As is usual in these situations, information is now coming out that many of the details surrounding the killing of bin Laden, such as that he was armed and was killed in a firefight, were false, which makes his killing highly problematical. Other lies were that he used his wife as a shield and that he lived in luxury in a palatial mansion. No doubt this was part of a propaganda effort to discredit bin Laden in the eyes of his admirers by portraying him as a soft and cowardly hypocrite, not a warrior. It turns out that though the compound was large, the house itself was modest with not even air-conditioning, and much of the land was used to grow vegetables and keep chickens and a cow.
Another false story surrounded the photograph of Obama and his national security team staring intently at something. We were led to believe that they were watching a live feed of the raid on the bin Laden compound, perhaps even the shooting of bin Laden himself. Now that story has also been thrown into doubt since it has emerged that the feed went dead for about 25 minutes after the raid began. It turns out that even the photos that appeared in the next day’s papers of Obama speaking to the nation were staged after he had actually finished speaking.
At this point, all that I am willing to believe is that 80 commandos arrived in three helicopters of which one was destroyed, they killed bin Laden and two other people and wounded a woman, captured some computers and documents, and dumped his body into the ocean.
No offense, but the the term “lies” is unwarranted.
Here is what happens: something confusing happens (the raid).
Conflicting stories emerge. The administration gives the story, but many of the facts are wrong.
They then issue corrections. Note that corrections went out within 48 hours or so.
The truth has to be pieced together from a mosaic of conflicting stories; at this time there is no evidence that there were any lies, though there were certainly some preliminary inaccuracies.
i’m all up for conspiracy theories as much as the next guy but IMO this whole things has been beaten to death conspiracists refuse to accept our government could get something right.
the initial secrecy following the death followed by his body being dumped at sea the same day, plus his lack of photo evidence was too much for many impatient conspirators to handle.
truth is all the secrecy, lack of photo release etc was to not further enrage a culture that we have spent many years pissing off.
Mano, I’m disappointed in you. That InfoWars site looks pretty kooky, and a lot of the links in their story don’t back up their claims. The speech photos were indeed staged, but the reasons seem more practical than nefarious.
I am sure that the media amplification of this death will include a large dose of propoganda on both sides of this ideology war.
One example is the news that Bin Laden had a large stash of pronography. The war on terror is really a war of ideas and I feel that the USA (which gives so much money and aid to Pakistan) is beginning to get on top of the terrorists.
I just hope the USA doesn’t make too many propoganda statements in the press which are later retracted because this makes our country look so bad and only serves to boost the terrorists cause.
Just my two cents worth.