeda leader to the photograph I've provided here.If he looks any healthier than that, then you're probably looking at an imposter.
Osama bin Dead Awhile
Osama bin Laden at death's door.
Yeah, Osama has definitely seen better days. But give the guy a break, huh? You wouldn't look much better if you'd been dead for nine years.

Oh, by the way, in case you've just joined us? Osama bin Laden is dead.

He died in the Tora Bora Mountains of Afghanistan on December 13, 2001. He was buried in an unmarked grave within 24 hours of his death. Case closed.

But don't just take my word for it. Top terror experts, intelligence analysts, academics, government officials, and even major political figures around the globe tend to agree that, "All the evidence suggests Elvis Presley is more alive today than Osama Bin Laden."

Eye 1

Flashback Best of the Web: Benazir Bhutto confirms Osama bin Laden is dead

In an interview given to David Frost in November 2007, Benazir Bhutto states that Osama bin Laden was killed by Omar Sheikh.


Comment: Who is Omar Sheikh?
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in his book In the Line of Fire, stated that Sheikh was originally recruited by British intelligence agency, MI6, while studying at the London School of Economics. He alleges Omar Sheikh was sent to the Balkans by MI6 to engage in jihadi operations. Musharraf later went on to state, "At some point, he probably became a rogue or double agent".



Syringe

Best of the Web: The Dangers of the Medical Industrial Complex

stethoscope
© Unknown
Your doctors think they make decisions based on medical evidence.

But they don't!

In fact, half of medical evidence is hidden from your doctors. And the half that's hidden is the half that shows drugs don't work.

The bad news is that drug companies are not policed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the way they should be. A drug should be proven both effective and safe BEFORE it is prescribed to millions of people.

Sadly, that often isn't the case.

Let me share with you two recent examples that highlight the dangerous collusion between drug companies and our government agency. They show why the FDA should really stand for "Federal Drug Aid."

First, we now know that the cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia actually causes harm and leads to faster progression of heart disease DESPITE lowering cholesterol 58 percent when combined with Zocor.

This challenges the belief that high cholesterol causes heart attacks and shakes the $40 billion dollar cholesterol drug industry at its foundation.

Second, it's come to light that nearly all the negative studies on antidepressants - that's more than half of all studies on these drugs - were never published, giving a false sense of effectiveness of antidepressants to treat depression.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not telling you to blame your doctor.

Instead, blame deceptive scientific practices and industry-protective government polices. Let's talk a closer look at these findings and their implications.

Beaker

Best of the Web: Are You Enjoying Your Daily Chemical Cocktail?

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© GristYou're probably ingesting a wicked chemical cocktail every day before tea time.
Chemicals and additives found in the food supply and other consumer products are making headlines regularly as more and more groups raise concern over the safety of these substances. In a statement released this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked for reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. The group is particularly concerned about the effects these substances have on children and babies.

Last month, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) held hearings on the safety of food dyes but failed to make a definitive ruling. The most recent study on Bisphenol-A (BPA) added to growing doubts about its safety; but the FDA's stance on it remains ambiguous. Meanwhile, in 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported [PDF] that the FDA is not ensuring the safety of many chemicals.

Yet while the FDA stalls and hedges on the safety of these substances, Americans are exposed to untested combinations of food additives, dyes, preservatives, and chemicals on a daily basis. Indeed, for the vast majority of Americans consuming industrial foods, a veritable chemical cocktail enters their bodies every day and according to the GAO report, "FDA is not systematically ensuring the continued safety of current GRAS substances."

Comment: For a more in depth look at the issue of 'Daily Chemical Cocktails' and their effects on human health read the following articles carried on SOTT:

New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer
The cancer panel is releasing a landmark 200-page report on Thursday, warning that our lackadaisical approach to regulation may have far-reaching consequences for our health.

The report blames weak laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority, as well as the existing regulatory presumption that chemicals are safe unless strong evidence emerges to the contrary.

"Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety," the report says. It adds: "Many known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated."

One reason for concern is that some cancers are becoming more common, particularly in children. We don't know why that is, but the proliferation of chemicals in water, foods, air and household products is widely suspected as a factor.
New Research Revealed: Environmentally Caused Cancers Are 'Grossly Underestimated'


Question

Best of the Web: So How's the Food Patriot Act Working Out So Far?

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© foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Another armed food raid - this time on a company that provides nutritional supplements primarily for autism spectrum disorders and Alzheimer's disease - another day under the Food Safety Modernization Act. As predicted, the FSMA is turning out to be a deliberate plan to wipe out small (under a million dollars a year in sales) and medium-sized (under $10 million a year) producers of natural, wholesome food and supplements. This is what happens when corporations run governments.

The concept of "food safety" in corpogov-speak is really just food fascism, according to Vandana Shiva:
"Risk Assessment in the hands of centralized corruptible agencies is no protection for consumers as the disease and health epidemic in the U.S. linked to over processed, industrial foods show. Even while the U.S. is at the epicenter of the food related public health crises, the U.S. government is trying to export its Food laws which deregulate the industry and over regulate ordinary citizens and small enterprise. This deregulation of the big and toxic and over regulation of the small and ecological is at the core of Food Fascism." [emphasis added]