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Bin Laden’s Crimes, and Ours
I always rejoice at the death of a mass murderer, and Osama bin Laden was definitely a mass murderer. He killed 3,000 people here on 9/11, and he killed more than 300 in August 1998 in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
So I understand the sense of relief or closure or even triumph that many Americans feel today.
But it’s worth grappling with precisely what it is that bin Laden did, and why it is that Americans are chanting “USA, USA”.
What bin Laden did was to use violence as a ready tool to advance his purposes.
What bin Laden did was to wantonly sacrifice the lives of innocent people in service of those purposes.
In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than William McKinley was in the Philippines.
In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than Harry Truman was when he dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than Ronald Reagan was when he funded and trained the contras against Nicaragua or backed the Salvadoran military against the rebels there.
In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than Lyndon Johnson was in Vietnam.
In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than George W. Bush was in Iraq.
Oh, there is one big difference: bin Laden killed far fewer innocent people than any of those U.S. Presidents.
So, when you examine the righteous triumphalism than many Americans are feeling today, it comes down to this: We’re not against using violence as a ready tool to serve our purposes; we’re not against wantonly sacrificing innocent lives; we’re not even against mass murder.
We’re only against it when violence is used against us.
We’re only against it when ours are the innocent lives being sacrificed.
We’re only against it when we’re not the ones committing the mass murder but are the victims of the mass murder.
This understanding puts a creepy edge on the rah-rahs of today.
Until we renounce violence as a convenient tool, until we stop sacrificing innocent lives, until we no longer excuse the mass murder that our own government commits, we’re not in much of a position to celebrate.
And spare me Obama’s talk of “justice” being done. That’s exactly the same phrase Bush used after U.S. forces gunned down Saddam Hussein’s sadistic sons, Uday and Qusay.
It’s not “justice,” as we’ve come to revere it in this country: a system that upholds due process and habeas corpus and assumes the innocence of the accused and allows for trial by jury.
No, what Obama and Bush were talking about was rough justice or frontier justice.
The word “justice” should not adorn an assassination.
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84 Comments so far
Show AllSince Osama is dead, Amerika will be vociferously declaring that the evil, murderous Khaddafy is crowned the new bogeyman. Look for US boots on the ground in Libya soon to replay the SEAL team murder of the new bogeyman.
With the chanting Amerikans and the fawning corporate media whipping up the fervor, Barry's re-election campaign is off to a great start..
Indeed, I wondered if the effort to steal precious Libyan resources was one of the prime motivations for Sunday's OBL gambit by Obomber. Probably not the only one, but certainly a factor.
This is not about Libyan natural resources. This is about "global" banking much more powerful and insidious.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD14Ak02.html
I believe that Osama was executed at this time to distract from Obama's killing of Gadhafi's son and grandchildren.
AMEN, Matthew
hold it cracker - if bin laden is so guilty then why is it that the fbi say they have no evidence connecting him to 9/11
he is wanted for bombings in the 90's
when everyone, including rothschild, knows how much the government lies why would they believe this crap. buried at sea indeed, but don't worry we got the dna...
can u say psyop
we know bush and cheney lied us into the wars for oil - another lie by obummer doesn't make the fairy tale true
if rothschild dances on the graves of mass murderers he is going be doing the jig when bush gets it, cheney, rummy, powell, rice, feith, et al get it - now we're talking terorists!
Not only buried at sea--but shot in the face-- and the stories have been all over the place as well--bring him in alive, shoot to kill. Burned his supposed compound, constructed next to a military center (and looks like a military construction job) that didn't have any phone or electric, but they found a treasure trove of intel on his computer...I thought the whole thing reeks as well--and just a continuation of royal weddings and stupid old popes as saints -- to keep the folks entertained and distracted or to boist up those tanking polls.
Don't forget Obomber. He's in it up to his eyeballs too. I noticed Rothschild didn't include him in his comparisons to OBL.
Rothschild should have continued on with
"In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than Obama in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya..."
Why would he end the continuum with W?
Why begin with Truman? Washington with his ethnic cleansing of the First Americans and all those that have followed, except maybe Coolidge during the 1920s committed mass murder that meets definition of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.
It began, of course, before there was a nation and a president. Go all the way back to Columbus, a slave trader and murderer who committed genocide. For reasons I can't understand, we still honor this imperialist monster each year with his own holiday.
Everyone, look at the ground beneath your feet, and realize that there is hardly a spot which at some time has not been stained by human blood. That is how the United States was created- by plunder and killing- and how it has been maintained, and the rest is myth and wishful thinking.
Columbus was such a monster that the Spanish relieved him of all administrative authority in the New World . And we honor him!
The game is not over--pity Americans when the bombs start dropping--we have enough nuclear reactor targets to quickly turn most of the United States into a barren radioactive wasteland. Karma is a bitch.
Jack East, Good point, the continuum does start with the landing of the europeans on american soil.
Rothschild should have continued on with
"In this regard, bin Laden is no different a mass murderer than Obama in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya..."
Why would he end the continuum with W?
Bin Laden killed three thousand people here in 2001? The FBI never charged him with that crime; they say there is no evidence that he was involved. Some day the cumulative weight of all the public lies and scams that we are forced to endure may finally come crashing through the barrier of denial maintained by so many of our credulous fellow citizens.
Tony Vodvarka
Yes, indeed, abvodvarka! To this day, the FBI does NOT list the 9/11/01 terrorism as one of bin Laden's many crimes because they do not have solid evidence linking him to it. See FBI — Ten Most Wanted http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten and FBI says it has “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13664.htm
Listen to this five-minute interview with former CIA agent Milt Bearden, recorded on 9/12/01:
CIA veteran doubts the bin Laden story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn61PJQGCUo
Most USans don't remember, or never knew, that in Oct. 2001 the Afghan Taliban offered bin Laden to Bush if Bush could supply evidence of bin Laden's complicity, but Bush refused, TWICE. And the Taliban even offered bin Laden to Bush BEFORE the 9/11/01 terrorism, in Feb. 2011, but Bush refused.
See YouTube - BUSTED Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden in February 2001 BUSH REJECTED OFFER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv5AKw6gwXg
U.S. rejects Taliban offer to try bin Laden - CNN
http://articles.cnn.com/2001-10-07/us/ret.us.taliban_1_abdul-salam-zaeef-surrender-bin-taliban-offer?_s=PM:US
Bush rejects Taliban offer to surrender bin Laden - Asia, World - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bush-rejects-taliban-offer-to-surrender-bin-laden-631436.html
Why do so many prominent progressives, such as Rothschild, still promote the official 9/11 story of 19 Muslim hijackers armed with box cutters evading the most sophisticated and extensive air defense system in history piloting jetliners into buildings, with WTC Building 7, NOT EVER HIT by any plane, but containing FBI, CIA, and SEC offices, imploding and collapsing into its own footprint at freefall speed.
Why do they still ignore the statements, on video, of firefighters and other first responders that they heard explosions in the three WTC towers before they imploded into dust at freefall speed?
Why do they still ignore the more than 1,400 architects and engineers who have looked at the evidence of controlled demolition of these three WTC buildings and then called for a new investigation of 9/11?
Have all these progressives been intimidated into compliance for fear of their careers, or worse?
There it is, Ed. As long as there are no answers to these questions, those who govern and those who preach from their podiums in the press and mass media, will have no credibility. The social contract has been shredded by the banksters, capitalists, and their political enablers, and the tremendous internal crime of 9/11 was the match that burned to ash its torn up pieces of paper.
People like Rothchild mystify me. Rather than players in any vast conspiracy, they are, I'm convinced, in a state of deep denial as to the real problems we face. They are like the members of a family that has suffered terrible abuse at its intimate core who simply cannot admit to themselves the horror that is their lives. We are dealing with cognitive dissonance of the worst sort, and on a truly massive scale. And such individuals as Rothchild, Hedges, Van den Heuvel and others, in their desperate need to escape the horror, immediately grab at opportunities, such as the latest act in the world wide Bin Laden shadow play, to convince themselves yet again that all is normal and that the evil is external.
Unfortunately I am very pessimistic as to how this will play out in the long run. I sense the imminence, perhaps not immediately, of cataclysmic, fratricidal violence, as our inner demon demands release. I hope I'm wrong.
One small quibble, Clovis, I believe that Chris Hedges recently endorsed the call for a genuine investigation of the events of 9-11. I can't imagine a more forthright critic of American politics and society than Hedges. He has the same pessimistic view of the near future that you just expressed and which I share.
Thanks, Tony, and I do hope you're right. I expressed the same wish concerning Hedges in one of yesterday's threads, finding my hope in a few small signs I'd seen in Hedges' recent writings and frequentations. I think he's an excellent, eloquent writer with a keen moral and ethical sense and therefore a natural leader of those true progressives who see through the smokescreens of distractions and public spectacles. So I think we're all pretty much on the same page. Peace.
Indeed. We can never move forward without first coming clean. Many are held hostage by the likes of those you just mentioned. Until they speak, many will not know.
On so-called 'progressive' radio stations, all has been 'see, Obama did what Bush never did, he got the baddie!', and woe betide those who do not work for MiniTrue and kept their recollection of the events, not the version hammered constantly into the citizenry's collective non-memory. To be part of the 'responsible' conversation, one can't bother with reality. Like the Bush admin before it, the current lot make up their own reality, or continue in line with that invented by their predecessor.
I also say "bravo!" Matthew. A few of you authentic and courageous journalists are willing to call it as it is in the real world. We're as guilty of the same atrocities and transgressions against humanity as the people upon whom we drop our bombs or program our drones. Even more astonishing to me than hearing of bin Laden's death two days ago was seeing the ignorant, myopic "USA, USA" cheering and celebrating the murder of another human being. What do you want to bet those are very same the anti-abortion, pro-life supporters too?
One minor detail that I too would have liked declared: President Obama stands in the same ugly line as McKinley, Johnson, Bush, Truman and Reagan. Otherwise your article is perfect.
Sorry, Elizabeth but "We're as guilty . . ." is a very broad statement.
Many of us are marshalling our energies to end The Death Culture.
We're still guilty, purssun. Although marshelling our energies is a step in the right direction, we've not done enough, and for that we must share the guilt. You cannot be a truly proud American until the murders in our name stop.
And Clinton is an exception?
Yup, a glaring exception - at least a hundred thousand dead in the bombings and starvations or Iraqis and more with the bombings of Serbians, Somalis, and a key pharaceutical plant in Sudan.
And what about Carter? He winked and nodded at Suhartos ongoing slaughter in East Timor and Indonesia, and responded to Archbishop Romero's entrieties with a "take a hike", bring the term "death squad" to common usage.
Mass murderers all.
Boy oh boy, it didn't take long to answer the question the media has been asking since OBL was killed in Pakistan, namely; Why now and in Pakistan??
The seminal question of not the how, but the WHY of the successful USA assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan --- embarrassingly close to their West Point equivalent --- was a big part of the US corporatist media's attention, focus, and speculative excitement about the killing of OBL.
But the bigger WHY question is why the media is focusing (and shaping) the attention of average Americans on this WHY of WHY now, and more pivotally --- WHY Pakistan.
Well, it didn't take long to parse and understand this seminal question!
The WHY NOW part of the question is tied directly to Thomas Barnett's 2004 Naval War College book (and plan), "The Pentagon's New Map", which book clearly lays out the strategy for the disguised global Empire, which has taken over and is now posing as our former country, to also TAKE-OVER the "Gap" countries along a 5000 mile swath from Mauritania to the very boarders of India and China --- and for that disguised global Empire to have the cover-story of needing to use its "Leviathan" military force (with "whatever means necessary") to guilefully con the American people into accepting (and even cheering for) the next supposedly essential military intervention beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria --- ie. to go into PAKISTAN with both feet.
The supporting question of WHY THERE (in Pakistan) is that OBL was found and killed in PAKISTAN while being supposedly 'protected' by PAKISTAN's military and ISI forces is, of course, to engender in the ever gullible and PR-deluded USA prole-citizens, the hate and FEAR of Pakistan, and specifically its supposedly untrustworthy and DANGEROUSLY NUCLEAR ARMED military and ISI ("country within a country") forces that might at any instant attack the US "Homeland" with known nuclear capability ---- leaving the only warning as a "NUKULAR" SMOKING GUN MUSHROOM CLOUD.
In other words, our dear leader, Obama, is using Osama's death in Pakistan as the 'triggering mechanism' for precisely the level of nationalism fear and terror that Bush, Cheney, Powell and others in the cast had to work much harder to falsely produce with the non-"nukular" Iraq --- but this time with the issue of the US population already fully aware that Pakistan is a nuclear power --- and now with the easy PR jump to the conclusion that Pakistan must be eliminated as a threat.
Boy oh boy, has the science of PR trickery and false-flagging to start wars evolved a long way from the days when all Hitler had to do was have a few of his soldiers dress-up in Polish Army uniforms and make a phony attack on a German radio outpost to start WWII.
http://www.truthandliberty.com/False-Flag_Attacks.html
So, as Mae West humorously cautioned her next would-be boyfriend, "hold onto your hat, this may be a bumpy ride".
Yes, folks, we now should all understand why the killing of Osama happened HERE (Pakistan) and NOW (Mayday 2011) --- the Revolution by this disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE which controls our former country by hiding behind the facade of its bought and owned TWO-Party modernized Nazi "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government and Goebbelesque media is about to "lower the boom" --- and you can be sure that this time the "lowering of that boom" will fall not only on the heads of Pakistanis, but also on our's.
As Hannah Arendt presciently warned from her painful experiences with the last Empire that tried to take over the world and eliminate a portion of its own citizens:
"Empire abroad entails tyranny at home".
Hang-on fellows, this is going to be a bumpy ride indeed.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty & democracy over violent empire -- People's Party 2012
PS. Keep an eye on the number of TV specials and "two-minute hates" the focus of which is now going to be Pakistan, and the number of supposed foreign policy experts from places like the supposed 'think-tanks' like the "Center for a New American Security" (being featured this afternoon, for god's sake, on C-Span, of all places) that will be running the "two minute hate" sessions on Pakistan.
http://www.cnas.org/
And be sure to remember that "war is peace", "freedom is slavery", and most importantly that "ignorance is strength" (at least for the Empire).
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
"'I have no wish to take life, not even human life,' repeated Boxer, and his eyes were full of tears."
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 4
Outstanding analysis, Alan. Perhaps your best ever.
My perceptions also went immediately along those lines. The media is charging whole-hog to divert all understanding and enflame the chaos. Even yesterday's "Democracy Now" seemed to dance around margins of legitimate issues to trumpet the genius of Osama's "takedown"and hasty disposal.
"..Even yesterday's "Democracy Now" seemed to dance around margins of legitimate issues to trumpet the genius of Osama's "takedown"and hasty disposal."
Heh-heh.
Alan--
Your clear-eyed analyses of the Osama murder charade cut through the "Goebbelesque media" celebrations with precision. I would only add that Barry and his handlers did a magnificent re-election campaign stunt to get the masses on board for another four years of corporate give-aways and the coming increased crackdown on civil liberties heading our way here at Empire central.
I have to admit, alan, that the scenario you paint is, unfortunately, quite plausible.
Thank you for your sharp, incisive analysis, Alan. I don't think I would have noticed this without your pointing it out, and it makes TOTAL sense.
Also, kudos to Ed & Clovis. With so little Truth in evidence across the mainstream media, we must keep the ember Lit in this forum... and hope that the glimmers of light penetrate the enveloping darkness that's become a seemingly permanent cloud of aggression-fueled deception hovering over our nation. Not enough see through its density...
This orgy of celebration over the (unlikely now) death of the "bad guy," is like watching a C-rated movie that too many take for reality. In film when something outlandish is portrayed, the audience is said to enter into a state of "suspended incredulity." Apparently something like that is seizing the sentience of many (otherwise thinking?) people. We who watch from the sidelines feel alienated... as seeing through the lies puts us into almost a "Separate Reality" status. We know that far better could be asked of citizens, but not when dis-information campaigns become ubiquitous (and well-funded), and subtle forms of mind-control, the norm. Even in this forum, a few defend the official narratives in spite of so much compelling evidence to the contrary. Curious, that...
Is there no one who can ask questions left in journalism today? Just a bunch of silly parrots?
What proof do we have the OBL was the one who was killed? Who authorized his body to be thrown into the ocean?
Why did they not capture him if any of this rubbish is true?
They knew where OBL was since August 2010? And what is the outcome? An assassination? Was that their intention? If not, what was their intention? Why no indictment for the crime he has been accused of?
Why can't so-called "journalists" ask basic questions? Bizarre!
Where is the proof of this story? Why should we believe another tall tale from the US government? Unaccountable, proven pathological LIARS!
But none of the "journalists" served up to us ask a SINGLE question. They repeat the story, relentlessly, as if they were part of the machine!
Here's another question they might consider, Stiv:
Will talking heads roll if Osama bin Laden decides to give to the world - from a cave somewhere, not from the great beyond - another DVD on the internet?
I won't be surprised if that happens.
That! was my first thought! on hearing the body would be so quickly disposed of! Every big shot has doubles, even our Great Leader, in the dark they shot the wrong guy, even a two miniunte DNA test proved it and now they got to lose teh body!
heh heh
>^^<
Come on people. You're supposed to be informed. Osama bin Laden died years ago. The tapes that get released around election time were ALL bogus, and used to sway your vote. Obama wants to play along with the myth and take credit for something he had nothing to do with. Fine. If you think adults should believe in Santa Clause, then go along with the ruse--but don't forget the whole narrative, from Osama's box-cutter wielding fanatics to his demise is mythology.
Come on downtownwalker. It doesn't really matter (except to his family and friends) whether OBL is dead or alive.
OBL is not indispensable. His organization, if there is such a thing, will carry on in either case.
What matters to the US government is its people's perception of his death. If many believe he has been killed, and are pleased with that, then the government looks good in their eyes. Apparently this is the case.
Whether OBL, or a double, appeared before, or appears again on the internet, hardly anyone can know for sure.
If he or a double appears again, there will certainly be doubt about the government's story of his death in the minds of some present-day believers, and so to some at least, the government's story of his death will look ridiculous.
For this reason we should not be surprised if OBL, or a double, appears again on the internet.
I posted this under the Associated Press article "US Says bin Laden's Death Does Not End Afghan War" on CD today, but I'll repost it here, as it addresses some of your questions. Something is fishy here, and I was wondering too, if it was really Bin Laden, and why now. But if it's true that:
a. the US has known for three years where Bin Laden was, and
b. WikiLeaks has just published it,
it all makes sense:
The Guardian alleges that the US may have known three years ago that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/03/osama-bin-laden-abbottabad-hideout
The Guardian says that "WikiLeaks released the report last week, prompting speculation that the US, afraid that its planned raid might be pre-empted, brought forward its attack."
More likely, it was more convenient to have him alive than dead - after all, why keep the war going if the alleged reason for the war is gone? And three years is a lot of time to plan and execute a raid - why did they wait till now?
The best explanation seems to be that, since the information has become public, sooner or later somebody would ask the obvious question - if we know where he is how come we are not arresting him? So he had to go.
Couldn't they have captured him alive and brought him to justice? Like Robert Fisk says: "In the old days, of course, "justice" meant due process, a court, a hearing, a defence, a trial. ( . . . )
"But a court would have worried more people than Bin Laden. After all, he might have talked about his contacts with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, or about his cosy meetings in Islamabad with Prince Turki, Saudi Arabia's head of intelligence. Just as Saddam – who was tried for the murder of a mere 153 people rather than thousands of gassed Kurds – was hanged before he had the chance to tell us about the gas components that came from America, his friendship with Donald Rumsfeld, the US military assistance he received when he invaded Iran in 1980."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-was-he-betrayed-of-course-pakistan-knew-bin-ladens-hiding-place-all-along-2278028.html
I've personally also long wondered if the U.S.' s old friend Osama was paid to become the big bogey man after 9/11, allowing us to invade a few countries for our own ends. I suspect that something, maybe Wikileaks, maybe the growing resentment of the American people at the economy and lack of jobs, etc., and an election coming, made someone decide this was "the" time to "kill" bin Laden, as 9/11 was the time for that event. If so, all the more reason I don't believe bin Laden was killed in this raid, just a stand-in.
Consider what 9-11 led us into:
It provided G.W. Bush with an excuse (even though it was invalid) to begin an illegal and immoral war of aggression with Iraq (the equivalent of an NFL lineback starting a fight with an 80-year-old woman) , a war in which something like one million innocent civilians were killed, something like five million innocent civilians were turned into homeless refugees, and the infrastructure of Iraq was thoroughly ruined. Further, it gave Bush an excuse (also invalid) to make torture an accepted instrument of American practice.
So, when I hear Americans chanting "USA", "USA", because we have killed Bin Laden, I am thoroughly disgusted, even though I hold no sympathy for Bin Laden. I also think claims that "justice" has been meted out are thoroughly self serving.
Jim Shea
I am digusted, disappointed and thoroughly disenheartened that we have learned nothing and evolved even less after ten years of blood shed and the pillaging of global resources in the name of retribution.
garden, it has been way more then just 10 years. Remember we put the brutal Shaw in power for Royal Dutch Shell in '53 because he was going to do something beside sell his oil to the British. I think it started in the US with the birth of this Nation when we started pillaging the Native American's lands and we haven't stopped since. But I am with you when you say you are thoroughly disheartened that we have learned nothing. We haven't learned anything sine we crawled out of caves. IMO
I've seen no evidence of any justice, post-9/11. But the opium trade is booming once again, and we have that to be proud of, since the Taliban had shut down Afghanistan's production, and now US military protects the growers. Proud to be an American?
Matthew:
You lost me at "He killed 3,000 people here on 9/11".
That elephant of unsubstantiated premise, stated by you as fact, disembowelled the remainder of the article.
That is the "elephant" in the room. That without a trial no one can ever weigh the evidence.
Obviously what the USA wanted: Bury him at sea so the Muslim world will not have a gravesite to visit their martyr but he can continue to provide the USA with the myth they need.
Not exactly the SEALs best day. Unless they went to murder him! Probably the best sourse of Al Queda intel there is? and these brave, trained, Soldiers didn't just shoot him in the leg? C'mon what a bone-headed stupid mistake! unless it wasn't
Damall I miss the days you could take someones word at face value at least! :(
>^^<
We took revenge. Revenge is not justice. It is a primitive form, but one easily understood by tribal people, for revenge is the tool that governs relations between extended families and tribes. Properly done, bin Laden should have been captured and turned over to an international tribunal. There, unfortunately for us, all the sins of our presidents might also be up for review, as would the actions of Israel, which exacts revenge against terrorists by bulldozing the homes of their families. That is the true spirit of revenge. Like we just did to Gaddafi's kids and grandkids in Tripoli.