Book bombshell: Obama canceled Bin Laden 'kill' raid three times at Jarrett's urging

(daily caller)President Barack Obama walks with senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on June 2, 2012. (YURI GRIPAS/AFP/GettyImages)

At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears. In ”Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,“ Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.(MORE) UNBELIEVABLE: ‘More Than 20 Navy SEALS From The Unit That Killed Osama Bin Laden’ Die In Helicopter Crashif they knew where he was for so long then why didn't they capture the dude alive? I understand why Obama wasn't so itchy to kill the guy, but then why not capture him? It would of been better to humiliate Bin Ladin. By martyring him they hurt the cause. Update: US chopper crash (Valley News, Aug 06, 2011):

A NATO helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Saturday killing 31 U.S. special-forces troops, including more than 20 Navy SEALS from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, and 7 Afghan commandos.
It was the deadliest single combat incident for American troops in 10 years of war, according to an American official.
The operators from SEAL Team Six were flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regimen, according to U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because families are still being notified of the loss of their loved ones.
One source said the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and his handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew.
The sources thought this was the largest single loss of life ever for SEAL Team Six, known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

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MSNBC has changed its article from this:

“A NATO helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Saturday killing 31 U.S. special-forces troops, including more than 20 Navy SEALS from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, and 7 Afghan commandos.”
(Google this and see for yourself.)

To this…

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- 31 US troops die in Afghanistan; many from unit that killed bin Laden (MSNBC, Aug 6, 2011):

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama said Saturday that the deaths of Americans in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan are a reminder of the “extraordinary” price the U.S. military is paying in the decade-long Afghan war.
A military helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy SEALs unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, along with seven Afghan commandos. It was the deadliest single incident for American forces in the decade-long war. How many actually participated in the bin Laden raid was not known.
U.S. officials believe that none of those who died in the crash had participated in the bin Laden raid, although they were from the same unit that carried out that mission, two officials told The Associated Press. They spoke about matters of military security on condition of anonymity.
Obama, who learned of the incident at Camp David, issued a statement saying his thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who perished. The White House had no comment about the details of who died or what happened.
“Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan,” the president said. “We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied.”
Obama said he also mourned the loss of seven Afghans “who died alongside our troops in pursuit of a more peaceful and hopeful future for their country.”
National security adviser Tom Donilon first notified Obama of the incident shortly after 8 p.m. ET Friday. The president spoke again to Donilon later Friday night and received a paper briefing both that evening and Saturday morning.
Obama issued his written statement just shy of 10 a.m. Saturday. A half-hour later, Obama, at Camp David, was briefed via conference call by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, White House chief of staff Bill Daley, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, Donilon and members of the president’s national security staff.
One source said the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and his handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew.
The sources thought this was the largest single loss of life ever for SEAL Team Six, known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
A brief statement from the presidential palace said the helicopter had crashed in central Wardak province, an area west of Kabul. The volatile region is known for its strong Taliban presence.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai “shared his deep sorrow and sadness” with U.S. counterpart Barack Obama and the families of the U.S. and Afghan victims, the statement said.The Taliban claimed to have shot down the troop-carrying Chinook helicopter during a firefight. The Islamist group also said in a statement that eight insurgents had been killed in the battle.
NBC News quoted a Taliban spokesman as claiming the U.S. troops were attacking a compound that was housing militants when the aircraft was brought down. However, the Taliban has been known to make exaggerated claims in the past.
‘Enemy activity in the area’
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the overnight incident and said there “was enemy activity in the area.” But it said it was still investigating the cause. The alliance was conducting a recovery operation at the site, it said, without releasing details or a casualty figure.
“We are aware of an incident involving a helicopter in eastern Afghanistan,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a NATO spokesman. “We are in the process of accessing the facts.”
The helicopter was a twin-rotor Chinook, which are used for transport, said an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Chinook was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, a military source reportedly told the New York Times.
Gen. Abdul Qayoom Baqizoy, police chief of Wardak, told the Times that the joint NATO-Afghan operation began around 1 a.m. Saturday with an attack on a Taliban compound in the village of Jaw-e-mekh Zareen.
He said the resulting firefight lasted at least two hours.The majority of foreign troops in Wardak, which comes under ISAF’s eastern regional command, are American.
The Washington Post reported that a second coalition helicopter made a “precautionary landing” Saturday in Afghanistan’s Khost province. Brockhoff, the NATO spokesman, said the helicopter sustained minor damage and no injuries were reported. He rejected Taliban claims that the second aircraft had been shot down.
Aircraft crashes are relatively frequent in Afghanistan, where insecurity and difficult terrain make air travel essential for coalition forces transporting troops and equipment.There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year. Most of the crashes are attributed to pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures. However, the coalition has confirmed that at least one CH-47F Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade on July 25, injuring two crewmembers.
Growing unease
The incident comes only two weeks after the start of a gradual process of handing security responsibility from foreign forces to Afghan troops and police, and at a time of growing unease about the increasingly unpopular and costly war.
That process is due to end with all foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but some U.S. lawmakers have already questioned whether that handover is fast enough.
The crash was by far the worst incident of the war for foreign troops and easily surpassed the worst incidents of battlefield losses.In April 2005, another CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed, killing 15 U.S. servicemen and three civilian contractors. Another Chinook crash in June the same year killed 17 U.S. troops.
U.S. and other NATO commanders have claimed success in reversing the momentum of a growing insurgency in the Taliban heartland in the south, although insurgents have shown a worrying ability to adapt their tactics and mount major attacks in other areas.
Video: Mullen: ‘We’re moving in the right direction’ in Afghanistan Those gains, however, have come at a price, with 711 foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2010, easily the deadliest year of the war for all concerned since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed foreign troops in late 2001.
The crash in Wardak means that at least 374 foreign troops have been killed so far in 2011, more than two-thirds of them American, according to independent monitor www.icasualties.com and figures kept by Reuters.
Despite the alarming military toll, ordinary Afghan civilians have continued to bear the brunt of the war, with civilian casualties also hitting record levels in the first six months of this year, according to U.N. figures.Earlier on Saturday, Afghan police said a NATO airstrike killed eight civilians in southern Helmand province on Friday.
ISAF confirmed there had been an airstrike in Helmand’s Nad Ali district and said it was investigating whether civilians had been present at the time. Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, is the deadliest province in Afghanistan for international troops.
Civilian casualties caused by foreign troops hunting Taliban fighters and other insurgents have long been a major source of friction between Kabul and its Western backers.
Nad Ali district police chief Shidi Khan said the airstrike was called in after insurgents attacked ISAF troops in the area.

Arianna Huffington Defends Mitt Romney On Bin Laden, Calls Obama Ad 'Despicable'

(ThinkProgress?) In 2007, Mitt Romney injected himself into the Democratic primary campaign and criticized Barack Obama for vowing to go after “high-value intelligence targets” in Pakistan with or without permission. Romney said “I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours.” Here was the August 4, 2007 headline from Reuters:

In April 2007, Romney said, “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” Last May, President Obama ordered the raid that killed bin Laden and last week, the Obama campaign produced a video highlighting the president’s decision, while noting Romney’s 2007 comments.
The Romney campaign attacked the ad, claiming it was trying to “divide” the country.” And this morning on CBS’s The Early Show, the Romney campaign got an unexpected supporter, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington:

HUFFINGTON: I agree completely — I agree with the Romney campaign. I think that using the Osama bin Laden assassination, killing the great news that we had a year ago in order to say basically that Obama did it and Romney might not have done it, which is the message. … I don’t think there should be an ad about that. … [T]o turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do. It’s the same thing that Hillary Clinton did with the 3 a.m. call. You know, you are not ready to be commander-in-chief. [...]
HOST: In a campaign aren’t you supposed to tout the accomplishments of what you’ve done?
HUFFINGTON: But this is not just what this ad did, does. What the ad does is questions, if we’re talking about the same ad. … It quotes a snippet from Romney in ’07 and uses that to imply that Romney would not have been decisive. There’s no way to know whether Romney would have been as decisive. And to actually speculate that he wouldn’t be is to me not the way to run campaigns on either side.

Watch the clip:


Huffington doesn’t seem to think it’s fair to speculate what Romney would have done as president based on what Romney said he would (or in this case wouldn’t) do. But the ad is stating two basic facts. One, that Obama ordered the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader and two, that Romney said in 2007 that he wouldn’t have done the same. So is it really “despicable” to wonder whether a President Romney would have ordered the raid on bin Laden given that he said he wouldn’t do it while campaigning for president?

...but Obama did the right thing, and Romney is wrong. Obama pushes fake 1967 borders and Romney dodges the question when it is his responsibility. The Mormon church does not technically support Israel... in fact their church believes it is the new Israel, but I will vote for Romney just to send a message of payback to a man who creates so many lies designed to convince us that our enemies aren't religious.

Pentagon claims it has no records of Osama bin Laden’s death?

look... I've never been a huge fan of conspiracy theories. my natural inclination is skepticism... but this is very odd. The Obama administration might be projecting what they think was the normal behavior of a administration based on what they "think" the Bush administration did, but it is obvious that Obama is less transparent then the GOP ever were.

(MFS OTHER) Chutzpah ! Pentagon claims "has no records of Osama bin Laden’s death".(CPO).Obama touts the Navy SEALS’ raid and killing of Osama bin Laden in his hideaway compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, as one of, if not the greatest, achievements of his administration. Reportedly, the administration even disclosed details of the raid to Hollywood for an upcoming movie, •Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

The movie is scheduled to be released — SURPRISE! — on October 12, 2012, within a month of the presidential election.

Joseph Straw •reports •for the N.Y. Daily News, Aug. 11, 2011, that the CIA defended its collaboration with the maker of Zero Dark Thirty. CIA spokesman Preston Golson said that such collaboration with filmmakers has precedent and is part of the CIA’s “public outreach.” Despite the CIA’s insistence, Congressman Peter King (R-Long Island), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has demanded that the Pentagon and CIA inspectors general investigate whether the agencies breached policy in this case, in particular whether the filmmakers saw classified material or got access to personnel working under cover.

Given that, it is curious, to say the least, that, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Associated Press, •the Pentagon says it has no records — not one photo, not one video, not even an e-mail — of bin Laden’s death?
Richard Lardner •reports •for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 15, 2012:

Government officials have openly discussed details of the mission [to kill Osama bin Laden] in speeches, interviews and television appearances, but the administration won’t disclose records that would confirm their narrative of that fateful night. •The Associated Press asked for files about the raid in more than 20 separate [FOIA] requests, mostly submitted the day after bin Laden’s death.

The Pentagon told the AP this month it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden’s body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden’s body on the Navy aircraft carrier where the al-Qaida leader’s body was taken.

The Pentagon said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, •or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden’s body if he were killed.

It said it searched files at the Pentagon, U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., and the Navy command in San Diego that controls the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier used in the mission.

The Defense Department told the AP in late February it could not find any emails about the bin Laden mission or his “Geronimo” code name that were sent or received in the year before the raid by William McRaven, the three-star admiral at the Joint Special Operations Command who organized and oversaw the mission. •It also could not find any emails from other senior officers who would have been involved in the mission’s planning.

Note: WantToKnow team member Prof. David Ray Griffin, in his book •Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?, lays out the extensive evidence that bin laden died in December 2001, and that since that time Pentagon psyops had been keeping him “alive” with fake videos and audiotapes to maintain a crucial pretext for the ever-expanding “war on terror.” •Could it be that the Pentagon will produce no records of its purported “death raid” because in fact it will reveal major manipulations involving bin Laden’s death?
On August 6, 2011, •three months after the supposed killing of bin Laden, 22 members of the exact same •Navy SEALS Team 6 •who had conducted the Abbotabad raid •all died in a helicopter crash •in Afghanistan.Dead men don’t tell tales.Read the full story •here.

Wikileaked: Bin Laden NOT Buried at Sea

...or was it? RT.com by way of Drudge (Boker Tov): Bin Laden not buried at sea, body moved on CIA plane to US. (image via Gothamist) The body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland],” an email says.
The official version is that the body of Al-Qaeda’s top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper Muslim ceremony.
"If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes," Burton commented in another email. Eichman was one of the masterminds of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. He was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and, tried in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean.
"Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic],"Stratfor CEO George Friedman replied.
"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX's do, with OBL's pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck,"Burton says in another message.
In another missive Burton says Osama’s body “is a crime scene and I don’t see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”
WikiLeaks began publishing Stratfor emails in late February. The archive was obtained by the hacker group Anonymous, which successfully attacked one of the firm’s servers. More than 5 million emails were apparently stolen.
Stratfor is a US-based intelligence firm called the “shadow CIA” by some media. Among its clients are several US agencies and many big companies. The company relies on paid tips from informants placed in high circles of business, government and security all around the world.

Pakistanis vow to complete bin Laden's mission to kill Jews in Liberal Western Massachusetts

this is close to home. We have many Mosque's near Poughkeepsie NY.

From New England Town Crier.

Some Pakistani’s that have settled in Hampshire County may not share the views of the vast majority of their countrymen and fellow Muslims – that Bin Laden was the greatest Muslim hero since their prophet himself and that his death by the ‘Jew controlled Western powers’ must be avenged.
Pakistani Taliban in New England?

...@Hampshire Mosque...
image via amherstma.gov

Information found in Bin Laden’s home revealed that many Pakistani students (i.e. Taliban) have already been sent to America to plot attacks on Amtrak train routes that run thru Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and into many other small towns in New England. These Taliban students often sign up for a class or two at an American college in order to secure a temporary visa. Once in the United States they instantly become full citizens by marrying nice Muslim women provided by their community, who themselves may have just petitioned for citizenship.
Fortunately the members of the Hampshire Mosque follow “a middle path, a path of moderation” and the Western Massachusetts community can be sure that these tolerant, peace loving Muslims will do everything they can to eliminate hateful people, prophets, or other leaders who advocate violence and the killing of Jews, Christians, or other unbelievers…
… just as soon as they explain Dr. Hazratji’s exhortations to Muslim students last year to unite against nefarious Jews and the fitna that they cause in the world, and to become good Muslims by following their prophet’s Sunna by engaging in violence and warfare, whether they liked it or not.

And yet we continue to import them. This is not going to end well.
H/t: Creeping Sharia via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Former Egyptian special forces officer appointed new al-Qaeda chief

Washington, 18 May (AKI) - A former Egyptian special forces officer has been chosen as the new leader of Al-Qaeda following the shooting death of Osama Bin Laden earlier this month, CNN reported.
Saif al-Adel has been a prominent player in the upper ranks of the terrorist organisation, the report said, citing an interview with Noman Benotman, who was once a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a militant organization that used to be aligned with al Qaeda, but in recent years renounced Al-Qaeda's ideology, CNN said.
Benotman based the information on personal communications with militants and discussions on jihadist forums.
Al-Adel, is also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, the report said. According to Benotman, he was annointed the new Al-Qaeda chief because of a strong desire by jihadists to have a new leader to replace Bin Laden following his death on 2 May.
The decision to appoint Al-Adel ass "caretaker" leader belonged to six to eight leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, CNN said.
Al-Adel battled the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Following the fall of the Taliban in the late 2001 he fled to Iran, the report said. He later made his way to Pakistan.
According to senior Saudi counterterrorism officials, from there Al-Adel authorized Al-Qaeda's branch in Saudi Arabia to begin a campaign of terrorist attacks in the Saudi kingdom that began in Riyadh in May 2003, a campaign that killed scores., CNN said.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

The Next Bin Laden

Zawahiri betrayed Osama bin Laden: Saudi paper..."We firmly recognize that the umma [nation]of Muhammad is a nation whose destiny is independent of its leaders, no matter how great," said American-born al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami about the death of Osama bin Laden. For terrorists like Hammami, ending the life of bin Laden hasn't ended the jihad against America.His statements match the mantra echoing across jihadi forums, as branches of al-Qaida and its allies pledge new terror attacks. Although bin Laden may be dead, the jihad lives on

Putting aside the rhetoric, al-Qaida is not an anarchist group, despite the loose connection between its regional branches. As long as al-Qaida lacks a clear central leader, it risks being lost in unending attacks without reason. That's contrary to the group's desire to establish a new Caliphate or at least oust the West from Muslim lands.
Rule by al-Qaida's Shura Council, the consultative body of the Pakistani/Afghani branch, remains a strong possibility in the short term. But in the long term, jihadi groups will look to a single leader or emir, to set policy and direct the organization. If that doesn't happen, the scattered al-Qaida branches that we know today will have little to unify them.
Bin Laden's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is widely considered the best positioned to seize the reins. However, U.S. intelligence estimates see him as an unpopular leader who lacks the charisma of bin Laden. "Zawahiri is obviously the presumed successor, but there are strong indications that he is not popular within certain circles of the group," the Washington Post quoted an unnamed senior intelligence figure as saying. "It is, of course, anathema to al-Qaida to hold free and fair elections. If free and fair elections [were conducted], Zawahiri would most likely have a fight on his hands."
Alongside Zawahiri are a cast of other characters. The biographies below point to the most likely candidates, those with the reach and ideology to reunite the organization around a central figure:
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Osama bin Laden's longtime deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri is the most likely candidate to take over al-Qaida, despite his reported unpopularity. Since the beginning, Zawahiri has been an important ideological force in al-Qaida, releasing regular internet videos espousing the organization's mission. He also played a key role in refocusing al-Qaida's efforts away from Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan and towards the "far enemy," the Americans and the Jews.
Zawahiri's jihadist roots trace back to Egypt where he was a founding member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), a radical group committed to overthrowing Egypt's secular government. Zawahiri developed a close relationship with bin Laden during the Soviet-Afghan war and, in 1998, he officially merged EIJ with al-Qaida. In his capacity as second-in-command of al-Qaida, Zawahiri, officials say, was responsible for the planning of 9/11, the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to Zawahiri's apprehension.
There is speculation that al-Qaida has not officially named Zawahiri as its new leader because of doubts surrounding his ability to lead as effectively as his predecessor. Zawahiri has a history "of alienating his colleagues, fighting over dogma, even within the Islamist movement," said journalist Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens. "And as a communicator, he is less effective. His books are turgid and dogmatic." Zawahiri also is said to lack the charisma and appeal that bin Laden possessed, and is seen as a "divisive" figure within al-Qaida's ranks.
Nevertheless, the Islamic State of Iraq (formerly al-Qaida in Iraq) has already pledged its allegiance to Zawahiri, and a former EIJ member, Tawfiq Hamid, warned against underestimating the probable new leader. "He's much more powerful as a leader – much more organized," Hamid said. "When you listen to him, you can tell clearly that he has the ambition and is dedicated 100 percent to achieve this mission."

Ilyas Kashmiri

Touted as "as the most effective, dangerous and successful guerrilla leader in the world" by intelligence agencies, Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri heads the 313 Brigade, the military wing of al-Qaida in Pakistan. He is suspected of involvement in a number of high-profile terrorist attacks including: the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of 166 people at Mumbai's train station, the Taj Mahal Hotel, and a Jewish center; and a suicide bomb attack on a top secret CIA base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost in December 2009 that killed at least eight Americans. He is also believed to have been the mastermind of a plot to attack the offices of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in retaliation for the newspaper publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, and a 2010 plot for a series of "Mumbai-style" attacks in European cities.
Kashmiri has been named for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in the terrorism indictment of David Coleman Headley. Court documents contain hints of connections between Kashmiri and al-Qaida and of Kashmiri's desire to launch additional mass casualty terrorist attacks. In his first-ever interview with Asia Times in 2009, Kashmiri voiced his support for al-Qaida's war against the United States and the West, and warned that the 2008 Mumbai attack "was nothing compared to what has already been planned for the future." Kashmiri directs attacks in South Asia, while simultaneously assisting in plots against the West.

Cartoonist Molly Norris
has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI
after receiving death threats from Islamic extremist
Anwar al-Awlaki.

In the wake of bin Laden's death, Kashmiri "will probably be the operational mastermind and most dangerous," said former CIA officer Bruce Riedel. Kashmiri is considered a dark horse to replace bin Laden because of Zawahiri's unpopularity. However, according to U.S. government sources, Kashmiri may not even seek al-Qaida's leadership. Until now, Kashmiri has acted as more of a behind-the-scenes military commander and has had minimal media exposure. He has also played a small role as an influential ideologue or recruiter.

Born in Yemen, but living much of his life in America, Awlaki has been referred to as "the translator of jihad." He played an active role in over a dozen plots, including the Christmas Day Detroit flight bomb plot and the Fort Hood shootings. In addition, Awlaki's writings and speeches on jihad have influenced jihadi plots in the United States, Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.
Awlaki has a high public profile, especially in comparison to other al-Qaida leaders. He produced a series of popular, English-language recordings throughout his own radicalization process, which remained in circulation well after he embraced jihad. In addition, his blog, use of video conferencing, and email communications, made him the most accessible terrorist leader. This legacy has continued through Inspire magazine, an English-language publication that features Awlaki's latest statements, and keeps him in the jihadi public eye.
Although he is one the most active players in terrorism against Americans, Awlaki has little chance of succeeding bin Laden. His influence among English-speaking jihadists aside, Awlaki is not even the military or spiritual leader of his local branch of al-Qaida, al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). His encouragement of lone wolf terrorism, which he states should be carried out in a would-be terrorist's home country, also differs from the top-down approach of al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

IPT News
May 13, 2011
via docstalk.blogspot.com

Bin Laden Loved American Products, Especially Pepsi & Coke

...NEW PEPSI LOGO QUEEFS...
@Coca Cola

The two polite Pakistanis who helped Osama bin Laden hide in the shadow of their country’s army bought bulk food orders, chose major brands and equally favored Pepsi and Coke, neighbors and a local shopkeeper said.

Rashid and Akbar Khan owned the fortified residence where U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in an early morning raid May 2, and did the daily shopping in the Pashtu-language accents of Waziristan, a region on the Afghan border, said grocer Anjum Qaisar, 27, who works 150 meters from the compound. Bin Laden’s men “never came by foot, they always drove a Pajero or a little Suzuki van, and they bought enough food for 10 people,” Qaisar said in an interview yesterday.
...Bin Laden’s protectors “always bought the best brands -- Nestle milk, the good-quality soaps and shampoos,” Qaisar said.

“They always paid cash, never asked for credit.” They purchased meat from a butcher nearby who stayed closed yesterday, he said.

Business Week via challahhuakbar.blogspot.com

Will bin Laden killing pave way for similar moves by Israel?

Former top IDF intel official talks to Haaretz about a gradual change in the rules of confrontation in the framework of the global war on terror.

At the height of the second intifada, until the middle of the last decade, Israel developed and enhanced a system of assassinations of terrorists which was euphemistically referred to as "pinpointed assassinations." Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash ) headed the IDF General Staff intelligence branch at that time. While the American assault force's operation against al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was an operation on a much bigger scale than the Israeli actions and took place far from the borders of the United States, to a large extent it employed a similar format to that used previously by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service.Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash ), Will the assassination of bin Laden at the hands of the United States pave the way for similar moves by Israel in the future, against [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah or even [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?
We must not forget that we are not a power. Not everything that is permitted to the Americans is permitted to us as well. But nevertheless, there is a gradual change in the rules of confrontation in the framework of the war on terror. A wider maneuvering space has been opened. Nassrallah understands that too. It is no coincidence that he so seldom leaves his bunker in recent years.
Is there greater legitimacy today, for Israel also, to make moves against heads of terrorist organizations that refuse to hold any kind of negotiations?
In the past, the countries of the West were opposed to the Israeli claim that no distinction should be made between the so-called political echelon and the "military" echelon in the terrorist organizations. There is an important message in the Americans' decision to do away with bin Laden. It is not possible to distinguish between the leader and the operational echelon subordinate to him. The decision-makers have to be dealt a blow. Seven years ago, when we killed the senior Hamas officials such as Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, our approach was not accepted by the international community.
In retrospect, did the Israeli policy of assassinations prove itself at all? Did it not merely provide encouragement for revenge attacks and the continuation of the cycle of bloodshed?
Since Israel unfortunately suffered more terrorist attacks, it became a kind of experimental laboratory for the front line in this struggle. The assassinations were an important tool. It can't be helped. These leaders don't like committing suicide. It's different than sending other people to carry out suicide missions for them. When they are being chased, they are less effective. The pinpointed assassinations are still a very important deterrent tool against senior leaders of the terrorist organizations. It is true that every terrorist leader can be replaced. Bin laden will also have a replacement. What is important is the continuum of assassinations that is directed at the heads of the organization and indicates to them that they too have something to lose.

The immediate question that a lot of Israelis asked themselves, following the reports of the American success, was: Why do we not succeed in locating Gilad Shalit who is not hidden at the other end of the world but just a few kilometers from our border?
Organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah have successfully learned our strengths and weak points. They understand what precautions must be taken in order to safeguard an asset like an abducted Israeli. I think that Israel shares the same determination to bring Gilad back home that the Americans demonstrated in striking bin Laden.
Here too we must find the right combination of circumstances - precise intelligence information, the ability to organize an operation within a few hours while the target is "hot," a reasonable ratio between the chances of success and the risk that there will be losses - we still remember the failed attempt to rescue [kidnapped soldier] Nahshon Waxman - and the possibility of avoiding excessive collateral damage. To my regret, this is a combination that occurs very rarely.
I don't agree with the claim that the Shalit affair is a resounding failure on the part of intelligence. If you had asked me about the American efforts to hit at bin Laden a month ago, what would we have said? We would certainly have described them as terrible schlemiels. I can safely say that tremendous efforts are being made and that it is possible that the right timing will enable such an operation to be carried it out in the future. Israel has excellent intelligence capability but things have to fall together. One cannot carry out a rescue operation at any price. If they had told President Obama that there was a great risk that the entire American force would be harmed, he would not have sent the troops to kill bin Laden this week.
Everyone is praising the Americans for their intelligence work in this operation. What does it actually mean?
We must give credit to the American intelligence agencies for their sustained effort. I know the significance of chasing a terrorist for years. The people who head the agencies change every few years. One needs a great deal of determination, perseverance, and a high level of organization in order to continue running an operation like this until it succeeds. In this era, there must be a combination of exact information, cooperation between the various intelligence arms and sometimes also with foreign services, and a very sharp capability on the part of the force that carries out the operation. Consider the ability shown here by the American forces: tremendous firing power, accuracy, self-confidence, the ability to hit those you have come to kill and to leave without a scratch. Zero casualties is not a result that is achieved by chance.
TV programs like "24" actually present these kinds of operations in a fairly realistic way. They are not science fiction. There is a never-ending puzzle of information that has to be collected and collated. Without a fusion of this information, the operation won't work. Even what appears to be the most minute bits of information have tremendous importance. We saw that in the media reports: The fact that the compound in which bin Laden was living did not have Internet activity increased the Americans' suspicions. Various kinds of intelligence gathering are in operation here: human intelligence, visual information gathering, and wiretapping and other signal intelligence. In the end, this combination of intelligence enables a warning to be issued to the fighter heading the force: "Don't go into the yard now, there is suspicious movement there."
By the way, I was somewhat surprised to see the presence of President Obama in the war room in real time, with the ability to watch on the screens what appeared to be the force in the field. As the head of the intelligence division, I didn't want leaders and senior officers to enter the war room of the unit that was instructing the advance guard. I also tried not to go there. The commanders don't need too many kibitzers giving them advice while the business is still going on. That could influence the effectiveness of the fighting force.

Amos Harel  - Haaretz 05 May '11 via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

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Patriotism is the Last Refuge of a Liberal

The man who came into office promising multilateral engagement, no more torture and a civilian justice system for terrorists, now has only accomplishment to his name. A unilateral invasion and assassination based on intelligence gained through enhanced interrogation, carried out by men whom his supporters had once condemned as a secret assassination squad. What a failure Obama is that even the one success to his name is a testament to the failure of his own ideas.

Liberals joyfully proclaimed that the One would redeem America's reputation. No longer would we torture terrorists, detain them in prison camps and try them with military tribunals. A shining new golden age was here. Two lawyers to every Al-Qaeda terrorist and a national apology for going outside the civilian justice system. Now three years later, the only thing they have to celebrate is that their man trashed every one of their hopes and dreams just to keep his head above water in the polls.
Samuel Johnson opined that, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". And now the scoundrels are flocking to the red, white and blue as a a failed leader and his gaggle of supporters eagerly trade in their counterculture cred for apple pie and the Fourth of July. News stories are reinventing Obama as the Rambo of the Monitor, fitting moniker for the JFK of the Teleprompter, the man who courageously authorized a decision that would have been a no brainer for any American. A failure on every other front, his last refuge is also the thing he hates the most.  
Smart power? Try stupid power. Obama wasn't willing to set aside his ideals for the sake of national security. Instead he did it because his ideals were too unpopular. The man who wouldn't sacrifice his politics for the sake of American lives, sacrificed them for his own popularity. It's not just that Obama suffers from the wrong ideas, but that he values his ideas more than America, but less than himself.
It wasn't smart power that took down Bin Laden. It wasn't the multilateral cooperation that Obama turned into his trademark when running for office. Instead it was an old fashioned unilateral operation that didn't even notify the Pakistanis ahead of time and even jammed their radar. An operation that assumed we couldn't trust our Muslim allies because they sympathize more with Al-Qaeda than they do with us. A unilateral assault that Pakistan would never have approved and that could even be considered an act of war.
Torture, Gitmo, Rendition and all those dirty words that stood for the dumb old war. The one where we grabbed terrorists and shook the truth out of them. Where we seized them wherever they were, without regard for jurisdiction or civil rights, got them into a room and dunked their heads until they talked. Where brave men went out into the night to get things done and it was best not to ask too many questions about how it got done or count the collateral damage when they were finished. That dumb old war is the one that scored a victory here.
And liberals have suddenly learned to love that dumb old war. The same one that not so long ago made them want to be Canadians. No more quibbles about waterboarding or giving Osama a trial. Now all you need is a kill order and a lot of stories about Obama heroically risking his life by watching it happen from thousands of miles away. Where Bush went to the trouble of getting Saddam alive and turning him over for trial, this administration decided it would be easier and more convenient to shoot Bin Laden full of holes the first chance they got. (Though it's anyone's guess if the decision was made at the top or really determined by the men in the field who weren't up for another round of debates on where to hold the trial.) Not better for America, better for themselves.
Obama's smart war died along with Bin Laden. The only thing his multilateralism has gotten us into is an entirely new war in Libya. The 'smart war' that ended up looking exactly like the dumb war he denounced in his widely circulated 2002 speech, a rash war, a cynical attempt to shove an ideological agenda down our throats, against a man who was no imminent or direct threat to the United States or to his neighbors. But now Bush's dumb war looks smart and Obama's smart war looks stupid.

Taking down Bin Laden didn't begin with Obama looking at a monitor, but with invading Afghanistan to capture and interrogate terrorists, beginning the long process of unraveling Al-Qaeda. All that Obama deserves credit for is that unlike Bill Clinton, when the word came up from the men in the field that they had a chance to get Bin Laden, he eventually went along. Which he might not have done without an election breathing down his neck.
Obama inherited a War on Terror that he never wanted, and after doing his best to scuttle it, he was forced to carry it on anyway. His administration has sabotaged terrorist prosecutions, but it was forced to back away from civilian trials or closing Gitmo. And by virtue of having his ass in the chair at the right time, he now takes credit for a victory that belongs to the men who were fighting and dying in the field, while he was yawning his way through Illinois State Senate sessions.
Truman didn't claim credit for defeating Hitler, even though the German surrender came while he was in office. It's just as ridiculous for Obama and his supporters to do cartwheels because a prolonged campaign against Islamic terrorists happened to bear fruit on his watch. He might as well claim credit for the highway system and the continuing implementation of every single law and safety regulating predating his administration.
The Bush Administration did the heavy lifting here, and the Obama Administration is taking the credit. That's nothing new in politics, where the policies of one administration carry over to the next, but the one most associated with a positive outcome gets the credit. It's cynical, but not extraordinarily so. What is cynical is how many media mouthpieces insist on hanging up a "Mission Accomplished" banner, as if we went into Afghanistan to get one man. And only that one man. As if thousands of lives had been lost just to kill that one man. 
Now we're told that security measures can be dismantled and the troops can go home. There's no more need to worry about terrorism. It was all taken care of when Obama watched a satellite pay per view execution.
Bin Laden was the public face of Al-Qaeda, but if he hadn't been, it would have been someone else. It didn't have to be Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. We think of Islamic terrorism in terms of organizations, but the organizations are only functional executions of an idea. The idea is that for Islam to triumph, its followers must wage an armed conflict of terror around the world. Al-Qaeda was one projection of that idea. There were and are many others.
You don't need a Bin Laden to have an Al-Qaeda, and you don't need an Al-Qaeda to have terrorism. Bin Laden's death fulfilled the cycle of an Islamic terrorist's life as a martyr. In the short term, our enemies have been reminded that we can and will get to them no matter where they hide. But in the long term, Bin Laden's death is a canonization that completes his place in the Islamist narrative. Now his story is told and will be retold over and over again.

The problem was never one man in a cave in Afghanistan or an estate in Pakistan. Islamic terror derives from a culture of supremacy. And Obama has spent enough time in the Muslim world to know that. Osama's death allows him and us to count coup, but the problem is getting worse, not better. Afghanistan and Pakistan were the homeland of terror, but the road that Bin Laden's butchers followed lies through Europe and America. Muslim immigrants and students moving out into the West mark the trail of terror. That road is a dagger pointed at the heart of the free world.
The interoperability of Pakistan's intelligence service and military with Al-Qaeda is not some unique phenomenon, it reflects the will of the Pakistani people, only 3 percent of whom think Bin Laden was a terrorist. Muslim terrorists work hand in glove with Muslim countries, even when they fight and quarrel with them. Because they have more in common with each other, than they do with us. Just as we support people who share our culture and values, so do they. Muslims may have different views on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, but they still like them more than they do us. Which is why Bin Laden was able to live comfortably not far from the capitol without any worries that he would be turned in.
The problem was never Al-Qaeda. The problem is Islam. While the SEALS were off putting an end to Bin Laden, the growth of Islam in the free world continues to pose a dire threat to the survival of the free world. Osama's quick burial showed that we were still cowed by his religion's demands even in death. Killing one man did not end that regime of terror. Not so long as it remains lodged inside the heads of our leaders. Patriotism is the first resort of patriots and the last resort of men who have already sold out their country.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Good grief. It took Barack Obama 16 HOURS to make up his mind to get Osama Bin Laden.



(Tom in Paine)
He had to think about it.

The Daily Mail reported:

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would ‘sleep on it’ before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden’s compound.
Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals – who were not even told who they were preparing to capture – had practiced the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound.
The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.
But the president stunned officials when he told a national security meeting that he wanted more time to think – and disappeared out of the room.

‘I’m not going to tell you what my decision is now – I’m going to go back and think about it some more,’ said Obama, according to the New York Times. He then added ‘I’m going to make a decision soon.’
The head of the CIA and other senior intelligence officers who were keen to proceed were left tense as they waited for the president’s decision.
But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared ‘It’s a go’.

Ace of Spades added this on our sleepy president:

How does the media report this? Well, relying upon those in Obama’s inner circle (that is to say, his political flunkies and spinners), we’re told this:

“But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared ‘It’s a go’.”

Why does it matter that he did this “before they could speak”? They had spoken already yesterday when they strongly, strongly urged the president to give the order, and he had decided to sleep on it.
They were only waiting on him, after all.
So, after 16 hours of vacillation, during which the operation might have been rendered a failure by intervening invents, he fist-bumps a piece of furniture and finally makes up his mind.
This is something to brag about? This is, in Howard Fineman’s words, “almost Biblical”?
Seems like a very cautious, feckless, indecisive individual delaying and delaying on critical decisions and then attempting to sound heroic when he finally does what he’s being paid to do.

That’s our Obama.

via gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com
image via blog.cartoonmovement.com

White House to delay the release of "gruesome" bin Laden death photos due to Muslim "sensitivities"

The same folks that wanted Abu Ghraib and Gitmo pictures endlessly published, somehow find a photo confirming OBL's demise as off limits and insensitive.

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

image via connect.in.com

Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of computer data

Material found in bin Laden's house is being examined at a secret location in Afghanistan. 

The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.”
The special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightning raid that killed bin Laden, officials told POLITICO.
“They cleaned it out,” one official said. “Can you imagine what’s on Osama bin Laden’s hard drive?”U.S. officials are about to find out. The material is being examined at a secret location in Afghanistan.
“Hundreds of people are going through it now,” an official said, adding that intelligence operatives back in Washington are very excited to find out what they have.
“It’s going to be great even if only 10 percent of it is actionable,” the official said.
Savoring the military and intelligence triumph, officials late Monday described new details about how the mission unfolded:
The SEALs took fire on their way to the compound’s third floor, where bin Laden had been sleeping, officials said. The encounter with bin Laden lasted only seconds, and ended with a kill shot to his face.
The team’s photos of bin Laden are gruesome, complicating officials’ deliberations about whether to release them.
Officials also have images of bin Laden in a white shroud before his burial at sea.
The raid was not supposed to last more than 30 minutes. The forces finished in 38 minutes, even though they lost one of their choppers and had to go to a back-up plan.
Four helicopters were used in the raid. Two went in, and two were in reserve.
Hovering above the compound on the way in, one of the choppers developed a mechanical problem that caused it to lose lift, officials said. The pilot made a controlled landing, according to the officials. When he couldn’t get the bird airborne again, the SEALs blew it up and left in one of the reserves.
Officials described the reaction of the special operators when they were told a number of weeks ago that they had been chosen to train for the mission.
“They were told, ‘We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him,’” an official recalled.
The SEALs started to cheer.
Radioing a commander on Sunday, the team reported the capture with a pre-arranged signal: “Geronimo!”
AP Photo Close by MIKE ALLEN | 5/2/11 7:51 PM EDT  via politico.com

Is there a link between Bin Laden’s killing and the Arab Revolt?

U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Also pictured are Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (R). Please note: A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured at source. Picture taken May 1, 2011. (REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza/Handout)

Is there a link between Bin Laden’s killing and the Arab Revolt?

A DebkaFile report:

The photos released of the fortified villa in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden died on Sunday night, May 2, show a satellite dish as well as cables and wires snaking along the outer and inner walls. Smashed computers appear in shots of the interior rooms. Far from dispensing with electronic devices and Internet connections as widely reported, the fortress that was the al Qaeda leader’s last haven proves to have been equipped with both.
All this up-to-date electronic technology would have opened the six-year old building wide to outside intelligence penetration and surveillance. Bin Laden additionally suffered from a kidney disease and was dependent on dialysis treatment and outside medical care — another porthole into the Bin Laden’s establishment.
There was no need therefore to follow the trail of the couriers described as leading the CIA to the hideout of the most wanted terrorist in the world. He occupied a large three-storey building which stuck out on the skyline of the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, 120 kilometers from Islamabad, and towered over neighboring buildings. Pakistani intelligence must have been curious, to say the least, about this sizeable compound when it was built in 2005 just 100 meters from a military academy in a small town housing a military base and generals’ residences.
Therefore, the repeated statements by US officials that the Navy Seals’ special operation took place without Pakistani knowledge sounds like a hollow attempt to absolve Islamabad of involvement in the killing of the arch terrorist in the eyes of the Muslim world.

This frame grab from video obtained exclusively by ABC News, on Monday, May 2, 2011, shows a section of a bloodstained room, bed and passports in the interior of the compound where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (AP/ABC News)

US President Barack Obama said he received his first lead to bin Laden’s whereabouts last August. Why then did it take nine months for him to order the targeted operation? And why did the US intelligence and military need all that time to prepare it?
They are only two of the puzzling questions surrounding the episode. Might the answers lie in its juxtaposition with the Arab Revolt, or Arab Spring, which flared first in Tunisia in December 2010, then spread to Egypt and played out in February 2011 and flared in Syria in April 2011?
Was al Qaeda’s spirit and mastermind eliminated before his networks could move in on the national and Islamic struggles which are still unfolding in Tunis, Cairo, Tripoli and Damascus?
The linkage was drawn by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her first statement on the master-terrorist’s death Monday:

“…history would record that bin Laden’s death had come at a time when peoples in the Middle East and North Africa were rejecting the extremist narrative and were standing up for freedom and democracy.”

Obama’s adviser on terror John Brennan said later:

“I would hope that the people of the Middle East will understand that the time for terror is over.”

That of course will depend on how those peoples view the US targeted operation to kill the head of al Qaeda. The reaction in some places was of disbelief in the American claim to have killed him and demands for proof of his identity. The statement by “an American intelligence official” to Reuter was not helpful. He said “US Special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it harder for the al Qaeda founder to become a martyr.”
The head of the Al-Azhar Supreme Sunni Council of Egypt reacted by condemning the dumping of bin Laden’s body in the sea as violating the tenets of Islam and human norms.
It was noted in Arab capitals, that he was killed in the second US targeted operation against an Arab leader in three days — NATO failed in its attempt to kill Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi Saturday night, April 30.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (R) leaves a mosque after Friday prayer in Gaza City April 29, 2011. Haniyeh condemned the United States on Monday for killing al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, saying the operation marked 'the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs.' (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)

At his news briefing Monday night, John Brennan tried to soften the hard edges of resentment building up in Arab and Muslim opinion. To settle questions about identity, he reported that a DNA test had showed a 99.9 percent match against his relatives, but declined to say if and when photos of his body would be released.
Obama’s adviser on terror went on to insist that Bin Laden had been given a religious Muslim funeral before being buried at sea. He also explained that the al Qaeda leader would have been taken alive had there been the opportunity.
Brennan disclosed that a large quantity of documents had been seized in the Abbottabad villa and was being checked. He added that it was inconceivable that the dead terrorist did not have a support system.

Mon, May 02, 2011 | DebkaFile via crethiplethi.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Bush-Era Interrogations Provided Key Details on Bin Laden's Location

CIA interrogators at secret prisons developed first strands that led to bin Laden
WASHINGTON - Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden's most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed's successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.

The news is sure to reignite debate over whether the now-closed interrogation and detention program was successful. Former president George W. Bush authorized the CIA to use the harshest interrogation tactics in U.S. history. President Barack Obama closed the prison system.

via startribune.com

Yes, and Obama outlawed them.

(FOX News) - Years of intelligence gathering, including details gleaned from controversial interrogations of Al Qaeda members during the Bush administration, ultimately led the Navy SEALs who killed Usama bin Laden to his compound in Pakistan.
The initial threads of intelligence began surfacing in 2003 and came in the form of information about a trusted bin Laden courier, a senior U.S. official told Fox News on condition of anonymity. Bin Laden had cut off all traditional lines of communication with his network by this time because the Al Qaeda leader knew the U.S. intelligence community was monitoring him. It was said that he also didn’t even trust his most loyal men to know his whereabouts and instead communicated only through couriers.
But it was four years later, in 2007, that terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay military prison started giving up information about the key courier.
Around this time, the use of enhanced interrogation tactics, including waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, were being denounced as torture by critics of the Bush administration. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney came under intense pressure for supporting rough treatment of prisoners. Critics claimed that any information given under duress simply couldn’t be trusted.
It is an argument that Bush and Cheney strongly rejected then, and now.
More...

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

US officials: Bin Laden involved in European terror plot

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Multi-pronged scope of plan which aimed to launch coordinated attacks in Britain, France and Germany an al-Qaida hallmark.
WASHINGTON — US counter-terrorism officials on Friday said they believe that senior al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, were involved in the latest terror plots against European cities.
The multi-pronged scope of the emerging plan — which aimed to launch coordinated shooting sprees or attacks in Britain, France and Germany — is an al-Qaida hallmark. One US intelligence official added, however, that the details of how the plan was directed or coordinated by the group's core leaders is not yet clear. The involvement of bin Laden and his core leaders, believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, underscores concerns about that country's role as a haven for al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists. US officials have pressed Pakistan to increase its efforts to root out the militants hiding in the mountainous border region.
Several officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information.
Bin Laden's role in the European plot was first reported by NPR.
Counter-terrorism officials said that they are now working under the assumption that bin Laden played a role in the plotting, but they would not detail what indications they've seen that lead them in that direction.
One senior US official, meanwhile, discounted any involvement in the Europe terror plot by al-Qaida's North African affiliate. While al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is very dangerous in its region and may want to export its terror operations to Europe, there are no indications that it is able to do that at this time, said the official.
A Pakistani intelligence official said Thursday that eight Germans and two British brothers are at the heart of the terror plot, which is still in its early stages. One of the Britons was killed in a recent CIA missile strike, he said.
Pakistan, Britain and Germany are tracking the suspects and intercepting their phone calls, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.
The US has dramatically stepped up its missile attacks in North Waziristan, and is believed to have launched at least 21 this month. The covert campaign is largely carried out by CIA drones, and has led to the deaths of a number of top militant leaders.
Pakistan has complained vocally about the program but is believed to provide intelligence assistance for at least some of the strikes.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Osama Bin Aborted Twins

A surrogate mother carrying twins of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has lost the twins, after she was attacked on her way home from a cafe in Syria, a media report said.

According to The Sun, Osama’s 29-year-old son Omar hired 24-year-old Louise Pollard from Bristol to have the kids for him and his estranged British wife Zaina. But Pollard, who was ten weeks pregnant, lost the twins after she was attacked by two men on her way home from a cafe in Syria. The former pole dancer went to hospital where she was told the babies had died, the report said.

Some reports stated that Pollard was ambushed by two men while walking to her apartment from a cafe. They knocked her to the ground without saying anything. Pollard then went home before being taken to the hospital where tests revealed she had lost both the babies conceived by IVF.

She said there was no clear motive for the attack but she had been recognised in the UK and abroad as the woman carrying the grandchildren of al-Qaeda terror chief Osama, the British tabloid said.

via indianexpress.com

Bin Laden Clock To Be Biggest in the World

Not only will this clock tower being built in Saudi Arabia be the largest in the world but it will also proclaim graphically to all the world "Allah Akbar". The Bin Laden family that is building this with funding from the Saudis to the tune of $800 million is the same family that spawned Osama and has ingrained the phrase Allah Akbar into the psyche of everybody as the last words of someone getting ready to detonate themselves and kill as many innocent people as possible to accompany him on his trip to hell.

The seven tower complex is being built by developer Saudi Binladen Group, the press agency reported.

Each face will be inscribed with "God is greatest" in Arabic and fitted with thousands of colored lights. The clock will be visible from more than 16 miles (25 kilometers).

No word on if approval has been granted to the Vatican to build a Catholic church anywhere in the country yet.

via jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com

As I reported two weeks ago, the new giant clock atop the Saudi Abraj al-Bait Tower is meant to symbolize Islamic attempts to make Mecca the source for the world's time, supplanting Greenwich.

From the Arab News:

Quiz: What's wrong with this picture?

The giant clock of Makkah is all set to tick home a new time standard, as some scholars believe that it will be an ideal alternative to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Many scholars are of the opinion that Makkah Time can provide the world an alternative to the GMT. These people have scientific arguments to back their contention, as Makkah is situated in the center of the world.

At a conference in Doha in 2008, Muslim clerics and scholars presented “scientific” arguments that Makkah time is the true global meridian. They said that Makkah is the center of the world.

“Putting Makkah time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time, this is the goal,” said Mohammed Al-Arkubi, general manager of Royal Makkah Tower Hotel.

The Royal Clock is sitting atop the central tower in the Abraj Al-Bait Project, 50 meters opposite the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The clock will be visible from 17 km away at night and 11 to 12 km away during the day. A German-owned company, Premiere Composite Technologies, has designed the clock.

Sources said that the world’s largest clock — six times larger than London’s Big Ben — will be launched in the first week of Ramadan but no date has yet been fixed. The trial run would be conducted on the clock facing Jeddah that is to be inaugurated first.

The tower featuring the world’s largest clock also includes a Lunar Observation Center and an Islamic Museum. While the Royal Clock will announce daily prayers, the Lunar Observation Center and Islamic Museum will serve to protect the heritage for future generations. The observatory will also be used to sight the moon during the holy months. On special occasions, 16 bands of vertical lights will shoot some 10 km up into the sky.

AP mentions that the giant clock was designed by Swiss and German engineers.

The chances of the world adopting Mecca Time is roughly the same as the chances of it adopting Jerusalem Solar Time and the (pretty complicated) Jewish lunar/solar calendar. )elderofziyon.blogspot.com)