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Osama Bin Laden Reported Dead, Body In US Hands
Reader Tom Hudson, and now several others, have submitted the news that Osama Bin Laden is reportedly dead, and that his body is in the hands of the US military. A statement from President Obama is expected shortly. Watch this space for more details. Update: 05/02 04:01 GMT by T : More coverage at ABC News, at CNN, and at Al Jazeera. The reports say that Bin Laden was actually killed about a week ago by a bomb in Pakistan, and the time taken to confirm his identity via DNA testing helped delay the news. In downtown Austin, Texas, in the time since the story broke I've heard what sound like numerous celebratory gunshots.
Timely as ever.
Oh, wait, this isn't in reference to tonight's announcement, this is actually a reference to "Mission Accomplished"
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
OBL died long after the struggle and mission expanded.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
As we wake up tomorrow, and nothing changes.
"People don't want to learn linux" hasn't been a valid excuse since '03.
Hey Republicans, this is what competence looks like. Would you please stop running assclowns for preznit now?
Remain calm! All is well!
It disgusts me whenever someone says the world changed after 9-11 and we had to take the actions we took. Even If a 9-11 size event is the price of living with the civil liberties so precious to me, then I am willing to accept the risk of living in such a country. I would much rather draw straws every decade, knowing I could be one of the 3,000 of 3,000,000 that could die in exchange for not have to be under surveillance day and night; not have to submit to degrading, humiliating, and possibly dangerous search techniques at the airport and other public places; and not having to endure the myriad other abuses of my rights big and small, seen and unseen. But that scenario is far from reflective of reality. At least someone trading liberty for security got something in return; as so often is the case, we traded our liberties and got NOTHING in return.
The biggest mistake after 9-11 was not the action we took, it's that we took any international action at all. We'd be much safer today if we had, instead of launching more wars and imperialist action, turned inward and secured our homeland as best we could (knowing we will never be truly 100% safe, but striving to live in happiness and prosperity despite that), and divested ourselves in the very activities that draw such aggression: our foreign bases, support of Israel, and corporate controlled neo-colonialism.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
But why Iraq? The closest I heard for that was "they had WMDs" (which we found they had an active program to make it look like they did so that no one would invade - fat lot of good that did them) and "they were linked to Osama" (which Cheney asserted based on the fact that Osama did convey his intention to commit terrorism when he asked Saddam for help and Saddam said "no" which Cheney asserted is proof that Saddam knew Osama was a terrorist and had ties to him).
The reality was that the president wanted personal revenge because he blamed Saddam for Daddy losing out on a second term. And Cheney/Rove (who actually ran the country) allowed it because they knew they would be able to funnel not just hundreds of billions, but multiple trillions to their friends and supporters. There was no other reason why the US should invent some coalition and make up reasons to invade. For that, Bush and Cheney should face one murder charge for every dead person. But no, the Republicans talk like they support responsibility, unless it was they who were responsible.
Disclaimer, I'm not a Democrat, I'm an independent who wishes that 3rd parties could actually be relevant, but knows that they aren't ever going to be, so I bash all parties equally and it just happens to be the Republican's fault for this one. Don't worry, the Democrats screw up a lot too, they just get less press for it right now because they haven't had the White House as much in the last 40+ years.
Learn to love Alaska
I'm going to guess it was more his terrible health, failing renal system, and lack of proper medical treatment that killed him. If the bomb had anything to do with it, I'm sure it was just coincidence. I also highly doubt he was in any kind of firefight with troops. A 6-foot Afghani man on dialysis...shaking in my fucking boots.
If there's one thing the US has proven in the last 10 years, it's that our military can't do a goddamn thing right when it comes to finding, protecting, or 'freeing' people.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits