Pierce writes: "15 percent of registered Republicans in Ohio think Willard Romney deserves more credit for killing Osama bin Laden than does the president. Another 47 percent aren't really sure who does. In North Carolina, 29 percent of them give the credit to Romney while a whopping 56 percent of them find it too difficult to answer the question of whether the credit should go to the guy who actually gave the order, or to the guy who forgot to mention the troops in his acceptance speech not long ago."
New polls show some people think Mitt Romney deserves more credit than President Obama for the death of Osama bin Laden. (photo: Getty Images)
Romney Got Osama bin Laden?
11 September 12
ccording to the good folks at Public Policy Polling - and why they asked this question, I never will know - 15 percent of registered Republicans in Ohio think Willard Romney deserves more credit for killing Osama bin Laden than does the president. Another 47 percent aren't really sure who does. In North Carolina, 29 percent of them give the credit to Romney while a whopping 56 percent of them find it too difficult to answer the question of whether the credit should go to the guy who actually gave the order, or to the guy who forgot to mention the troops in his acceptance speech not long ago.
Happy 9/11, America!
If we needed any more evidence that the atrocities perpetrated by Osama bin Laden 11 years ago have been transformed into simply another mudball in our national political mudfight, that poll pretty much seals the deal for you. It's more than ignorance. It's more than being misinformed. (I don't know of a single commentator, not even the wingiest of wingnut public-access trolls, who's credited Romney with being involved in the raid into Pakistan.) This is simple reflexive tribalism - Democrat bad, Republican, good. Also, too.
The fact is that we never have found a way to integrate the mass murder of nearly 3,000 Americans into our politics in a way that satisfies all of us and does honor to the victims of that day. And the responsibility for that does lie with a Republican - namely, George W. Bush, whose negligence, as Kurt Eichenwald in The New York Times reminds us today, prior to the attack remains inexcusable, and who later used the horror of those events, and the ensuing spasm of national mourning and unity, to embark on a whole raft of policies, including an illegal war in Iraq. The Democratic leadership in the Congress, by and large, went along with these policies until everything went sour in Baghdad, and then they spent an election-cycle-and-a-half trying to climb out of the mess in which they were utterly complicit. (Both John Kerry and Joe Biden gave rousing assaults on Romney's foreign-policy views last week in Charlotte. Both of them also voted for the most singularly stupid foreign-policy adventure of the past 60 years. Just sayin'.) Now, Democrats defend a president who, while he has extricated American combat troops from Iraq, also has continued - and, in many cases, amplified and legitimized - many of the national-security policies put in place by his bungling predecessor, and a great number of Democrats use the killing of bin Laden to justify that support in the same reflexive way that Republicans used the 9/11 attacks as justification for the Patriot Act and shock-and-awe.
(Let us be clear. I find liberal handwringing about the killing of bin Laden embarrassing. The man was responsible for at least three acts of war against the United States that we know of, one of which killed thousands of people at the time and is still killing people with diseases they contracted while sifting through the rubble of his greatest triumph. He also was responsible for acts of war against Kenya and against Tanzania, when he arranged the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies on their soil. He was not an agent of liberation. He was not fighting to free his people, or to repel an occupying power, no matter what he thought of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. He was not Ho Chi Minh or Michael Collins. He was a quasi-cultish theocratic sociopath with enough money to arrange mass murder - a multi-millionnaire Charlie Manson. He committed acts of war and he was killed in an act of war. Two tie, all tie. Enough, already. The drone strikes, alas, are another matter entirely.)
If we are to have a consensus, if we are to keep September 11 from being an annual exercise in marinating ourselves in distant grief and tinhorn jingoism, we have to act in our politics as though we learned something from it more profound than "the oceans couldn't protect us." (This is no great insight. The Aztecs figured that one out as soon as Cortez was done with them.) We should become better informed than we are. We should become more wary and more skeptical of government policies that are sold as pigs-in-a-poke for our own protection. We should become more wary of what happens when you put a democracy on automatic pilot. To make the annual observance of these crimes mean more than endless tick-tock specials on the History Channel, we should commit ourselves to more active and more informed citizenship. We should insist on transparency. We should make sure our presidents do their homework. We should commit to knowing what we're talking about.
Charlie has been a working journalist since 1976. He is the author of four books, most recently "Idiot America." He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.
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Comments
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It is truly amazing how the Bain man or Olympic(really Chinese diplomat) could have had a clue, he hasn't got a clue on daily life no less a Seal Operation
It scares me that again someone with some bought document will be in Office...and allow Military to Rule. Boy reminds me of History So many Puppets believing themsleves to be in charge, where in fact, Military and Corporations(Sh ysters) were. We do not read or comprehend this. Time the Brass is taken down quite a few notches. Perhaps a couple tours of duty on the front lines would perk their memories up of what it means to Serve The USA. I do not give them credit for serving to begin with, most were pencil pushers that kissed their way off front lines.
Pretty soon Romney will be getting his gay apparel out to go to dinners. I wonder what the Mormon Dress of Adornment will look like. Ryan will be some hand me down glitter boy stuff.
We know that the republicans are off their rockers, but now they have completely lost it. The last marbles just fell. What the heck is wrong with these people. Where do they live??? the dark side of the moon, Outer Mongolia.
Did they not hear all the commotion when PRESIDENT OBAMA announced the death of Osama Bin Laden?? Romney was NOWHERE IN SIGHT.
And now the Republicans are trying to disenfranchise American citizens who know better.
Con men are always boasting other Persons heroics, as they have none themselves.
People in America are too stupid to know what went on, I guess the Education System really needs a complete clean up. These people without a clue are breeding....I just pray not home schooling
Like dogs fighting over scraps.
Ironically, as soon as someone gets into the "blame" mode, what they are doing is seeing themselves as the "victim," and what they look for is the persecuter, and the rescuer. The devil being the persecuter, and God the rescuer.
And if anyone challenges their lack of thinking, the victim automatically sees the challenger as the persecuter, and everyone who believes the same as they do becomes the rescuer.
As I understand it, this is the basis for all addictive and dysfunctional interactions with other people.
I see Romney acting like a victim, blaming the progressives for being the persecuters, and asking the blindly obedient to rescue him from that "evil government."
Those who've learned to blindly believe their "leaders," stroke their egos thinking they are saving "poor" Romney from the democratic evil-doers.
It's been written that it is gratifying to be cured of an affliction, but it is terrifying to be divested of a crutch.
The crutch for these people is having someone else to blame. That allows them to not be responsible for the consequences of their decisions. In essence, they don't have to grow up.
I would Vote for Mickey
Mickey may not be running but the rethugs did nominate Goofy.
YOU people seem to have a problem with that.
WHY?
If you appear to be intelligent you get a thumbs down, but if you knee jerk agree with the socialistic point of view it is thumbs up all the way!
Could someone please explain why other people think we shouldn't be allowed to vote?
I am starting to wonder if there are some Right Wing plants that don't post, they just push the thumbs down button.
As I have said before, I would rather have 100 illegals vote in order to make sure that every qualified voter can vote.
I gave you thumbs up BB, I am all for people voting, I think possibly your first post got misconstrued. I think your reponse was to MidwestTom, but possibly others didnt connect the dots on that?
Because you are intimating falsely that non citizens are voting.
Only on the Republican ticket. Liberals have functioning brains, but if Faux News backed Mickey Mouse every Republican would be punching his number.
If they have nothing to show in the way of achievements as a party that is worthy to exist in our government ,well they will just make stuff up and hope it sticks !
They have become the party of liars ,cheats,racists and the mentally challenged !
I have always preferred "thieves, thugs, and whores" as a description of Republican leadership. There is a musical quality to the phrase. Racists and the mentally challenged certainly describes many of the rank and file.
As I've been saying for some time, the only 5 reasons for voting Republican are ignorance, stupidity, insanity, bigotry and greed.
That is who they chose for VP It was on the news the previous night that Ryan was known for his intelligence What in eagle scouts? Certainly not in keeping informed on todays questions. they are given the questions to be used. If people understood that maybe they would see that their Candidates have less knowledge of current policy, debt reduction than a beached up whale.
I do not know how People who pretend to be civilized can vote for such utter ignorance
In plain English please -and with some point, with the blinkers off!?
Their better attributes is not accepting products from us made in China, not wanting Monsanto
Otherwise, Europe has not room to speak.
No pointer
-President Musharaf of Pakistan said the same thing in 2002.
-On July 17, 2002, the then-head of counterterroris m at the FBI, Dale Watson, told a conference of law enforcement officials that Osama was dead (CBS News)
-In October 2002, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told CNN the same thing.
"In 2003, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Fox News Channel analyst Morton Kondracke she suspected Bush knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and was waiting for the most politically expedient moment to announce his capture."
-In November 2005, Senator Harry Reid revealed that he was told Osama may have died in the Pakistani earthquake of October 2005.
-On November 2, 2007, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told Al-Jazeera's David Frost that Omar Sheikh had killed Osama Bin Laden." (Youtube)
"In March 2009, former US foreign intelligence officer and professor of international relations at Boston University Angelo Codevilla said he was dead.
"In May 2009, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said the same thing and claimed info came from U.S. intel.
"In April 2002, Council on Foreign Relations member Steve R. Pieczenik,Bin Laden had already been "dead for months".
Unfortuanately, if you are correct, the main evidence is at the bottom of the ocean, and if you are correct, there was a good reason for that. I will do my best to keep an open mind about the possibility you bring up, but will wait further proof before making any final decisions.
'prove" would have been to turn his body over to Pakistan government for verification of his identity. Disappearing the body in the sea is at least circumstantial proof that the SEALs didn't have ANY proof. Photoshopped evidence doesn't cut it, either. Claims by politicians aren't much better.
In addition, the testimony of the eyewitnesses to the attack claims that only one helicopter tried to land and that one crashed and burned leaving no survivors. Later all members of that SEALs unit "died" in a crash elsewhere. Just a coincidence, I suppose.
Review the Project for a New American Century and you will see that Wolfwowitz, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and others were intent on creating a scenario "like a New Pearl Harbor" to take over the Middle East and its resources for multi national corporations.
When you look at the fact that Cheney was behind the stand down order on 9.11, Dov Zakheim writing the conclusion of the 9.11 Report way in advance of the start of the investigation, among many other things, it is easy to conclude that Osama was not the "mastermind" but rather elements within the Administration.
It's hard for me to understand why bush wouldn't have had the incentive to kill bin laden, other than the idea that they were partners in crime. Otherwise, you seem to be crediting bush with an amount of honor because he wouldn't want to drag "an innocent man" in to his own crimes.
Now about the partners in crime part, do recall that the Bush family had business for many years with the Bin Laden family. On 9/11 and the days after that when all flights were grounded, Bush authorized flying them out of the U.S. so they could go back to Saudi Arabia.
It's more evil than that, the bin Laden family pulled Bush back from bankruptcy twice. When the Army had Osama directly in their sights (literally) and requested permission to pull the trigger he told them to stand down.
BTW, who's this Public Policy Polling group? Are they legit? Are they on Rove's payroll? I mean who comes up with these Public Policy questions? It doesn't come close to passing the simple smell test, and yet these THINGS seem to be drawn to that smell like starving puppies!
wwway, the Regressives have built their entire Rmoney/Lyin' Ryan ticket on lies. If you have a valid argument, why would you choose to lie about EVERYTHING! They're so tied up in lies now that they can't remember what they said last, changing their positions every time out.
Rmoney is more experienced at it. I've observed him closely since the beginning of the GOP debates and watched him evolve into THE GREAT PREVARICATOR - a man who cannot tell the truth about anything, including his taxes.
But Ryan looks like a deer in the headlights when confronted with the truth. Why would he choose to lie about something as simple as a marathon time - especially under 3 hours - and get caught in the lie afterwards? I've run 10 marathons, including Boston in '81, and I know what it takes to run under 3 hours. My best was 3:05, running several 80-mile training weeks prior to the event. You don't just go out and run a 2:50+ marathon with minimal training. (By the way, the best marathoners are down around 2:06 now - about 4:50/mile).
This is the worst lead up to an election I've ever seen. I'm anxious to see how they both handle themselves in the Obama/Biden debates. I'm ashamed for them that they chose to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people, and put what might have been a legitimate candidacy in the gutter.
Worse yet... WHAT IF THEY WIN?
Im more then willing to bet the source is Fox news or blow hard Limbaugh, because no real news source would spout that garbage.
Actually the Marfan story popped up years ago on ABC and CBS...
All we have is Obama's word, and he hasn't been very good at keeping it about anything else.
So let's just say there's a couple of crooked puppets for the 1% who are both taking credit for killing somebody that may or not have even been killed.
You're oh so right, rockie. Remember how they displayed Saddam's 2 sons in their caskets after they killed them. That was in really bad taste. Remember too, Bush landing on the deck of the Abe Lincoln in full flight regalia on May 1st '03 to announce "Mission Accomplished"? Seems like I remember President Obama quietly ending the OCCUPATION OF IRAQ at the end of 2011 - 8 years later.
What a group of POMPOUS, PREENING CHICKENHAWKS!
But what Seal Team was wiped out....witness protection perhaps with some agape mouthed greedy person writing a book to back up this story
But the fact is if Laden is Dead, the knowledge is open from Our President and the Seals actions If the Intel who knows who that is since I see no intelligence out there, the game manufacturer, Knew so much than how come those good honest people did not come forward to claim their Worship?
Who cares, fact is we blew up the mansion, seals got the credit, and the hateful group is still around with a new leader weekly. You can set all the mouse traps you want, Evil is still lurking in every corner...Republ icans should know since they are akin to such
The truly fearful aspect is that what appears to be a crass program of misinformation to simpletons is actually a sophisticated, cynical and relentless reprogramming of enough of the population (voters) to secure power and dismantle the fabric of our country into a population of serfs. What angers me is that we have a Democratic Party that does not push back as though their life depended on it, because it does.
That said, this poll has to be a sophisticated practical joke. Please?
The dozens of mothers complaining in the Israeli media about the 235 Israeli nationals the US Justice Department locked up after 9-11 did not get a lot of play in the US press. Other than a tiny paragraph carried by associated press,neither did the five Israelis arrested on September 12 heading north of San Francisco on I-5 with diagrams of a huge power plant in Portland matter to the braindead in television land. Other than FOX News briefly reporting five Israelis were detained September 11 a few minutes from the George Washington Bridge, that story did not need to be conveyed to those obedient Americans in TV land. World Trade Centers lease holder Larry Silverstein was forthright to admit that the decision was made to "pull" World Trade Center #7" at 5:15 on 9-11 to a stunned McNeil Layer interviewer on PBS, but how he was able to connive the insurance company to pay on the double indemnity insurance policy he put in place two weeks prior to the implosion is not something 60 Minutes will be investigating. The scheduled largest ever asbesto removal project in history was obviously not neccessary after the towers imploded in their footprints at the speed of gravity.
No right winger or wingnut institution is actually prom Israeli, they're just pulling for the predictions of the Apocalypse to manifest. The average Republican is just as anti-semitic as they are racist which is why a large majority of Jews have been Democratic over the years. Studies have shown that about 25% of Republicans are racists and I'd imagine the same applies as to hating Jewish people.
So this is the kind of stuff you people believe in. Are you the same ones that called climate change a lie?
Fact is he was just a role model of evil that they wanted out...you know those kill lists everyone has. So he may be out and it was on our watch That is the point no more no less Now the rats want to take the credit I say let them, then they can be on the Hit List of not us
The FEMA camps are only in the minds of the Fox news deluded!
Or, as Patton would have put it, NUTS!
There's no proof that OBL had anything to do with 9-11. The FBI never even listed this charge on their "wanted" sheet. OBL was a propaganda puppet for US imperialism, something the real terrorists could wag in front of TV dazed amerikkkans in order to make them crazy.
When the GWOT turned its sights on legitimate and secular governments as in Libya and Syria -- nations that were always opposed to al Queda -- OBL was no longer needed so he was murdered and his body ditched in the ocean. Now the US freely uses al Queda mercenaries to fight in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and other places.
Anyone who braggs about murdering OBL is truly insane and belongs in prison.
I totally agree that killing bin Laden was not a good idea. However, he was not on the FBI's list because he was a foreign threat and under the auspices of the CIA and the military. That bin Laden had been a tool of the US is undeniable, but he walked away from that a long time before 9-11.
The killing of bin Laden was clearly a military action performed in retribution for the attacks on US Embassies and the USS Cole. The act was morally questionable and it perpetuated a negative international image of the US as a bully and not the beacon of justice a large number of Americans think we are.
The whole concept that by killing bin Laden we brought him to justice is just one piece of the American tapestry that needs to be rewoven, instead complaining that the current tapestry is full of holes and smells of rot; why not help remake it?
I will not take credit for killing someone I know not if we did.
But bully no I believe Syria, Palistine, Iran will give us that
I got 4 thumbs down for saying that I didn't agree that killing bin Laden was the right move. It so happens I am 100% against the death penalty, and yes; if someone beat and murdered my wife I would want to kill them. That's why we have laws, so that the state acts from a higher position of authority on law breakers than any individual seeking revenge.
Kittatiny, you liked what I said and proceed to get 5 thumbs down.
I would really like to hear from one of them to explain why.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden
It now lists him as "deceased." The FBI is now a global investigative organization. They actually have offices all over the world. All the distinctions that used to be in place between the CIA as an external intelligence organization and the FBI as an internal one are gone. They both work everywhere.
Boy! I had one post on NewsMax. It was removed almost immediately and I was banned from the site. God forbid the idiots who post there should hear anything true.
"On October 29, 2004, at 21:00 UTC, al Jazeera broadcast excerpts from a videotape of Osama bin Laden addressing the people of the United States (in which he accepts responsibility for the September 11 attacks) condemns the Bush government's response to those attacks and presents those attacks as part of a campaign of revenge and deterrence motivated by his witnessing of the destruction in the Lebanese Civil War in 1982".
Now get your head out of your butt and try to analyze first and hate later rather than the other way around.
BTW...politics makes even sane people adopt practises and positions they otherwise would not. Doesn't make them insane...and even if it did...they would go to an asylum or hospital...not a prison.
And "GWOT"?..Obama doesn't use that acronym anymore (not since 2009). Get with the times...it's now.."Overseas Contingency Operation".
Yur welcome!
The 2004 video you refer to has been challenged a lot. The translation provided to al Jazzera by the CIA has been questioned. Osama refers to the twin towers and to Kerry, but he does not claim responsibility for the act. In official US government policy, he is not blamed for the act. Khalid Sheik Mohammad and others in Pakistan are.
Bin Laden has always only been a propaganda puppet. I repeat -- he is now no longer needed. The narrative has changed. The US is now using al Queda fighters and random fundamentalists to fight its wars in Libya, Syria, Mali, Egypt, and so on.
Faux News IS junk food for the brain.
Or maybe there is something in the food and water supply.
It says the right-wingnutz are winning their war on public education.
You're right, JS. They're even changing textbooks in Texas and Louisiana to include their Right-Wing BS.
You ask past presidents and the current one what is the hardest part of their job and they are virtually unanimous in saying it is the decision to put American forces in danger..in conflict..in action.
I have no doubt there was a great deal of conflict within the Administration and the Pentagon about "Dead or Alive" but I truly believe they would have preferred alive for no other reason than the informtion he might have provided.
If it had been me..I would have shot him too if I felt any...any...sen se of threat against me or my comrades.
If not, then please find out what inspired this inane question to even be asked.
It is scarey to think that those who live in this state of irrationality could have a great effect on the outcome of the Presidential election and the course of our nation for the next 4 years.
Not saying he was a good guy or that he did not participate in 9/11, just wondering where the evidence is.
My favorite journalist, the young Jeremy Scahill, correctly judges all the anniversary day "take 'em out" rhetoric as American jingoism. And points to Anwar Al-awlaki’s 16-year-old son's murder and that of another typical innocent at a drone-produced scene. American jingoism utterly sucks whether it comes from someone in the street, the American president or the jovial block of cheese who sits spellbound next to his wife on a stage and gazes adoringly at her speaking self as if she is Aphrodite. Mitt the cheese's statement about what he's going to do to Iran is utterly chilling, not least when you consider that Iran is the place where the young people love the U.S. better than young people in the U.S. do.
Mitt and Ann were on TV. And everybody else in the room wanted me to shut up when I started to show my own conviction which caused me to tone things down.
Edward Kennedy was right. We all must stand up for what we believe. And I believe that too many people in America now are callous dopes knowingly or unknowingly hellbent on making the place decline and fall.
An anti-Muslim war involving half a dozen countries to begin with? The following statement has been dishonored, but by whom? "All we are saying...is...g ive peace a chance."
Any of you who are actually liberals will know and respect Global Research so I'll give you a quote from an article they have which relies on a BBC website. It also quotes Robert Baer, an ex-CIA authority on bin Laden and the Middle East:
US intelligence officials base the claim that Bin Laden was at the caves of Tora Bora in December 2001 on intercepted mobile phone conversations emanating from that region. Ever since the bombing of the Tora Bora caves, Osama bin Laden’s voice has never again been heard from a source that can be trusted.
According to Robert Baer, an ex-member of the CIA, at least half of the US intelligence community concerned with this issue believe Osama was killed during the bombing at Tora Bora.
I suspect the percentage is higher. My argument is simple: if he was in the Tora Bora complex when it was bombed in December 2001, then he certainly died during that bombing, because nothing living could have survived it. Here are my reasons.
The weapon of choice when bombing a cave and mountain tunnel complex like that at Tora Bora is what is called a thermobaric bomb.
Thermobaric bombs come in different sizes, but the largest are described as the most destructive non-nuclear bombs in existence. The British and Americans have them and have used them in Afghanistan. Thermobaric bombs are especially effective in mountain caves and tunnels systems. They will work if dropped outside the entrances to tunnels and can also be launched into tunnel structures. They destroy living creatures (and inert structures) through their incredibly rapid and powerful high pressure shockwaves (travelling 2 miles a second), their high temperature wave fronts (reaching over 2482-2982 degrees centigrade), the vacuum they create (which itself destroys living creatures and structures) and by asphyxiation (because the explosion has consumed all the oxygen in the air).
Their destructive effect is so great that they can, depending upon their size, destroy all life within a 600 metre radius of their blast site. The airplanes that drop the larger versions must remain at least 6000 metres away from the blast, lest they be damaged by the blast.
Before December 2001, Tora Bora was an area rich in wildlife. It was, for example, home to huge flocks of the beautiful partridge, the chukor, native to that region.
After December 2001, nothing could be found alive there; not even beetles and lizards. So either Osama bin Laden was not in those caves and tunnels in December 2001, or, if he was, then he was killed then and there.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/osama-bin-laden-dead-or-alive/
Please do your research. Almost everyone here has given the thumbs down to anyone who actually has knowledge about this subject. You have to consider how bin Laden has been used against us psychologically.
And no, he never was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for 9/11. The FBI, when asked about, this said they didn't have enough evidence against him. I have a screen shot of that in my binder about 9/11.
To the person who said that he wasn't on the list because 9/11 was somehow a foreign intelligence act-Then why was he on the list for the two African embassy bombings and the U.S.S. Cole bombing. That's just grasping at straws.
It's strange that you quote Global Research and you got thumbs down. Sometimes people don't want to look at the facts.
You are talking out of your league. Depending on the exact model, bunker busters have been used in Afghanistan since the Russians were there.
The type referred to in the article I quoted above is the BLU-118/B Thermobaric Warhead. An air burst warhead relatively new at the time.
It was identified by Bob Baer and the intelligence specialists in the BBC discussion. If you don't know who Bob Baer is don't bother to comment.
If you do have actual knowledge, give us a link to the site where we can confirm your claim BLU-118/B Thermobaric Warhead could not reach the measured depth of the cave complex.
So what make you folks different from the Fox viewers you revile?
It could have been more clear but my post, after the introductory paragraph, was from the article about the BBC2 program.
The estimate of the number of intelligence agents believing that bin Laden was killed by the Thermobaric Bomb dropped at Tora Bora was from Bob Baer, the retired CIA agent.
Regarding your question about theater, if bin Laden died in the bombing, you're free to reach your own conclusion.
.
I found a detailed article by Baer in Time.com dated 1/25/10,"Why OBL Isn't Worth Worrying About". No where in this substantive article does Baer ever mention that OBL may be dead as of 2001, only that he has become "irrelevant" to issues concerning global terrorism. This sounds vaguely familiar to George W. Bush's own lack of interest in OBL; perhaps it came from Baer and others of his opinion, but it seems strange that Baer would not at all refer to OBL's possible demise back in 2001, and indeed referred to him in this 2010 article as if he were actually alive. There's also absolutely no mention of this opinion about OBL's death in Baer's entire Wikipedia entry, which is extensive. There is mention, however, of his former belief that 9/11 could have very well been an "inside job", followed by his subsequent disclaimer that it was not.
You appear unwilling to assert your thinly veiled belief that OBL was indeed killed back in 2001, and therefore the 2011 SEAL raid was a colossal sham. As an Air Force veteran, I still believe in the honor and legitimacy of our elite special forces, and certainly not in the concerted effort on the part of the extreme right to diminish or deny every success of this administration, so I'll opt for the version confirmed by President Obama.
"(Let us be clear. I find liberal handwringing about the killing of bin Laden embarrassing. The man was responsible for at least three acts of war against the United States that we know of, one of which killed thousands of people at the time and is still killing people with diseases they contracted while sifting through the rubble of his greatest triumph."
In the first place, "When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the FBI's web page, Rex Tomb, the FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, is reported to have said, 'The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11', and in the second place, bin Laden explicitly denied having been involved in the planning or execution of the 9/11 attacks, so his assassination is AMPLE cause for hand-wringing, whether "liberal" or any other kind, on legal and ethical grounds.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13664.htm
Inasmuch as Charles also writes, "We should commit to knowing what we're talking about.", I hope he'll watch this short video, a link to which is: http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/911/bush-insider-says-911-was-an-inside-job.html
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