Osama bin Laden killed by US forces in Pakistan

[Idris2002]

Both nuclear armed failed states with a major grudge against China's big Asian neighbours (North Korea against Japan ...... Pakistan against India). There is a sort of mad logic to China's foreign policy.

Also gives China leverage with neighbours and the west. Beijing can present itself as a moderating influence on Pyongyang and Islamabad. Seems to work well enough. . . so far.

 

[TitanSound]

helicopters are unreliable beasts at the best of times and a pave hawk or whatever the seals used would have loads of secret electronics and stuff that they wouldn't want isi or anyone having a look at.
few ak rounds will make one unflyable

Maybe a pave hawk if they were fast roping in. I doubt they would have wanted the noise of the choppers before the raid alerting anyone. My guess is it was choppers for extraction to a US ship, not the assault.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I didn't say they did-infact I was arguing that they didn't. I was also complaining about the way the media brushed of the womens death and as an another poster had mentioned they tried to claim that osama used her as a human shield.

So why the racism?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

they have and do but if the blokes wanted dead then the bloke turns up dead can't see anyone in the chief baddy's compound being classed as innocent bit like storming hitlers bunker only diehards or idiots would stick around.

Exactly. But then I'm not the one who's confused between accusing US forces of being racist, dehumanised monsters and being outraged that bin Laden's immediate support got topped.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Have they released a picture of his body yet? Surely they are going to do that as proof

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Both nuclear armed failed states with a major grudge against China's big Asian neighbours (North Korea against Japan ...... Pakistan against India). There is a sort of mad logic to China's foreign policy.

Also gives China leverage with neighbours and the west. Beijing can present itself as a moderating influence on Pyongyang and Islamabad. Seems to work well enough. . . so far.

As does the US with Israel in the Middle East.

Fucked up world is fucked up.

 

[iROBOT]

Maybe a pave hawk if they were fast roping in. I doubt they would have wanted the noise of the choppers before the raid alerting anyone. My guess is it was choppers for extraction to a US ship, not the assault.

valid conclusion.

It would make sense to capture him alive, although he was thought to be just a (isolated) figurehead and had little info on present campaigns. We'll never know that's for sure.

 

[manny-p]

Exactly. But then I'm not the one who's confused between accusing US forces of being racist, dehumanised monsters and being outraged that bin Laden's immediate support got topped.

You are a disingenious toss pot. Are you suggesting that this woman was part of bin ladens security? Bollocks.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Maybe a pave hawk if they were fast roping in. I doubt they would have wanted the noise of the choppers before the raid alerting anyone. My guess is it was choppers for extraction to a US ship, not the assault.

The British Army has been training HALO for 50 odd years, yet have never found a situation where it would be more useful than a helicopter assault.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

You are a disingenious toss pot. Are you suggesting that this woman was part of bin ladens security? Bollocks.

Sorry? What information on the woman do you have that the rest of the planet is not privy to?

 

[manny-p]

Sorry? What information on the woman do you have that the rest of the planet is not privy to?

That bin laden was a sexist cunt.

 

[TomUS]

And how long before the Pakistani public come out on the streets to denounce US troops launching military attacks on Pakistani soil. A few weeks ago saw massive demonstrations across Pakistan against US drone attacks. Including a massive sit in which effectively closed down the Pakistan border with Afghanistan at the Khyber agency. Expect anti US demonstrations in Pakistan

Let them demonstrate. They've been demonstrating for years. Everyone knew that the US, no matter who was pres, would kill him in an instant. And the drones were launched from Pakistan......while Pakistan gave official protests.

 

[TitanSound]

The British Army has been training HALO for 50 odd years, yet have never found a situation where it would be more useful than a helicopter assault.

Dropping troops into hostile lands beneath radar comes to mind. I'm sure the SAS have used it on many an occasion. And don't forget, we hear about 1% of news regarding spec ops missons.

 

[Bakunin]

So, the most wanted terrorist in the world and his sons are dead.

Brings a whole new meaning to that innocent phrase 'taking out the bins.'

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Dropping troops into hostile lands beneath radar comes to mind. I'm sure the SAS have used it on many an occasion. And don't forget, we hear about 1% of news regarding spec ops missons.

Of course that's the idea behind HALO, but seriously, it has never been used. The risks have always been considered too great compared to the risk of compromise from helicopter insertion.

 

[Geri]

A friend of a friend just posted this on Facebook

Dead, really? U believe this, highly unlikely, they so say have already disposed of the body! Doesn't that sound a little odd to you. This make believe story wouldn't have anything to do with conflict in Libya? All seems a bit well timed. As the US are very unpopular in north Africa, sounds propaganda boost to me

 

[dylans]

Good article here on the US relationship with the ISI. It echoes some of the points I have made about the contradictions in both US and Pakistan policy on the so called "war on terror".

Stop feeding the beast

The notion that Pakistan’s all pervasive Army-controlled Inter-Services Intelligence was unaware of bin Laden's presence beggars belief.

Although Bush-era National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley feigned total surprise about the location and its implications in an on-air interview after the news broke, Wikileaks, as well as other sources such as investigative journalist Bob Woodward's most recent book, tell a very different story. By 2008, the United States political and military leadership had lost all remnants of faith in the trustworthiness of the Pakistani military and its intelligence wing, the ISI, internally acknowledging that it consistently "hunted with the hounds and ran with the hares", including the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqanis, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba - and was involved in planning terrorist attacks from Kabul to Mumbai.

Pakistani intelligence has had a close relationship with bin Laden since the early 1980s, when he acted as a courier, transferring funds from Saudi intelligence and its establishment to the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami to support the anti-Soviet jihad. It is no surprise that bin Laden chose to relocate to eastern Afghanistan, an area within Pakistan's sphere of influence, in 1996 - after he was expelled from Sudan under US pressure. Of course, the relationship has never been smooth - Pakistan's opportunism alienated al Qaeda just as much as such behaviour alienated the United States - but also made it just as indispensable.

Funded by the US taxpayer

Despite this, the United States continued to funnel billions to the Pakistani armed forces in sophisticated weapons and cash - most recently a US$2billion package announced in October 2010 under the State Department’s Foreign Military Finance Program. The US is paying, not only for the use of Pakistan as a logistical corridor to its troops in Afghanistan, but for the privilege of conducting an increasingly aggressive covert counter-terrorism campaign on Pakistani soil - often against the Pakistani government's client groups.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201152104652958379.html

 

[Cat Baloo]

So Americans are whooping in front of the camera at the news of his death in the same tasteless manner as those 'evil animals' who whooped at the news of 9/11 when it happened.

We are not ALL "whooping in front of the camera." Some of us are reflecting - sadly - on how many people have died and how many lives have been disrupted. And we also wish it never had to happen - meaning 9/11, 7/7, and all the deaths that have followed. But there are almost 300 million Americans and you cannot make such a broad statement because it is not factual.

 

[sunny jim]

You're.


Am I?

Since when do the Navy Seals or our SAS train to storm a compound to make arrests?

Grow up.

Since Kosovo and the break up of Yugoslavia.

 

[Proper Tidy]

I don't have time to read the thread before the barbecue is ready. So what is the consensus, is he really dead?

 

[DrRingDing]

So, the most wanted terrorist in the world and his sons are dead.

Brings a whole new meaning to that innocent phrase 'taking out the bins.'

 

[xes]

He died about 4 years ago

 

[OneStrike]

I don't have time to read the thread before the barbecue is ready. So what is the consensus, is he really dead?

Consensus suggests that without a full length death certificate there is no proof.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

I don't have time to read the thread before the barbecue is ready. So what is the consensus, is he really dead?

Two options:

A) He dead, ya'll

B) Currently living on the same mansion complex as Lord Lucan, Jim Morrison, Elvis, HItler, Shergar and that feller who founded the Nation Of Islam.

 

[dylans]

Consensus suggests that without a full length death certificate there is no proof.

A long one

 

[OneStrike]

Just look what America can achieve with the PSN down.

 

[elbows]

Osama had been slacking off recently anyway, when was the last time he released a tape?

 

[ViolentPanda]

The British Army has been training HALO for 50 odd years, yet have never found a situation where it would be more useful than a helicopter assault.

Generally because it's nigh on impossible for even an experienced parachutist to drop with pinpoint accuracy in variable weather conditions, whereas a helicopter has no such problem except in excessive weather conditions.

 

[Corax]

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Osama had been slacking off recently anyway, when was the last time he released a tape?

Long time ago, I think - tis a shame, I was looking forward to him going all dubstep as well.