Sunday night, President Barak Obama announced the US had found and slain Al Queda leader Osama Bin Laden. Sometime over the next 24 hours, Bin Laden's body was dumped in the ocean, we are told, with all the necessary ceremony. The US would soon release pictures of the corpse as proof of his death.
Monday, we were told that Bin Laden had died in a firefight in which he had been actively engaged. Tuesday we were told he had been unarmed but close to weapons. Wednesday we were told there were weapons in the room and the Navy Seals had been fired upon by one individual in the guest house. For an entertaining synopsis visit The Evolving Story at Macleans Blog. The story kept changing and the newly revised versions appear to be morally damaging to the US. Finally, we were told that no photos would be released.
The US has a grand tradition of secrecy that ineptly attempts to cover episodes of breaking the same international law and customs it seeks to hold other nations to. Obama has pledged to end all that and he began with Guantanamo Bay. Suddenly, as he catches the most notorious terrorist out there, his administration is behaving in the old eyebrow raising fashion. Here are some of the possible questions and troublesome theories the handling of this affair seem to be raising.
Why was Bin Laden shot if he was, indeed, unarmed and the president was overseeing the mission in real-time, as he claims?
The operation was a kill operation from the beginning. The US wanted Bin Laden dead rather than alive to avoid certian perceived international complications. US convenience trumps due process and justice for all.
Bin Laden was not killed, but captured, and the US wants the free rein they can afford in an interrogation that nobody knows is happening.
Why was the body, the only irrefutable proof of death, dumped at sea? If the appropriate ceremony was followed, where is the cleric? Why isn't he being interviewed?
To avoid the creation of a shrine to a martyr that may incite further terrorist events. Interviewing the cleric may give away the location of the sea burial.
To avoid having to show a body that does not exist because Bin Laden is alive. There is no cleric because there was no burial.
Why are the photos, the second most reliable form of evidence, not being released?
To avoid the grim spectacle being presented repeatedly in public.
To avoid inciting further rage against the US.
Because they don't exist since Bin Laden is still alive (they may be released when the CIA are finished with him.) On that note, it is incredulous that US would pass up the chance to capture and unarmed Bin Laden for interrogation unless there was something they wanted covered up.
Because they present damning evidence to the US and cannot be appropriately doctored in a way that won't be noticeable.
Why does the story keep changing?
Because US sources are inept and can't get the story straight.
Because the story is fabricated and there are elements in the original release that can be easily proven to be false.
The big question is, what the heck is the administration doing? Chances are, Bin Laden actually is dead though international law and moral codes were broken to do it. Why is the US again being secretive and raising a spectre that will only give rise to new conspiracy theories as some of the possiblities above suggest? No one is coming out of a secret ops mission on foreign soil, politically unscathed. Why not just be open, take the criticisms as the come and stonewall with the necessity of ridding the world of a monster, and be done with it.
Unless, of course, there actually is something more damning to cover up...
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