Film Of The Hunt For Osama Based On Lie

The new film Zero Dark Thirty has received rave reviews, and has even been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture of the year. The film is about the CIA's multi-year hunt for Osama bin-Laden - a hunt that was ended earlier this year when he was killed by Navy Seals in Pakistan. And I have to admit, that sounds like a pretty exciting premise for a film. There's only one problem -- the film is not true.

Now you may ask why that's a problem. There are a lot of very good fictional films produced every year. That is true, but when a film is based on actual events, most people expect those events to have actually happened -- and that is not the case here (even though far too many people will leave the theater thinking what they have seen is true, because they know parts of it like the death of bin-Laden is true).

The problem is that the film leaves the distinct impression that valuable information, that led to the killing of bin-Laden, was gained through the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- or torture as it is commonly and truthfully called. And that is just not true. It has been reported by several of the CIA agents involved that no useful information was ever derived from the torture authorized by President Bush. In fact, some of the information gotten from torture actually impeded the hunt for bin-Laden, because it was untrue and led agents in the wrong direction. Here is what the Acting CIA Director had to say about the torture:

". . .the film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Ladin. That impression is false."

I know that some people believe people will tell the truth when subjected to torture, but that is simply false. What they will do is tell the interrogator what he/she wants to hear, so the torture will stop -- and that may be far from the truth. In fact, it probably won't be the truth -- especially if the truth is an unlikely scenario (which the interrogator is not likely to believe), or the person being questioned doesn't know the truth (which the interrogator is also unlikely to believe).

I'm not a big fan of Republican Senator John McCain, but I appreciate his stepping forward to blast this film for its erroneous premise. McCain probably knows more than any other person in Congress about torture -- because he is the only person in Congress to have been repeatedly tortured (as a prisoner in the Vietnam War of the North Vietnamese). He has also sat on senate committees that were privy to the uselessness of the torture techniques that were used.

Sadly though, many people will leave this movie thinking they have witnessed the truth, and they will be inclined to support using torture in the future since they'll think it worked this time. But it didn't. It just justified the use of torture against our own soldiers by our enemies, and that's all it will do in the future.

I'm sure this is a well-made movie, because it was made by some very talented people. It's just a shame that they didn't think they could make a good movie by telling the truth -- because the truth about the hunt for bin-Laden (who was NOT found using torture) is a very compelling story.

Public Says No To Release Of Osama Pictures

The cartoon above is just a joke to most Americans. It plays off the conspiracy theory nuts in this country who won't accept anything the president does or says without "proof". But I suspect that it is more about racism (they just can't accept an African-American president) than really wanting proof (like the refusal to accept the official birth certificate from the state of Hawaii for the last two years).

The newest of these conspiracy theories now questions whether Osama bin Laden is really dead (even though the military has DNA evidence and al-Queda admits Osama was killed). These "deathers" are demanding proof of his death and say they won't believe it until they see the pictures of his dead body. Of course this is just silly, since the DNA evidence is much better proof than any picture and our military has no reason to lie about it. Even if the pictures were released to the public, these "deathers" would probably just claim they had been faked.

So our president has decided that the pictures of a dead Osama will not be released. This is the appropriate decision. Releasing the pictures would prove nothing, would only serve as a kind of "blood porn", and might even further enrage some terrorists to attack us. We generally like to pride ourselves as being a decent people, and the decent thing in this case is to not release the pictures. We've probably celebrated a little too much anyway.

So what do the people think of President Obama's decision? Thankfully, about two-thirds of them agree with the president's decision. A recent NBC Poll (taken May 5th through May 7th of 800 adults with a 3.5 point margin of error) shows that 64% agree with the decision not to release the pictures. Here are the numbers:

SHOULD NOT RELEASE...............64%
Definitely not...............52%
Probably not...............12%

SHOULD RELEASE...............29%
Definitely should...............24%
Probably should...............5%

I'm glad that most people aren't willing to go along with the bloodlust or the conspiracy nuts. Osama is dead. It's over. Let's move on. We have an economy to fix, and that's a lot more important than arguing about some pictures.

He Did The Right Thing

 This comes as no surprise to most of us. Ever since announcing the successful Navy Seal raid in Pakistan that got Osama bin Laden, several polls have shown a spike in approval for the president -- among them the Quinnipiac University poll (up from 46% to 52%) and a Gallup Poll (which also showed a rise from 46% to 52%). Other polls have shown similar results.

This has some on the right upset -- like to talking heads at Fox News (who are about to crap all over themselves). They are accusing the president of using Osama's death to score political points, and some are even accusing him of faking the death for political purposes. Of course, both accusations are ridiculous.

Does Osama's death insure Obama's re-election? Of course not. We are too far from election day -- and plenty could happen between now and then. It won't hurt, but it would have been much more helpful politically if it had happened next year.

And there are some politicians (in both parties) who would have waited in the hopes of scoring an electoral coup (even though Osama could have escaped in the meantime). But the president didn't do that. Instead of the best political action, he chose to do the right thing. And that makes me feel better about my vote for him in 2008.

He kept his promise to get Osama as soon as possible. Now I wish he could keep the rest of his campaign promises (stop the wars, close Guantanamo, support unions, etc.).

Raid On Osama More Productive Than Thought ?

If the raid on the mansion in Pakistan had resulted in nothing more than the death of Osama bin Laden, it would have been well worth it. The murderer had escaped justice for far too long. Al-Queda would still exist and mostly likely would try to retaliate against this country (or one of our allies), but it still had to be done.

But it looks like more than just the death of Osama bin Laden was accomplished in the raid by U.S. forces. It is now being reported that a veritable treasure-trove of information was also seized in the raid by the Navy Seals. Politico says that officials have told them that "special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightening raid that killed bin Laden."

This material is currently being viewed and evaluated at a secret location in Afghanistan. One U.S. official said, "Hundreds of people are going through it now. It's going to be great even if only 10 percent of it is actionable."

That is great! Osama was the top person in al-Queda, and it is very likely that he would have had information on the entire network of terrorists operating under the al-Queda label. And if so, this could be the thing that breaks the back of that terrorist organization.

We in the general public probably won't know what information is there -- perhaps for several years. The authorities will want to use this information in every possible way before releasing any of it, and that is just what they should do. I hope it is valuable and means the end of al-Queda (and I find it hard to believe it would only be computer games and downloaded movies -- after all, this is al-Queda's top dog).

But even if there is enough information there to virtually eliminate al-Queda, it will not mean the end to terrorism. Although al-Queda was the worst terrorist organization, they were far from the only one. It would still be a huge step though, and it would put all the other terrorist organizations on notice that they could be next. And that's a good thing.

Public Approves Of Attack On Osama - Some Give Bush Credit

The above picture was released by the White House. It shows the president deep in thought as he awaits the outcome of the attack on Osama bin Laden's mansion in Pakistan. We know now that the mission was an unqualified success, but at the time it took a great deal of political courage to give the final order to proceed with the attack -- an attack fraught with danger, both to the troops that pulled it off and the president that ordered it.

No matter how well an attack is planned there is always the danger of something going wrong. A perfect example of this is the attack in Iran ordered by President Carter to free the American hostages being held there. That attack went badly awry in the desert of Iran and turned into a political disaster for the president. It made him look incompetent and ineffective and contributed to his defeat in the following election.

But that didn't happen in Pakistan. The attack came off as planned and a vicious criminal was brought to justice -- making heroes of the Navy Seals who carried it out, the intelligence officers who gave them the necessary information, and the president who had the courage to give the final order.

And a new Gallup Poll shows the American people almost unanimously approve of the action taken. A whopping 93% of Americans said they approved of the attack on Osama bin Laden, while only about 5% said they disapproved of it (and the other 2% said they didn't know or refused to answer). While I can understand the 5%, who probably don't believe in the killing of any man, I just can't agree with them this time. I would have preferred putting him on trial before the entire world, but his death is far better than allowing him to remain free for even one more day. He was a mass murderer and had already evaded justice for far too long.

The 93% approval by Americans is not really a surprise. The poll gets a little more interesting when it goes on to ask who the people give credit to for finding and killing Osama bin Laden. Here are the numbers of those who give either a great deal or moderate amount of credit to the following people:

U.S. Military...............98%
The CIA...............88%
President Obama...............71%
George Bush...............52%

I wish a little more credit had been given to the president, but I understand there are a lot of right-wingers (and racists) in this country who just cannot bring themselves to say anything nice about the president (even when he gives the order they have been wanting for many years now). But that is their failing -- not the president's.

I do find it a bit odd that 52% of the people would give George Bush at least a moderate amount of credit. That seems to be more generous than history would support.

Some want to credit Bush's authorization of the use of torture in questioning captured fighters and suspected terrorists. They seem to think the information on Osama's location could not have been developed without the use of torture. That is just silly. Even Donald Rumsfeld, Bush administration official and rabid Bush supporter, discounts this theory. And several former CIA interrogators have testified that no useful information was ever gathered from the use of torture. Torture, as I have said in the past, makes a person tell you what you want to hear -- not the truth.

Others give Bush credit for putting in place the processes used to get at the truth. I guess they are referring to the invasion of Afghanistan (a terrible mistake) and the creation of a military prison at Guantanamo Bay (an even worse mistake). The truth is that this mission could have been planned and carried out (and the information necessary for it) without either of those things happening. In fact, it has become obvious that an intelligence and special forces action accomplished what a war and the use of torture could not.

Although Bush promised Americans that he would hunt down Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice, the fact is that he didn't. And he didn't because it was more important to him to invade Iraq (a nation that had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no danger to this country). Bush had an absolute obsession with Iraq, so he left the job in Afghanistan half done and pulled out troops to send them to Iraq. The capture of Osama was only a secondary issue for Bush after his initial failure to capture him at Tora Bora (where Osama could have been captured or killed if the Bush administration had sent enough troops).

Frankly, the American people are more generous than I am. I give Bush no credit at all for the killing of Osama bin Laden. He should have done it, but he failed and then turned his attention elsewhere. It took a new president to turn our attention back to the capture/killing of Osama -- and he got the job done.

What Muslims Thought Of Osama (And Al-Queda)

There was little doubt that Osama bin Laden was a terrorist and a mass murderer (and headed an organization as evil as he was). It wasn't just the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, although that would have been plenty, but he organized killings of innocents in many other countries too. But it was not enough for the right-wingers in this country to just blame the terrorists for their actions -- they wanted to make all muslims responsible for the actions of a few criminals.

It should have gone without saying that all muslims were no more responsible for the actions of Osama bin Laden than all christians were responsible for the murderous actions of Timothy McVeigh or Scott Roeder. But the right-wing needed a bogeyman to scare Americans into voting for their fringe candidates and they decided that muslims would fit the bill. For the last ten years or so they have taken every available opportunity to demonize and discriminate against decent people who believe in the muslim faith.

The truth is that most muslims are decent, nice, hardworking people who hate what bin Laden and al-Queda did as much (or more) than anyone else. Here is what some American muslim leaders had to say about the killing of Osama bin Laden by American forces:

Imam Hassan al-Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America (Dearborn):
"The world is definitely a better place without the patron of all terrorists -- the world's most infamous thug."

Ibrahim Aljahim, head of Arab American Outreach:
"He never represented Muslims or anyone else. It's a great thing. We're very happy. He hurt Muslims more than any other religious groups."


Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee:
"As gratifying as it is to see this, we should continue to be on alert. Executing the symbol of bin Laden does not execute the ideology (of extremism). It's a vital mistake to focus on the person and ignore the ideology."


Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations:
"We welcome the elimination of Osama bin Laden and the threat that his terrorist leadership posed to the people of the world."


Frankly, those statements sound as patriotic as those of any American. These people, and the millions of other American muslims, never supported Osama or his terrorist organization. They are happy and proud to be Americans (and many of them have served bravely in our Armed Forces).

And the anti-Osama (and al-Queda) feelings weren't restricted to muslims in America. A recent Pew Research Center survey taken of muslims in many other countries showed that the huge majority of muslims worldwide did not support Osama or his organization. Only one country showed much support for Osama (and al-Queda) and that was Nigeria, and even there the support was from only about half of the muslims. The survey was taken only among those who were muslims, and here are the numbers in each country that supported Osama:

Lebanon...............1%
Turkey...............3%
Jordan...............13%
Pakistan...............18%
Egypt................22%
Indonesia...............26%
Palestinian Terr...............34%
Nigeria...............48%

The fact is that Osama bin Laden has never had widespread support in the muslim world, and in recent years that support has dropped even further. There are extremist muslims, but there are extremists in all religions -- and like all other religions the extremists are in the minority and opposed by the vast majority of their religion.

Americans breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that Osama bin Laden was dead, but so did others around the world -- including many decent muslims in many countries.

Right-Wing Dazed By Obama Success

Any way you look at it, Sunday night was a stunning victory for President Obama. The American people have waited for a long time for the U.S. government to catch up with Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice, and the president was finally able to announce they had been successful. As I listened to the president announce Osama's death I wondered just how the right-wing would try to play this victory. After all, they have adamantly refused up to now to give the president credit for anything.

And they did not disappoint. Most on the right still refuse to give the president the credit he deserves. President Obama has supervised this operation from the very first, and showed a great deal of political courage in authorizing the foray into Pakistan by American forces (which is exactly what he said he would do if Osama was found in Pakistan).

Some, like Sarah Palin, have ignored the president altogether and only praised the forces on the ground who did the actual fighting. I guess these people think no decisions had to be made. But many on the right are giving credit to President Bush instead of President Obama -- such as Rep. Eric Cantor, Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card, Karl Rove, Rep. Steve King, Donald Rumsfeld, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Bush legal advisor John Yoo, Heritage Foundation president Edwin Feulner, and teabaggers Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, and Judson Phillips.

To use a football analogy, these right-wingers make it sound like George Bush carried the ball down to the 1 yard line and then tossed it to Barack Obama to make the score. This is just silly. A much better analogy would be to say Obama picked up a Bush fumble and ran it for a touchdown. If you'll remember, Bush seemed to have lost interest in finding Osama near the end of his presidency, saying, "I don't know where he is. I really just don't spend that much time on him, to be honest with you."

But as silly as these right-wingers seem there is a group of fringe right-wingers (such as blogger Andrew Brietbart and Washington Times editor Emily Miller) who are going off the deep end with a new conspiracy theory. They are claiming that Osama bin Laden may not be dead, and they are demanding proof of his death -- actually wanting to see the body. This is ridiculous. We have the assurance of the forces (praised by the right-wing) who actually did the job and of DNA evidence.

This reminds me of the "birthers", who insisted on a conspiracy long after there was no doubt of the president's birth in Hawaii. Now that this movement has been thoroughly discredited it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them jump on board this new conspiracy theory -- the "deathers". These people need an excuse to oppose the president (since they can't admit to their real reason to oppose him -- their racism). I expect we'll hear a lot more from these new "deathers" in the near future, and personally I think they are still as pathetic as they were when they were "birthers".

But the denials of both the "Bushers" and the "deathers" was to be expected. They are incapable of admitting President Obama did something right -- even when it was something they themselves wanted. That's just the kind of people they are.

He's Dead !

On September 11, 2001 several airliners were hijacked. Two of them were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City and another hit the Pentagon. On another, the passengers fought back and were killed when the plane crashed. More than 3,000 Americans were killed that day.

It did not take long for the government to figure out who did it. It was organized, financed and carried out by an organization called al-Queda. This organization was founded and headed by a Saudi citizen named Osama bin-Laden (pictured). In 2001, President George Bush promised all Americans that Osama bin-Laden would be brought to justice, and in an effort to do that he invaded Afghanistan (where we still are trying to fight Taliban insurgents). That country was invaded because they allowed al-Queda to live and train there.

But Bush lost sight of that goal. He had always wanted to invade Iraq and used the 9/11 disaster to invade that country (even though Iraq's leader hated bin-Laden and had nothing to do with the attack on America). After getting bogged down in two wars, Bush put the capture or killing of Osama bin-Laden on the back-burner, and when he left office in 2008 it still had not been accomplished. It was one of many failures of the Bush administration.

It now looks like the Obama administration has completed the mission for all Americans. American forces found Osama bin-Laden living in luxury in a mansion near Islamabad with his family (and not in an Afghani cave as was previously suggested). The terrorist leader was killed and his body has been positively identified by U.S. forces. CNN is reporting this was a human military operation -- not a drone attack.

I don't usually celebrate the death of any person, but I have to admit I am not upset at this good news. The man was a mass murderer. I wish we could have put him on trial, but at least he is no longer at large. And 9/11 has been avenged. Those are good things.

This does not mean that terrorism is no longer a threat. In fact, there may be reprisals for this death. But this is something that needed to happen and is long overdue. I congratulate the U.S. forces that accomplished this mission and the Obama administration that was not afraid to authorize it (even near the Pakistani capital). Well done!

Osama's New And Rather Pathetic Message

Osama bin Laden has subjected the world to another of his ridiculous and unwanted audio messages -- the first since last September. The message was played on the Arabic-language news site of Al-Jazeera. The authenticity of the message has not been established, but in the past the CIA has confirmed tapes given to Al-Jazeera from bin Laden.

Osama once again tries to put forward his pitiful excuses for attacking innocent civilians. He says, ". . .the United States will not dream of enjoying safety until we live it in reality in Palestine. It is not fair to enjoy that kind of life while our brothers in Gaza live in the worst of miseries."

That part of the message is, as David Axelrod says, ". . .the same hollow justification for the slaughter of innocent people." For me, the surprising part of the message comes when bin Laden takes responsibility for the rather pathetic December attack on Delta flight 253 as it neared Detroit.

Is this now the best al-Queda and bin Laden has to offer in the way of terrorism -- an attack so poorly planned and executed that it resulted in an embarrassing and abject failure. I would have thought they would be too humiliated at the utter incompetence of the failed attack to want to claim any responsibility. They are truly grasping at straws now in their efforts to frighten Americans.

I really hope that Osama and his al-Queda buddies are equally as successful in all their future efforts at terrorism -- that is, that they blow up their own genitalia and fail to harm a single innocent person. That sounds like poetic justice to me.

Could Afghanistan Become A Failed State ?

"Afghanistan stands at a crossroads. The progress achieved after six years of international engagement is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenges and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country."

Those are the words of the independent and non-partisan Center for the Study of the Presidency. The group tried to examine the Afghanistan situation in the same way the Iraq Study Group did for Iraq.

Frankly the group did not like what they saw. They believe Afghanistan is becoming the "forgotten war", and that the government there may not survive. They say that we are trying to win that war with "too few military forces and insufficient economic aid".

Lest we forget, It was the Taliban in Afghanistan that supported and protected the al-Queda terrorists that attacked America on 9/11. After that tragedy, Bush promised to apprehend Osama bin Laden and destroy the Taliban that supported him. He has done neither.

American troops made a very good start in Afghanistan, and it looked like Bush might actually keep his promise. But then he decided that Iraqi oil was more important than getting the terrorists that had attacked the United States. He pulled most of the troops out before the job had been finished, and started a totally unnecessary war in Iraq -- a war that quickly became a never-ending quagmire.

Because Bush failed to keep his promise and finish the job, the situation has gotten steadily worse in Afghanistan. The Taliban and their al-Queda allies are getting stronger every day. In fact, they now are even taking control of border areas in Pakistan and putting that country in danger of disintegrating into tribalism.

The situation in Afghanistan clearly needs more troops and money, but that will be very difficult to do. The failed and unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq has already stretched our military too thin and ballooned our national debt. We may now be in a position where we cannot win either war.

This is an amazing display of incompetence by the Bush administration. And by the way -- WHERE IS OSAMA? Shouldn't he be dead or in jail by now?

Bush Lies About Osama

When the Twin Towers came down, Bush went to New York and swore to Americans that he would bring Osama bin Laden to justice for masterminding the terrorist action. He still hasn't done that. He hasn't done it because he was more interested in getting Iraqi oil for his corporate buddies, than in getting justice for the terrorist's victims in New York.

Even though Saddam and Osama were sworn enemies and hated each other, Bush invaded Iraq. When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Bush tried to say that Iraq was a haven for Osama's group al-Queda. It wasn't true at the time, and even today most of the Iraqis fighting and killing American troops are not members of al-Queda.

Now it is six years later and Iraq has gone bad and Osama is still at large. Bush has not only failed in his efforts in Iraq, but he has also failed in his promise to bring Osama to justice. In an attempt to cover one of his failures, Bush is now lying again to the American people.

When the new Osama tape surfaced, Bush sent his security advisor out to claim that Osama was "a man on the run from a cave who is virtually impotent other than these tapes". He wants us to believe that he has Osama on the run, and that he no longer poses a threat to Americans. Once again, Bush shows that he considers Americans to be stupid fools who will believe any lie that he tells.

The people in charge of securing the safety of Americans aren't buying the new Bush lie. Director of National Michael McConnell, FBI Director Robert Mueller and even Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, all disagree with Bush's assessment of Osama bin Laden. All three of these men believe that Osama remains the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States. They are right.

No other terrorist leader has damaged the U.S. as badly as Osama has. Even if he is holed up in a cave, all he has to do is issue an order and his followers will find a way to carry it out. The United States will never be safe as long as Osama is free.

It is time for Bush to end the quagmire in Iraq and keep his word to the American people. It is time he brought Osama to justice.