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JSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden
The team of US Special Operations Forces who killed Osama bin Laden in a pre-dawn raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan were led by elite Navy SEALS from the Joint Special Operations Command. Operators from SEAL Team Six, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or just DevGru, are widely considered to be the most elite warriors in the US national security apparatus.
Col. W. Patrick Lang, a retired Special Forces officer with extensive operational experience throughout the Muslim world, described JSOC's forces as "sort of like Murder, Incorporated." He told The Nation: "Their business is killing al Qaeda personnel. That’s their business. They’re not in the business of converting anybody to our goals or anything like that." Shortly after the operation was made public, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey called JSOC's operators the "most dangerous people on the face of the earth."
"They’re the ace in the hole. If you were a card player, that’s your ace that you’ve got tucked away," said Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was the Chair of the Joint Chiefs on 9/11, in an interview with The Nation. Shelton, who also headed the Special Operations Command during his career, described JSOC as "a surgical type of unit," adding "if you need someone that can sky dive from thirty miles away, and go down the chimney of the castle, and blow it up from the inside—those are the guys you want to call on." Shelton added, "they are the quiet professionals. They do it, and do it well, but they don’t brag about it. Someone has to toot their horn for them, because they won’t, normally."
JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, is an all star team made up of the Army's Delta Force, SEAL Team Six, Army Rangers and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the "Night Stalkers." JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. More recently, JSOC added a Targeting and Analysis Center in Rosslyn, Va, to its list of key facilities. For much of the Bush administration, JSOC was headed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Its job was to hunt down and kill individuals designated as "High Value Targets." McChrystal's successor at JSOC, Vice Admiral William McRaven, is himself a former SEAL. The current commander of SOCOM, Admiral Eric Olson, is a former SEAL Team Six commander. McRaven was recently been tapped to replace Olson as SOCOM commander. Several Special Operations sources have described for The Nation a very close relationship between President Obama and JSOC. Some allege Obama has used them to "hit harder" than President Bush.
Marc Ambinder described the bin Laden raid in his excellent report in the National Journal: "From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb ofAbbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers. After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap—boom, boom—to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by US forces."
It remains unclear what, if any, role Pakistan's military or intelligence forces played in the operation to kill bin Laden. US officials have said only that Pakistani intel aided the eventual operation. "We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan," said an unnamed senior Administration official. "That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel." The fact that bin Laden's compound was a stone's throw from a Pakistani military installation in an urban area raises disturbing questions about how Pakistan's military or intelligence services would not be aware of his location. As of this writing, the White House has not commented on this fact.
The US has a lengthy history of US Special Operations Forces conducting targeted kill or capture operations inside Pakistan. "I would like to point out one sensitivity of Pakistan and its people and that it's a violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan," former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told Pakistan's NDTV after bin Laden's killing was announced. "American troops coming across the border and taking action in one of our towns, that is Abbotabad, is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan." Musharraf's comments are ironic given that he personally made a deal with Gen. McChrystal to allow US Special Ops Forces to cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan to target bin Laden or other al Qaeda leaders. The so-called "hot pursuit" agreement was predicated on Pakistan's ability to deny it had given the US forces permission to enter Pakistan.
Both President Bush and President Obama have reserved the right for US forces to operate lethally and unilaterally in any country across the globe in pursuit of alleged high value terrorists. The Obama administration's expansion of US Special Operations activities globally has been authorized under a classified order dating back to the Bush administration. Originally signed in early 2004 by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, it is known as the “AQN ExOrd," or Al Qaeda Network Execute Order. The AQN ExOrd was intended to cut through bureaucratic and legal processes, allowing US special forces to move into denied areas or countries beyond the official battle zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gen. David Petraeus, who is poised to become director of the CIA, expanded and updated that order in late 2009. "JSOC has been more empowered more under this administration than any other in recent history," a Special Ops source told The Nation. "No question."
SEAL Team Six also carried out the operation that killed the Somali pirates that hijacked the Maersk Alabama in April 2009. They flew from a discreet US base in Manda Bay, Kenya. "If it comes down to putting sharp shooters up on the deck of an aircraft, and making sure that first shot doesn’t miss, who do you want to do it?," asks Gen. Shelton. Referring to Team Six, he adds: "they’re deadly accurate."
The vast majority of JSOC's missions are highly classified and compartmentalized. In some cases, JSOC operators have conducted operations without informing the combatant commanders of their presence. "Only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance," a senior Obama Administration official said shortly after bin Laden's killing was announced.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, has alleged that then-Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld often circumvented the traditional military command structure in how they used JSOC. "What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing," Colonel Wilkerson told me in late 2009 for a story about JSOC in Pakistan. "That's dangerous, that's very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don't tell the theater commander what you're doing."
Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. "I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good," said Wilkerson. "I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions." He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld "built up initially because Rumsfeld didn't get the responsiveness. He didn't get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse's mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch--read: Cheney and Rumsfeld--wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier."
While JSOC--and the Navy SEALs in particular--will become legendary in a much broader circle as a result of the bin Laden killing, the secretive unit has had its share of controversy. JSOC forces were responsible for the botched rescue that ended up killing British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Afghanistan on October 8, 2010. JSOC also carried out a raid in Gardez, Afghanistan in February 2010 during which two pregnant women and an Afghan police commander trained by the US were killed. In that case, senior Afghan security officials and eyewitnesses claimed that US forces dug the bullets out of the dead women's bodies. Initially, JSOC's forces tried to cover up the incident by blaming the killings on a Taliban "honor killing." Eventually, Admiral McRaven took responsibility for the botched raid and apologized to the family.
Several Special Ops sources say that President Obama has taken concrete steps to once again integrate JSOC more fully into the broader US military strategy globally. The bin Laden operation, which was done in concert with the CIA, seems to be evidence of that. The primacy of JSOC within the Obama administration's foreign policy--from Yemen and Somalia to Afghanistan and Pakistan--indicates that he has doubled down on the Bush-era policy of targeted assassination as a staple of US foreign policy.
For links to The Nation's complete coverage of Osama bin Laden's death, click here.
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186 Comments so far
Show AllJSOC did 9/11. Means. Motive. Opportunity.
Nope. As long as we are inventing scenarios, it makes a tighter wrap if the Mosad were to wire the bldgs, keeping the real estate thing in one bag.
[But it all plays out like a movie---Isreal gets a US presence in the middle-east, Riyad gets the US bases out and dollar-denom oil, oilcorps get Iraqi oil, AQ gets to hit Great Satan, neocons get the Patriot act, landlord gets the insurance, corp and def dept looters get their investigations crushed, MIC gets a blank check, minor actors get security posts on the dole, conspiracy buffs get hours of outrage, and we're off to the races.
Nineleven was either the greatest example of evil genius the world has ever known, or just the only way such a system could manifest itself...like a recipe makes a cake.]
The JSOC has patriotic, honorable people who understand their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution, but could be fooled just like many others have been, myself included, into obeying illegal orders. More likely 911 scenario... they were used after the fact to take out anyone who could point to the chain of perps, in much the same way torture (ineffective for actionable intel) might be used, not to find terrorists, but to cover tracks and destroy witnesses. Re: nineleven, possible they trusted the wrong people for what, to them, were the right reasons. SNAFU.
Things get real muddled when oil is power and corporate mindset runs the country.
If near accurate, such would be a sad misuse of a great nation and an honorable military.
As for this hit, might get interesting if OBL left a few letters around...and only 2 more years until the JFK files are opened!
Oh, well. There's a new sheriff in town---climate change. Stay tuned.
JSOC did 9/11. Mossad are only their "business" competitors.
..."JSOC as "a surgical type of unit," adding "if you need someone that can sky dive from thirty miles away, and go down the chimney of the castle, and blow it up from the inside—those are the guys you want to call on."
"and blow it up from the inside—those are the guys you want to call on."
"Translation: We Cheat."
Frankly, so? Seriously? At some point you need to have people that are professionals like this to do work like this.
" If you take a 'double-tap' to the face, there isn't a whole lot left to identify."
Usually there is plenty to identify with. Whatever happened to that kid in your pic is not a single shot to the face, that came from behind the head and it was probably a shotgun up close or he had some explosive in his mouth for some reason.
"A body which was conveniently and unceremoniously dumped in the Med. Preventing positive ID by outside agencies."
OBL's body was taken to an aircraft carrier, swabbed for DNA, photographed and then buried at sea by placing him in a weighted bag and sliding him off a board after a chaplain had said some words over him in Arabic through a translator.
"Inside the target compound, which led to a fire that consequently burned the entire compound to the ground. Convenient, no?"
The compound seems pretty good right now. It certainly wasn't burned to the ground.
"Odd that the CIA backed (and controlled) ISI never spotted anything odd about that."
The CIA might *wish* it controls the ISI but it does not. I believe that some in the ISI well knew where OBL was for the past few years.
"We reserve the right to kill anyone, anywhere, for any or no reason at all. Just because we can.
"They have a free hand, and we will do -anything- to cover up their atrocities."
Attacking a compound and killing 4 or 5 people out of 25 seems like it wasn't that much of a blood bath.
" These killers are reserved for the exclusive use of the President to dispose of anyone who pisses him off."
Who do you think should control a team like this if it is not the president?
You seem to be getting more and more shrill and unbalanced Galen. Good luck. You seemed like a good enough guy, but the paranoia is getting a little much even for you.
"At some point you need to have people that are professionals like this to do work like this"
Why would you need that? For what purpose? To serve which corporate master? The only thing I need these "professional" murderers for is a war crimes trial.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels."
*****
In truth, it's the first.
Our Nobel Peace Prize winning Corporate Goon in Chief can snuff you out anytime he wants. Law? Justice? He don't need no stinking law. He is justice. He don't need no stinking trial mucking up his decisions. Might is right. Greed is good. God Bless America. USA! USA! USA! WHoooo, WHoooo, Whoooo!
Disgusting.
....and unsustainable.
And most of the postings re: OBL really truly reflect why this is 'The Loony Left'...hahaha
Really. A Smurf.
That's the best handle you could come up with. Did you lose the coin toss for Pred duty today, or something?
Gawd, the boys in Langley are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for trolls these days.
"They decided to outsource the trolling..."
Yep and it is going to get more sinister than a few "piecework pipsqueaks", (e.g., Booze Allen Hamilton, Mandiant, HBGary).
You'll never need a colonoscopy as long as you can see your own polyps, Mr. Asmurf.
The "Loony Left"? You mean the Radical Right, don't you?
"The Loony Left was a pejorative label used in the campaign for the United Kingdom general election, 1987, and subsequently, both by the Conservative Party and by British newspapers that supported the Conservative Party. The label was directed at the policies and actions of some Labour Party controlled inner-city local government authorities, and some Labour Party politicians.
The general theme that the "Loony Left" idea embodied was twofold: Labour Party local government authorities were:
1) irrationally obsessed with minority and fringe issues
2) paranoid about racial and sexual "problems" that are wholly imaginary on their parts and that have no real existence."
1 and 2 describes the Radical Right in America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loony_left
Jessica Lynch anyone? I don't believe the official story. Its more likely he died of natural causes... unless he did a Kenny Boy.... Chris Hedges pointed out this event won't sit well with our "enemy" and will likely result in more violence.
Pat Tillman is another good one. They just fabricated a story and fed it to the media, who of course reported it dutifully. Then, years later, they admit they just made it all up. I bet this one will play out in a similar fashion.
Hollywood will have a blockbuster coming out real soon about this story. Maybe Ben Affleck will star in it, along with Tom Cruise. They will be glamorized as heroes with beautiful chicks on their sides, driving big trucks, and getting into bar fights on their days off. I'm sure they will find a way to attach a real heart tugger of a love story in there too.
The media hologram-machine must continue to spin the illusion...
On a serious note: I feel like a stranger in a strange world - stuck in a world where I'm wide awake and nearly everybody else around me is living in a trance-like stupor and believe every-single-god-damn-lie that their corrupted gov't tells them. This country is doomed because the majority of the people in this country are about about as smart as a pile of sheep dung! "Four legs good, two legs bad!" Sure is easy pickings for those fucking pigs on top of that hill in DC..
if they do film this fiction, I hope they find a better OBL look-alike than the one they used in the 2001 "confession" video.
Osama was dying of kidney failure 10 years ago.
maybe he gave himself a transplant with a boxcutter.
Notice all the "Americans" using a boxcutter on reality?
Well, take this, truth-terrorists...
CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July
French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital
Anthony Sampson
The Guardian, Thursday 1 November 2001 03.17 GMT
Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.
Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.
The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.
Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".
The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there.
Washington last night also denied the story.
Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since they first began in 1994.
Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.
According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and between western allies.
A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information while giving little in return.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/nov/01/afghanistan.terrorism
I didn't read past the first paragraph of the article as it disturbs me.
I personally do not have any problem that our government went after Osama Bin Laden and even killed him in a fire fight, but I do have a big problem of them using Seals.
Our US Navy has been trainigng porpoise to locate underwater mines and even destroy them and thereby the resulting explosion kills the innocent porpoise. Now apparently they are using seals to kill humans.
I don't believe that should be done. There is no reason a human could not have been sent to arrest Bin Laden. In fact since Bush Jr is a Texan, why didn't he send a Texas Ranger to do the job ten years ago instead of starting an illegal war with Iraq?
The Animal Rights people should file an official protest.
We can expect no less living in a Horse's Assocracy.
Next thing you know Obama (or Sarah - hey, it could happen) will appoint a horse to the Senate. We'll truly be living in a Hippocracy then.
Please stop insulting horses. The equine is a noble being with way to much dignity to serve in the US congress.
The Senate is already loaded with jackasses
Think of what could have been done with a herd of trained walrus, could take out Gadaffi too.
i agree wayne............seals should only be living in the wild (or in sea parks balancing balls on their noses) the use of these defenceless creatures to kill humans will only result in long-term ptss. i'm going to write to 'peta'................
Wonderful post. I can't stop laughing.
I recently heard that Saddam is still alive and a double was hanged in his place. I don't remember thousands of Americans going out on the streets celebrating the death of anyone before. People should try to think beyond their first reflex. Everyone agrees there will be retaliation against the U.S. but going out on the streets to celebrate their leaders death will only motivate more recruits for the terrorist and make life more dangerous for us all. There are so many questions: Will they retaliate against U.S. troops in AIPLY ect.. and will more troops be needed for another surge? Where will the surge be in Afghan or Iraq. Will we need to invade Pakistan. After all Afghanistan was attacked by the U.S. for harboring Osama bin Laden. Will pregnant women and children under five get their food aid cut out completely in the GOP budget or the environment protection cut completely to pay for us to retaliate against their retaliation?
I don't believe Saddam is alive.. He did hang out there for awhile.
"JSOC has been more empowered more under this administration than any other in recent history," a Special Ops source told The Nation. "No question."
Change we can believe in, indeed.
JSOCpuppets.....
I would have expected better from Jeremy Scahill...but after all Democracy Now! never was courageous in covering 9/11. David Ray Griffin made a very convincing case that OBL died in Dec. 2001 and this with iterated by most of the Intel Agencies. I believe his death was also reported in the Pakistani Times at that time. All the subsequent OBL videos released were proven fake. Perhaps this was the time to give the "War on Terror" a boost and divert attention from Obama's other problems.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177927.html
Thanks for that link dancer.
JSOC links to 9/11:
JSOC Man Lead To 9/11 Intercept Failure.
Michael Canavan (JSOC/FAA)
The hijack coordinator at FAA headquarters, Lt. Gen. Michael A. Canavan, had been in his position for only nine months and would leave the job within a month of 9/11. Surprisingly, although Mike Canavan was mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report, he was not cited for his role as the FAA’s hijack coordinator, a role that was at the center of the failure to intercept the planes on 9/11.
...In early 1998, Canavan participated in reviewing a CIA plan to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. He was then the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military’s counterterrorism operations and covert missions. He objected to the plan, saying it was too complicated for the CIA and “out of their league.”
...As part of his job, Canavan is the FAA’s hijack coordinator, responsible for requesting military assistance in the event of a hijacking.
When he first started the job as FAA’s hijack coordinator, just nine months before the attacks, Canavan was in charge of running training exercises that were “pretty damn close to the 9/11 plot,” according to John Hawley, an employee in the FAA’s intelligence division.
In his comments to the 9/11 Commission, Canavan denied having participated in any such exercises and the Commission apparently didn’t think to reconcile the conflicting comments it had received from Hawley and Canavan on this important issue.
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=mike_canavan
It's like 911 all over again...some completely implausible event takes place just in time to boost the political fortunes of a new fascist president...and the crowd goes wild! Pretty pathetic.
TSA! TSA! TSA!
"...sort of like Murder, Incorporated..."
Does anything more need to be said?
Assassination is not "warfare", nor "defense", nor "honorable"...
These "soldiers" should be ashamed to be compared to "...Murder, Inc...", and instead, I'm sure they take a perverse pride in the moniker.
This is what it means to be "American" today, huh...?
No thanks... I renounce my "citizenship". I'd rather be a man without a country.
At least my "countrymen" aren't murderers.
Another thought...
Has any other "Peace Prize" recipient gotten to announce he ordered an assassination?
I think Barak has scored yet another first!
If Bin Laden had been alive these past 10 years the CIA would have sniffed him out , but only kept his name around to give Bush a boost when needed, and now Obama. One way to take our minds off the neverending unnecessary wars, and the murders of Gadhafi's family. Some people will believe anything just like Bush's Iraq weapons, and jump on the band wagon. If Laden had okayed the oil pipe line, no 9/11 -OUR Reichstag as an excuse to invade Afghanistan, . Revenge comes into play when you say NO to a BUSH.also it the the CIA who formed the Al Qaeda, and had the Taliban on the payroll.
Come on COMMON DREAMS. Get this garbage off your site. No one is falling for it.
>>"If it comes down to putting sharp shooters up on the deck of an aircraft, and making sure that first shot doesn’t miss, who do you want to do it?," asks Gen. Shelton. <<
First of all, I'd like someone in charge who knows the difference between an airplane and a boat.
"They’re the ace in the hole. If you were a card player, that’s your ace that you’ve got tucked away,
As you can see, The Nation magazine is willing to feature empire propaganda at the top end of its articles, without one iota of criticism. But it's actually very easy to criticize. The Merkan black ops took ten years to achieve their diabolical goal, a goal to advance an imperial agenda that nakedly violates international laws and domestic laws of the land. Justice is not served but is squelched. So the karmic boomerang is on its way back, yet again. And, not surprisingly, the evil SOBs are waiting to use the next round of imperial blowback, yet again, to further expand their oppression of the Merkan people and everyone else.
"JSOC: The Black Ops Force That Took Down Bin Laden"
The above statement includes some truth to it (JSOC is a Black Ops Force - i.e. no morality, no funding limitations, no decency, no accountability, no honor).
The rest is a big fucking lie. The only thing these groups have taken down is dignity in the American soldier. Sure, they've killed lots of people. A lot of the victims probably hated the USA too. If you think that has helped the USA or the human race, you are pathetic. Their ONLY purpose is to stir up MORE hate against the USA so the MIC can get more repeat business. That's why we pay almost 50% of our taxes. These murderers need lots of money to function.
The US Government, like the Soviet Government, has a credibility problem. Everyone knows they are are pack of liars but, since the government has a pack of ruthless murderers avaiiable to deal with dissent, everybody just goes on about their way like mafia wives.
We are going the way of Soviet Russia. Hopefully, our transition will be as bloodless as theirs was. Hopefully, we will transition to something other than a reshuffled Oligarchy.
This whole cooked up story about JSOC and OBL is pure Hollywood fabrication. The PR people are hard at work trying to invent new heroes for Americans to worship.
Here's a snippet from the following linked article about how much "truth" to expect from our government and the military:
http://www.counterpunch.org/wilson04292011.html
"This is obvious in the selective careerist- and agenda-ridden assertions to portray a false picture of events to the American public about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Recent examples from every level of command are:
Americans were told Iraq was invaded to locate and destroy weapons of mass destruction. It was a lie.
Americans were told former National Football League star Army Ranger Sgt. Pat Tillman died fighting the enemy. It was a lie.
Americans were told Army Spc. Jessica Lynch fired her M16 rifle until she ran out of bullets and was captured. It was a lie.
Americans were told repeatedly the rebellion against our military presence in Iraq was defeated and "security was improving.” It was protracted lying punctuated by a daily diet of exploding bombs and mutilated bodies until massive cash payments to the Sunni Arab opponents bought cooperation.
Despite numerous classified and unclassified accounts of brutality meted out to prisoners of war and the civilian population by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan - reports that describe the chain of command as aware of the abuses but routinely ignoring or covering them up - not a single general officer was called to account.
In 2010, Americans are told Iraq is a “democracy,” when in reality, Iraq is mired in corruption and violence, its oil is in Chinese hands, and Iran, not the United States influences Iraq’s political destiny.
One can go on, especially now about Afghanistan, but surely the point is made: as the American people are told the conjured tales of the policy advocates, the senior military command stays silent; in fact, some assist, even fabricate, deceptive rationalization further underwriting deafening silence."
LIES, LIES and MORE LIES to get
MORE and MORE MONEY for the MIC!
May 2, 2011 1:56 AM EDT
International Business Times
Osama Bin Laden Never Charged For 911 - Inside Job likely
"Osama Bin Laden's death is being celebrated, and everyone seems to repeat the old conspiracy theory that he was indeed the mastermind behind the terror attacks of 9/11. But that was never proven, and there is not even evidence hinting at such a connection according to the FBI. It is very well possible that completely different organizations than al-Qaeda were responsible for the planning and execution of 9/11, and that the latter was merely one of the involved parties."
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/140099/20110502/osama-bin-laden-never-charged-for-911-inside-job-likely-wtc7.htm
"different organizations than al-Qaeda were responsible" ... JSOC.
Is anyone else's Bullshit-O-meter sounding off like a tsunami siren? If not I wold suggest removing your head from... well, you get the picture.
Interestingly, one week ago we were hearing alleged threats from alleged terrorists that, if OBL is killed or captured, they will unleash a nuclear terror storm. Sounds to me like Obama Bin Slippin (in the polls) is finally looking at election 2012. But please, who keeps a joker up their sleeve?
Osama has been dead for years - at least a year before Benazir Bhutto was murdered. I think he died long before that or the Pentagon wouldn't have had to whip up so many fake videotapes of him. Even the most recent photograph of his alleged corpse doesn't even remotely look like the greying beanpole we know OBL to have been.
Beware of military 'exercises'.
That's a good thought. I'll tell you one other thing though. Like Saddam, it doesn't matter that OBL is dead. We're not gonna withdraw the troops from Afghanistan or Iraq except when replacing them with mercenaries, errr contractors. KW, I think we're all gonna have to kill not only the tellies but maybe Faux/Huffpost side of the Internet if you know what I mean. By the way, I had a chance to check out some more rightwing blogs, most of them also using DISQUS, and I can't believe that Foxnation is getting 2-3 as many people as the major liberal blogs put together unless I'm missing something. With Huffpost and Dailykos being still too popular, most of the blogs degenerating into celebrity and pro Big Brother stupidity, and the rightwing blogs and major forums getting more viewers and posters, I'm afraid the Internet is going the way of the tellie even as we speak. The people on this site were right all along. Our bs-o-meters may be going off but who's listening to us let alone following up on it? I'm sorry but I've lost all hope ahead. By the way, it looks like those military exercises are already up on us all in all sorts of shapes and forms but until it hits and hurts each and every one of us, we're as good as sheep and cattle.
Hey Max. Long time no see. I haven't seen you around Alternot in quite awhile, although I spend a lot less time blogging these days also. Like you, I'm starting to lose hope. I just don't have the energy to even care what bullshit is coming out of both ends of the political beast. I'd be interested in hearing more about the last sentence in your post if you have any info.
Thanks KW. As much as I would try to walk around the cultural issues, I can't. African Americans are able to better sense the dominance of our US military based on what they've been through. Now I won't say that just because we're white that we're automatically "privileged" but they're suffering more and unless we were in the same boat, it's not going to be easy for us to be aware of it. Or let's take those recent labor union protesting events. People who work in non-union jobs and think they're ok usually won't join them unless they either develop a class conscious or their job suddenly goes sour on them. Then it feels like a military exercise against them. There are plenty of other examples too. I have no doubt that the MIC has and will continue to snatch away at our hard work and use it against us.
About Alternet, quite a few people asked me about it and a couple of them wondered if I was banned. I'm not banned at least according to everything so far but it appears that my account was one of the victims of the DISQUS glitch of death. The techs did what they could to get my account back to working status and I went ahead and did a couple of test posts recently but still no go. They were surprised that my comments had vanished just like that. They're trying to see which moderator might have removed and why. I think it's most likely technical and not a moderator who's doing it. I don't say controversial things much on Alternet and even that event about me taking one of Quannah's posts because I had agreed with it and passing it off I had apologized for doing that. Usually, I acknowledge other people's posts and take their ideas and blend them with my thinking where I think it's possible. But Q is the type who'd go along with pb and tus on their lynching games as if this country were doing hunky dory. I have nothing personal against them and I like their posts when they don't get personal and talk about the issues straight. I don't think any of them are "moderators" or mmckinl would have been gone a long time ago. I knew that no Alternet moderator could have possibly considered banning me unless he or she had a personal conflict of interest and I seriously doubt it even though a couple of people told me that they likely exist. If my account gets back to working order, then great. If not, I'm not the type who will go for a new one. I know I could and I've others do it but I'm not that type no matter how far pb tries to frame me as if I were a "sock puppet creator" which the moderators already know I'm not having seen my record. That same pb who tried to accuse me of creating him here last year in fact ended up coming here when he couldn't resist chasing me and strangling me about my past employment and calling me a "baby killer". I wished that I could have worked at reforming DISQUS than doing my IT programming in my former places of employment for one thing. I think that I would have been able to program DISQUS to be less buggy.
It just doesn't get into such people that our system is rigged to where millions of Americans are forced to choose between goodwill and survival. If everyone could be well off and retire at 50, Corporate America and the Military Industrial Complex wouldn't be having control of our economic lives. Two years ago on this site I let it out that the company I was working for was related to military and suddenly I was looked at as if I were a "terrorist". It took time to clear it up and get some calming down but I reconciled and we ended up getting better discussions on such matters. Q and pb couldn't resist exploiting my weaknesses.
I'm looking back at all my discussions now and then in the past and think that my greatest weakness was trying to be nice to everyone although I did it so that I could perhaps be one of those to find a way to wind down the war between the practical and the ideal. I wished Alternet and CD could unite but looking at the degrading articles on Alternet, that seems to be out of reach. I've had that weakness throughout my life but I think that came as I was trying to improve. Looking at Alternet right now, there might be one or two articles I wouldn't mind going back to comment on but otherwise, I feel that it's going more the way of Huffpost with most of the articles and discussions themselves getting too partisan or corny.
I miss you and most others on Alternet but I just feel that Alternet has become too different and that if I go back, I have to look out for the lynchers who'll just look at my name and do their war baiting and lynching as usual. I dunno but I think nobody likes to see that and I'm not sure the lynchers will listen. Judging people by their name and not what they say I've long gotten over but the lynchers haven't and it's as if they have some special rights. There's nobody to step in and help resolve conflicts and it makes some of us feel like the rightwing and the military are watching us and laughing at us. But that's not all. I've been to one too many rightwing blogs getting horrified at the way posters would call for the worst forms of militarism. On most of those sites, comments usually await "moderation" and DISQUS has that feature too.
Maybe I'll come back to Alternet or maybe I won't. I'm still taking a "vacation" from it and letting the Alternet/DISQUS people see what's wrong with my account. The odd thing about Alternet is that the longer I am away from it, the more foreign it looks. I was winding down in March itself when I had seen that site change in odd ways. I hope that something gets done to improve Alternet and DISQUS. From what I'm told, DISQUS works well with other sites. Perhaps Alternet is more highly popular that DISQUS was not designed for such. The older commenting system was much better.
I'm sorry if I ranted too much. I miss the good old days on Alternet prior to March where I think it started to go downhill.