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Reflections of Fidel
The lies and unknowns in the
death of Bin Laden
(Taken
from CubaDebate)
THE men who executed bin Laden did not act on
their own account: they were fulfilling orders from
the government of the United States. They had been
carefully selected and trained for special missions.
It is known that the President of the United States
can even communicate with a soldier in combat.
A few hours after the action in the Pakistani
city of Abbottabad, headquarters of that country’s
most prestigious military academy and important
combat units, the White House presented the public
with a carefully drafted version of the death of the
leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
Logically, world attention and the international
press focused on the subject, displacing the rest of
the news from the public sphere.
The U.S. television networks broadcast the
President’s painstakingly drafted speech and showed
footage of public reaction.
It was obvious that the delicacy of the matter
was perceived in the world, given that Pakistan is a
country of 171.8 million inhabitants (in which the
United States and NATO are engaged in a devastating
war which has lasted for 10 years already), the
possessor of nuclear weapons and a traditional U.S.
ally.
Without any doubt the Muslim country cannot be in
agreement with the bloody war that the United States
and its allies are carrying out in Afghanistan,
another Muslim country with which its shares the
complicated and mountainous border drawn up by the
British colonial empire, where common peoples live
on both sides of the dividing line.
Even the U.S. press understood that the President
was concealing almost everything.
The Western news agencies: ANSA, AFP, Reuters and
EFE, the written press and a number of important
websites are stating interesting information on the
event.
The New York Times notes that events differ
from an official version of events issued by the
White House and senior intelligence officials on
Tuesday, according to which the death of Bin Laden –
which they finally acknowledged was unarmed although
they assured that he resisted – had come about in an
intense firefight.
"The new details suggested that the raid, though
chaotic and bloody, was extremely one-sided, with a
force of more than 20 Navy Seal members quickly
dispatching the handful of men protecting bin
Laden."
"…The Times now assures that the only shots
fired by those in the compound came at the beginning
of the operation."
"It took place precisely when Bin Laden’s trusted
courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, opened fire from
behind the door of the guesthouse adjacent to the
house where Bin Laden was hiding."
"’After the Seal members shot and killed Mr. Kuwaiti
and a woman in the guesthouse, the Americans were
never fired upon again,’" the newspaper maintains on
the basis of sources whose identity it does not
reveal.
"On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney, had
assured in a narration of events in the early hours
of Monday that the U.S. commando was engaged in a
firefight throughout the operation.
"Leon E. Panetta, the director of the CIA,
said that there were some fire fights that were
going on as these guys were making their way up the
staircase of that compound."
"On the other hand however, the daily assures that
although Bin Laden had not raised a weapon when he
was shot, when the commandos reached the top floor,
they entered a room and saw Osama bin Laden with an
AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in arm’s reach."
Today, May 6, the news continues.
From Washington one of the agencies informs that
that only one man ever fired on the American
commandos. It goes on to narrate that, "Under cover
of night, several helicopters ferry 79 commandos
towards Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad,
north of Islamabad, flying low to avoid detection by
radar, as Pakistan has not been told of the raid in
advance.
"Two helicopters deliver more than 20 US Navy
SEALs to the residence, which has 12-18 foot
(four-to-six meter) walls covered with barbed wire.
One of the choppers, a MH-60 Blackhawk apparently
modified to evade radar, is out of commission due to
mechanical failure, according to initial reports
from US officials.
"One group of commandos moves toward a smaller
guest house next to the compound's main building.
Bin Laden's trusted courier opens fire and is shot
and killed, along with his wife. The courier is the
only man at the compound who fires on the Americans,
contrary to earlier accounts from the White House
that
described a firefight throughout the nearly
40-minute operation.
"Another US special forces team enters the main
three- story house. They encounter the courier's
brother, who has one hand behind his back, causing
the SEALs to suspect he may have a gun, which turns
out not to be the case, according to NBC news. He is
shot and killed.
"The commandos move up the stairs and meet up
with Bin Laden's adult son, Khalid, who is killed…
"On the top floor, they find Bin Laden and his
wife in the bedroom. She reportedly tries to move
between her husband and the commandos, and is shot
in the leg. Bin Laden, who gives no signal of
surrender, is shot in the head, and some media say
he is also struck in the chest. Earlier versions of
the raid said Bin Laden "resisted" and that he had
used his wife as a human shield, but the White House
later acknowledges those details are incorrect.
"President Barack Obama, following events from
the White House, is told the SEALs have tentatively
identified Bin Laden. A Time magazine report,
based on an interview with CIA Director Leon
Panetta, suggests Bin Laden was killed less than 25
minutes into the raid.
"In Bin Laden's room, the U.S. team finds an
AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm Russian pistol. Other
weapons are discovered in the compound.
"The special forces find cash and telephone
numbers sown into Bin Laden's clothing…
"In an intelligence coup, the Navy SEALs haul
away five computers, 10 hard drives and more than
100 storage devices.
"The US team destroys the downed helicopter,
after moving women and children in the compound to a
safe area.
" About 38 minutes after the start of the raid,
the US helicopters fly away, carrying the corpse of
Bin Laden."
AP also publishes information of political
and also human interest:
"One of the three wives, identified as
Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, told
interrogators she had been staying in Bin Laden's
hideout since 2006 and never left the upper floors
of the large but sparsely furnished building, said a
Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on
condition of anonymity in line with the agency's
policy. He added that she could be an important
source of information on how he avoided capture for
so long.
"She and the other two wives of Bin Laden are
being interrogated in Pakistan after they were taken
into custody following the American raid on Bin
Alden’s compound in the town of Abbottabad.
Pakistani authorities are also holding eight or nine
children who were found there after the U.S.
commandos left.
"Given shifting and incomplete accounts from U.S.
officials about what happened during the raid, the
women's testimonies may also be significant in
unveiling details about the operation.
"The wives' accounts will help show how Bin Laden
spent his time and how he managed to avoid capture,
living in a large house close to military academy in
a garrison town, a two-and-a-half hours' drive from
the capital Islamabad.
"A Pakistani official said CIA officers had not been
given access to the women in custody."
"The proximity of the al-Qaida chief's hideout to an
elite military academy and the Pakistani capital has
raised suspicions in Washington that bin Laden may
have been protected by Pakistani security forces
while on the run."
The EFE news agency is inquiring into the views
of the inhabitants of Pakistan:
"Sixty-six percent of Pakistanis do not believe
that the U.S. special forces killed the Al Maida
leader Osama Bin Laden, but somebody else, according
to a joint survey by YouGov, the British demoscopic
institute, and Polis, of Cambridge University.
"The survey was conducted among Internet users,
who are generally more highly educated, from three
major cities: Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, with
the exclusion of rural demographic groups, which
makes the results all the more surprising, according
to the researchers.
"Seventy-five percent also express their
disapproval of U.S. violation of Pakistani
sovereignty in the operation to capture and kill Bin
Laden.
"Less than three quarters of those interviewed
believe that Bin Laden did not authorize the 9/11
attacks on the United States which justified the
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the war on Islamic
terrorism.
"Seventy-four percent are of the view that the
Washington government does not respect Islam and
considers itself at war with the Islamic world and
70% disapprove of the Pakistani policy of accepting
U.S. economic aid.
"Eighty-six percent are also opposed to the
Pakistani government continuing to allow, or
criticizing the prior authorization of, drone
attacks on militant groups.
"Sixty-one percent of Pakistanis questioned say
that they sympathize with the Taliban or believe
that they represent respectable points of view, as
opposed to just 21% who are radically against."
Reuters agency contributes equally interesting
data:
"One of Osama Bin Laden's wives told Pakistani
interrogators that the Al Qaeda leader and his
family had been living for five years in the
compound where he was killed by U.S. forces this
week, a security official said on Friday.
"The official, who identified the woman as Amal
Ahmed Abdulfattah, the youngest of Bin Laden's three
wives, told Reuters she was wounded in the U.S. raid
on Monday.
"The security official said Abdulfattah told
investigators: ‘We have been living there for the
past five years.’"
"Pakistani security forces took between 15 and 16
people into custody from the compound after U.S.
forces removed Bin Laden's body, said the security
official. Those detained included Bin Laden's three
wives and several children."
Today, a U.S. drone aircraft today killed no less
than 15 people in Waziristan, northern Pakistan,
according to the ANSA agency. Others were seriously
wounded. But, who is going to do anything about
those daily killings in that country?
However, I will ask myself one question. Why such
a coincidence between the murder in Abbottabad and
the simultaneous attempt to murder Gaddafi?
One of his youngest sons, Saif al Arab, who was
not involved in political affairs, was in the house
where he lived with his little son and two young
cousins; Gaddafi and his wife had visited them until
just shortly before the NATO bombing attack. The
house was destroyed; Saif al Arab and the three
children died; Gaddafi and his wife had left shortly
before. It was an unprecedented event. But the world
has barely heard about it.
Was the coincidence of that event and the attack
on the refuge of Osama Bin Laden, which the U.S.
government knew perfectly well and was watching in
every detail, a simple chance?
A cable datelined today from the Vatican City
noted:
"May 6 (ANSA).—Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the
apostolic vicar of Tripoli, stated today to the
Vatican Fides agency that he has no intention of
‘interfering in anyone’s political activity,’ but
that he does have to duty to warn that the Libya
bombings ‘are immoral.’
"’I am surprised that statements have been made
to the effect that I should only concern myself with
spiritual matters, and that the bombings were
authorized by the UN. But this does not mean that
the UN, NATO or the European Union have the moral
authority to decide on bombings,’ he added.
"’I should like to underline that bombing is not
an act dictated by the civil and moral conscience of
the West, or humanity in general. Bombing is always
an immoral act.’"
Another cable from the ANSA agency reported on
the position of China and Russia.
"Moscow, May 6.—The governments of China and
Russia stated today that they are ‘extremely
concerned’ about the war on Libya and stated that
they are to act together in order to demand a
ceasefire."
"’Our conviction is that the most important
objective is to obtain an immediate ceasefire,’ said
Yang Jeichi, Chinese foreign minister.
Events of real concern are taking place.

Fidel Castro Ruz
May 6, 2011
8:17 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
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