Re: Anti War activist: OBL death story stupid
http://presstv.com/usdetail/178885.html
BIN laden buried in sea of question of marks!!!
Many analysts, political pundits and law experts have begun questioning the veracity of the official account.
Xinhua New Agency writers Wei Jianhua and Deng Yushan have co-authored a critique on bin Laden’s alleged killing and many questions surrounding it.
Here are some of the highlights:
Should Obama release Osama death photos?
Among the suspicions about bin Laden’s death is the U.S. authorities’ refusal to release any photographs of bin Laden’s remains. Even some U.S. lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, conceded that the administration will probably need to release photos to prevent what they called conspiracy theories from taking root.
So far, U.S. President Barack Obama has rejected to release photos of bin Laden’s body, citing a possible backlash from his supporters and saying the United States should not b*sh “trophies” of its victory.
But commentaries in Middle East newspapers said the absence of photos as well as the hurried dumping of bin Laden’s body into sea contrasted with the release of the photos of the bloody bodies of slain Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, in 2003.
Initial account riddled with errors?
The White House admitted Tuesday night that its initial account of the killing of bin Laden had been riddled with errors.
On Monday, the White House said bin Laden was armed and involved in a firefight, which was why the Navy SEALs chose to shoot him dead right away. In an embarrassing climb-down on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said bin Laden did not fire on the Navy SEALs. “He was not armed,” Carney corrected.
What has also been proved false was the initial dramatic description of bin Laden using a woman as a “human shield” and forcing her to sacrifice her life, implying a cowardly act of self-defense by the al-Qaeda leader. The woman was still alive and was taken into custody with several of bin Laden’s children, according to Carney’s new version.
Osama’s assassination legal?
The killing’s legality has also been questioned, with some asking why bin Laden was not captured alive, given the context that he was unarmed when he was shot.
CIA Director Leon Panetta said in an interview with "NBC Nightly News" that the Navy SEALs had got the permission from Obama to kill the most wanted man of the United States, an order many believe would relieve the administration of a lengthy judicial process and radical revenge attacks from al-Qaeda in a trial of bin Laden.
Jeff Greenfield, a veteran U.S. correspondent, wrote in The Washington Post that U.S. officials would face “a far more consequential challenge” in the trial than the killing of bin Laden.
Echoing the sentiment of his colleagues, Christof Heyns, the UN independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, has called on the United States to reveal more details of the raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout to allow experts to assess the legality of his killing.
The operation’s timing political?
Others have also questioned the timing of the announcement of bin Laden’s death. Many said that the bombshell news came in favor of Obama at a time his public approval ratings slipped when he was preparing for re-election next year. Obama’s approval ratings dramatically rebounded after the announcement.
Time to leave Afghanistan?
“Now that bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda is scattered around the globe, does it really make sense to keep using over 100,000 U.S. troops to occupy Afghanistan? I don’t think so,” U.S. Representative Jim McGovern said Thursday on Capitol Hill, echoing similar views from other lawmakers.
However, the Obama administration, which planned to begin scaling down U.S. forces in July and hand over security responsibilities to the Afghans by 2014, has stressed that bin Laden’s death would have no bearing on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
“The July 2011 transition date for the beginning of a drawdown remains very much in place. The pace of that drawdown will be determined by conditions on the ground,” said Carney, the White House spokesman.
Cooperation with Pakistan undermined?
The killing of bin Laden has also put into question U.S. future counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan, which has accused Washington of violating its sovereignty by launching a unilateral operation on its soil.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed deep concerns and reservations over the U.S. raid, which it said was carried out** “without prior information or authorization from the government of Pakistan.”**
The Pakistani military threatened Thursday that it would reconsider its counterterrorism cooperation with the United States should Washington launch another unilateral attack like the one that killed bin Laden.
