Its possible that the USA could have gotten Osama eearlier, apparently.

[the_future_modernes]

Osama Bin Laden's Obituary

With his long grey beard and wistful expression, bin Laden became one of the most instantly recognisable people on the planet. His gaunt face stared out from propaganda videos and framed a US website offering a $25 million bounty. In 2007, that bounty was doubled.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, one of more than 50 children of millionaire businessman Mohamed bin Laden, he lost his father while still a boy.

Osama's first marriage, to a Syrian cousin, came at the age of 17, and he is reported to have at least 23 children from at least five wives. Part of a family that made its fortune in the oil-funded Saudi construction boom, bin Laden was a shy boy and an average student, who took a degree in civil engineering. MORE

via Daily Kos:


Oct 15, 2001 Bush rejected Taliban offer to surrender Osama

Oct. 15, 2001....After a week of debilitating strikes at targets across Afghanistan, the Taliban repeated an offer to hand over Osama bin Laden, only to be rejected by President Bush.

The offer yesterday from Haji Abdul Kabir, the Taliban's deputy prime minister, to surrender Mr bin Laden if America would halt its bombing and provide evidence against the Saudi-born dissident was not new but it suggested the Taliban are increasingly weary of the air strikes, which have crippled much of their military and communications assets.

The move came as the Taliban granted foreign journalists unprecedented access to the interior for the first time. Reporters were escorted to the village of Karam in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban said up to 200 civilians were killed in an American bombardment last Wednesday.

MORE>

How many Americans were aware of this, I wonder?


Bush, March 2002: 'I really just don't spend that much time' on bin Laden

What was Bush spending time on in March, 2002, and if fact just a month after the 9/11 attacks? Surely you remember:

October 18, 2001 – The CIA writes a report titled, Iraq: Nuclear-Related Procurement Efforts. It quotes many of the Italian report's claims, but adds that the report of a completed deal is not corroborated by any other sources. (Senate Intelligence Cmte., Iraq 36-37, July 2004).

February 5, 2002 – The CIA's Directorate of Operations – the clandestine branch that employed Valerie Wilson – issues a second report including "verbatim text"of an agreement, supposedly signed July 5-6, 2000 for the sale of 500 tons of uranium yellowcake per year. (Senate Intelligence Cmte., Iraq 37, July 2004).MORE

IF CANTOR [and RUMSFELD] REALLY WANTS TO GO THERE

In July 2006, we learned that the Bush administration closed its unit that had been hunting bin Laden.
In September 2006, Bush told Fred Barnes, one of his most sycophantic media allies, that an "emphasis on bin Laden doesn't fit with the administration's strategy for combating terrorism."
And don't even get me started on Bush's failed strategy that allowed bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora.MORE

However I firmly disagree with the thrust of this postJohn McCain said he wouldn't go after Bin Laden in Pakistan

His reason was that Pakistan is a sovereign nation. And so it is, actually and just because we are the world's only superpower, doesn't mean we get to trample all over other people's sovereignty. When we finally lose that prestige years down the road, and some other superpower proceeds to violate our sovereignty, we are going to be selectively historically ignorant, aren't we?

Meantime they buried Mr. Osama's body at sea, supposedly in accordance with Islamic traditions. The reasoning given was to prevent enshrining of his remains.

Some Muslim clerics are disputing that characterization of the burial.

Comments

[kairia]

I'm deeply amused by whenever any American politician asserts that Pakistan is indeed a sovereign nation. Really? Is that why the drone strikes happen?

As a Muslim, it certainly was news to me that burial at sea is in accordance with Islamic tradition. The bodies of Muslims are generally wrapped in white sheets and buried in the ground. The only circumstance where burial at sea is allowed is if the body will decompose before reaching the shore.

[the_future_modernes]

Ai yi yi. Yeah, there is a vast gulf of difference in what we say we do "respect the rule of law" and what we do "bomb the hell out of other countries at will because we feel like it and int'l laws don't apply to us."


Also, should have been a "supposedly" in that sentence about the sea burial.

[dreadful_penny]

Burial at sea is definitely NOT part of Islamic tradition. A licensed maritime funeral provider posted Muslim guidelines on their website. Muslim tradition does dictate that he be buried within 24 hours of death, which could have been done even by digging a hole.

I don't buy that he's dead. I don't think he was killed years ago (the way Alex Jones does), but I have a feeling that after the dust settled, they realized they didn't kill OBL and hastily buried the body at sea to get rid of the evidence.

The govt's talking about releasing the photos they supposedly have and I think they should. There's too many contradicting stories right now and too much information that doesn't add up.

[thejeopardymaze]

I suspect the sea burial really has less to do with cultural cluelessness, but a way to avoid the creation of something like a memorial and/or grave site for mourners and sympathizers to congregate.

I also doubt he's alive, there is nothing to gain from a possible discovery of him alive elsewhere, so why announce it to the press if he wasn't caught? He's sleeping with the fishes.