Without agreeing to the ways of OBL as to how he professed, believed and operated, We Omar Ossama Binladin, and my brothers, the lawful children of the Ossama Binladin (OBL) herewith demand an inquiry under UNO to reach to the accuracy of the facts as stated by United States into the fundamental question as to why our father was not arrested and tried but summarily executed without a court of law.A statement from Osama Bin Laden’s family • Expressing anger with the decision to kill the al-Qaeda leader without giving him the respect of a court of law. The family also is greatly upset about his burial (“His sudden and un witnessed burial at sea has deprived the family of performing religious rights of a Muslim man,” they write.) and claim not to believe that he was actually killed. “We are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead,” they say, while appealing for a wider investigation of what happened. No matter the nature of the man, we think the family deserves the U.S. government to respect these wishes. (via newsflick) source (via • follow)
We like that they didn’t go with the obvious choice of making President Obama Superman. We also like the visual of Joe Biden dressed as the Flash, as he looks reluctant to even stand up and stretch, let alone go somewhere quickly. source
We expect to learn more how bin Laden communicated, who he communicated with and how often he did it, what guidance did he pass on, what questions were passed on, how he operated, how he ran al Qaeda and what did other people expect from bin Laden.A U.S. intelligence official • Discussing what they’ve learned from the death of Osama bin Laden. Rather than devolving into a mere symbol of al-Qaeda, the official suggested that the U.S. gained ”real intelligence” from the raid, though much of that intelligence shows that planned attacks were merely “aspirational” in nature. Still, knowing the inner-workings of an organization known for its coordinated attacks is a huge deal. Other notable news from the raid: The group of Navy SEALS were prepped for a possible fight with Pakistani military and police — which is why the group was fairly large. source (via • follow)
Meet the new boss, not like the old boss: Ayman al-Zawahiri is now broadly considered to be al-Qaeda’s new top man. The 59-year-old has been within the organization for years, working as a strategist from the days of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole until today — in recent years he’d been more vocal, through audio and video releases, than even the vastly more popular Osama bin Laden. His ascension is generally viewed as good news for the opponents of al-Qaeda; Zawahiri is Egyptian, which is a distinct area of racial tension within al-Qaeda, and while he’s a successful strategist, most consider him utterly lacking in the charisma or leadership ability that made bin Laden such a dangerous figure. source
We didn’t know! In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan last week, one pressing question has been this: how on earth could a U.S. ally (made so by the billions in aid America gives them each year) acting in competent good faith not have known that bin Laden was living less than a mile from a huge military academy? In a town swarming with retired military officials? Pakistan denies any knowledge or wrongdoing here, but that’s just it — this is a situation in which any admission of wrongdoing is so diplomatically catastrophic that no government would ever cop to it, regardless of how it would make them look. What do y’all think? source
The nays have it: Though some might find reason for disagreeing with Obama on whether or not to release death photos of the al-Qaeda leader, a NBC News poll puts that number strongly in Obama’s favor, though some of the people polled weren’t super-passionate about the issue. When we posed this question to our readers last week, we got a lot of passionate response on both sides. Which suggests that people passionate about this are really passionate. source
Barack Obama explains the Bin Laden thang to “60 Minutes”: Know how sure Obama was that Osama bin Laden was in that Pakistani compound? 55 percent. But he went for it anyway. Like a boss. source
WUT?!!
Also missing from the photo: Audrey Tomason.
ProducerMatthew.com has obtained a forty-minute video that shows Osama bin Laden several weeks prior to his death. The video opens with an animation showing insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades on American tanks inside Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan compound.
Unlike the video we posted earlier (released by the U.S. government), this one INCLUDES audio. This is a notable difference which emphasizes that the source of the video is a third party. The reason for this is that the U.S. government took out the audio to prevent the spread of propaganda. So keep an eye on this.
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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A lot of fresh Bin Laden news on @Reuters right now. Once we see these videos out in the wild, we’ll post them.
However, the heavily-armed, electronically wired SEALs didn’t come with a tape measure to get an accurate height reading. According to reports, a Navy SEAL of about 6-feet laid out next to bin Laden’s corpse to gauge the Al Qaeda leader’s height. The corpse was several inches taller.An article on CBS’ Dan Farber • Noting the fairly awkward way that they measured Osama bin Laden’s height after the raid that led to his death. Could you imagine? These big hulking men just killed Bin Laden, only to have to force one of them to lay the ground next to him to do rough measurements? That’s weird. source (via • follow)
They were growing pot on his compound: A recent report by our boy Nic Robertson of CNN notes that the slain al-Qaeda leader may have had an interesting crop on his property. Next to the cabbage and potatoes were potent marijuana leaves, which is interesting for a number of reasons. Osama had longstanding kidney problems, which might partly explain it, but if he was smoking recreationally, that adds a new wrinkle to this story. LOOK AT US, SPECULATING! source
Not this crap again. Today in headlines that CNN apparently must write to get a rise out of people.
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