I really do wish the quiet carriage on the Heathrow Express was a quiet carriage. Maybe I don’t find the right one, but I find there is nowhere to escape from Muzak, instructions about where to put your bags, and news bulletins whether you want them or not.
So in between feeling like a grumpy old man who likes things quiet in the morning, and when travelling, I heard that the White House ‘could easily’ lay to rest conspiracy theories about whether Osama Bin Laden really was killed a couple of days.
This is nonsense. The whole point of conspiracy theorists is that whatever the official version of events, they will find a hole in them, and drive through every madcap theory they can think of.
I would be interested, in a prurient kind of way I guess, to see a picture of OBL. I would be even more interested to see a tape of the live footage of events unfolding, which is how Barack Obama followed what was going on. There will be Hollywood versions before too long I imagine.
But the point is I do not need to see a picture of a man with a bullet hole in his head to know that I believe Obama when he announced Bin Laden was dead. Just as those who don’t believe him would love to see a photo so that they could point out how different he looks to the last photo they saw, so they can get new conspiracy theories going about how the photo was touched up, how there is nothing in it that says time or place, and how some minor detail in the photo contradicts somethinng a White House official said in the initial hours after the attack.
In other words, those who want to believe Obama will do so. Those who don’t will not. But deep down, even those who don’t – or at least the vast majority – know deep down that Bin Laden is dead.
It is fitting that in the run up to this momentous event, in between planning and authorising it, Obama was having to deal with another conspiracy theory, fuelled on this occasion by Donald Trump, namely that the President is not American.
Trump is a Chump. Obama is an American who is President of the US. And Bin Laden is dead. I don’t need to see pictures of any of them to know all this to be true. Seeing pictures of Trump helps in formulating the opinion he is a chump, but it is not essential. Indeed the likelihood that we will see less of him in the near future is one positive side effect of the attack on Bin Laden. His credibility as a Presidential candidate fell as Obama’s credibility as Commander in Chief Rose.
It is good news that it was a conspiracy theory that did for Trump. There will be plenty more to come, and most are likely to be as credible as Trump.
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The only surprising feature is that yet again the conspiracy theorists are given all the ammunition they need to raise their game. With such a momentous event forthcoming the Obama administration had months to pre-plan their news management in the aftermath. Yet we have statements that OBL was armed and used a woman as a human shield, now contradicted by the White House themselves.
It would be interesting to hear from AC as to why so little time/thought is devoted to the pre-planning of the aftermath of such events, when the fan has been struck.
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but the official story of what happened in Pakistan is just plain weird, especially the burial at sea.
I think this is what most people find difficult to swallow – even more so in the context of the parading and public execution Saddam (arguably a less significant find) was given.
From what I have been reading online, the conspiracy theories are saying that he was *already* dead (most say in 2002)… not that he isn’t dead.
“Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq.”
No, this is not from a conspiracy theory website. It is from the Independent. And the memos are government memos.
Tony Blair called the “oil conspiracy theory” absurd. Public denials were issued at the time. But now government memos show that plans to exploit Iraq´s oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and world´s largest oil companies year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq.
No wonder there are conspiracy theories around!
And surely the papers should have known better than to print the “official line” from the White House about Osama bin Laden immediately without a question.
And Martti Koskenniemi, a Finnish professor of international law, stated on our TV that the US acted against the rules. Justice and revenge are two different things.
As Jackie Ashley wrote in the Guardian, international law is all we have. If we throw it away, we have nothing left.
Targeting Gaddafi is against international law.
President Ronald Reagan´s Executive Order 12333 says that “no person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in assassination”.
Jimmy Carter´s EO 12036 bans indirect US involvement in assassinations. EO 11905 by Gerald Ford bans political assassinations.
The US has been involved I guess in over 50 military actions after WW2. Before Libya, only Korean War (1950-53) and 1991 Persian Gulf War had the UN backing.
The US did terrible things to civilians at Laos and Vietnam. Its involvement in Vietnam was based on a lie what happened at Tonkin Gulf.
The US government via CIA has been involved in numerous regime changes, many involving democratically elected governments.
Iran 1953. Guatemala 1954. Congo 1960. Chile 1973. Nicaragua. El Salvador. Etc.
The US cannot claim a monopoly on the moral high ground.
And after Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib we cannot trust the US.
George Orwell wrote in a 1946 essay that political language has to consist largely of euphenism and sheer cloudy vagueness. As long as there will not be straight talk from governments, there will be conspiracy theories around.
And for a very good reason.
Jim Hacker´s first rule of politics was: Never believe anything until it is officially denied!
Ps. Personally I do believe only in one specific conspiracy theory. There clearly was a second shooter on the grassy knoll. And yes, I have seen a photo of it unearthed from the US by a reliable Finnish journalist. It was shown on our national TV.
Spot on, as usual. Any chance you could show the return key a little love though? That’s one hell of a block of text to digest in one go 🙂
Would having him alive and tracked not be of greater benefit to our global security, as some reports suggest he was still authorising global attacks. surely the knowledge this provided could have saved countless lives. Or was this simply a tactic to raise Mr Obama’s ratings after a torrid few weeks.
Obama couldn’t have lied the consequences would be too much for any nation to handle. Yet knowing his whereabouts for so long, I think this death is more for a political reason rather than world wide security
The conspiracy theorists will, as you say, believe anything that they want but I’d be happy to bet any of them that we won’t be seeing a still living and breathing Bin Laden popping up on Al Jazeera any time soon. The conspiracists will, presumably, just argue that he’s being held somewhere or other for the rest of eternity. Cognitive dissonance is a wonderful thing.
yew fag
It would help if they released the actual events as they happened, rather then changing the story several times, as if to try and justify it. I suppose it wouldn’t stop the conspiricy theories, but at least the US Gov’t would have had more credibility in what is seen by the majority of people as a pretty well executed mission.
Will we get to see the footage? A Hollywood version is more likely starring Charlie Sheen.
So do you think the OBL op is the reason the Royals changed their plans and didn’t have a honeymoon?
The conspiracy theorists must be completely mad.
Do they believe for a second that Obama would risk gifting OBL with the PR coup of the century…. by simply making it known that he’s still alive??
I think chumps may be offended by your comparison…
he is more chumpy a chump-chump than the biggest chumpiest chump chump that ever chumped a chump in chumpland.
And I just loved that Obama probably didn’t even know until afterwards that his live TV announcement cut off 15 minutes of Chumpy Chump-chump’s, new Chump of the year show.
And we don’t need photos to know Obama is a USURPER, but we got some anyways, have a look!
The video that will END the Obama Presidency! Birthers Get Last Laugh & Demand Formal Apology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DHZmeMXyE
Conservative Central Office must be livid – complete waste of a Royal Wedding to distract the media from the government’s plans ahead of the local elections.
With hindsight they could have had the wedding next May instead unless……
AC I don’t think there will be many people claiming that Osama Bin Laden is still alive. Quite the opposite in fact. OBL has been announced dead before.
In 2002 in Pakistan by President Musharraf.
In 2003 the Head of the FBI said he was dead.
In 2005 a US Senator said he was dead.
In 2007 Benazir Bhutto said in an interview with David Frost that he had
been killed and even named the assassin.
There can surely be no doubt that OBL is dead. As for when, where and how?
That’s another question. It all depends on evidence and who is to be believed.
I’m not sure whether you’re advertising a particularly toxic brand of cigarette or your services as a timber surgeon. Have you got anything else in your lexicon?
Joy of joy every since the events of the death of Osama Bin Laden the buzz word is conspiracy.I cannot believe itits everywhere,on the talk radio LBC and BBC today people are ringing in and talking about conspiracy. I have been over the last two years studying the subject and it is amazing how things are gradually unfolding.For the new truthists get into my favourite David Icke and for a taster Freeman Fly or look up Freemans Perspective and the whole world will different! Lastly I recommend for another angle a bit of fun Alex Jones enjoy!
Some say that Saddam was not executed the other year, but one of his Iraqie official lookalike stand ins. My mate said a mate of his saw the actual Saddam shopping in a Tescos Extra the other day, after the, ahem!, pubs shut. An Elvis moment his mate calls it.
I think Trump will be a hit with US voters.