>>>>>>>Now there is a phrase that leaves me undernourished. This story is unfolding. How did that part happen?
>>>>>>>.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>They said they respected Islamic tradition - i.e. buried the same day. No grave, no shrine. ( and the ability to have the body in a freezer in Langley someplace with nobody able to prove it, but available for tours for key unbelievers - i.e. heads of critical foreign intelligence agencies.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Be assured he's dead. Be assured they are sure. Be assured they have pictures, videos etc. There may even be a head in a box someplace. There is certainly DNA proof.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Just because you don't see things on the evening news that doesn't mean they don't exist.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>And remember there was probably a "take" of computers etc in that compound that they aren't talking about at all.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Let the "Arab street" spin this however they like. But this is a message the right people understand. Of course the nonsense about our friends in Pakistan is for superficial public consumption. But Pakistan gets the message. ISI gets the message.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>This is the way the war should be fought. And this is how it will be won.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>My heartfelt thanks to the watchers on the wall.
>>>>>
>>>>>But why do all that ?? Since they knew where he was, why they did not simply arrested him more quietly and alive ?
>>>>
>>>>He had no intention of being taken alive. It was well known his own bodyguards had instructions that was not to happen.
>>>>
>>>> "Arrested him more quietly" ??? are you serious. By whom -- Pakistani police? The UN? Do you really believe *anyone* in Pakistan was told that this was going to happen? I'm sure if they could have taken him alive they would have ( perhaps they did <s> ) but the important part of the mission was more than his dead body ( or whatever body parts are now on ice in Langley )
>>>>
>>>>>I was astounded that they used helicopters to storm compound. Helicopters can be heard from miles ahead, and he could have gotten away very easy. Then the story about helicopter going down on mechanical problems and then being consecutively destroyed for some (magic word 'security') reasons.
>>>>
>>>>The kind of helicopters used for something like this are definitely not something you would want to leave laying around with all their electronics if you couldn't fly it out. Destroying it in this way is SOP.
>>>>
>>>> >To top it all, body is buried in the sea less then 24 hours after the fact, without any pictures
>>>>>or videos being published.
>>>>
>>>>At this point there is no point to publishing anything. It is not even important that the "street" believe whatever. They are going to believe what they want or what they are told. The important thing is that particular people believe, and i am sure they do or will be shown evidence that is conclusive.
>>>>
>>>>>I agree with Mike; story does sounds very fishy. There will be sure tons of conspiracy theories following these events.
>>>>
>>>>Of course there will. But that is unavoidable no matter what they did and is not important. The people who matter are not interested in conspiracy theories.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>I can believe that OBL is dead (some people believe he was dead as early as 2002), but it is hard to believe that real events match story that was told. Last but not least, despite all that, news are essentially good. I doubt lot of energy will be invested to disprove it.
>>>>
>>>>Only children would expect the story that is told to match the real events.
>>>>
>>>>Intelligence agencies and especially the portions of them that do stuff like this, are not in the business of public relations - except in that is serves their purposes. Information will be very structured and very controlled. And they will probably never mention what they learned in 8 months of knowing he was there and who in Pakistan was enabling him, and what information they gathered in the compound.
>>>>
>>>>And much of the outcome will not be known for 30 years.
>>>>
>>>>And that's just fine.
>>>>
>>>>May his skull rest in the crypt at Yale <s>
>>>
>>>Not an attack on you, just a general reminder that none of us should blindly accept the words of those who assure us they are very smart and we don't need to know --
>>
>>Completely different issue. This is something that you absolutely don't need to know. This is operational. You don' tneed to know this any more than the British public needed to know about the details of D Day. I don't blindly accept the official story of this operation and I don't expect anyone with half a brain would.
>>
>
>True. But understanding you are being handed managed truth is different from believing the official story, which in this case is being handed a fairy tale.

Uh, "understanding you are being handed managed truth is different from believing the official story" was actually the last line of my message.

Are you claiming that President Obama, the soi-disant most transparent President in history would hand us a "fairy tale"

I think that's racist.

>
>Nice job excising the URL, BTW ;-) Someone might actually read it and think about it. Here it is again for those who don't want to dig through the thread. A classic of American nonfiction work.
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Best-Brightest-David-Halberstam/dp/0449908704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304359120&sr=8-1

Wasn't trying to hide the url - just had nothing to do with the topic at hand or my reply.

As I said, different issue entirely ( though I would be happy to end this message with reading list of off-point material <bg> )