Osama bin Laden is dead.
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The Devil likely died happy
by Neil Macdonald, CBC News
Posted: May 2, 2011 4:13 AM ET
Last Updated: May 2, 2011 7:31 AM ET
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Neil Macdonald
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Neil Macdonald is the senior Washington correspondent for CBC News, which he joined in 1988 following 12 years in newspapers. Before taking up this post in 2003, Macdonald reported from the Middle East for five years. He won Gemini Awards in 2004 and 2009 for best reportage; the most recent for his reporting on the economic crisis. He speaks English and French fluently, and some Arabic.
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IN DEPTH: Osama bin LadenPHOTOS: Images of bin Laden
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He’s dead, perhaps learning whether his cruel version of deity was at all accurate, and Americans have erupted in patriotic joy.
But in so many ways, Osama bin Laden died the victor.
Not that he ever came close to establishing some medieval Islamic caliphate; one presumes even he wasn't deluded enough to believe that was truly possible. Nor was instituting Taliban-style Shariah law throughout the Muslim world. Extreme self-denial is never an easy sell, and too many Muslim men love their daughters, to name just two obstacles.
And only a simpleton would believe that stuff about destroying the decadent West.
But when bin Laden directed those airplanes at civilians ten years ago, he stole a lot more from this nation than the lives of 3,000 of her citizens.
He taught this country the consequences of operating an open, free society. Literally, he showed Americans the price of their liberty, how many of their principles they'd be willing to cast aside, and how quickly they would do it.
In other words, bin Laden showed American exceptionalists how unexceptionally they behave when faced with horrors most older nations have endured.
Beginning the day after the attacks, the United States became a meaner, more paranoid, more impoverished place.
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Osama bin Laden is pictured in a tent in footage used in a CBC documentary. He was killed by U.S. forces on May 1. (CBC)
Even as President Bush reassured America's Muslims the U.S. was at war with terror, not with Islam, the nation's security organs and a great many of its citizens rounded on anything that even looked Muslim.
Thousands of people were locked up on flimsy pretexts and held for months without trial. Muslims learned to live with hard stares and suspicion. They were pulled off flights for the sin of having prayed publicly. Gradually, the Muslim world began to believe it was at war.
One can only imagine bin Laden's delight.
Congress, its knees jerking, passed the grotesquely named Patriot Act, removing civil liberties that took centuries to earn. America's famous dedication to individual rights shriveled in the sudden heat. National security, rather than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness became the fundamental determinant.
Even now, "red" states are passing bills forbidding Shariah law, as though Arizona is on the cusp of a Muslim takeover.
Americans surrendered to ever more intrusive searches and probes at airports, carried out largely to create the illusion they were being protected.
WAR ON TERROR banners crawled constantly across the bottoms of cable TV screens, as a national media seized by a shameful fit of jingoism whipped up an already fear-stricken population. New plots were everywhere. Suddenly, the world absolutely teemed with terrorists who "hate us for being free."
P.O.V.:
Has Osama bin Laden's death changed how you perceive the threat of international terrorism? Take our survey
President Bush, as rulers tend to do, seized the moment to expand his power, guided by Nixon's rule that it isn't illegal if the president does it.
Telecommunications companies were press-ganged into participating in illegal wiretap operations against American citizens.
Habeas corpus was ignored; the White House arrogated to itself the power to pronounce an American citizen an "enemy combatant," stripped of legal rights or due process. Government secrecy and classification of information expanded exponentially.
At the president's direction, White House lawyers concocted specious legal arguments allowing government agents to practise torture. They also began kidnapping people off foreign streets, sometimes the wrong people altogether, and shipping them off to regimes that didn't bother at all with legal opinions.
But bin Laden didn't just prod Americans into disregarding their own laws and principles when dealing with their real and supposed enemies; he goaded them into turning on each other.
Bush, on the night of the attacks, declared that there were only two choices: you were with America, meaning him, or with the terrorists. No middle ground.
"Liberal," in conservative circles, became synonymous with "soft on terror."
Those who opposed going to war in Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, were portrayed as unpatriotic haters of America.
The cleavage between right and left, red and blue, urban and rural, became deeper than at any time in modern history.
And then of course there was the cost. Setting aside the trillions expended in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have bin Laden to thank for a lot of today’s economic misery.
When the economy swooned after 9/11, policymakers responded with near-zero interest rates. Bush told the nation to go shopping, and everyone whipped out a credit card.
Insanely easy money flooded the market. And we know now what that led to: An economic crash, worldwide misery, and now, ten years later, out-of-control debt.
But it was the loss of America’s liberties, the sacrifice of individual freedom, and the breakdown of its rule of law that was bin Laden’s greatest triumph.
One presumes the great jihadist never took in A Man For All Seasons, but at a guess, he’d have cheered Will Roper, Sir Thomas More’s dull-witted son-in-law:
Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
So many trees were cut down here. To extend the metaphor, they are being slowly re-planted.
But the Devil almost certainly died happy.
by Neil Macdonald, CBC News
Posted: May 2, 2011 4:13 AM ET
Last Updated: May 2, 2011 7:31 AM ET
Read 306 comments306 Back to accessibility links analysis
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About The Author
Neil Macdonald is the senior Washington correspondent for CBC News, which he joined in 1988 following 12 years in newspapers. Before taking up this post in 2003, Macdonald reported from the Middle East for five years. He won Gemini Awards in 2004 and 2009 for best reportage; the most recent for his reporting on the economic crisis. He speaks English and French fluently, and some Arabic.
Also by the Author
- Libya's rebels: it's not about ideology; it's about air cover
- Libya, Yemen, Syria: The hierarchy of despotism
- Who will police Libya's sky?
Related Links
IN DEPTH: Osama bin LadenPHOTOS: Images of bin Laden
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He’s dead, perhaps learning whether his cruel version of deity was at all accurate, and Americans have erupted in patriotic joy.
But in so many ways, Osama bin Laden died the victor.
Not that he ever came close to establishing some medieval Islamic caliphate; one presumes even he wasn't deluded enough to believe that was truly possible. Nor was instituting Taliban-style Shariah law throughout the Muslim world. Extreme self-denial is never an easy sell, and too many Muslim men love their daughters, to name just two obstacles.
And only a simpleton would believe that stuff about destroying the decadent West.
But when bin Laden directed those airplanes at civilians ten years ago, he stole a lot more from this nation than the lives of 3,000 of her citizens.
He taught this country the consequences of operating an open, free society. Literally, he showed Americans the price of their liberty, how many of their principles they'd be willing to cast aside, and how quickly they would do it.
In other words, bin Laden showed American exceptionalists how unexceptionally they behave when faced with horrors most older nations have endured.
Beginning the day after the attacks, the United States became a meaner, more paranoid, more impoverished place.
previous 1 of 7
next
Osama bin Laden is pictured in a tent in footage used in a CBC documentary. He was killed by U.S. forces on May 1. (CBC)
Even as President Bush reassured America's Muslims the U.S. was at war with terror, not with Islam, the nation's security organs and a great many of its citizens rounded on anything that even looked Muslim.
Thousands of people were locked up on flimsy pretexts and held for months without trial. Muslims learned to live with hard stares and suspicion. They were pulled off flights for the sin of having prayed publicly. Gradually, the Muslim world began to believe it was at war.
One can only imagine bin Laden's delight.
Congress, its knees jerking, passed the grotesquely named Patriot Act, removing civil liberties that took centuries to earn. America's famous dedication to individual rights shriveled in the sudden heat. National security, rather than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness became the fundamental determinant.
Even now, "red" states are passing bills forbidding Shariah law, as though Arizona is on the cusp of a Muslim takeover.
Americans surrendered to ever more intrusive searches and probes at airports, carried out largely to create the illusion they were being protected.
WAR ON TERROR banners crawled constantly across the bottoms of cable TV screens, as a national media seized by a shameful fit of jingoism whipped up an already fear-stricken population. New plots were everywhere. Suddenly, the world absolutely teemed with terrorists who "hate us for being free."
P.O.V.:
Has Osama bin Laden's death changed how you perceive the threat of international terrorism? Take our survey
President Bush, as rulers tend to do, seized the moment to expand his power, guided by Nixon's rule that it isn't illegal if the president does it.
Telecommunications companies were press-ganged into participating in illegal wiretap operations against American citizens.
Habeas corpus was ignored; the White House arrogated to itself the power to pronounce an American citizen an "enemy combatant," stripped of legal rights or due process. Government secrecy and classification of information expanded exponentially.
At the president's direction, White House lawyers concocted specious legal arguments allowing government agents to practise torture. They also began kidnapping people off foreign streets, sometimes the wrong people altogether, and shipping them off to regimes that didn't bother at all with legal opinions.
But bin Laden didn't just prod Americans into disregarding their own laws and principles when dealing with their real and supposed enemies; he goaded them into turning on each other.
Bush, on the night of the attacks, declared that there were only two choices: you were with America, meaning him, or with the terrorists. No middle ground.
"Liberal," in conservative circles, became synonymous with "soft on terror."
Those who opposed going to war in Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, were portrayed as unpatriotic haters of America.
The cleavage between right and left, red and blue, urban and rural, became deeper than at any time in modern history.
And then of course there was the cost. Setting aside the trillions expended in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have bin Laden to thank for a lot of today’s economic misery.
When the economy swooned after 9/11, policymakers responded with near-zero interest rates. Bush told the nation to go shopping, and everyone whipped out a credit card.
Insanely easy money flooded the market. And we know now what that led to: An economic crash, worldwide misery, and now, ten years later, out-of-control debt.
But it was the loss of America’s liberties, the sacrifice of individual freedom, and the breakdown of its rule of law that was bin Laden’s greatest triumph.
One presumes the great jihadist never took in A Man For All Seasons, but at a guess, he’d have cheered Will Roper, Sir Thomas More’s dull-witted son-in-law:
Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
So many trees were cut down here. To extend the metaphor, they are being slowly re-planted.
But the Devil almost certainly died happy.
Just a couple of things to throw out there for contemplation.
It has to be questionable of how OBL was apparently killed over 800 miles from any ocean and yet had already been buried at sea within 12-14 hours of his death supposedly with all Islamic traditions considered and adhered to and before any photo's or video or any other proof of his death could be delivered to the public. It will be interesting to see if any such proof actually ever surfaces now his body has been conveniently disposed of where no one can ever find it or confirm his death.
I will predict right now that sometime in the next few months there will be a large scale 'attack' within the borders of the US that will be blamed on OBL supporters that will result in further removal of the people's rights and the implementation of what will amount to martial law and a police state. Do not think that your freedom will be restored from his death whether it be real or not. Increased security is already happening and the 'threat level' has already been increased.
Be extra aware in the next few days/weeks of quiet announcements regarding the continual economic meltdown and the predictions of many experts that the worst is yet to come. All this media frenzy over OBL will be used to deflect from the real issues that affect our lives regarding economic failure and the fall of the US dollar as the accepted main trading currency in the world. I would also be very aware of sudden moves to have integrated security of North America using US military forces and expansion of the patriot act.
It has to be questionable of how OBL was apparently killed over 800 miles from any ocean and yet had already been buried at sea within 12-14 hours of his death supposedly with all Islamic traditions considered and adhered to and before any photo's or video or any other proof of his death could be delivered to the public. It will be interesting to see if any such proof actually ever surfaces now his body has been conveniently disposed of where no one can ever find it or confirm his death.
I will predict right now that sometime in the next few months there will be a large scale 'attack' within the borders of the US that will be blamed on OBL supporters that will result in further removal of the people's rights and the implementation of what will amount to martial law and a police state. Do not think that your freedom will be restored from his death whether it be real or not. Increased security is already happening and the 'threat level' has already been increased.
Be extra aware in the next few days/weeks of quiet announcements regarding the continual economic meltdown and the predictions of many experts that the worst is yet to come. All this media frenzy over OBL will be used to deflect from the real issues that affect our lives regarding economic failure and the fall of the US dollar as the accepted main trading currency in the world. I would also be very aware of sudden moves to have integrated security of North America using US military forces and expansion of the patriot act.
Oh I am sure there are many folks that are upset at this and will do what they can to dampen spirits.
It just won't work.
Our turn.
lol. You really are a nut case. Have you made friends with Stretch yet?
Look at all those capital punishment supporters.
Not so. There was no trial.
It was a "Kill Mission" so they are saying. Good for Obama. I'm behind him 100% for that decision.
Seems pretty stupid to me. I'm sure would have had lots of juicy intel - being the leader of the terrorists that he was.
But terrorism prevention is counter-productive to the military-industrial complex.
This was a prime opportunity for Harper to pimp his jets.
But terrorism prevention is counter-productive to the military-industrial complex.
This was a prime opportunity for Harper to pimp his jets.
Nah, such a smart move by the President. What the heck was he going to tell us? Then allow a trial to become a media circus.
No way.
They killed him and dumped his bullet ridden corpse in the ocean.
Done.
No autopsy? No pictures?
They could have at least gone the extra mile and taken a few more photos to rule out the glut of conspiracy and fear that the loonies will be mongering for the next few months.
For instance:
Isn't it ironic that Obama went out of his way to make Trump look like a joke for questioning his birth? I thought it was pretty obvious - just like Osama's death. But that was obviously a ploy that they used ahead of time so that nobody would question the fact that they didn't really kill Osama.
And dumping the body so quickly? Smoking gun my friend.. All part of our current administration's attempt to control the minds of its citizens.
Somebody get Walter on the phone..
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There will always be a conspiracy no matter what. Heck we have videos of him claiming responsibility for 9/11 and the conspiracy whackos say they are all faked... created by the CIA.
Not a one of us worries what the lunatic conspiracy folks think. A picture of his bullet ridden body would just make people say...
"Look... it's not him!"
Look at Saddam's son's faces after they were killed. A mere resemblance. As soon as your blood stops pumping and life is drained, you start looking different. Add dying a violent and bloody death and your face really changes.
He's dead... the world knows it. You know it... I know it.
The fringe will be the fringe.
How does dumping a body unceremoniously into the ocean an attempt by the administration to control us?
Rein yourself in my friend. I know it is a "not so great" day for you but there is no need to join that "fringe" because of your frustration.
If there is a conspiracy in there somewhere MHz will find it
Of course. I am just trying to save the others who may not like what happened from going off the edge and joining the likes of MHz and PollyNick.
You have to admit... this is tough for them to swallow.
Read this in today's Globe and Mail:
I think that was half of the point.
The other half was to ensure there was no location that could become a shrine to radical Islamists.
I think that was half of the point.
The other half was to ensure there was no location that could become a shrine to radical Islamists.
The only things tough for me to swallow about this is the lack of any proof to this point and most likely in the future, and the resulting increase in recruitment of more radicals using this event as a beacon for their cause. I don't care if the guy is dead or not nor did I care if he was ever found or not. He never attacked Canada nor pronounced any intention of doing so.He had become marginalized and ineffective over the last few years and I was content to have him remain that way hiding out and accomplishing nothing.
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake
Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake
Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years
An image purporting to show Osama bin Laden's bloody corpse, right, is a composite of two separate images, left and centre. Photograph: twitpic
An image apparently showing a dead Osama bin Laden broadcast on Pakistani television and picked up by British newspaper websites is a fake.
The bloodied image of a man with matted hair and a blank, half-opened eye has been circulating on the internet for the past two years. It was used on the front pages of the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, though swiftly removed after the fake was exposed on Twitter.
It appears the fake picture was initially published by the Middle East online newspaper themedialine.org on 29 April 2009, with a warning from the editor that it was "unable to ascertain whether the photo is genuine or not".
The Daily Mail was one of the newspaper websites to publish the fake picture of Osama bin Laden's body. Since then, however, the image has been claimed as genuine on a number of conspiracy forums and used to substantiate claims that the terrorist responsible for the 9/11 bombings had been killed.
The Guardian was one of the few sites to hold back from using the manipulated image on its front page, reporting the picture's existence in its live blog but questioning its legitimacy.
The image is based on a genuine photograph of Bin Laden taken in 1998 and used by the Reuters news agency.
On Twitter, a composite including the other photograph used to make the image was posted by @HannahMarbina and other users showed how easy it was to find the image already online with a simple search.
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake | World news | guardian.co.uk
Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake
Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years
- Amelia Hill
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 May 2011 12.03 BST
- Article history
An image apparently showing a dead Osama bin Laden broadcast on Pakistani television and picked up by British newspaper websites is a fake.
The bloodied image of a man with matted hair and a blank, half-opened eye has been circulating on the internet for the past two years. It was used on the front pages of the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, though swiftly removed after the fake was exposed on Twitter.
It appears the fake picture was initially published by the Middle East online newspaper themedialine.org on 29 April 2009, with a warning from the editor that it was "unable to ascertain whether the photo is genuine or not".
The Guardian was one of the few sites to hold back from using the manipulated image on its front page, reporting the picture's existence in its live blog but questioning its legitimacy.
The image is based on a genuine photograph of Bin Laden taken in 1998 and used by the Reuters news agency.
On Twitter, a composite including the other photograph used to make the image was posted by @HannahMarbina and other users showed how easy it was to find the image already online with a simple search.
Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake | World news | guardian.co.uk
If he lived a life of peace and wasn't such a d*** he wouldn't be at the bottom of the ocean right now.
How many heads did his clowns saw off over the years?
F*** him.
Well I think he is actually doing a better service for the environment. He's a source of protein for ocean bottom feeders. Then they will s*** him out and it will be fed upon by plankton and other micro organisms.
Circle of life.
No kidding Stretch. It is all over the news that it is a fake and a hoax from the beginning.
Hopefully Osama doesn't end up in a Japanese trawler, I'd hate to see his corpse end up at a sushi buffet.
