Übergeek 바둑이: Distraction is part of the war on terror.

Artful Dodger:

> I don't think it was an intentional thing as planning the capture of Bin Laudin took years
> and the planning months (after finding out where he was). So much goes on in the
> world that it's likely that two major event would be back to back.

While they looked for Bin Laden for years, the actual operation that killed him was decided on last Thursday. The American government decided not to inform Pakistan of the operation because they feared that Pakistani intelligence officers were passing information to Al Qaeda.

Coincidence or not, it all comes at a convenient time. Then there is all this conspiracy theories as as to why the American government decided not to show the body to anyobody else. The burial at sea is a problematic issue too. A lot of people don't believe that Bin Laden was killed. It makes no sense too. Why not capture him alive and interrogate him? I suppose they figured he would not allow himself to be captured alive. If captured alive, then there would be the issue of trials and inquests about who helped him and why, both before and after 9-11.

> But, where's the outrage over the killing of innocent children? That part I don't get
> either. The reports I saw treated it as just another news story.

You obviously missed the part about crowds in Tripoli protesting and ransacking embassies in ourage at the killings. But then, since the protests over this are all Lybian, nobody cares. Our western empires want Gaddafi and Lybians to like the west, but then they forget to mention that our war planes have in two occasions bombed Gaddafi in the hopes of killing him, only to end up killing two of his sons, and now three of his grandchildren, aged two years old and six months old. If Nato thinks that killing a six-month-old baby will make Gaddafi go away, then they are just fascist morons. I imagine that if somebody bombed the White house and killed the president's children, then there would be an outrage. This was nothing more than another example of the Empire's brutality.

You say it was treated as just another news story. That was exactly the objective, to make it look inconsequential. When I saw the report on TV they never mentioned that his grandchildren were killed, or the ages of the children. Then all I heard was Bin Laden this, Bin Laden that. The Empire succeded in distracting people from the fact that three children under the age of two were killed in a cowardly attack. Then they call it a military target. I suppose a six-month-old baby is a viable military target. Then if everybody is distracted, nobody in the Empire has to account for the murder of three children.

Artful Dodger:

> It does bother me that they killed Bin Laudin instead of capturing him.

I think that capturing him alive would have been the crowning achievement in the War on terror. The number one target who knew almost everything about Al Qaeda would have been the most valuable intelligence asset and they just smoked him off. The only reason i can see would be if bin laden killed himself rather than be captured, or if he fought to the death. That does make sense considering the mentality of the suicide bomber. However, people like Bin Laden are leeches who send others to die rather than dying themselves. It is all disconcerting.

> Why the burial at sea? That makes no sense. He's a murderer and a terrorist. Who
> gives a rip about his religion. According to the US, he's not a true Muslim anyway!
> Somethings not right with that. If true, the burial is moronic.
> Also, one report said that since they could not find a country that would accept the
> body for a land burial, they opted for a sea burial. But then they also said they did not
> want the location of his body burial to be known. Then why seek a land burial at all? > Why not bury him in the US in some secret place?

Somebody said that they did not want his grave to become a shrine to a martyr. That makes sense. Then somebody said that Islamic law requires a body to be buried within 24 hours of death. The administration comes out and says that he was treated "in the Islamic way". It is stupid. What is the islamic way? Pump his body full of bullets and dump him in the sea? If anything, it sounds more like an overt insult to Moslems

> And how long does it take for DNA to be analyzed (I have no idea). It seemed pretty fast to me.

First thing, for DNA to be analyzed there is a basic requirement. There must be an initial sample to comapre it too. Did the USA have an original sample of Bin Laden's DNA? If so, where did it come from? When did the CIA get to collect blood, or hair follicles or bucal swabs or anything with bin Laden's DNA? it seems foolish that they had a sample of his DNA all along so that they could compare it to the sample they collected from the corpse.

Second thing, the assumption is that they had a laboratory in Pakistan that could do the analysis. They had all the equipment waiting, including solutions, instrumentation, DNA polymerase, capillary electrophoresis machines, etc. They also had the original sample there to compare against the corpse. If not, they would have to fly the samples to the nearest country that had all that available. Maybe India or Israel. Preparing the samples and all that takes a couple of days. Most forensic laboratories in North America take from 3 to 7 days to do the analysis. Maybe they have all the technology in the world, and people on standyby 24 hours a day. At best, 48 hours working around the clock. Yet they annouce this not even 24 hours after bin Laden's death. It seems far fetched.

Übergeek 바둑이: They have been collecting DNA from his family for years....not to mention that his two sons were recently killed, giving them more DNA.

I think that DNA testing is slowed only by the back log waiting to be completed? Make it number 1 priority, and it dosent take too long.

Czuch: Maybe I am confusing my sons???

Czuch: Aye.. and if anyone has seen a DNA test on "who is the father" they can compare family DNA to his.

Artful Dodger: The Islamic way, wrapped in a white sheet, and buried within 24 hours, I believe?

Artful Dodger:

> I'm not a conspiracy thinker but this whole thing has too many questions.

I think the problem is that the administration jumped the gun. They announced everything too quickly. They should have said something like:

"We carried out an operation in which we are nearly certain that Osama Bin Laden was killed. We will confirm his identity with DNA analysis within one to two weeks. We treated his body respectfully and tried to follow Islamic customs; however, he was buried at sea to prevent extremists from creating a shrine around his grave. We will release photographs and proof of his death at a later date."

Instead they jumped to conclusions because they were too happy to have killed the guy. Now they have to sort out fact from fiction, and everyone is left wondering what is true and what is not.

Artful Dodger:

> Frankly, I really don't know what would have been the best thing to do with his body.

This was a tough call. On the one hand, I understand that the administration tried to avoid making a difficult situation even worse by displaying the bullet-ridden body around for days on end. I can understand the desire to avoid confronting Moslems further. After all, the ultimate goal of all this mess is that we may have peace some day. While in anger I might say that they should have put the thumbscrews on him, I also think that in the long term that would be more destructive than constructive.

Burying it on land is a tough one. Which country would want that? Anywhere that his body went to would become a target for two groups. First, his followers would try to retrieve the body or build a shrine to a martyr. Second, those who hate him would try to desecrate his grave. Burying him on land anywhere was a lose-lose situation. Probably the only acceptable place for his followers would have been an Islamic country, and nobody in the Middle East would want to end up with that hot potato.

Burial at sea made the most sense, short of spreading his ashes somewhere. His head might point to the bottom of the Red Sea and not to Mecca, but at least nobody is going to try to get to his mortal remains.