Spintested: 05/04/11

Osama Bin Laden Raid: Navy SEALs Feared Terrorist Leader Was Reaching For Weapon, Say U.S. Officials

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

And the story changes once again.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Remember this? And this? And this?

Zarqawi. Uday. Qsay. Saddam Hussein.

These photos didn't incite. On the contrary; they laid to rest any fears (and hopes by their followers) that they'd rise and murder again.

In a democracy, you release all documentation. We don't need a Daddy-in-Chief deciding what we do and don't need to know.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

My heart bleeds for the Constitution and rule of law.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

The original reports (most notably CNN and MSNBC talking heads getting it directly from White House sources) were that OBL was "captured and killed" (Chuck Todd, notoriously, stumbled over those words, then switched them to "killed and captured" and after realizing how that sounded, changed the subject entirely).

Al Arabiya is reporting that senior Pakistani security forces have stated that "Osama bin Laden’s daughter had confirmed her father was captured alive and shot dead by the US Special Forces during the first few minutes" (later reported on CNN to be 10 minutes) in front of his wife and children.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Go right ahead.

Just get the fLick out of my way.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

^ - See, it's BS like this that we have to put up with when there is no transparency in our government.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies

Whatever happened to Harry Reid forcing a vote on Paul Ryan's budget?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

What's happened to this site (and what Americans will stand for from our government) is tragic. Here's a link about Obama, Lieberman and the suppression/destruction of photos - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/08/photos/index.html
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

I agree with the President's decision. Those who oppose him wouldn't believe the photos anyway and showing them could further stir up the radicals that seek to do us harm.

=================================

Stop the nonsense talk.

Zarqawi. Uday. Qsay. Saddam Hussein.

Remember this? And this? And this?

These photos didn't incite. On the contrary; they laid to rest any fears (and hopes by their followers) that they'd rise to murder again.

In a democracy, you release all documentation. We don't need a Daddy-in-Chief deciding what we do and don't need to know.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Why are you here? If you're satisfied, move on. But get the fLick out of my way.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

The photos of Zarqawi, Qsay, Uday (not to mention the video of Saddam being hung) didn't incite. Citizens need to see what is being done in their names by their elected officials. Release all the information.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

What facts are you missing by the lack of transparency regarding proof of Bin Laden's death?

===========================================

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you don't understand the concept of habeas corpus ("Show us the body"), given as these are the same clowns, both parties, that have succeeded in tearing down the Constitution.

Habeas corpus is the foundation of rule of law, because anyone can claim anything, but a democratic republic operates on facts and evidence.

Who, in a nation built on rule of law captures then kills, then buries at sea immediately, with no post mortem, where it can't be examined should questions arise?

After releasing the photos of Zarqawi's, Uday's & Qsay's bodies with no repercussions (not to mention the elaborate, extravagant international media circus show of hanging Saddam Hussein), there is now a complete media blackout on Bin Laden's death images?

Either Obama's defenders are paid political operatives or they're the stoo-pidest people ever to walk the earth.

Either way, they are the reason for the demise of our democracy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

On the day prior to the Nobel committee's announcement giving Obama its peace prize, and after two courts had unanimously ruled that the American people have the right under FOIA to see the photographs of detainee t0rture and abuse suppressed under the Bush administration, Joe Lieberman successfully gutted FOIA, the 40-year-old law championed by the Democrats in the LBJ era and long considered a crowning jewel in their legislative achievements by inserting into the Homeland Security appropriations bill an amendment to provide an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act's mandates. The amendment empowered the Defense Secretary to suppress and destroy the photographic evidence of American war crimes.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/08/photos/index.html

Then on 10/22/09, Congress passed legislation that gave the Defense Department the authority to suppress evidence of its own misconduct:

In an unprecedented move, Congress passed legislation Tuesday including an amendment which would maintain one of the most contentious hangovers of the Bush administration, allowing the Department of Defense to exempt torture photos of US detainees overseas from public access under Freedom of Information Act requests.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, slashes a huge hole in FOIA. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) was a key figure in stopping Lieberman's photo suppression bill the first time around. Slaughter explained that this time, the provision was slipped into the Homeland Security spending bill during the conference between House and Senate negotiators -- "apparently under direct orders from the Administration."

See here.

Obama signed the bill into law a week later out of public view, and when he was safely out of the country (in China), SoD Bob Gates permanently 'buried' the evidence. For those who don't recall, Obama ran on releasing those photographs for the American people to see just what was done "in their names" during the Bush administration.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Obama in his own words:

"Transparency Will Be Touchstone"

"On transparency", "About inviting the people back into their government again", and "Part of the job of the next American president is making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now they don't feel like it's working for them. They feel like it's working for special interests and it's working for corporations"

"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich well connected friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as a defender of fairness and opportunity for every single American. That's what this country's been about and that's the kind of president I intend to be"

"Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public, no more secrecy.....No more secrecy....."

"Clintons did health care the wrong way, behind closed doors":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0m6Rxm9vU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtIKgGHYPQ

"The American people are the answer"

Obama's Transparency Problem
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

These are public records of a very public operation against public enemy #1, and like it or not the public should have access to them.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Over the last couple of days, I have talked to many senior level correspondents and executives at major Arabic news networks including but not limited to Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. I asked them what they thought their viewing audience “needed to see” regarding the death of Osama bin Laden.

The answer has been consistent and uniform. Not withstanding any decision to release a “death photo” of Osama bin Laden — which I personally believe should be released, photos of bin Laden’s corpse being scrubbed, and receiving final Muslim death rites should be released simultaneously.

Bin Laden was one of the world’s greatest villains, and many in the Muslim world completely accept that — but at the same time, they strongly believe that respect for bin Laden as a Muslim translates into respect for all Muslims, good and bad. The White House and those involved with tracking and killing bin Laden feel similarly as so much emphasis has been placed by the White House on the issue that bin Laden received a burial at sea consistent with Islamic tradition.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

There's a law now where Obama, through the Secretary of Defense, can order any and all documents destroyed. http://www.truthout.org/1022095 http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/143322/outrage:_house_sneakily_passes_bill_banning_release_of_photos_showing_detainee_abuse
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

These are public records. Release them.

Being a citizen in a democratic republic means knowing and taking responsibility for what our government is doing IN OUR NAMES.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

These photos will be destroyed long before that. Just like the previous ones (CIA torture photos and videotapes, the thousands of photos and videotapes taken at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere).

One of the many 'services' Joe Lieberman has performed for Obama:

After the court ordered Obama's DoD release the t0rture and abuse photos of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan that Obama pledged during the 2008 campaign to release and then flip-flopped on after he got into the White House, Obama had L!eberman slip into legislation the empowerment of the Secretary of Defense to gut F0IA and bury the evidence forever.

And after Obama signed that legislation into law, away from the fanfare of cameras, he waited until he was out of the country two weeks later for Robert Gates to exercise the power of that legislation and buried those photos forever.

http://www.truthout.org/1022095

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/143322/outrage:_house_sneakily_passes_bill_banning_release_of_photos_showing_detainee_abuse

About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Allegedly Pakistanis and Muslims all over the world hated OBL and just want "peace".

The release of any and all evidence of the death of Bin Laden can serve as a line in the sand and shaped for all who would continue terror operations against the west as, "The US and all western nations are supporting the democratization of your nations and wish to be friends to the Muslim people and stand with you against oppressive leadership."

The end of the 'War on Terror'. The end of taking money from the People's resources in all lands and funneling it to the richest 2 percent. That's not a hard sell. And it's also NOT what Obama is doing.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

"The pictures will leak out"

Like CIA torture photos and videotapes and the thousands of photos and videotapes from Abu Ghraib that Obama had destroyed?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Senior Pakistani security officials said:

Osama bin Laden’s daughter had confirmed her father was captured alive and shot dead ("executed") by the US Special Forces during the first few minutes ("10 minutes") of the operation carried out at the huge compound in Bilal Town, Abbottabad.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

12 Questions About Bin Laden:

Was Osama bin Laden intentionally shot? Weren’t they all sleeping at 1am local time—and why couldn’t the small number of people in the house have been immobilized with gas or stun technology?

What was the internal policy on how to handle the ultimate hot potato—and what were the real preferences in terms of “dead or alive”?

Why did they first tell us that he “resisted” and therefore had to be shot? Surely, the SEALS and their commanders knew at the time what happened—and communicated that well before Obama’s speech. How did the story get screwed up initially?

Why did they first tell us that bin Laden’s party used a woman as a “human shield” when that was not true? See above.

Why, exactly, did he have to be tossed into the sea? Why not say he was given a land burial, per Islamic law, in an undisclosed location—but do so in a location where his body could be exhumed were additional forensic work deemed necessary at a later date?

What about the timing of this event? Coming on a Sunday night, on the heels of the imperial good feelings associated with the royal wedding, shortly after a number of other carefully considered media events (e.g. the birth certificate release), all timed with the launching of Obama’s re-election campaign?

Can those who were tough on Bush apply the same standards and skepticism to the Obama administration, or is everything partisan and self-serving now?

Do we, after all of the years of lying, all of a sudden accept whatever the government says as true?

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Dead Empire Walking: On Playing into Al Qaida's Hands
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Do you believe that with Bin Laden reportedly gone, life in the US will get back to 'normal' (pre-2001), and the wars (in Iraq, Afghanistan and "on terror") brought to an end?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Or perhaps he's not dead, but in one of the CIA's secret prisons.
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Treat the online support for Obama with suspicion:

[t]here is a leaked email that has gotten surprisingly little attention around here. It's the one where AaronBarr discusses his intention to post at DailyKos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas", what we call sockpuppets. This isn't new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars & coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA - whose enemies are labor unions, progressive organizations, journalists, and progressive bloggers, a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Thenvthe team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona. In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriate hashtags. In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise, as one example. There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporation or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They're talking about creating the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP isn't at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weakminded, the number can make all the difference
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Who knows what releasing photos would prove, but you release them just the same!
About Osama bin Laden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Osama Bin Laden Pictures Will Not Be Released, Obama Decides (UPDATED)

Release the d@mned videotape of what Obama, Biden, Gates, Clinton, et al, were watching in the White House situation room!

This is the United States, a transparent open government, where we do NOT conceal information from citizens.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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