Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 15 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Hourglass

Yawn! WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange rails against Facebook, says it's a spy tool for US government

Nina Mandell
New York Daily News
Mon, 02 May 2011 01:28 UTC
Image
© Dunham/AP
The founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange said that Facebook is the most 'appaling spying machine ever invented'.
Maybe he's a MySpace guy.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Facebook "the most appalling spying machine ever invented" in an interview with Russia Today, pointing to the popular social networking site as one of the top tools for the U.S. to spy on its citizens.

"Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other and their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US Intelligence," he said. "Facebook, Google, Yahoo, all these major U.S. organizations have built-in infaces for US intelligence.

"Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook they are doing free work for the United States intelligence agencies," he added.

The comments were a bit strange, coming from the founder of a website best known for pushing spilling secret information.
      Read More...
Camera

Even More Details on the Osama bin Laden Photos

Stacia Deshishku & Jessica Yellin
CNN
Tue, 03 May 2011 09:59 UTC
Image
© AFP / Getty Images
A Senior US Official tells CNN 10 hard drives, 5 computers and more than 100 storage devices which includes discs, DVDs and thumb drives were taken from the compound.

The senior us official also says the White House received 3 sets of photos yesterday. The photos included:
  1. Photos of OBLs body at a hangar after he was brought back to Afghanistan. This is the most recognizable with a clear picture of his face. The picture is gruesome because he has a massive open head wound across both eyes. It's very bloody and gory.
  2. Photos from the burial at sea on the USS Carl Vinson. Photos of OBL before the shroud was put on and then wrapped in the shroud.
  3. There are photos of the raid itself that include photos of the two dead brothers, one of OBLs dead son (adult adolescent, maybe approx 18 yrs old) and some of the inside scene of the compound.
The official says the challenge is that the picture that includes the most recognizable image of OBLs face - from the hangar in Afghanistan - is so gruesome and mangled its not appropriate for say the front page of the newspaper. On the other hand, this is the one that is most identifiable as him.
      Read More...
Bacon

Fantasy As Reality - Manufacturing the 'Death' of Bin Laden

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Wed, 04 May 2011 15:31 UTC
Image
As with most fabricated terror stories, the 'Bin Laden is dead' tale is full of contradictions, half-truths and outright lies. The fact that the story was fabricated from whole cloth is seen in the fact that the story is now changing from the details that initially 'emerged'.

Who precisely made the claim that 'Osama' had a weapon and shot at US forces and that he used a woman as a human shield? What situation could a US soldier have found himself in where he thought he was under direct fire from a person in a room when he was in fact not? What possible scenario could have played out where a person was perceived to have used a 'human shield' when that person did no such thing? These are the questions that need to be asked as part of a serious investigation into this matter. But don't hold your breath.

As of now, we can only conclude that these two scenarios were simply made up as part of an initial report on the alleged death of Bin Laden and they point directly to a conscious plan, right from the beginning (or even long before the actual events of May 1st) on the part of US authorities to concoct a false story to be disseminated to the public.
      Read More...
Alarm Clock

Osama bin Laden hideout 'worth far less than US claimed'


UK Guardian
Wed, 04 May 2011 12:15 UTC
Image
© Faisal Mahmood/Reuters
Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, described by US officials as being worth $1m. Local property experts estimate its value at a quarter of that sum
Pakistan property experts say US government description of '$1m mansion' was way off the mark, as further exaggerations come to light.

Osama bin Laden's house, described by the US government as a $1m (£605,000) mansion, is in fact worth no more than $250,000 say property professionals in Abbottabad, the town where he was killed.
      Read More...
Alarm Clock

US 'alerted to Bin Laden compound in 2009'


UK Guardian
Wed, 04 May 2011 12:13 UTC
Pakistan alerted the US to suspicions about Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad as far back as 2009, the country's Foreign Secretary revealed today.

Salman Bashir said American concerns over whether it could trust Pakistan's security and intelligence services were "misplaced" and insisted it had extended "every co-operation" to the US and played a "pivotal role" in the fight against terror.
      Read More...
Rocket

Why is Libya the Target for US/NATO Missiles?

William Blum
Information Clearing House
Wed, 04 May 2011 10:20 UTC
bomb explosion, Libya
© n/a
Iraq: Let us not forget what "humanitarian intervention" looks like.

Libya: Let us not be confused as to why Libya alone has been singled out for "humanitarian intervention".

On April 9, Condoleezza Rice delivered a talk in San Francisco. Or tried to. The former Secretary of State was interrupted repeatedly by cries from the audience of "war criminal" and "torturer". (For which we can thank our comrades in Code Pink and World Can't Wait.) As one of the protesters was being taken away by security guards, Rice made the kind of statement that has now become standard for high American officials under such circumstances: "Aren't you glad this lady lives in a democracy where she can express her opinion?" She also threw in another line that's become de rigueur since the US overthrew Saddam Hussein, an argument that's used when all other arguments fail: "The children of Iraq are actually not living under Saddam Hussein, thank God." 1

My response to such a line is this: If you went into surgery to correct a knee problem and the surgeon mistakenly amputated your entire leg, what would you think if someone then remarked to you how nice it was that "you actually no longer have a knee problem, thank God." ... The people of Iraq no longer have a Saddam problem.
      Read More...
Propaganda

Did Osama Really Die on Monday in Abbottabad?

Akhtar Jamal
Pakistan Observer
Wed, 04 May 2011 10:19 UTC
osama
© n/a
Islamabad - The claims regarding Osama bin Laden's death began almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan.

In 2010 a website released photo of the body of Osama bin Laden and claimed that he was killed several years ago. But what is more surprising is that the very same photo was being circulated Monday after U.S. forces reported that Osama bin Laden was killed early Monday.

It was not clear why the same photo of "dead Osama" which was available with several regional agencies were released Monday once again to the media.

This led to speculations that "Osama's body might have been brought in to be later 'discovered' from the scene of clash with other Al-Qaeda militants.

The discovery of Osama's body from Bilal Town, Abbottabad has increased pressure on Pakistani security forces.
      Read More...
Blackbox

Not everyone believes bin Laden really is dead

Robert Burns and Calvin Woodward
Associated Press
Wed, 04 May 2011 08:48 UTC
Washington -- Knowing there would be disbelievers, the U.S. says it used convincing means to confirm Osama bin Laden's identity during and after the firefight that killed him. But the mystique that surrounded the terrorist chieftain in life is persisting in death.

Was it really him? How do we know? Where are the pictures?

Already, those questions are spreading in Pakistan and surely beyond. In the absence of photos and with his body given up to the sea, many people don't believe bin Laden - the Great Emir to some, the fabled escape artist of the Tora Bora mountains to foe and friend alike - is really dead.

U.S. officials are balancing that skepticism with the sensitivities that might be inflamed by showing images they say they have of the dead al-Qaida leader and video of his burial at sea. Still, it appeared likely that photographic evidence would be produced.

"We are going to do everything we can to make sure that nobody has any basis to try to deny that we got Osama bin Laden," John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, said Monday. He said the U.S. will "share what we can because we want to make sure that not only the American people but the world understand exactly what happened."

In July 2003, the U.S. took heat but also quieted most conspiracy theorists by releasing graphic photos of the corpses of Saddam Hussein's two powerful sons to prove American forces had killed them.

So far, the U.S. has cited evidence that satisfied the Navy SEAL force, and at least most of the world, that they had the right man in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
      Read More...
Question

Did DNA Finger bin Laden?

Maggie Fox
National Journal
Wed, 04 May 2011 08:32 UTC
Osama in 2001
© STR-AUSAF NEWS PAPERF/AFP/Getty Images
Osama bin Laden in 2001. Can DNA prove that he died in a shootout near Islamabad?
His face is one of the most recognizable in the world, but in the end, could it have been DNA fingerprinting that proved to U.S. officials that they had finally nailed Osama bin Laden?

Maybe - but the Obama administration had better be saving some evidence.

U.S. officials have told various news sources that CIA facial-recognition technology was used to identify bin Laden, and that his wife - apparently also killed in the attack - called him by name during the firefight that ended his life.

But they say that DNA was the final piece of evidence.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee told the AP that more than one DNA sample was used to identify bin Laden.

One problem - whose DNA did they compare it to?

According to several reports, U.S. intelligence experts have been collecting DNA from Osama's many relatives for years. Hospital officials in Boston have been unable to confirm reports that one source of DNA was bin Laden's half-sister, who allegedly died of brain cancer at a Harvard-affiliated hospital.

Bin Laden had plenty of half-brothers and half-sisters to offer DNA samples. He was the 17th child of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, who had 54 children with 22 wives. Bin Laden's father died when he was 10.
      Read More...
Gear

Release of bin Laden photo could be 'inflammatory'


CBC News
Tue, 03 May 2011 01:42 UTC

Bin Laden unarmed when killed, White House says

The White House says it's worried that releasing a photo of the body of slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could be "inflammatory."

"There are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photos of Osama bin Laden," White House press secretary Jay Carney told a press briefing Tuesday.

"It's fair to say that it's a gruesome photograph."

Officials have told The Associated Press that the Obama administration has pictures that show a killshot directly above bin Laden's left eye. The administration is also weighing whether to release video of his swift burial at sea.

After word of the top-secret mission broke late Sunday night, officials were initially reluctant to inflame Islamic sentiment by showing graphic images of the body. But they were also eager to address the mythology already building in Pakistan and beyond that bin Laden was somehow still alive.

U.S. officials say the photographic evidence shows bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away part of his skull.

He was also shot in the chest, they said. That came near the end of a frenzied firefight in a high-walled Pakistani compound where helicopter-borne U.S. forces found 23 children, nine women, a bin Laden courier who had unwittingly led the U.S. to its target, a son of bin Laden who was also slain and more.

Carney said earlier reports that said one of bin Laden's wives was killed in the firefight were not correct. She was injured when shot in the leg, he said.

Carney also revealed that bin Laden was not armed but was shot and killed when he "resisted." Carney would not be specific about the nature of that resistance.

Comment: In the first video above, note the subtle bias and manipulation of the CBC reporter. After admitting that the "conspiracy theories" that there was no Osama in Abbottabad are well-founded because we have only the US government's word that Osama was killed, he then segues into stating that "the bigger question is about Pakistan" and "how could Osama have been living in an affluent military community in Pakistan without Pakistani authorities knowing he was there". If there is reasonable cause for doubt that Osama was actually there, then the second question is entirely moot. In short, this CBC segment is a despicable piece of nefarious propaganda masquerading as unbiased reporting.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts