by Stephen Lendman

Claiming otherwise is one of his many Big Lies. On May 1, 2011, he willfully deceived the US public saying:

"The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat Al Qaeda." "Today's achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people."

In last Sunday's London Review of Books, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh shredded Obama's Big Lie like others before him.

Obama's official narrative "might have been written by (Alice in Wonderland author) Lewis Carroll," he said. It was a total fabrication. More on his account below.

Volumes of evidence separate fact from fiction. On July 11, 2002, The New York Times said "Osama bin Laden is dead. (He) died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan."

"Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information…(T)he truth is that Osama bin Laden is dead."

The BBC, Fox News and other media sources reported the same information. David Ray Griffin's seminal book on the topic titled "Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?" did it best.

He presented "objective evidence and testimonies." The former includes the following:

Through December 13, 2001, the CIA monitored messages between bin Laden and his associates. Suddenly they stopped.

On December 26, 2001, a leading Pakistani newspaper reported bin Laden's death. It cited a prominent Taliban official attending his funeral - witnessing his dead body before it was laid to rest.

His was very ill with kidney disease and other ailments. In July 2001, he was treated at the American Hospital in Dubai.

On September 10, 2001 (one day before 9/11), CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported his admittance to a Rawalpindi, Pakistan hospital.

He had nothing to do with 9/11. An earlier article discussed the Mother of All Big Lies.

In January 2001, Dr. Sanjay Gupta said bin Laden appeared "in the last stages of kidney failure" (according to Griffin) - based on video evidence he saw in late November or early December 2001.

In July 2002, CNN reported the capture of bin Laden's bodyguards months earlier in February. "Sources believe that if the bodyguards were captured away from bin Laden, it is likely the most-wanted man in the world is dead," it said.

Washington offered a $25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture or killing. No one came forward to claim it. More on this below.

Testimonial evidence Griffin cited included influential "people in a position to know" saying bin Laden died in December 2001 including:

• Pakistan President Musharraf;


• FBI counterterrorism head Dale Watson;


• Oliver North saying, "I'm certain that Osama is dead...and so are all the other guys I stay in touch with;"


• Afghanistan President Karzai;


• Israeli intelligence saying supposed bin Laden messages were fake; and


• Pakistan's ISI "confirm(ing) the death of...Osama bin Laden (and) attribut(ing) the reasons behind Washington's hiding (the truth) to the desire of (America's hawks) to use the issue of al Qaeda and international terrorism to invade Iraq."

In October 2008, former CIA case officer Robert Baer told National Public Radio when asked: "Of course he's dead."

In March 2009, former Foreign Service officer Angelo Codevilla published an American Spectator article titled "Osama bin Elvis, saying:

"Seven years after (his) last verifiable appearance among the living, there is more evidence of Elvis's presence among us than for his."

Griffin explained today's advanced technology can create fake messages and videos able to fool most people.

Pre-May 2011 claims about "bin Laden's continued existence (weren't) backed up by evidence," Griffin explained.

Perpetuating the myth about bin Laden remaining alive until May 2011 remains one of the Big Lies of our time.

It bears repeating. Clear evidence proves he died of natural causes in December 2001. Keeping alive a dead man was done to pursue America's phony "war on terror."

So-called "Enemy Number One" was used to stoke fear as pretext for post-9/11 imperial wars on one country after another to this day.

Griffin hoped his book would help shorten America's wars. They rage endlessly. Don't expect Hersh's article to change things.

He said bin Laden's reported killing was "the high point of Obama's first term, and a major factor in his re-election."

The official White House account of bin Laden's death was totally "false," said Hersh. His version of events differs markedly from Griffin's explained above.

Most important is both explanations and others expose the official Big Lie - hype used as justification for America's war on terror, naked aggression against one country after another by any standard.

Hersh said the May 2011 bin Laden operation began in August 2010 after a former senior Pakistani (ISI) intelligence official offered information on his location in return for the $25 million reward Washington promised leading to his death or capture.

Claiming he was in Abbottabad under ISI house arrest doesn't comport with convincing evidence of his December 2001 death.

Saying Obama wanted Osama dead belies his earlier demise. The staged bin Laden killing was hokum - especially with no visuals, corpse, independent proof and shifting official accounts.

Major events are always strategically timed for political reasons. In this case, to boost Obama's sagging image. It got an immediate bump following the staged event.

It diverted attention from neoliberal harshness, force-fed austerity and protracted homeland Main Street Depression conditions.

They're evident today in unprecedented levels of borderline/actual/or deep poverty, unemployment or underemployment, homelessness, hunger and overall deprivation in the world's richest country.

It continued post-9/11 fear-mongering to further Washington's imperial agenda - featuring one direct or proxy war of aggression after another against nations threatening no others.

So-called DNA evidence claimed to prove bin Laden's death 12 hours after the staged Abbottabad incident was fake.

Experts explain DNA identification takes days to complete - impossible in hours, especially in a location with no professional lab or skilled personnel to conduct it.

Convincing evidence revealed about the alleged May 2011 bin Laden killing proves the official White House account was fabricated - one of many of Obama's Big Lies.

A Final Comment

On August 6, 2011, 30 US special forces (including 20 Navy Seals) involved in the Abbottabad incident died in a reported helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Draw your own conclusions. Dead men tell no tales.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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