This blog is mine, my thoughts, my moods my musings. Comments are welcome and un-moderated however vile comments, verbal abuse of others, will be removed.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Lord Taylor of Warwick............JAILED !
Former Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick has been jailed for 12 months for fiddling his expenses.
The 58-year-old had argued the six claims he had submitted - totalling £11,277.80 - were made in good faith.
He previously admitted breaking the expenses rules, but argued he had done so because it was a common practice among peers to claim items "in lieu of a salary".
And the ice on the cake with this 1 ............... he is a former Barrister !!!!
Oh how sweet !!!
Ok Baby same rules for you ................... lube up time !!
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Labour/Fabian/Socialism .............. You Failed
Somewhere, amongst all the various gnashing of teeth and outraged indignation, lies a small grave containing the battered and bruised body of a young child, failed by firstly his parents, secondly by those who were instructed to care for him and thirdly by a system designed to remove all responsibility from anyone.
A catastrophic failure of Fabianism. From the foreign doctor in the NHS who "missed" a broken back yet filled all the correct PC quotas, to the council housing department that missed a known violent criminal moving in with the failed mother with no education but a hand full of certificates for "paying attention" at school, to the benefits system which allowed her to perpetuate the squalor of single motherhood, to the Common Purpose trained "state nannies" paid to ensure that the State could raise her child if she couldn't to the head of Department, promoted by strictly faithfully to the Fabian agenda of "destroy the family, the State is the best Parent" to the father of the whole thing. Ed Balls, who had the responsibility to make sure his idealogical vision of being the Shepherd to a weak and pathetic flock was enforced.
And when it failed, Sharon Shoesmith felt the full wrath of Stalin shooting his Generals. In the panic to blame someone, anyone but the system, she was out. Vilified by the media and her fellow Fabians, she was a FAILURE, a traitor to her masters in Westminster. She killed Baby P with her own bare hands.
Except she didn't. Tracey Connelly and Peter Barker, themselves proud products of the brave new Fabian world did. Brutal, uncaring, sadistic scum, supported right to the very top of Government in their actions.
Look in the mirror Ed. This is the world you and your fellow Fabians constructed. Your arrogance in inflicting the collective responsibility over personal responsibility means many more children will die at the hands of parents who are expressly told NOT to take responsibility because the all caring, all powerful State is the true master can do it better.
H/T to OH !!!
Friday, 27 May 2011
FUCKING WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes...............someday, something happens that makes my even my urine boil with rage.
Well guess what ............... Today is one of those days.
We learn here that ..........Sharon Shoesmith the ex-children's services director of Haringey Council says she is "thrilled" to have won an appeal against a ruling that her sacking after Baby Peter's death was lawful.
Court of Appeal judges allowed Sharon Shoesmith's challenge against a High Court ruling that cleared former children's secretary Ed Balls and Haringey Council of acting unlawfully.
Her appeal against watchdog Ofsted was dismissed.
Baby Peter Connelly was found dead in August 2007 with more than 50 injuries.
A subsequent Ofsted report exposed failings in her department.
In December 2008, Ms Shoesmith was sacked, bringing her 35-year career to an abrupt end.
She first heard of her dismissal when then children's secretary Ed Balls announced she would be removed from her post with immediate effect in a live press conference on television.
She said after the hearing: "I'm over the moon. Absolutely thrilled.
"I am very relieved to have won my appeal and for recognition I was treated unfairly and unlawfully."
She said the sorrow of Peter's death would "stay with me for the rest of my life".
Ms Shoesmith had asked Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, to rule that her sacking without compensation was so legally flawed as to be null and void.
Her lawyers had argued that she was the victim of "a flagrant breach of natural justice" after she lost her £133,000-a-year post amid a media storm.
Ms Shoesmith also argued she was entitled to her full salary and pension from Haringey up to the present day.
'Tainted by unfairness'
The judges said they were allowing Ms Shoesmith's appeal against Mr Balls because "the secretary of state did not afford Ms Shoesmith the opportunity to put her case".
In the case of Haringey, the judges said: "We were unanimously of the view that Haringey's procedures were tainted by unfairness."
Lawyers for Ms Shoesmith said the ruling meant she could now launch appeals against Ed Balls and Haringey Council.
The BBC's education correspondent Reeta Chakrabarti said the Court of Appeal had indicated there was no question of Ms Shoesmith returning to her position at Haringey Council.
The matter of compensation or lost earnings would need to be considered by another court, she added.
Seventeen-month-old Baby P, subsequently named as Peter Connelly, was found to have suffered fractured ribs and a broken back after months of abuse at home. His mother, her partner and a lodger were all jailed for causing or allowing his death.
Peter had been seen by health and social services professionals from Haringey council 60 times in the eight months before he died.
THE WOMAN'S LACK OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, STANDARDS AND ABILITY WHERE COMPLICIT IN THAT BABIES DEATH !!!!!!!!
This is unbelievable ........... I am telling you now people the UK is a joke, a laughing stock. Our legal system is a farce and joke.
And now.............and fucking now she is arguing she should get paid her full salary and pension up to today's date and and AND then gets to go for compensation at a later date.
Can someone give me a reason why I should stay living here !!!
Also go to CF's spot here and read up on the rest !!!!!
Then pour a big drink and take a deep breath !!
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Ryan Giggs, The Law and Crap Timing !!
Everyone knew it was Ryan Giggs who was banging that Welsh bird weeks ago.
You hardly needed to be Sherlock Holmes to uncover that crime.
The right of the rich to buy privacy, and for the poor to be silenced, is not a law that should ever be tolerated in a free, fair and equal society.
You insert your penis into something or someone you know you should not be inserting your penis into - then do not expect the law to protect you from ridicule and exposure if that is discovered.
Keep it in your pants in the first place and save yourself a load of money, hassle and inconvenience.
If Imogen was your No1 choice then do the right thing about your wife and children you cowardly bastard. If she was just a play thing then you are also a totaly bastard. You cant win !!!!!!
And peeerrrlllleeeaaasssseee do not parade yourself around Old Trafford displaying the children like some sort of demi-god of all things moral ............ indeed you just look bloody stupid now !!
However watching the weekends football unfold and the story bubbling in the background I must ask this...........courtesy of The Eye !!
Is this the worst timing in the history of journalism? Probably not, but in the history of the Yorkshire Post it's got to be damn close.
Dated yesterday...oh yes...yesterday. Indeedy.
Go follow the link and read the vomit inducing bile !!!
The best bits of the article are worth quoting because it's bound to get pulled.
RYAN Giggs is widely seen as one of the finest modern-day role models for his sport.
He is also a family man, marrying his long-time partner Stacey Cooke in September 2007 in a ceremony attended by close relatives and friends. The couple’s children, Liberty and Zach, were part of the congregation.
There have been calls from politicians for him to receive a knighthood, and Sir Alex wrote in his foreword to Giggs’s autobiography Ryan Giggs: My Life, My Story, published last year: “How I would love to adorn my team sheet with the words ‘Sir Ryan Giggs’.”
“I hardly drink any alcohol these days. I have taken up yoga, which is great. I just lead a more boring life.”
Rather good was:
“Early this year he launched his contribution to the world of workout DVDs, releasing his Giggs Fitness: Power & Strength Through Yoga DVD.”
Well at least we know that it works!
Published yesterday! Bwhahahaha
Willie Rennie and his Devastating New Team !!
I have no time at all for the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems ............. however Munguin has spent some time reviewing the new SLD's New tiny itsty bitsy teeny weeny why even bloody bother team.
Rejected Westminster MP and Holyrood Jonnie-come-lately Willie Rennie has unveiled his “team”. Fresh from his stunning “victory” on the Fife and Central Scotland list new Scottish Lib Dem leader Rennie has at last revealed his front bench team.
Willie was reluctantly propelled into the lime light as leader of the Lib Dem group after a hard fought leadership race where he was the only candidate. He hit the ground running by promising to reaffirm his cosy relationship with Nick Clegg and Westminster pals much as he remembered it down in his halcyon days in London. Rennie had had nothing much to do after the people of Fife told him to sling his hook in the 2010 English general election. Since then he has had to slum it as an advisor at the Scottish office until a suitable billet could be found.
Orkney constituency MSP Liam McArthur will take on education and energy; North-East list MSP Alison McInnes will be responsible for health and justice; South Scotland list MSP Jim Hume will take rural affairs, environment, housing and transport; failed ex-leader and Shetland constituency MSP Tavish Scott will deal with business and the economy. Leaving Willie as Lib Dem lord high everything else and leader. Needless to say there will be no chief whip!
The line up caused some raised eyebrows as Nick Clegg was expected to fill all the other roles. But in a shock move Nick was relegated to a back seat somewhere in Downing Street.
Arriving with all his colleagues in an off yellow Mini Rennie got straight down to work asked the way to the toilet before promising to hold the SNP and Alex Salmond to account.
Rejected Westminster MP and Holyrood Jonnie-come-lately Willie Rennie has unveiled his “team”. Fresh from his stunning “victory” on the Fife and Central Scotland list new Scottish Lib Dem leader Rennie has at last revealed his front bench team.
Willie was reluctantly propelled into the lime light as leader of the Lib Dem group after a hard fought leadership race where he was the only candidate. He hit the ground running by promising to reaffirm his cosy relationship with Nick Clegg and Westminster pals much as he remembered it down in his halcyon days in London. Rennie had had nothing much to do after the people of Fife told him to sling his hook in the 2010 English general election. Since then he has had to slum it as an advisor at the Scottish office until a suitable billet could be found.
Orkney constituency MSP Liam McArthur will take on education and energy; North-East list MSP Alison McInnes will be responsible for health and justice; South Scotland list MSP Jim Hume will take rural affairs, environment, housing and transport; failed ex-leader and Shetland constituency MSP Tavish Scott will deal with business and the economy. Leaving Willie as Lib Dem lord high everything else and leader. Needless to say there will be no chief whip!
The line up caused some raised eyebrows as Nick Clegg was expected to fill all the other roles. But in a shock move Nick was relegated to a back seat somewhere in Downing Street.
Arriving with all his colleagues in an off yellow Mini Rennie got straight down to work asked the way to the toilet before promising to hold the SNP and Alex Salmond to account.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Needs Must ........... Sorry EADS Must with the RAF !
AN unpopular plan to upgrade the RAF’s fleet of Puma helicopters by sending them to the other side of Europe for a £300m refit was ditched in 2009 because Labour MPs feared that carrying out the upgrading and maintenance work in Romania would provoke a “voter backlash”.
Back then the Times reported: “Labour MPs are worried about the reaction of voters amid rising unemployment in Britain.” But under the coalition the decision has been quietly reversed; and the RAF is busily crating up its Pumas at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire and sending them to Eurocopter Romania by, er, road.
The basic maintenance, overhauls, inspections and upgrades will be carried out by Romanian workers at Eurocopter’s factory near Bucharest. Each convoy is made up of “wide load” trucks led by an NCO in a Convoi Exceptionnel warning van, together with an extra truck full of spare parts for the journey. RAF markings are concealed to avoid embarrassment.
Once upgraded, the helicopters will then be crated up again and driven all the way back to RAF Benson. Certification to allow them to fly back to the UK is unavailable because they are not allowed to be flight-tested while in Romania.
Naturally it’s just a coincidence that the order went to Romania while Eurocopter Romania’s parent company, the defence giant EADS, also happens to be building the RAF’s new transport aircraft, the Airbus A400m, which will cost UK taxpayers £2.4bn for just 25 aircraft. That project is beset with problems and EADS needs all the help it can get from its UK defence partners.
PS:
Will any patriotic MP now ask why the RAF also routinely flies its other transport aircraft, Tristars, VC-10s and Globemasters, to France for re-painting?
In fact it’s because the French are less rigorous in enforcing the EU’s COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) rules, making it cheaper for the MoD to give jobs to foreign workers than to their British counterparts.
Gem from here
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Not PC !!
Apparently it's no longer politically correct to direct a joke at any racial or ethnic minority, so try this one:
An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, an Aussie, a German, an American, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Swede, a Finn, an Israeli, a Romanian, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, an African, a Libyan, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Christian, and an atheist went to a night Club.
The bouncer said, "Sorry, I can't let you in without a Thai."
An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, an Aussie, a German, an American, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Swede, a Finn, an Israeli, a Romanian, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, an African, a Libyan, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Christian, and an atheist went to a night Club.
The bouncer said, "Sorry, I can't let you in without a Thai."
Unions .......................are you actually going to do it then ???
So once again the unions are up in arms about spending cuts.
Now don't say I am not giving space to other opinions but from this quality publication here comes this .......... Delegates to the PCS civil service workers' union today (Wednesday) sent a defiant message to the government by voting almost unanimously to launch a strike ballot.
Only two people voted against. There were loud cheers in the conference centre after the vote was taken.
The union will now ballot 270,000 members, with activists mobilising to win the biggest yes vote on the biggest turn out.
Workers aim to coordinate their strike over pensions, pay, job cuts and in defence of public services with members of education unions on 30 June.
This is set to be a day of rage against the Tories' attacks.
Indeed a powerful anti government message.
I also listened to the amazing Bob Crow this am. He is leader of the RMT union and his attack on the fact that somebody dared say the trains need a bit of a kick up the arse.
Well Bob take it from me they do .......... I will do everything I can rather than use a train ...... for the simple fact they are shit !!!
Oh and for the record the UK rail network is the most inefficient in Europe and the most costly to run.
It costs £11bn a year to operate and receives £5bn a year from the taxpayer. Yes the same tax payer that also then buys a ticket so in fact is paying twice ........... and you wonder why I wont use the bloody thing!!!
Also be advised that the same Bob Crow despite earning a staggering £130K a year in basic salary also exploits a loophole in the law by living in a housing association property for low income families in North London. Despite his salary he pays a mere £150 a week. Its calculated he has saved some £80k in accommodation costs. Hardly fair on the 5m estimated in
need of housing assistance whilst at the same time he bangs on about the government and its exploitation of the working classes and its protection of the rich ............ errrr which category do you put yourself in Bob ???? ...........see here
I have said this before and I will say it again ............ It doesn’t matter how good you are (or you think you are), how brilliant our supposed public services are in your juvenile, collectivist mindset; There is no money. There is less than no money. In fact the sheer scale of the money we do not have is hilarious. Further, the rate at which we are still losing money is fucking deranged.
This means that those on the public payroll face two prospects:
Earn less in some manner, or, become fewer in number.
Or both.
Or burn your office down and decide make a living creating dungeon porn. It’s a seller’s market.
Hey, don’t look at me – blame the incompetent revenue pissers who you put in power for 13 years. If they hadn’t inflated your numbers to roughly that of Beijing, we wouldn't have (as much of) a problem now, would we?
And a ‘more brutish society’? Exactly which of you fuckers are keeping the barbarians from the gates? Whoever you are, I admire your near-perfect stealth behind what would appear to be an ingenious cover of barely-functional bureaucracy and petty fascism. Well done, oh arbiters of social progress and guardians of our harmonious and prosperous way of life.
Ah fuck it, go ahead and strike and show us how important you are not.
I speak from grave experience here myself as in the last 48 hours have witnessed several colleagues having contracts terminated and myself having my salary cut due to market forces .............. I work for a private company so have no union and no strike rights ............. so as you can see your position really impresses me.
Particularly when I see the financial position and knew it was cut or die!
Oh and 1 last thing..........the group of cock sniffers that are whoooping you up into this frenzy........into the supposed rebellion.......into the civil disobedience.............check out these stats.
Bob Crow (RMT) - £79,564 in salary, £26,115 in pension contributions, £13,013 expenses
John Hannett (USDAW) - £81,742 salary, £16,389 pension contributions
Billy Hayes (CWU) - £83,530 salary, £14,190 pension contributions
Sally Hunt (UCU) - £63,743 salary, £7,612 pension contributions, £2705 car benefit (start of June 2006 to end of May 2007)
Paul Kenny (GMB) - £81,000 salary, £21,000 superannuation (pension contributions), £8,000 car
Dave Prentis (Unison) - £92,187 salary, £23,603 pension contributions, £11,646 expenses and car benefit
Derek Simpson (Unite-Amicus) - £62,673 salary, £16,156 pension contributions, £13,333 car allowance, £26,181 housing benefit (Derek Simpson now receives nearly £200,000 in pay and benefits, with his pay package increasing 17 percent this year. He also has the right to stay in his £800,000 house in Hertfordshire until he dies, after which his partner will be able to remain there at a heavily subsidised rate.
Simpson, according the Times, demanded that the union subsidise his accommodation to "make it affordable" - a perk worth about £40,00, bringing his total remuneration to £194,252.)
Mark Serwotka (PCS) - £82,094 salary, £26,104 pensions contributions, £2,245 additional housing cost allowance and additional housing cost supplement
Steve Sinnott (NUT) - £99,846 salary, £23,963 pension contributions
Tony Woodley (Unite-TGWU) - £59,333 salary, £9,552 pension contributions, car fuel £3,360
Matt Wrack (FBU) - £66,389 salary, £44,281 pension contributions, £5,134 car
Like they will suffer...........no don't think so!!!
So when you have been on the picket lines freezing your tits off, and you don't have a penny in pocket because you have not been paid........ don't worry 200k and all the company Range Rovers in the world will ensure Derek Simpson, Bob Crow and the other 2 faced fuckers will be right behind you.
As long as they can close the door at night, turn up the heating and draw the curtains.
Unions...........united together.............I shit you!
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Willie Rennie MSP
In amongst the news today it is announced that...........Willie Rennie has been appointed leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Apparently it was a unanimous decision to appoint him ............ it actually transpired he was the only candidate.......*snigger snort*
He accepted the appointment at North Queensferry, with one of the party’s oldest members and one of the youngest.
Commenting, Mr Rennie said:
“I’m delighted to be the new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
“We need to reflect on the disappointment of the Scottish Parliament election results and move on and up. I’m here today with Jimmy Gordon and Neil Alexander. Two of our oldest and youngest members. I want to connect with the party at all levels.
“Scotland needs a strong Liberal voice at all levels of government. And I am determined to see that strong Liberal voice flourish.
“I will be working with my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to stand up to the SNP bulldozer. We will not sit on our hands in the face of an SNP majority – we will be that Liberal voice standing up for the values that Scotland holds dear.
“Scotland needs us to stand up for local services, for long term solutions and for making our country a place that finds opportunities for aspirational Scots.”
Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Michael Moore added:
“This is great news. Willie will be a first class leader for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
“Willie and I have worked together for many years. His energy, integrity and commitment make him the right person to lead our party in Scotland.
“As an experienced politician and a veteran campaigner he is ideally placed to promote our values in the new Scottish Parliament and throughout Scotland too.”
So a couple of things......
I have met with Mr Rennie many times .............. I cant stand him.
He is rude and has been very disrespectful about an issue with my family....indeed an odious man.
He is factually incorrect and indeed is completely wrong about his comments on "Nuclear Submarines" in Rosyth dockyard (notice the inverted commas there).
Also both he a the now Ex MSP Jim Tolson still have huge questions hanging over them about expenses money used to pay rent on their Dunfermline offices.
Al rather dirty and sordid.
Anyway 1 thing I find interesting is this quote ........“I will be working with my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to stand up to the SNP bulldozer. We will not sit on our hands in the face of an SNP majority – we will be that Liberal voice standing up for the values that Scotland holds dear.
Mr Rennie ............11 days ago the Scottish electorate told you and your party exactly what they can go and do. There results were to say the least embarrassing, and that's being kind. Rumours surround near bankrupt political party bank accounts now having lost 25 seat deposits......so with regards to your comment....good luck with that, I think your going to need it.
Few links here on the Willy himself...........sorry I mean Willie.
Rather a nasty position he took with regards to certain military matter .......... and he himself being a Lib Dem defence spokesman.
But he is a career politician. You know gets bummed out of Westminster then realises he cant survive in the real world so fights for an MSP seat in order that he can return to the public teat and suck on his much needed expenses !!
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Osama .................. Confidential Document
Sometimes when writing a blog ............... even 1 as crappy as this, you get some red hot info.
Courtesy of the Captain in Ranty Towers .......... Tlotf has been given a copy of a classified document. This is namely a transcrit of the conversation in the war room during Seal Team 6 and the operation to "capture" Osama Bin Laden, as depicted along side this now famous photograph.
TRANSCRIPT WH-011/b-119 (DOD COMSPEC)
JSOC CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT
CLEARANCE G2 REQUIRED
COMGEN JSOC
Ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat. The operation is scheduled to commence at 0445 local time. Mr. President, the command chair is yours if you would like it. Mr. President?
POTUS
Who, me? Oh, uh, sorry, I was reading the reviews of my set at the Correspondent's dinner. Check this out everybody, I got three and half stars from the Post!
VPOTUS
You slayed
'em boss! Did you see that look on Trump's face? Zing!
COMGEN JSOC
Yes sir, it was quite impressive. Would you like the command chair?
POTUS
No thanks, I'll just sit here in the corner. I might have to bug out for my 4pm tee time. Dammit, how come I'm not getting a single bar on my iPhone?
SECDEF
I'm sorry Mr. President, the war room is scrambled during a Code Delta situation.
POTUS
How long is this thing going to take? I still haven't read my reviews at the Times and Huffington Post.
COMGEN JSOC
Undetermined, sir. SEAL 6 has trained against 16 different strike site defense scenarios. If you recall, I briefed you on those last night.
POTUS
Yeah, right during my rehearsal. And you almost threw my timing.
COMGEN JSOC
I... uh... no excuse, sir.
SECDEF
Quiet everyone, the satellite feed is coming in. This infrared image is from the inside of chopper 1.
SECSTATE
Wait a minute... is this SEAL team 6?
COMGEN JSOC
Yes ma'am.
SECSTATE
Why aren't there any women?
COMGEN JSOC
Ma'am?
SECSTATE
Don't act dumb with me, General. It's been 14 years since "G.I. Jane," and your so-called Special Forces are still engaged in gender discrimination.
COMGEN JSOC
Um... I'll have my staff prepare a report for you first thing post-target extraction, ma'am. Mr. President, if you look... Mr. President?
POTUS
Just a sec... I'm almost winning at Free Cell.
COMGEN JSOC
Mr. President, why don't you give me your iPhone and take this.
POTUS
What's this?
COMGEN JSOC
It's an XBox controller. It, uh, controls the SEALs.
POTUS
Really?
COMGEN JSOC
Yes sir. We thought by letting you participate in the operation, it might help make it less boring.
POTUS
Cool! What do the buttons do?
COMGEN JSOC
They... uh... just push them, you'll figure it out.
VPOTUS
Ooh! Ooh!
COMGEN JSOC
Yes, Mr. Vice President. You don't have to raise your hand.
VPOTUS
I wanna play too! Can I play with my Wii controller?
COMGEN JSOC
Sure, go ahead. And now, if...
POTUS
I call dibs on SEAL team 6!
VPOTUS
How come I always have to be the terrorist?
SECDEF
Dammit - Chopper two's rotor hit the compound wall.
POTUS
It's not my fault it's this stupid controller! The A button is sticky.
VPOTUS
Haha! PWND, American Infidel!
COMGEN JSOC
I've got - I've got confirmation... Chopper 2 down, but crew all safe.
POTUS
You're going down Osama! I'm at full health!
VPOTUS
Haha for you, infidel! I am have the kung fu moves!
POTUS
Ow! Dammit Joe, watch it with that thing!
COMGEN JSOC
So far so good... if the sitrep is accurate behind this door should be target location...
POTUS
Pa-pow! Pa-pow! Pa-pow!
VPOTUS
Hey! Those were my henchmen! Two can play at that game...
SECSTATE
Joe?! What the hell are you doing?
VPOTUS
I am to making you the human shield, stupid wife! Do not the talks to me behind your burka!
POTUS
Blammo!
VPOTUS
Arrr.... you... got... me... infidel pig...
POTUS
Woo! Level up!
VPOTUS
Lay down on the ground Hillary! He got you too.
POTUS
And the world is saved once again, thanks to Barack Obama, Navy SEAL.
[applause]
COMGEN JSOC
Mr. President, aren't you going to stick around to see the extraction?
POTUS
See it? I lived it.
Seems perfectly plausable to me !!!!!!!!!!
Courtesy of the Captain in Ranty Towers .......... Tlotf has been given a copy of a classified document. This is namely a transcrit of the conversation in the war room during Seal Team 6 and the operation to "capture" Osama Bin Laden, as depicted along side this now famous photograph.
TRANSCRIPT WH-011/b-119 (DOD COMSPEC)
JSOC CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT
CLEARANCE G2 REQUIRED
COMGEN JSOC
Ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat. The operation is scheduled to commence at 0445 local time. Mr. President, the command chair is yours if you would like it. Mr. President?
POTUS
Who, me? Oh, uh, sorry, I was reading the reviews of my set at the Correspondent's dinner. Check this out everybody, I got three and half stars from the Post!
VPOTUS
You slayed
'em boss! Did you see that look on Trump's face? Zing!
COMGEN JSOC
Yes sir, it was quite impressive. Would you like the command chair?
POTUS
No thanks, I'll just sit here in the corner. I might have to bug out for my 4pm tee time. Dammit, how come I'm not getting a single bar on my iPhone?
SECDEF
I'm sorry Mr. President, the war room is scrambled during a Code Delta situation.
POTUS
How long is this thing going to take? I still haven't read my reviews at the Times and Huffington Post.
COMGEN JSOC
Undetermined, sir. SEAL 6 has trained against 16 different strike site defense scenarios. If you recall, I briefed you on those last night.
POTUS
Yeah, right during my rehearsal. And you almost threw my timing.
COMGEN JSOC
I... uh... no excuse, sir.
SECDEF
Quiet everyone, the satellite feed is coming in. This infrared image is from the inside of chopper 1.
SECSTATE
Wait a minute... is this SEAL team 6?
COMGEN JSOC
Yes ma'am.
SECSTATE
Why aren't there any women?
COMGEN JSOC
Ma'am?
SECSTATE
Don't act dumb with me, General. It's been 14 years since "G.I. Jane," and your so-called Special Forces are still engaged in gender discrimination.
COMGEN JSOC
Um... I'll have my staff prepare a report for you first thing post-target extraction, ma'am. Mr. President, if you look... Mr. President?
POTUS
Just a sec... I'm almost winning at Free Cell.
COMGEN JSOC
Mr. President, why don't you give me your iPhone and take this.
POTUS
What's this?
COMGEN JSOC
It's an XBox controller. It, uh, controls the SEALs.
POTUS
Really?
COMGEN JSOC
Yes sir. We thought by letting you participate in the operation, it might help make it less boring.
POTUS
Cool! What do the buttons do?
COMGEN JSOC
They... uh... just push them, you'll figure it out.
VPOTUS
Ooh! Ooh!
COMGEN JSOC
Yes, Mr. Vice President. You don't have to raise your hand.
VPOTUS
I wanna play too! Can I play with my Wii controller?
COMGEN JSOC
Sure, go ahead. And now, if...
POTUS
I call dibs on SEAL team 6!
VPOTUS
How come I always have to be the terrorist?
SECDEF
Dammit - Chopper two's rotor hit the compound wall.
POTUS
It's not my fault it's this stupid controller! The A button is sticky.
VPOTUS
Haha! PWND, American Infidel!
COMGEN JSOC
I've got - I've got confirmation... Chopper 2 down, but crew all safe.
POTUS
You're going down Osama! I'm at full health!
VPOTUS
Haha for you, infidel! I am have the kung fu moves!
POTUS
Ow! Dammit Joe, watch it with that thing!
COMGEN JSOC
So far so good... if the sitrep is accurate behind this door should be target location...
POTUS
Pa-pow! Pa-pow! Pa-pow!
VPOTUS
Hey! Those were my henchmen! Two can play at that game...
SECSTATE
Joe?! What the hell are you doing?
VPOTUS
I am to making you the human shield, stupid wife! Do not the talks to me behind your burka!
POTUS
Blammo!
VPOTUS
Arrr.... you... got... me... infidel pig...
POTUS
Woo! Level up!
VPOTUS
Lay down on the ground Hillary! He got you too.
POTUS
And the world is saved once again, thanks to Barack Obama, Navy SEAL.
[applause]
COMGEN JSOC
Mr. President, aren't you going to stick around to see the extraction?
POTUS
See it? I lived it.
Seems perfectly plausable to me !!!!!!!!!!
Monday, 9 May 2011
A Sad Anniversary
Please take a min or 2 to visit this link here and particularly the comments and link on the original post.
A year ago yesterday Tlotf lost most his very best friend.
I mean Calum was friend to the point that............for e.g. should I have need to get married again the automatic, no second choice, the guy to be "Best Man".
How ever that is not to be !!
Yesterday saw the 1st year anniversary of the loss of my best friend in a tragic motorcycle accident.
As everyone who knew me a year ago knows I went through the wringer on this issue.
I blamed myself. I taught Calum to ride, I went with him when he bought his first bike, I bought his first helmet for him as a gift. We rode together, covered many miles.
I thought and its true that if I had kept my gob shut, he would not have past his test, would not be a biker and would not have died in that accident.
It took me easily 4 months to get back on my own bike.
It was hard but I had too..........I kinda think I heard him in my helmet when I finally did go out..........I think he was telling me it was ok!!.
I dont blame myself anymore..............I did !!! But i know it really was an accident!
The court case against the tractor driver is still going through, its a real mess.
I still miss him.
Time is a great healer but I don't think in this case I will ever be totally free...........and that may well be a good thing.
You will see from the photo several of us went along to the accident scene yesterday.
We laid flowers, and I even wrote a letter to him and left it there, you can see the wee grey envalope. It was easier than speaking.
Now that the 1st anniversary is done...........I think I can, so far as possible let this go now.
Yesterday was difficult but the sun was shining and on the way home I was very sad.
However I woke this am with feeling of relief, maybe a burden lifted.
The helmet and leathers are coming out and getting cleaned!!!!!!!!
The weather is a changin' !!
Calum, you wont be forgotten...........I expect you too still ride with me !!
Friday, 6 May 2011
New Terror Alert Status
Following on from the demise of Osama Bin Laden..........Terrorist alerts both sides of the Atlantic have been re-issued in accordance with new threats about Extremist reprisals.
They are as follows........
The English have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."
The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Fucked Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing.." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels ...
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the "New Spanish Navy" can get a really good look at the "Old Spanish Navy".
Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.
OK...........You have been warned people !!
They are as follows........
The English have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."
The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Fucked Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing.." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels ...
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the "New Spanish Navy" can get a really good look at the "Old Spanish Navy".
Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.
OK...........You have been warned people !!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
A Very Sad Day..............Claude Choules R.I.P.
The world's last known combat veteran of World War I, Claude Choules, has died in Australia aged 110.
Known to his comrades as Chuckles, British-born Mr Choules joined the Royal Navy at 15 and went on to serve on HMS Revenge.
He moved to Australia in the 1920s and served in the military until 1956.
Mr Choules, who had been married to his wife Ethel for 76 years, was reported to have died in his sleep at a nursing home in his adopted city of Perth.
He is survived by three children and 11 grandchildren. His wife died three years ago.
Mr Choules' 84-year-old daughter, Daphne Edinger, told the Associated Press news agency: "We all loved him. It's going to be sad to think of him not being here any longer, but that's the way things go."
Born in Pershore, Worcestershire, in March 1901, Mr Choules tried to enlist in the Army at the outbreak of WWI to join his elder brothers who were fighting, but was told he was too young.
He lied about his age to become a Royal Navy rating, joining the battleship HMS Revenge on which he saw action in the North Sea aged 17.
He witnessed the surrender of the German fleet in the Firth of Forth in November 1918, then the scuttling of the fleet at Scapa Flow.
Mr Choules remembered WWI as a "tough" life, marked by occasional moments of extreme danger.
After the war he served as a peacekeeper in the Black Sea and in 1926 was posted as an instructor to Flinders Naval Depot, near Melbourne. It was on the passenger liner to Australia that he met his future wife.
He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and after a brief spell in the reserves rejoined as a Chief Petty Officer in 1932.
During World War II he was chief demolition officer for the western half of Australia. It would have been his responsibility to blow up the key strategic harbour of Fremantle, near Perth, if Japan had invaded.
Mr Choules joined the Naval Dockyard Police after finishing his service.
But despite his military record, Mr Choules became a pacifist. He was known to have disagreed with the celebration of Australia's most important war memorial holiday, Anzac Day, and refused to march in the annual commemoration parades.
He took a creative writing course at the age of 80 and recorded his memoirs for his family. They formed the basis of the autobiography, The Last of the Last, which was published in 2009.
The last three WWI veterans living in Britain - Bill Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - all died in 2009.
Another Briton, Florence Green - who turned 110 in February and was a waitress in the Women's Royal Air Force - is now thought to be the world's last known surviving service member of WWI. An American veteran, Frank Buckles, died earlier this year.
We are about to loose he last thread of contact to this terrible war. The sheer barbaric nature of it at times was beyond comprehension.
This is a chapter in humanhistory that should never be forgotten !!
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Osama Bin Laden.........................What is the Truth !!
Yes I did a post yesterday............in fact below this 1 on my disbelief of the US story on Osama Bin Laden.
I state again............I am certain the man is dead........however he was not killed in a Special Forces raid on Sunday. I think he died quite some time ago.
I feel the story of how his demise came about to be fictitious .......... not that he is dead.
Anyway in the Graph comes this ditty.......Officials said on Monday that bin Laden's body had initially been identified using facial recognition technology on a photograph wired back to Washington from Abbottabad, before a DNA test was carried out that proved with "99.9 per cent certainty" that it was the al-Qaeda leader.
But yesterday a US congressman cast doubt on whether the DNA tests had yet been carried out. Representative Ron Paul, a Republican presidential candidate and a doctor, said: "I understand he was killed Sunday afternoon and by Sunday nine o’clock it was announced that the President would speak and they had DNA proof of the individual. I didn't know they could do DNA that quickly. Then they came back and said it was facial features and we'll get the results of the DNA later".
it takes 24-72 hours to get a DNA specimen result. With a high quality sample, it is possible to get a preliminary result in as little as six hours, but you still have to get the sample to the lab ... which was where?
And, in any case, they are only making a comparison with the sister's DNA. That just proves a familial relationship. It is not proof – or anything like it - of identity. Thus, we are now told the reliance was on facial recognition technology, using a photograph "wired back" to Washington from Abbottabad. Was that before or after his face was blown away with two head shots? Does anybody realise how unreliable facial recognition technology is, and how high the error rate is, even under optimal conditions? Says Wikipedia:
Other conditions where face recognition does not work well include poor lighting, sunglasses, long hair, or other objects partially covering the subject's face, and low resolution images. Another serious disadvantage is that many systems are less effective if facial expressions vary. Even a big smile can render the system less effective.
Would a blank stare and a grimace through having your head shot off, as well as being dead, also have a marginal effect? At least, whoever they shot probably wasn't smiling.
Then, let's not talk about the lighting conditions, or whether they took the photograph square on. Of course, they could have published the photograph(s) on which they relied ... that would settle any doubts. They could have sent copies of the photographs to independent universities, which specialise in face recognition technology, for independent corroboration. But all this they seem strangely reluctant to do so.
However, joining in this theatre of the absurd, we now have The Times tell us that Osama bin Laden’s 12-year-old daughter has reportedly told Pakistani investigators that her father was captured alive by US Special Forces before being shot dead in front of his family. Presumably, it was after that, with the famous head shots, that they then took the photograph for facial recognition purposes.
Well, at least if there are any doubts, the US have custody of the body, so they can repeat the tests. Oh woops! They've dumped the body in the Arabian Sea - or so I am told by a man, who knows another man, who knows a man who told him. He does not work in Area 51 by the way.
But it is a pity that a body has been deep-sixed. However, even if the evidence was now recoverable, it would not be conclusive. Would anybody like to tell me why the story so far is not a pile of horse manure?
Thanks to Richard!
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Bin Laden Dead..........No I dont Believe You !
When the Bolivian Army killed Che Guevara in October 1967, they displayed his body as proof that he was indeed dead. The Bolivians in fact staged the body so that ordinary people—and the world’s journalists—could get a good view of the corpse, up close and personal.
The above photograph, grisly though it may be, is one of hundred taken of Che’s body. It—along with the pictures and testimony of hundreds of journalists and ordinary people who saw his corpse—puts to rest any notion that Guevara somehow survived—which of course was the whole point: The Bolivian Army wanted there to be no doubts that El Che was really dead.
My readers know I don’t truck in conspiracy theories. I believe Elvis is dead, I believe Diana was an accident, I believe 9/11 was a terrorist incident, and I believe Neil Armstrong did in fact land on the moon.
But I don’t believe Osama Bin Laden was killed over the weekend.
The story goes that Bin Laden was tracked down to a multi-storey compound in the middle of the Pakistani hinterlands, where he was shot twice in the head by American Special Forces. These soldiers then took his body, and buried it at sea.
That’s the story. But I don’t buy it.
Just to be clear, I do not believe Bin Laden is still alive. I believe what a lot of intelligence analysts have been privately saying for a long time now: That Bin Laden died of kidney failure in December 2001, and that he was buried by his followers in an unmarked grave in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After all, it was a known fact that Bin Laden had severe kidney problems. People who spoke with him in 2000 and 2001 said how sick he looked, and described symptoms that matched kidney failure. From these accounts, the international intelligence community was pretty much in agreement that he had some sort of severe kidney problems. Without dialysis or a kidney transplant—neither which would have been available to him in the aftermath of 9/11—he wouldn’t have much chance of long term survival.
From 2002 onward, there hasn’t been a single undisputed Bin Laden sighting—even though he was supposed to be the most hunted man on earth. Furthermore, in Bin Laden’s videotaped rants that were periodically released, he never referred to current events. The only times he did refer to current events was on some of the 30 audio tapes he allegedly released over the last ten years—“allegedly” because many of these audio tapes are in dispute, as to whether they actually were made by Bin Laden or not.
Moreover—and most tellingly—the American military’s efforts to capture Bin Laden “dead or alive” in W.’s ridiculous phrase dropped to almost nothing after 2003. Many people from both the Left and the Right wondered at this dismissal of Bin Laden as a viable threat by the defense and intelligence communities—his dismissal even as someone to worry about, or even take seriously.
Bizarre: That the mastermind of the most egregious terrorist attack in U.S. history—the worst mass killing of American citizens on U.S. soil since the Civil War, as I understand it—was treated so la-di-da by the American defense and intelligence communities.
Yet after 2003, for the next eight years, the American military offered up a mere token effort to find him “dead or alive”. An attitude that makes absolutely no sense at all..............................unless you already know that the man is dead, and that his body will likely never be found.
This was my impression: The American defense and intelligence agencies knew he was dead, and knew they would never likely find his body. In fact a couple of intelligence types I know privately confirmed this line of thinking.
But then Monday morning, I wake up to hear about Osama Bin Laden’s death.
He was killed not in some cave, as he was famous for inhabiting, but rather in a multi-storey compound in the Pakistani countryside—a compound that stuck out like a sore thumb—a compound not one kilometer away from a Pakistani military base.
Some U.S. Special Forces stormed the compound, and shot Osama Bin Laden dead.
This man was the most feared and terrible terrorist in U.S. history—and rather than make every effort to capture him alive, and thereby bring him to justice for the whole world to see, Bin Laden was shot in the head. Twice—as if for good measure.
Then, supposedly following Islamic tradition that the dead must be buried within 24 hours, Osama Bin Laden was given a hurry-up burial at sea—which explicitly goes against Islamic tradition.
Other Muslims killed by the Americans and their allies were not buried immediately. For instance, the sons of Saddam Hussein. Their corpses were held for a while, in order to confirm that they were indeed the intended targets.
But Osama Bin Laden? Killed and buried at sea in record time—even though there hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of him in something like eleven years.
Pictures of Bin Laden’s corpse? (apology again)
Well sort of..........please see above. Many a photoshop theory about the lack of skills of the CIA in that dept....do your own comparison.....and that is from me, Mr no conspiracy theory.
Nor have there been any pictures of this “burial at sea”. There’ve been plenty of video of where Bin Laden was killed—but none (so far as above shows) of the actual corpse.
In fact aside from the word of the American defense and intelligence establishment, there hasn’t been a shred of evidence that they did in fact kill him.
All we have is the official word of the American defense and intelligence establishments.
Mm-hmm. Because they’ve always been so trustworthy.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a very interesting book called Blink. In it, he explained how experts often get a first-look reaction to something, a knee-jerk reaction that often as not turns out to be true. He gives as an example an art expert who took one look at a celebrated painting that was about to be sold—and declared it a hoax on the spot. The seller, buyer and art gallery handling the sale all said that the expert was wrong, that the painting was the real deal—until sophisticated authentication techniques revealed that in fact it was a forgery.
The second I heard about Osama Bin Laden’s death, my reaction was that it was bullshit.
The whole story smells: Where he was supposedly located; how he was shot twice in the head, rather than captured; how he was buried at sea; how there’s (so far) no picture of his corpse.
The American military might claim that they held on to bits of DNA samples of the corpse they say is Osama Bin Laden’s. They might claim that this is proof positive that he is dead. But as far as I’m concerned—and I’m a non-conspiracy, fairly skeptical sort—I’ll never believe them. A lab report is not the same as an actual corpse.
To insist: I do not for a second doubt that he is indeed dead. I just don’t believe that he was killed this past weekend. I believe that he died quite some time ago—years ago, in fact.
In my mind, whoever was killed this weekend was not Osama Bin Laden.
I am way outside the mainstream on this. The mainstream consensus in the USA is that this was a “great victory”. President Obama gave what amounted to a “Mission Accomplished” speech. People were celebrating outside the White House and on Times Square as if it were V-E Day. Prime Minister Cameron also hailed this news and takes about the phone call that awakened him from President Obama with the news.
(As an aside, I do have to point out how ugly it is to celebrate the killing of another human being. Because that is what we saw in New York and Washington: People cheering in the streets, celebrating a murder. It’s not only ugly, indeed, it is repulsive.)
But I don’t really see how this assassination is a “victory”. President Obama claims “Justice has been done”—but that’s simply not true.
Justice would have been served if he had been captured, flown to New York, and tried in a (civilian) court for the events of 9/11.
Extra-judicial assassination is not “justice”—it’s merely revenge, something that Christianity, the dominant morality of the United States, specifically rejects. Don’t believe me? Read Matthew 5:38, or more apropos, Luke 6:27. .......However dont tar me now as a religious nutter..........religion itself IMHO has been the cause of more pain an death in the world that any other subject.......I find religion a difficult subject to accept.
Someone might argue that, if what I think is true—that Bin Laden died years ago, and this is some big old hoax—then what would be the point of this hoax?
I have no idea. One can only speculate—and any such speculation will be pointless and endless, not to mention endlessly boring.
Perhaps—what with all this talk of “victory”—it might be that this was staged in order to give an excuse for rapid withdrawal not only from Afghanistan, but from Iraq as well. Perhaps this charade is an excuse to declare “victory” and thereby end the endless Global War On Terror. After all, the United States, The UK is going literally bankrupt—and a lot of the reason is because of its unsustainable military spending. Bin Laden’s “death” might give the perfect excuse for a sudden, rapid draw-down, in particular as the United States’ fiscal budget is about to tip over into insolvency.
But this is idle speculation on my part—buttressed by nothing but air.
The sad thing is, we’ll probably never know the truth—which is a pity. Had Bin Laden been shown to the world’s press—just like the Bolivian Army did with Che Guevara—there would be no doubts. Because when the Bolivian Army showed off Che Guevara‘s corpse, there were international cries of outrage at the “brutality” of parading his corpse around for all to see.
But not even that perennial fantasist Fidel Castro could deny the truth that El Che was indeed dead.
With Osama Bin Laden? We’ll never be really sure.
H/T To Mr Lira
The above photograph, grisly though it may be, is one of hundred taken of Che’s body. It—along with the pictures and testimony of hundreds of journalists and ordinary people who saw his corpse—puts to rest any notion that Guevara somehow survived—which of course was the whole point: The Bolivian Army wanted there to be no doubts that El Che was really dead.
My readers know I don’t truck in conspiracy theories. I believe Elvis is dead, I believe Diana was an accident, I believe 9/11 was a terrorist incident, and I believe Neil Armstrong did in fact land on the moon.
But I don’t believe Osama Bin Laden was killed over the weekend.
The story goes that Bin Laden was tracked down to a multi-storey compound in the middle of the Pakistani hinterlands, where he was shot twice in the head by American Special Forces. These soldiers then took his body, and buried it at sea.
That’s the story. But I don’t buy it.
Just to be clear, I do not believe Bin Laden is still alive. I believe what a lot of intelligence analysts have been privately saying for a long time now: That Bin Laden died of kidney failure in December 2001, and that he was buried by his followers in an unmarked grave in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After all, it was a known fact that Bin Laden had severe kidney problems. People who spoke with him in 2000 and 2001 said how sick he looked, and described symptoms that matched kidney failure. From these accounts, the international intelligence community was pretty much in agreement that he had some sort of severe kidney problems. Without dialysis or a kidney transplant—neither which would have been available to him in the aftermath of 9/11—he wouldn’t have much chance of long term survival.
From 2002 onward, there hasn’t been a single undisputed Bin Laden sighting—even though he was supposed to be the most hunted man on earth. Furthermore, in Bin Laden’s videotaped rants that were periodically released, he never referred to current events. The only times he did refer to current events was on some of the 30 audio tapes he allegedly released over the last ten years—“allegedly” because many of these audio tapes are in dispute, as to whether they actually were made by Bin Laden or not.
Moreover—and most tellingly—the American military’s efforts to capture Bin Laden “dead or alive” in W.’s ridiculous phrase dropped to almost nothing after 2003. Many people from both the Left and the Right wondered at this dismissal of Bin Laden as a viable threat by the defense and intelligence communities—his dismissal even as someone to worry about, or even take seriously.
Bizarre: That the mastermind of the most egregious terrorist attack in U.S. history—the worst mass killing of American citizens on U.S. soil since the Civil War, as I understand it—was treated so la-di-da by the American defense and intelligence communities.
Yet after 2003, for the next eight years, the American military offered up a mere token effort to find him “dead or alive”. An attitude that makes absolutely no sense at all..............................unless you already know that the man is dead, and that his body will likely never be found.
This was my impression: The American defense and intelligence agencies knew he was dead, and knew they would never likely find his body. In fact a couple of intelligence types I know privately confirmed this line of thinking.
But then Monday morning, I wake up to hear about Osama Bin Laden’s death.
He was killed not in some cave, as he was famous for inhabiting, but rather in a multi-storey compound in the Pakistani countryside—a compound that stuck out like a sore thumb—a compound not one kilometer away from a Pakistani military base.
Some U.S. Special Forces stormed the compound, and shot Osama Bin Laden dead.
This man was the most feared and terrible terrorist in U.S. history—and rather than make every effort to capture him alive, and thereby bring him to justice for the whole world to see, Bin Laden was shot in the head. Twice—as if for good measure.
Then, supposedly following Islamic tradition that the dead must be buried within 24 hours, Osama Bin Laden was given a hurry-up burial at sea—which explicitly goes against Islamic tradition.
Other Muslims killed by the Americans and their allies were not buried immediately. For instance, the sons of Saddam Hussein. Their corpses were held for a while, in order to confirm that they were indeed the intended targets.
But Osama Bin Laden? Killed and buried at sea in record time—even though there hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of him in something like eleven years.
Pictures of Bin Laden’s corpse? (apology again)
Well sort of..........please see above. Many a photoshop theory about the lack of skills of the CIA in that dept....do your own comparison.....and that is from me, Mr no conspiracy theory.
Nor have there been any pictures of this “burial at sea”. There’ve been plenty of video of where Bin Laden was killed—but none (so far as above shows) of the actual corpse.
In fact aside from the word of the American defense and intelligence establishment, there hasn’t been a shred of evidence that they did in fact kill him.
All we have is the official word of the American defense and intelligence establishments.
Mm-hmm. Because they’ve always been so trustworthy.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a very interesting book called Blink. In it, he explained how experts often get a first-look reaction to something, a knee-jerk reaction that often as not turns out to be true. He gives as an example an art expert who took one look at a celebrated painting that was about to be sold—and declared it a hoax on the spot. The seller, buyer and art gallery handling the sale all said that the expert was wrong, that the painting was the real deal—until sophisticated authentication techniques revealed that in fact it was a forgery.
The second I heard about Osama Bin Laden’s death, my reaction was that it was bullshit.
The whole story smells: Where he was supposedly located; how he was shot twice in the head, rather than captured; how he was buried at sea; how there’s (so far) no picture of his corpse.
The American military might claim that they held on to bits of DNA samples of the corpse they say is Osama Bin Laden’s. They might claim that this is proof positive that he is dead. But as far as I’m concerned—and I’m a non-conspiracy, fairly skeptical sort—I’ll never believe them. A lab report is not the same as an actual corpse.
To insist: I do not for a second doubt that he is indeed dead. I just don’t believe that he was killed this past weekend. I believe that he died quite some time ago—years ago, in fact.
In my mind, whoever was killed this weekend was not Osama Bin Laden.
I am way outside the mainstream on this. The mainstream consensus in the USA is that this was a “great victory”. President Obama gave what amounted to a “Mission Accomplished” speech. People were celebrating outside the White House and on Times Square as if it were V-E Day. Prime Minister Cameron also hailed this news and takes about the phone call that awakened him from President Obama with the news.
(As an aside, I do have to point out how ugly it is to celebrate the killing of another human being. Because that is what we saw in New York and Washington: People cheering in the streets, celebrating a murder. It’s not only ugly, indeed, it is repulsive.)
But I don’t really see how this assassination is a “victory”. President Obama claims “Justice has been done”—but that’s simply not true.
Justice would have been served if he had been captured, flown to New York, and tried in a (civilian) court for the events of 9/11.
Extra-judicial assassination is not “justice”—it’s merely revenge, something that Christianity, the dominant morality of the United States, specifically rejects. Don’t believe me? Read Matthew 5:38, or more apropos, Luke 6:27. .......However dont tar me now as a religious nutter..........religion itself IMHO has been the cause of more pain an death in the world that any other subject.......I find religion a difficult subject to accept.
Someone might argue that, if what I think is true—that Bin Laden died years ago, and this is some big old hoax—then what would be the point of this hoax?
I have no idea. One can only speculate—and any such speculation will be pointless and endless, not to mention endlessly boring.
Perhaps—what with all this talk of “victory”—it might be that this was staged in order to give an excuse for rapid withdrawal not only from Afghanistan, but from Iraq as well. Perhaps this charade is an excuse to declare “victory” and thereby end the endless Global War On Terror. After all, the United States, The UK is going literally bankrupt—and a lot of the reason is because of its unsustainable military spending. Bin Laden’s “death” might give the perfect excuse for a sudden, rapid draw-down, in particular as the United States’ fiscal budget is about to tip over into insolvency.
But this is idle speculation on my part—buttressed by nothing but air.
The sad thing is, we’ll probably never know the truth—which is a pity. Had Bin Laden been shown to the world’s press—just like the Bolivian Army did with Che Guevara—there would be no doubts. Because when the Bolivian Army showed off Che Guevara‘s corpse, there were international cries of outrage at the “brutality” of parading his corpse around for all to see.
But not even that perennial fantasist Fidel Castro could deny the truth that El Che was indeed dead.
With Osama Bin Laden? We’ll never be really sure.
H/T To Mr Lira