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Saturday, March 17 2012 - 07:12 PM
Osama vs.Obama
From Joe Conason…
Documents retrieved from Osama bin Laden’s final Pakistani hideout show that during his final months, the late Al Qaeda chief conspired with his associates to kill President Barack Obama.
That discovery lends a satisfying touch of irony to Bin Laden’s own demise at the hands of a Navy SEAL team sent by the president. But the frustrated assassination plot, also puts the lie to several streams of Republican agitprop.
Al Qaeda had to eliminate Obama, wrote bin Laden in a 2010 memo first reported on Friday in a Washington Post exclusive, because he is “the head of infidelity” – an assertion that should authoritatively silence the right-wing paranoids who claim that the president is not a Christian, as he professes, but a secret Muslim.
More to the point, if Obama were the weak, ineffectual appeaser of Republican mythology, why would he have become the target of a plan to shoot down Air Force One? Administration officials told the Post that the plot was never a serious threat to the President because Al Qaeda lacked the capacity to fulfill it. Yet that didn’t quell bin Laden’s determination, expressed in demands that a terrorist named Ilyas Kashmiri “send me the steps he has taken into that work.” In a few words dispatched to his associates, bin Laden sinks the fundamental assumption of every foreign policy speech by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum.
It is possible to argue with the military and diplomatic approach of the Obama White House, from drone strikes to the Afghan surge to the Arab Spring, but bin Laden’s own writings show that by 2010, he feared the ruin of his jihad – and blamed a combination of Al Qaeda’s “mistakes” and American strategy. Obama’s intensified drone barrage had wiped out many jihadi “brothers,” lamented bin Laden – and despite the resulting plague of civilian casualties, he fretted far more about the damage done to Al Qaeda’s “brand” by its own history of depredations against innocents.
According to bin Laden, the propaganda tactics of the Obama administration were succeeding against Al Qaeda. Those tactics worked, he believed, because U.S. officials “have largely stopped using the phrase ‘the war on terror’ in the context of not wanting to provoke Muslims,” while prosecuting a war on Al Qaeda instead. So alienated were most Muslims from Al Qaeda that bin Laden wanted to abandon the tainted brand and rename his organization.
In those same memos, bin Laden paid the compliment of a death threat to General David Petraeus, because the then-commander of allied forces in Afghanistan was the “man of the hour” – and killing him might alter the course of the war. He also seemed to assume, strangely, that Vice President Joe Biden would be “totally unprepared” to succeed an assassinated Obama, leading the United States into chaos.
When the full trove of documents found in bin Laden’s Abbottabad lair is released, there will no doubt be many such peculiar remarks among its pages. What will remain central in the coming debate over Obama’s national security policy, however, is that American forces finally killed the leader of Al Qaeda, rather than the other way around. And one of the most powerful endorsements of that policy – proving it was anything but ineffectual over the past three years – can be quoted in the words of the vanquished enemy.
AV Town Crier says...
AVB
I agree with you on that. Perhaps it’s not too late to Nuke the shit out of Iran (like Bush should have done from the get-go.) Oh well, Maybe Israel will do it for us.
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Cagy Wolf says...
Easy to answer Ray, Obama dumb as he is on foreign and domestic issues, Biden is a real cretin.
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Cagy Wolf says...
So Ray, in comparison Obama is an Einstein in regards to Biden, he is a total idiot.
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Cybertariat says...
Far be it from me to promote the career of the capitalist class’ highest-ranking political errand boy – Barrack Obama, but the statement that Osama bin Laden “was the prime target during the Bush years” is actually quite inaccurate. In fact, during a press conference in or around 2006, then President George W. Bush stated something to the effect that he wasn’t at all concerned with bin Laden – that he – Bush – (and I paraphrase) didn’t spend much time thinking about Osama bin Laden.
Moreover, as the late John Patrick O’Neil (the former head of the FBI’s Counter Terrorism program) reported in 2001, the Bush administration ordered the FBI to “back off of bin Laden” earlier that year.*
* In response to the Bush administration’s order to “back off” of the search for bin Laden, John O’Neil resigned from the FBI in August of 2001. O’Neil was then hired to be the World Trade Center’s Head of Security. Ironically enough, however, his first day as the WTC’s Head of Security (9.11.01) was also the day that he died.
Good Evening.
Persevere.
Guy
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Cagy Wolf says...
Cyberdude copy and paste your proof on that subject of Bush not going after Osama. Since I know otherwise, there was at least ten attempts to get Osama that I know of. One attempt was by tomshawk missles where they expended several at $750,000.oo a piece. Another attempt was by covert style ambush using native tribes that were mercs, but untrustworthy.
More of your usual lies and nonsense Marsh,on the military channel they did a special detailing all the times that Bush failed to get Osama.
Either you are lying, very inaccurate in research (not surprising with your limited intelligence and education) or listening to the wrong people. Ten count them ten attempts were made by Bush to get Osama and thats just what is known, since covert special ops teams don’t advertise or discuss their missions.
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Cybertariat says...
Additionally, in light of a 2002 Frontline documentary entitled "[John O’Neil] The Man Who Knew, as well as other such investigatory work, O’Neil’s death was not likely to have been given to irony at all. Both Frontline and Covert Action Quarterly magazine noted that John O’Neil’s work as chief of the FBI’s counter terrorism program nearly uncovered the 9/11 plot and that that was the reason for his being told to “back off of” the effort to find Osama bin Laden. Simply stated, there exists a large body of evidence which suggests that Bush administration officials recognized that bin Laden was far more valuable to them alive than what he would have been had they seen to his assassination – that the administration allowed for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and that Osama bin Laden’s continued existence helped to justify the continued military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to an internationally respected expert with respect to international terrorism, author Jean-Charles Brisard, John O’Neil was ordered by the Bush administration to halt his hunt for bin Laden due to the administration’s then talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership respecting the possible construction of a pipeline intended to transport vast amounts of natural gas from the Caspian Sea through a number of countries – including Afghanistan.
Within Jean-Charles Brisard’s book Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden (Nation Books, 2002), John O’Neil states that, in June of 2001, the Bush administration told Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership “You will accept a pot of gold [in exchange for permission to build said pipeline], or you will accept a carpet of bombs.” The Taliban refused such permission later that same month. The terrorist attacks of 9.11.2001 unfolded some two months later, thereby killing the apparently pesky John O’Neil. And the United State’s bombing of Afghanistan began in early October of 2001.
(Those who wish to re-familiarize themselves with George W. Bush’s dismissive attitude toward Osama bin Laden may do so by way of conducting an Internet search while employing the words “george bush august 11 2006 press conference truly not concerned about bin laden” or something to that effect.)
Persevere.
Guy
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Sovereignty Soldier says...
First one would have to believe the original story of Osama being killed by Seals. For me to believe that I would have to ignore a lot of peoples quotes as well as a staged photo of Obama and Clinton, as well as the rest of the goons, supposedly watching it in real time. So dramatic is Shrillary with her hand over her mouth staring at a blank screen as there was no live feed when they entered. So if they are willing to stage a photo to influence peoples’ perceptions, would they not also print propaganda designed to influence peoples’ perception/reality? In fact Osama died years ago and has been used as a bogey man by US and foreign intelligence whenever they needed to commit a false flag attack to steer a nations legislation. Now they have the Muslim Brotherhood to use.
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Cagy Wolf says...
Again Bush made TEN attempts to kill Osama bin Ladin this was documented by the history channel in one of their specials. Early on the first attempts were to arrest if possible and then kill if it seemed they were unable to capture Osama.
While the internet is a great source of information, not all of it can be trusted. In fact in college many professors do not allow term papers to have internet sources for information.
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Cagy Wolf says...
For you Ray.
Hans Huckebein
- der Unglücksrabe (the unlucky raven) by Wilhelm Busch
English translation by Gabriele Kahn
Prologue
Sosehr sein Ende mich bewegt,
Ich durft’ es anders nicht vermelden. -
Er stirbt – denn tragisch angelegt
War der Charakter dieses Helden.
His ending moves me; only, mind,
A diff’rent one I can’t envision.
He dies – for tragically designed
Was our hero’s disposition.
Gar manches ist vorherbestimmt;
Das Schicksal führt ihn in Bedrängnis;
Doch wie er sich dabei benimmt,
Ist seine Schuld und nicht Verhängnis.
There is a predetermined fate,
And fortune seems to be essential;
But how to act, how to relate
- that is his fault, not providential.
Drum bleibt’s dabei! – Denn die Moral
Ist hier kein leeres Wortgeklingel -
Und lebte er auch noch einmal,
Er bliebe doch der alte Schlingel!
The moral, thus, remains unchanged
And is no empty declaration,
For if once more this world he ranged,
He’d be the same old aggravation.
Hier sieht man Fritz, den muntern Knaben,
Nebst Huckebein, dem jungen Raben.
Behold young Fritz, a lively lad,
And Huckebein, a raven cad.
Und dieser Fritz, wie alle Knaben,
Will einen Raben gerne haben.
And Fritz, like every other boy,
Would like a raven for a toy.
Schon rutscht er auf dem Ast daher,
Der Vogel, der mißtraut ihm sehr.
He’s moving closer on the limb;
The bird looks on, mistrusting him.
Schlapp! macht der Fritz von seiner Kappe
Mit Listen eine Vogelklappe.
Slap! Fritz converts his stylish cap
Into a clever raven trap.
Beinahe hätt’ er ihn! Doch ach!
Der Ast zerbricht mit einem Krach.
He’s almost got him! But, alack!
The brittle branch breaks with a crack.
In schwarzen Beeren sitzt der Fritze,
Der schwarze Vogel in der Mütze.
In juicy berries wallows Fritz
While in his cap the raven sits.
Der Knabe Fritz ist schwarz betupft;
Der Rabe ist in Angst und hupft.
The boy is speckled black, and dripping;
The bird is panicking, and skipping.
Der schwarze Vogel ist gefangen,
Er bleibt im Unterfutter hangen.
The raven, fluttering, and twining,
Is caught and tangled in the lining.
“Jetzt hab’ ich dich, Hans Huckebein!
Wie wird sich Tante Lotte freu’n!”
“Hans Huckebein, I’ve got you now!
Aunt Lotte will be glad – and how!”
Die Tante kommt aus ihrer Tür;
“Ei!” – spricht sie – “Welch ein gutes Tier!”
The aunt emerges from her door;
“This beast” – she says – “one must adore!”
Kaum ist das Wort dem Mund entflohn,
Schnapp! hat er ihren Finger schon.
Just as she speaks that fateful word,
Her finger’s mangled by the bird.
“Ach!” – ruft sie – “Er ist doch nicht gut!
Weil er mir was zuleide tut!”
“He’s bad!” – she cries out in alarm,
“Because he does me grievous harm!”
Hier lauert in des Topfes Höhle
Hans Huckebein, die schwarze Seele.
Who’s lurking in this gloomy cave?
Hans Huckebein, the jet black knave.
Den Knochen, den er Spitz gestohlen,
Will dieser sich jetzt wieder holen.
The bone on which the raven sits
Is claimed as property by Spitz.
Sie ziehn mit Knurren und Gekrächz,
Der eine links, der andre rechts.
They caw and growl, they hold on tight.
One’s pulling left, the other, right.
Schon denkt der Spitz, daß er gewinnt,
Da zwickt der Rabe ihn von hint.
While Spitz has victory in mind,
The raven pinches from behind.
O weh! Er springt auf Spitzens Nacken,
Um ihm die Haare auszuzwacken.
Oh dear! He lands on Spitz’s neck
To pull his hair, to pick and peck.
Der Spitz, der ärgert sich bereits
Und rupft den Raben seinerseits.
Spitz takes offense and, full of spite,
He turns to rip, and pluck, and bite.
Derweil springt mit dem Schinkenbein
Der Kater in den Topf hinein.
The cat, meanwhile, has snatched the hock,
And he escapes into the crock.
Da sitzen sie und schau’n und schau’n. -
Dem Kater ist nicht sehr zu trau’n.
They sit and stare, and that is that -
They don’t exactly trust the cat.
Der Kater hackt den Spitz, der schreit,
Der Rabe ist voll Freudigkeit.
The Spitz cries out – the tomcat claws;
The raven utters joyful caws.
Schnell faßt er, weil der Topf nicht ganz,
Mit schlauer List den Katerschwanz.
The crock is cracked, the tail sticks through;
He nabs it, and he pulls it, too.
Es rollt der Topf. Es krümmt voll Quale
Des Katers Schweif sich zur Spirale.
The crock is rolling on the ground;
The tail is twisted round and round.
Und Spitz und Kater fliehn im Lauf. -
Der größte Lump bleibt obenauf!! -
And Spitz and tomcat run away. -
The greatest scoundrel wins the prey! -
Nichts Schönres gab’s für Tante Lotte
Als Schwarze-Heidelbeer-Kompotte.
Behold Aunt Lotte’s choicest snack:
Blueberry compote, sweet and black.
Doch Huckebein verschleudert nur
Die schöne Gabe der Natur.
But Huckebein, unused to thrift,
Just squanders nature’s precious gift.
Die Tante naht voll Zorn und Schrecken;
Hans Huckebein verläßt das Becken.
The aunt descends in shock and wrath.
Hans Huckebein deserts his bath.
Und schnell betritt er, angstbeflügelt,
Die Wäsche, welche frisch gebügelt.
And tramples, on the wings of fright,
The ironed laundry, clean and white.
O weh! Er kommt ins Tellerbord;
Die Teller rollen rasselnd fort.
Oh, no! He leaps to save himself;
The plates are rolling from the shelf.
Auch fällt der Korb, worin die Eier -
Ojemine! – und sind so teuer!
The basket falls, the eggs are lost -
A shame, considering the cost!
Patsch! fällt der Krug. Das gute Bier
Ergießt sich in die Stiefel hier.
Splat! falls the jug, and now, oh dear!
The boots are drenched with foaming beer.
Und auf der Tante linken Fuß
Stürzt sich des Eimers Wasserguß.
The water bucket gets upset -
The aunt’s left foot is soaking wet.
Sie hält die Gabel in der Hand,
Und auch der Fritz kommt angerannt.
The fork is clutched in Lotte’s fist,
And Fritz comes running to assist.
Perdums! Da liegen sie. – Dem Fritze
Dringt durch das Ohr die Gabelspitze.
They fall. Young Fritz emits a whine -
His ear is punctured by a tine.
Dies wird des Raben Ende sein -
So denkt man wohl – doch leider nein!
This seems to seal the raven’s fate.
The fork is hovering… but, wait!
Denn – schnupp! – der Tante Nase faßt er;
Und nochmals triumphiert das Laster!
For – whack! – Aunt Lotte’s nose he nails,
And wickedness once more prevails.
Jetzt aber naht sich das Malheur,
Denn dies Getränke ist Likör.
Disaster’s on its way, for sure,
For this libation is liqueur.
Es duftet süß. – Hans Huckebein
Taucht seinen Schnabel froh hinein.
Inquisitive Hans Huckebein
Inserts his beak – this does smell fine!
Und läßt mit stillvergnügtem Sinnen
Den ersten Schluck hinunterrinnen.
Contentedly, he takes a nip
And wets his whistle with a sip.
Nicht übel! – Und er taucht schon wieder
Den Schnabel in die Tiefe nieder.
Not bad at all! – he thinks, and then
His beak submerges once again.
Er hebt das Glas und schlürft den Rest,
Weil er nicht gern was übrigläßt.
He lifts the glass and slurps the rest
Because the last drop tastes the best.
Ei, ei! Ihm wird so wunderlich,
So leicht und doch absunderlich!
This feeling is amazing,
So light, yet oddly dazing!
Er krächzt mit freudigem Getön
Und muß auf einem Beine stehn.
Quite merrily, he caws and crows,
Assuming a most graceful pose.
Der Vogel, welcher sonsten fleugt,
Wird hier zu einem Tier, was kreucht.
The bird, a creature of the wing,
Becomes a creeping, crawling thing.
Und Übermut kommt zum Beschluß,
Der alles ruinieren muß.
To be more rowdy than one should
Will ruin everything for good.
Er zerrt voll roher Lust und Tücke
Der Tante künstliches Gestricke.
He tears with a malicious jerk
Aunt Lotte’s artful needlework.
Der Tisch ist glatt – der Böse taumelt -
Das Ende naht – sieh da! Er baumelt!
The table’s slick – he flaps his wings -
The end is near – the villain swings!
“Die Bosheit war sein Hauptpläsier,
Drum” – spricht die Tante – “hängt er hier!”
The aunt speaks: “Malice was his bliss,
And that is why he hangs like this!”
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Cybertariat says...
To reiterate, Jean-Charles Brisard’s book Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden, Nation Books, 2002, 283 pages; the quarterly publication Covert Action Quarterly; Noam Chomsky’s book 9-11: Was There an Alternative, as well as other such publications are excellent sources of alternative information regarding Osama bin Laden – including the George W. Bush administration’s obviously disingenuous endeavor to neutralize bin Laden.
Too and again, to secure much-needed audiovisual confirmation of George W. Bush’s dismissive attitude toward bin Laden simply conduct an Internet search using the words “george w bush truly not concerned about bin laden press conference august 11 2006” or something to that effect.
Finally. Yes, Sovereignty Soldier, the individual who died at the hands of the US Navy Seal team last year may well not have been Osama bin Laden. But the point, I think, is that, with US combat involvement in Iraq having ceased and with like involvement in Afghanistan winding down, Osama bin Laden, like Saddam Hussein before him, had simply outlived his usefulness to the American political state. No longer was bin Laden an indispensable “boogeyman” – that which helped toward keeping a large segment of the highly gullible American public frightened and thus supportive of the political state’s imperialist wars and its concomitant war against the Bill of Rights. Therefore, in its at least propping up the illusion of its having killed bin Laden, the American political state scored a public relations victory by way of also propping up the illusion that it was safeguarding the American people. So I believe that your “Now they [representatives of the American political state] have the Muslim Brotherhood to use [as a boogeyman]” is really quite true.
Persevere.
Guy
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Cagy Wolf says...
Bush if you put it in the context of what Bush meant was that Osama was no longer the significant danger he once was, the poor bastard hid for years and caves and his big mistake was he wanted to enjoy the benefits of modern society.
No one will really know if it was Obama or not,its like the birthers and the 9/11 ers.
So?
Make a point.
Not using bits and pieces of Bush making a fool out of himself and with the liberal media only too happy to help. And as we all know the media only uses around 8 seconds of sound bites to keep us interested.
But I do agree about the muslim brotherhood, if you don’t make enemies or allow our allies to make them for you. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about the muslim brotherhood or anything else. This Iran having a nuke is unacceptable talk from both the democratic and the GOP is war mongering. I notice there wasn’t a big outcry or outrage when Israel spied on the USA to get nukes and I damn sure don’t remember hearing anything about the USS Liberty being attacked by Israel.
War should only be used as a mean to an end only in defense. What the USA today does is imperialism and nation building. Its like the nosy neighbor peeking in the window and stiring the shit.The USA should mind its business, help the people at home and fuck the world except those proven to be true allies. And we have few of those nowadays.
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avbornbred says...
All Americans, except the liberals, wanted Osama dead. He was the prime target during the Bush years and remained a prime target during President Obama’s first term.
Although the Obama Administration used politically correct terms as a liberal means of softening the war, Osama still remained a top target.
As for Osama’s plans to kill Obama, I am sure, whoever the president was, Osama would have made him a target.
One thing to remember about our enemies in the War on Terror, all of those groups have plans to attack the USA in a 911 type of attack, or something greater. The question is, do they have the means. That is why the rogue nations need to be hit, because they may fund such an attack using terrorist groups rather than risk a blatant open attack naming their own countries as being responsible. That would be suicide on a national level.
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