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.
Puppet Masters
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
© STR-AUSAF NEWS PAPERF/AFP/Getty Images
Osama bin Laden in 2001. Can DNA prove that he died in a shootout near Islamabad?
Osama bin Laden in 2001. Can DNA prove that he died in a shootout near Islamabad?
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.
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.
- Obama watched assault on compound housing Bin Laden in real time
- Compound was yards from Pakistan's 'Sandhurst' military academy
- DNA tests 99.9 per cent certain man killed WAS Bin Laden
- U.S. embassies on alert over Al Qaeda reprisal attacks
- Obama and George W. Bush both declare: 'Justice has been done'
The Seal then carried out what is known in the military as a 'double tap' - shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead.
The footage of the battle in Bin Laden's Pakistani hideout - which played out like an episode of 24 - is said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle.
She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden's sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader's body was buried at sea.
© The White House
Intense: President Obama watches the mission unfold at the White House along with (left) Vice President Joe Biden, (right) Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and (second right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alongside other Security staff, including (back left) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, (back without a tie) National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and (back right, white shirt) Counter-Terrorism chief John Brennan
Intense: President Obama watches the mission unfold at the White House along with (left) Vice President Joe Biden, (right) Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and (second right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alongside other Security staff, including (back left) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, (back without a tie) National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and (back right, white shirt) Counter-Terrorism chief John Brennan
© The White House
Taking command: President Obama talks to members of the national security team in the White House situation room following the conclusion of the mission
Taking command: President Obama talks to members of the national security team in the White House situation room following the conclusion of the mission
© The Associated Press / Carolyn Kaster
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pauses during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2011.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pauses during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2011.
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.
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Palestinian Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmed (R) and Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq (L) in Cairo on April 27, 2011
Palestinian Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmed (R) and Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq (L) in Cairo on April 27, 2011
The signing ceremony was held as representatives of 13 Palestinian factions were present on Tuesday, AFP reported.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas attended the meeting.
"We signed the deal despite several reservations. But we insisted on working for the higher national interest," said Walid al-Awad, a politburo member of the Palestine People's Party.
"We have discussed all the reservations. Everyone has agreed to take these points into consideration," he told Egyptian state television.
"Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will be celebrating this agreement... We must now work to implement what was agreed in the deal," he noted.
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A bomb tore through a packed market in Baghdad on Tuesday.
A bomb tore through a packed market in Baghdad on Tuesday.
A car bomb tore through a cafe packed with young men watching a football match Tuesday in Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, officials said.
It was the first major attack since U.S. commandos killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, which struck a Shia enclave in a mainly Sunni neighborhood, but it bore the hallmarks of the terror network's chapter in Iraq. Al-Qaeda operatives have vowed revenge for bin Laden's death on Sunday.
Iraqi security officials said Monday that they were increasing security amid fears that insurgents would try to strike immediately following bin Laden's death as a way to show they are still a potent force.
Most of the dead and wounded were young people watching a football match, said police and hospital officials. A vendor selling food near the cafe also was among the 16 killed. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said 37 people also were wounded.
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.