Osama bin Laden

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Headlines

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Fair-Weather Friends

President Bush and King Abdullah 

Saudi Arabians are not really our friends ... at least not on a consistent basis. Years ago I thought that they were, but, after the Kobar Towers truck bombing in 1996 (in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) where 19 U.S. airmen were killed and hundreds wounded, I began to have my doubts ... particularly after the Saudi government there would not allow any on-the-ground investigation by our intelligence agencies (see: Espionage Information). Then, I began to suspect that the Saudi government was at least tangentially complicit. And this was just one of a pattern of such incidents there... see: Wikipedia Listing.

And also don't forget that Saudi Arabia has always been the alpha dog in the OPEC cartel.

Next, couple this with the fact that 15 of the 19 World Trade Towers terrorists were from Saudi Arabia (see: 9/11 Hijackers) and that Osama bin Laden himself was a Saudi ... and one begins to see a compelling pattern of duplicity on the part of our Sunni Muslim  "amigos." Saudi Arabia has also been a consistent funder of the madrasa schools throughout the Muslim world which have indoctrinated their students with a severe form of sharia law. (Our president himself may have attended a madrasa school when he was a child in Indonesia ... see: Huffington Post Story.) And there are many rumors that the Saudis, after the Shi'ite Iranians, are also heavy funders of radical Muslim activities ... see: Times of Israel Story.

Yes, occasionally, the Saudis have thrown the U.S. a bone as our fair-weather friends (e.g., giving the Clinton Foundation boatloads of money?) ... but, to me, this is just consistent with a Mideastern pattern of playing both sides of the street.  Now the Saudis' are warning of imminent attacks inside the U.S. from ISIS militants (whom Saudi Arabia may also be secretly funding) ... see: Yahoo News Story.

Is this just a ruse to get the United States to embroil ourselves once again in this Mideast morass ... so that things remain unbalanced and that these mega-plutocrats can hold onto their fine lifestyles? Might Saudi Arabia itself take the lead in defeating these extremists? That would be a first ...

Tennis Anyone?

Our reluctant warrior, President Obama, last Friday interrupted his golf game long enough to lob the Syrian war-making judgment back into Congress’s court … not so much, I believe, out of respect for the Constitution or the War Powers Act, but rather as a way of postponing the actual start of belligerencies for another two weeks.  If Congress then deliberates and confirms his dubious decision to try to take out some of Assad’s chemical-weapon delivery mechanisms, then he, once again, might be able to off-load any serious political repercussions if things go poorly.  Ad in.

But I say “dubious decision” because, like the Israelis, I also doubt that, even if Congress gives him the go-ahead, he will actually serve the ball … see: Powerline Comments.  If however Congress, like the British Parliament and Germany, says “no,” then Obama can slink away from this confrontation with a very small shred of his dignity preserved.  He will then, once again, have spoken loudly but carried a small stick … independent of Vice President Joe Biden’s crass innuendo.

As to my “reluctant warrior” comment …we now know that President Obama played cards during much of the Abbottabad raid on the Osama bin Laden compound and concluded his Friday’s challenge to Congress over Syria’s use of chemical weapons by going off to play another round of golf.  Either our President has nerves of steel or a spine of spaghetti.  I think history will tilt toward the pasta.

Acolytes

Today President Obama is nominating three acolytes to fill three vitally important posts in his administration … John Kerry to State, Chuck Hagel to Defense, and John Brennan to head the CIA.  They are soon to replace, in this order, three much more independently-minded people … Hillary Clinton (in questionable health),  a burned-out Leon Panetta, and former General David Petraeus (who fell on his sword … possibly an unfortunate analogy) … see: Earthlink News. 

Two of these nominees are long-time legislators (Hagel and Kerry) and such people usually don't translate well to administrative posts (I’ll comment more on this at some later date), but, to me, this CIA nomination is even more unfortunate in that Brennan has always appeared to me to put politics and his career ahead of his patriotic duties.  I first noted this in January, two years ago, when he botched the crotch bomber incident … see Head(s) Should Roll

Since then, Brennan, who is currently Obama’s assistant for counter-terrorism and homeland security, has appeared to be involved in numerous unsavory security leaks (such as those surrounding the killing of Osama Bin Laden) and national security screw-ups (e,gs,, the Benghazi fiasco/cover-up and the loss of a high-tech drone to Iran … see: Cyber Warfare).  Yes, but one could also argue he has also been in the forefront of the use of drones to take out much of al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere… but he has also approved the selling of drones to Pakistan (see: Are We F...ing Crazy?) and giving F-16 fighter jets to Egypt … both silly bone-headed moves.

Putting Brennan in to head up the CIA makes me very uneasy in that he seems more politically active and willing to massage Obama's ego than is advisable in this post.  He (like Obama's two other neophyte acolytes) really does not seem to be up to the job.

Afterward: See also: Breitbart Story and His Remarks about Jihad and The Left Dislikes Him Too

Irony

Isn't it ironic that our national print media cannot constrain themselves about showing sophomoric pictures from Abu Ghraib ... or the French and Italian newspapers splash out embarrassing topless pictures of Kate Middleton ... or the New York Times special-editions the latest Wikileaks disclosure ... or, even, the White House leaks the most intimate details of Osama bin Laden's come-uppance ... but, if some rinky-dink producer in Los Angeles dares to show the Prophet Mohammed in some compromising position, this calls out for our national apologies and a visit from the federal autorities (see: Breitbart Story)?

You tell me who is winning in the world's war on terrorism ...

Cowed

I have been threatened with excommunication from the Church of Conventional Wisdom unless I stop my incessant attacks against Barack Obama on this blog.  So I am duely cowed and will herein provide some selected kudos to the White House and its apparatchiks for their successes over the last three years.  As well as I can remember I now offer these paeans to our President for:

1) The Navy Seals' 2009 sniper killing of those Somali pirates after they had captured a U.S. merchant vessel (see: ABC News Account)
2) The increased tempo of U.S. drone attacks in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan which have killed many al Qaeda and Taliban higher-ups.
3) The Navy Seals' bold 2011 attack inside Pakistan and the resultant killing of Osama Bin Laden (see: ABC News Account )
4) The Navy-Seal recent rescue of two Americans aid workers in Somali (see: ABC News Account)
5) The Navy Seals' early 2011 killing of two Somali pirates after they had killed four Americans in their yacht off the Somali coast (see: NY Times Account)
6) Last year, the U.S.'s. seccessful backseat overthrow and snuffing of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya (see: Reuters Account)

Other than Obama's examplar family life, this is all I can immediately bring to mind without contacting David Axelrod for help.

Actually, come this fall, I might be tempted to write in a vote for the head of the Navy Seals for President ...

Killing Osama

This morning on "Morning Joe" someone (I think Jonathan Alter) said that, as a result of Obama's pledge to close down our Guantanamo prison for terrorists, no new prisoners have been sent there since Obama was inaugurated ... or to any other rendition location for that matter.  And as a consequence, American forces have been killing those Islamic terrorist who have been captured ... just like that ultimate terrorist, Osama bin Laden, was recently tapped.

On one hand this decision appeals to my lust for revenge, but, just as logically, I have a problem with this apparent Obama policy.  Without capture and interrogation (even torture when necessary) of these prisoners, from whence is our future deep intelligence going to come?  And without this information, how are we eventually to win our war against Islamic extremists?  And, even more ironically, isn't "two in the hat" the ultimate enhanced interrogation technique ... so decried by this administration?

Snuff Pictures

Here is that famous picture of the President and his top advisers in the White House Situation Room watching real-time TV from the Navy Seal attack on Osama bin Laden's compound outside Islamabad in Pakistan.  Those brave soldiers each had a video camera on his helmet ... sending back virtual images of what was going on during the killing of bin Laden, his son, his wife, and as many as 19 others.

I doubt that few watching this bloody event had ever seen such drama as they were there and then experiencing.  And consequentially, I also doubt if Obama and his posse will ever again react in quite the same detached and cerebral way again to our terrorist threat.  At least, I hope not.

Update:  We are now told that the video feed from this raid was cut off for these White House viewers for at least the critical 20-25 minutes.  See: Here  (And bin Laden's wife was only shot in the leg.)  Now I know there is something called the "fog of war," but the communications out of the Obama administration about this bin Laden operation has been so sloppy and contradictory that I'm not sure now what to believe.  I am embarrassed by their ineptness.  (And why must we get this raid video factoid from the British press?)

I Have an Idea

Pictured above is the compound outside the capital city of Islamabad in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday by Navy Seals.  I think that, in order to commemorate this great event, we should build a church (or, at the very least, a U.S. consulate) on this site.  We can call it "outreach."