Washington Still Working Hard to Plug Gaps in The Bin Laden Story

By Patrick Henningsen 21st Century Wire May 23, 2011 Washington’s running serial thriller, The Assassination of Osama bin Laden continued this week, as the Pentagon’s department of media and information released its latest chapter, still hoping to plug some of the remaining major holes in their fracturing fable. Their latest effort suggests that the CIA may have had a mole inside the alleged Pakistani bin Laden hide out, and that US Navy SEALs who supposedly killed Osama bin Laden were carrying a handy CIA “a pocket guide” to the occupants of his compound. This latest strategic public relations release to The Sunday Times was in response to massive public skepticism about the validity of the raid brought on by the White House’s earlier admission that they had no actual confirmation beforehand that bin Laden was in fact in the compound. An easier way to translate this situation is that their was no real intelligence regarding the existence of bin Laden at the compound, and that the whole story of the brave US military operation was a fabrication, similar to previous PR stunts like the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch in 2003 and the death of Pat Tillman in 2004- both were massive Hollywood-scripted, nationally celebrated events used to bolster support for increasingly unpopular wars. In both cases, blatant misinformation via US government-issued propaganda were employed to market war and militarism overseas.  The US government created a Rambo-style mythology around Jessica Lynch.  There was a cover-up surrounding the death of NFL star and soldier Pat Tillman. Amazingly, this latest supposed secret leaked document was magically left behind in bin Laden’s compound and later obtained by The Sunday Times, lists the names and ages of all the occupants there, including bin Laden’s wives, children and grandchildren. But the document raises many more questions than answers about what President Barack Obama has labelled “one of the greatest intelligence successes in American history”. During the media circus that followed the announcement of the fabled US mission, Obama said he had been “only 45 per cent to 55 per cent sure that bin Laden was even in the compound”. The document, which is said by an “unnamed source” to have been carried by all the SEALs on the mission, indicates US intelligence was certain of his presence. Back pedalling in this fashion, Washington attempts to repair a major gaffe by Obama during his post-mission interview with CBS television on May 8, 2011, plugging a large gap in the credibility of this fantastic staged event. In addition to this, Washington is also able to insert a new footnote which suggests that the CIA is ever-competent, possibly having placed a “mole” into the bin Laden compound which fed them relevant intelligence. Amazingly, a Pakistani official has come forward to say this briefing does in fact indicate the presence of a mole in the compound. “I think someone from inside may have given information,” says Rehman Malik, Interior Minister and former head of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency. “If the Americans didn’t have definitive information, they couldn’t have gone straight to the room where bin Laden was.” From the beginning, Washington PR operatives have chosen to work under the cloak of deception, initially staging their first photo release from the White House’s famed “Bin Laden Situation Room”. It’s also worth noting here that publishing such photos in this way goes against the National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics, which includes this relevant passage: “Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.” Also doing his bit to patch up Obama’s shaky story, the head of the CIA admitted that there was no live video footage of the raid on bin Laden’s compound, proving that the situation room photo was indeed a fake, and casting further doubts on the White House version of events. Initially, the White House claimed they did have video, but chose not to release it. This late CIA admission was obviously due to the immense pressure to release some images- but how could they have photos or video of an event which never even took place? The answer is simple: they cannot. One of the White House’s biggest problems with pulling off this latest media caper was that during his famous 60 Minutes bin Laden wrap-up interview, because of the interview format, the US President was forced to ad-lib without a teleprompter to read off of. A brilliant orator, normally Obama is able to deliver near perfect statements, every line written by his staff and communications team. When he told 60 Minutes that “we could not say definitively that bin Laden was there”, it naturally created a storm amongst his handlers and spin doctors as the President inadvertently threw a curve ball into what was meant to be a carefully crafted story. Following his gaffe, Obama can be seen going over the top- in grand fashion, in order to gloss over his lines, by showering the Special Forces Troops and his own advisory team with glowing glory and praise. Obama fumbles through Washington’s scripted ‘Hunt for Osama bin Laden’ plot. Members of the Pakistani military and intelligence network have also done their part to clean up loose ends. Lieutenant General Asad Durrani, former head of the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service claims his country was forced to deny any knowledge of the raid in order to “avoid a domestic backlash”. His official line has been that Osama bin Laden’s compound had “slipped off our radar” after it raided the building in 2003 while hunting for another senior al-Qaeda operative and they were completely unaware that he was hiding there. It’s worth noting here also that Pakistan has received some $1 Billion USD per year since 2002 from the US to help Washington “fight terrorism”, so it goes without saying that key Pakistani officials have a financial incentive to coordinate with the White House on any joint operation that is drawn up. In this case, it was a PR operation, not an actual military one, but the value to Washington was seen as even greater than any physical military victory on the field. Never before in history have lies been so powerful and pervasive, and worth so much in terms short-term of political capital. There is little doubt that before its finally discarded, the war on terror will go down in history as one of the most expensive and damaging fables in human history. - SEE ALSO: 

IN DEATH, AS IN LIFE, BIN LADEN CONTINUES TO SERVE HIS CIA MASTERS