The lies and unknowns in the death of Bin Laden

BY FIDEL CASTRO

(May 18, Havana, Sri Lanka Guardian) The men who executed bin Laden did not act on their own account: they were fulfilling orders from the government of the United States. They had been carefully selected and trained for special missions. It is known that the President of the United States can even communicate with a soldier in combat.

A few hours after the action in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, headquarters of that country’s most prestigious military academy and important combat units, the White House presented the public with a carefully drafted version of the death of the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

Logically, world attention and the international press focused on the subject, displacing the rest of the news from the public sphere.

The U.S. television networks broadcast the President’s painstakingly drafted speech and showed footage of public reaction.

It was obvious that the delicacy of the matter was perceived in the world, given that Pakistan is a country of 171.8 million inhabitants (in which the United States and NATO are engaged in a devastating war which has lasted for 10 years already), the possessor of nuclear weapons and a traditional U.S. ally.

Without any doubt the Muslim country cannot be in agreement with the bloody war that the United States and its allies are carrying out in Afghanistan, another Muslim country with which its shares the complicated and mountainous border drawn up by the British colonial empire, where common peoples live on both sides of the dividing line.

Even the U.S. press understood that the President was concealing almost everything.

The Western news agencies: ANSA, AFP, Reuters and EFE, the written press and a number of important websites are stating interesting information on the event.

The New York Times notes that events differ from an official version of events issued by the White House and senior intelligence officials on Tuesday, according to which the death of Bin Laden – which they finally acknowledged was unarmed although they assured that he resisted – had come about in an intense firefight.

"The new details suggested that the raid, though chaotic and bloody, was extremely one-sided, with a force of more than 20 Navy Seal members quickly dispatching the handful of men protecting bin Laden."

"…The Times now assures that the only shots fired by those in the compound came at the beginning of the operation."

"It took place precisely when Bin Laden’s trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, opened fire from behind the door of the guesthouse adjacent to the house where Bin Laden was hiding."

"’After the Seal members shot and killed Mr. Kuwaiti and a woman in the guesthouse, the Americans were never fired upon again,’" the newspaper maintains on the basis of sources whose identity it does not reveal.

"On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney, had assured in a narration of events in the early hours of Monday that the U.S. commando was engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.

"Leon E. Panetta, the director of the CIA, said that there were some fire fights that were going on as these guys were making their way up the staircase of that compound."

"On the other hand however, the daily assures that although Bin Laden had not raised a weapon when he was shot, when the commandos reached the top floor, they entered a room and saw Osama bin Laden with an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in arm’s reach."

Today, May 6, the news continues.

From Washington one of the agencies informs that that only one man ever fired on the American commandos. It goes on to narrate that, "Under cover of night, several helicopters ferry 79 commandos towards Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, flying low to avoid detection by radar, as Pakistan has not been told of the raid in advance.

"Two helicopters deliver more than 20 US Navy SEALs to the residence, which has 12-18 foot (four-to-six meter) walls covered with barbed wire. One of the choppers, a MH-60 Blackhawk apparently modified to evade radar, is out of commission due to mechanical failure, according to initial reports from US officials.

"One group of commandos moves toward a smaller guest house next to the compound's main building. Bin Laden's trusted courier opens fire and is shot and killed, along with his wife. The courier is the only man at the compound who fires on the Americans, contrary to earlier accounts from the White House that

described a firefight throughout the nearly 40-minute operation.

"Another US special forces team enters the main three- story house. They encounter the courier's brother, who has one hand behind his back, causing the SEALs to suspect he may have a gun, which turns out not to be the case, according to NBC news. He is shot and killed.

"The commandos move up the stairs and meet up with Bin Laden's adult son, Khalid, who is killed…

"On the top floor, they find Bin Laden and his wife in the bedroom. She reportedly tries to move between her husband and the commandos, and is shot in the leg. Bin Laden, who gives no signal of surrender, is shot in the head, and some media say he is also struck in the chest. Earlier versions of the raid said Bin Laden "resisted" and that he had used his wife as a human shield, but the White House later acknowledges those details are incorrect.

"President Barack Obama, following events from the White House, is told the SEALs have tentatively identified Bin Laden. A Time magazine report, based on an interview with CIA Director Leon Panetta, suggests Bin Laden was killed less than 25 minutes into the raid.

"In Bin Laden's room, the U.S. team finds an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm Russian pistol. Other weapons are discovered in the compound.

"The special forces find cash and telephone numbers sown into Bin Laden's clothing…

"In an intelligence coup, the Navy SEALs haul away five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices.

"The US team destroys the downed helicopter, after moving women and children in the compound to a safe area.

" About 38 minutes after the start of the raid, the US helicopters fly away, carrying the corpse of Bin Laden."

AP also publishes information of political and also human interest:

"One of the three wives, identified as Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, told interrogators she had been staying in Bin Laden's hideout since 2006 and never left the upper floors of the large but sparsely furnished building, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the agency's policy. He added that she could be an important source of information on how he avoided capture for so long.

"She and the other two wives of Bin Laden are being interrogated in Pakistan after they were taken into custody following the American raid on Bin Alden’s compound in the town of Abbottabad. Pakistani authorities are also holding eight or nine children who were found there after the U.S. commandos left.

"Given shifting and incomplete accounts from U.S. officials about what happened during the raid, the women's testimonies may also be significant in unveiling details about the operation.

"The wives' accounts will help show how Bin Laden spent his time and how he managed to avoid capture, living in a large house close to military academy in a garrison town, a two-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Islamabad.

"A Pakistani official said CIA officers had not been given access to the women in custody."

"The proximity of the al-Qaida chief's hideout to an elite military academy and the Pakistani capital has raised suspicions in Washington that bin Laden may have been protected by Pakistani security forces while on the run."

The EFE news agency is inquiring into the views of the inhabitants of Pakistan:

"Sixty-six percent of Pakistanis do not believe that the U.S. special forces killed the Al Maida leader Osama Bin Laden, but somebody else, according to a joint survey by YouGov, the British demoscopic institute, and Polis, of Cambridge University.

"The survey was conducted among Internet users, who are generally more highly educated, from three major cities: Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, with the exclusion of rural demographic groups, which makes the results all the more surprising, according to the researchers.

"Seventy-five percent also express their disapproval of U.S. violation of Pakistani sovereignty in the operation to capture and kill Bin Laden.

"Less than three quarters of those interviewed believe that Bin Laden did not authorize the 9/11 attacks on the United States which justified the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the war on Islamic terrorism.

"Seventy-four percent are of the view that the Washington government does not respect Islam and considers itself at war with the Islamic world and 70% disapprove of the Pakistani policy of accepting U.S. economic aid.

"Eighty-six percent are also opposed to the Pakistani government continuing to allow, or criticizing the prior authorization of, drone attacks on militant groups.

"Sixty-one percent of Pakistanis questioned say that they sympathize with the Taliban or believe that they represent respectable points of view, as opposed to just 21% who are radically against."

Reuters agency contributes equally interesting data:

"One of Osama Bin Laden's wives told Pakistani interrogators that the Al Qaeda leader and his family had been living for five years in the compound where he was killed by U.S. forces this week, a security official said on Friday.

"The official, who identified the woman as Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, the youngest of Bin Laden's three wives, told Reuters she was wounded in the U.S. raid on Monday.

"The security official said Abdulfattah told investigators: ‘We have been living there for the past five years.’"

"Pakistani security forces took between 15 and 16 people into custody from the compound after U.S. forces removed Bin Laden's body, said the security official. Those detained included Bin Laden's three wives and several children."

Today, a U.S. drone aircraft today killed no less than 15 people in Waziristan, northern Pakistan, according to the ANSA agency. Others were seriously wounded. But, who is going to do anything about those daily killings in that country?

However, I will ask myself one question. Why such a coincidence between the murder in Abbottabad and the simultaneous attempt to murder Gaddafi?

One of his youngest sons, Saif al Arab, who was not involved in political affairs, was in the house where he lived with his little son and two young cousins; Gaddafi and his wife had visited them until just shortly before the NATO bombing attack. The house was destroyed; Saif al Arab and the three children died; Gaddafi and his wife had left shortly before. It was an unprecedented event. But the world has barely heard about it.

Was the coincidence of that event and the attack on the refuge of Osama Bin Laden, which the U.S. government knew perfectly well and was watching in every detail, a simple chance?

A cable datelined today from the Vatican City noted:

"May 6 (ANSA).—Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, stated today to the Vatican Fides agency that he has no intention of ‘interfering in anyone’s political activity,’ but that he does have to duty to warn that the Libya bombings ‘are immoral.’

"’I am surprised that statements have been made to the effect that I should only concern myself with spiritual matters, and that the bombings were authorized by the UN. But this does not mean that the UN, NATO or the European Union have the moral authority to decide on bombings,’ he added.

"’I should like to underline that bombing is not an act dictated by the civil and moral conscience of the West, or humanity in general. Bombing is always an immoral act.’"

Another cable from the ANSA agency reported on the position of China and Russia.

"Moscow, May 6.—The governments of China and Russia stated today that they are ‘extremely concerned’ about the war on Libya and stated that they are to act together in order to demand a ceasefire."

"’Our conviction is that the most important objective is to obtain an immediate ceasefire,’ said Yang Jeichi, Chinese foreign minister.

Events of real concern are taking place.