"You don't get this kind of happening from a fake event...Oh, the administration is debating about showing pics of his OBM's body." The comment is from friend who sends me items from Talking Points Memo (TPM) Find this one and more striking photos at that site...GO here or directly for the WH slide show here That said, there are still a lot of folk asking questions about DNA/protocal for dropping body in sea...There are a few questions asked & perhaps answered by David Swanson on 3 May - end of this post...I've deliberately UPDATED and posted the Rights news of 30 April thru 3 May above earlier items here in order to leave the article above intact and because these items below - although a LONG list - strike me as mostly "all of a piece".
Starting with today's rush of quickly-written items, I read quite a few quickly as well given limited time - many different points and included plenty of alleged "facts". These don't necessarly speak for my own conclusions (of which I have few).
Yet here's one from David Swanson (writer of "War is a Lie" and a vital peace/justice activist). His for today speaks well to my own values...I found that the US Veterans for Peace had also approved this one above all at the time I looked. Some aspects of this article are reassuring even - that a whole plane-load of folk (upon which David Swanson sat) in a US plane would ALL REFUSE to follow the airline staff's inhuman cue to cheer.
Killing Resolves Nothing
By David Swanson
http://www.countercurrents.org/swanson020511.htm or GO here and many other places:
The beginning: Our killing of Saddam Hussein has been followed by years of war and hundreds of thousands of pointless deaths. Our attempts to kill Muammar Gadaffi have killed his children and grandchildren and will end no war if they eventually succeed. Our attempts to kill Osama bin Laden, including wars justified by that mission, have involved nearly a decade of senseless slaughter in Afghanistan and the rest of the ongoing global "generational" war that is consuming our nation...continue to read at the URL above.
Common Dreams (Thoughtful item) here
A few other items for deeper than usual reviewing - related to OBL event:
Roland Garret is a painter who's written a book on the same as well as plenty of articles (to make the world a better place for his daughter. He lives what he preaches.) READ here (editorial)
Aljazeera Live Blog here
Interesting Aljazeera opinion "here
US- Pakistan (at least the scenarios this journalist paints for Lebanon's "Daily Star" does get at US arrogance a little) while I'm not entirely clear on his conclusion here
? here
Full Text of Pres. Obama's message here
NYTimes Opinion here
And of course for interesting blogs and some reports which may be similar to US news and sometimes not - Pakistan's Dawn.com
Several of these items with their startling assertions may need more than a little more research? Image of dead OBL: here
But I've decided to discount some assertions (OBL dead a long time ago)until I'm sure otherwise after these comments by a fellow peace/justice activist I really respect who introduced me to a great and constantly updating site with lawyer-like analysis:
***Connie, The readers of Talking Points Memo have been wondering and supposing what the wingers would come up with about this event. I suppose OBL dying previously is just one of the many avenues that wingers and the few nutty lefties there are have generated so far. Just hang on to your hat cause you will see and hear some really strange tales about this happening in the next few days. How long did it take the nuts to get around obamas birth certificate?
Here are Josh's comments on TPM today
We'll have more reporting on this shortly. And we're hearing more details as I write in the White House press conference with Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan. But we're already getting some clear indications about a big question the US government needs to answer.
It's always been a big question just which parts of the Pakistani state apparatus -- the military, the civil government, the intelligence services -- are genuine partners in the fight against al Qaeda and which are playing a double game. The Pakistani intelligence service is notoriously shot through with sympathizers with the Taliban and even al Qaeda.
Osama's safe house was just outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and only a very short distance from the main military academy. So what decision does the US government make about whether elements in the Pakistani government and at what levels may have known bin Laden's whereabouts and been complicit in keeping them secret. And just as important, what does it say publicly about what it thinks. Announcing your suspicions on such a critical matter is almost as important as having them.
So far, as far as I know, the administration, even in background briefings, has not suggested any complicity by the Pakistani state apparatus. But a very different message is coming from members of Congress, including ones close to the White House like Sen. Levin (D), and people who only recently left the administration like James Jones. Levin didn't make a direct accusation but wasn't very ambiguous. And Jones said he assumed Pakistani complicity given the details of where he was found and other circumstances of the assault.
Senators say what they want to say. And Jones made clear that he's not going on any recent intelligence. But I don't think someone like Levin would get dramatically out in front of the briefings he was getting from the country's top intelligence officials and diplomats. And it's what you would expect that the White House would let legislators talk more freely while they remain more circumspect.
But watch this closely. Because at the point where the US government suggests serious suspicions, if it happens, that the Pakistani state at the highest levels was helping shelter bin Laden, I'm not sure there's much coming back from that.
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Andy Worthington wrote "The Guantanamo Files" and his analysis/talks/interviews are on the cutting edge of what's been happening with US prisoners in the "war on terror". Read his article "How to Read Wikileaks Guantanamo Files" here Here's an excerpt excerpt "...lies...were grafted onto the prisoners’ files after their arrival at Guantánamo. This is because, contrary to the impression gven in the files, no significant screening process took place before the prisoners’ transfer. As a senior interrogator who worked in Afghanistan explained in a book that he wrote about his experiences,every prisoner who ended up in US custody had to be sent to Guantánamo, even though the majority were not even seized by US forces, but were seized by their Afghan and Pakistani allies at a time when substantial bounty payments for “al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects” were widespread. (End Worthington's excerpt)
From No Gitmos dot org
05/02 / Morris Davis / Spiegel (Germany) / 'The Government's Narrative Was a Lie'
05/02 / John Goetz, Mathieu von Rohr, Marcel Rosenbach and Britta Sandberg / Spiegel (Germany) / A Casual Relationship with the Truth at Guantanamo
05/02 / Kevin Johnson / USA Today / Bills would transfer oversight of terror cases
05/02 / Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare / Will Bin Laden’s Death Reignite the Interrogation Debate?
05/02 / Chris Elliott / Guardian (U.K.) / Open door: the Guantánamo files
05/02 / Angela Davis / Voice of Russia / 80% of Guantanamo detainees got there for no reason
05/01 / Jeff Kaye / Firedoglake / Important Files Missing in WikiLeaks Guantanamo Release
05/01 / Nancy Goldstein / GritTV / Losing Sleep Over Bradley Manning
05/01 / Carol Rosenberg / Miami Herald / For first time, all 172 detainees come into view
05/01 / Andy Worthington / How to Read WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files
05/01 / Editorial / New York Times / From Secrecy to Absurdity
05/01 / Carol Rosenberg / McClatchy Newspapers / For first time, Guantanamo's detainees come into view
04/30 / Editorial / MetroWest Daily (Massachusetts) / It's time to close Gitmo
04/30 / Andy Worthington / Andy Worthington Tells the Truth About WikiLeaks’ Guantánamo Files in an Interview with Alexa O’Brien
04/29 / CBS News / Former Prosecutor: U.S. Will Have To Apologize For Guantanamo
04/29 / Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo / The Learning Network / New York Times / Nine Years, 779 People: Guantánamo Bay and the Implications of the Files
04/29 / Jason Leopold / TruthOut / Guantanamo Detainees Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Confinement Conditions
04/29 / McClatchy Newspapers / Who's Still Being Held at Guantanamo (Interactive)
04/29 / Stephen Glain / US News & World Report / Wikileaks Guantanamo Files Show the Great Cost of the U.S. Empire
04/29 / Matthew W. Daloisio / Washington Post / Letter: Guantanamo and the politics of fear
04/29 / Editorial / Philadelphia Daily News / Guantanamo: The stain on Obama's presidency
04/29 / Jeffrey Kaye / The Public Record / Ex-Guantanamo Detainee David Hicks Fights Back Against US Government’s Lies
04/29 / Marcel Rosenbach / Spiegel (Germany) / Slahi's Guantanamo File Full of Dubious Information
04/28 / Uri Friedman / Atlantic Online / The Worst Guantanamo Detention Story We've Heard So Far
04/28 / The Nation / Audio: Andy Worthington on the Guantánamo Files
04/28 / Michael K. Busch / Firedoglake / The Gitmo Files: Naqib Ullah
04/28 / Conor Friedersdorf / Atlantic Online / Tarring Guantanamo Defense Lawyers as Traitors
04/28 / Joseph Margulies / NPR / New Republic: What We See In The Gitmo Papers
From No More Gitmos - find all these listed and more news/actions with an easy CLICK here cut/paste for your contacts: http://www.nogitmos.org/news
Since lots of folk are asking such questions, The intro which speculates & asks protocal questions along with listerner...Guest is David Swanson here
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