Though the Obama Administration insisted that the disposal of Osama bin Laden’s body was entirely in keeping with Islamic practices, there was considerable question from two fronts over the move.
A hot topic of debate in the United States was whether or not it was appropriate to give bin Laden an honorable burial at all, with a number of people suggesting that the military ought to have desecrated his body.
On the other hand, despite White House assurances, some Muslim clerics have insisted that putting someone’s corpse in a weighted bag and hurling them into the sea isn’t strictly in keeping with Islamic tradition.
Some expressed concern that if he had been buried on land it would have provided a site for a shrine for his followers, while still others suggested there was a danger the body would be desecrated if it was buried on land. It seems less likely that anything will happen to it at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
I wonder if any of the aforementioned Moslem clerics had an opinion on whether or not flying a corpse 600 miles to the south for disposal in the ocean was in keeping with Islamic burial traditions? Look up a good map of Pakistan, find Abbottabad, and then find the Indian Ocean.
Where did the helicopters take off from? I don't know the range of the helicopters but it sounds like they would have had to transfer the body to get him that far away. The average American couldn't find Pakistan on a map so they will believe anything.
"Shrine for his followers?" Yeah or maybe, there remains NO actual proof. Cause you know, I'm not about to take Obama's word on ANYTHING.
Damn straight. Are we to believe anything that vomits from the mouths of the lying swine who root around DC? Dead men, and vanished bodies, tell no tales.
Could the bag in which bin Laden was weighted down and sunk in the seas been big enough to hold George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Joe Donald Rumsfeld, Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Lindsey Graham? Their antics have killed more innocent persons and displaced millions of Iraqs to Syria and Jordan and deserve the same justice.
It's not the first time that we have been taken for a ride.
how convenient that any evidence that bin laden was alive and subsequently killed is now supposedly at the bottom of the arabian sea
If Obama authorized the sea burial he needs to be prosecuted for destruction of criminal evidence.
Just how inept can the Obama administration be. Here they had the publicity coup of the century going into the elections. They have totally blown it.
It is highly probable that the person was Bin laden but there will a growing number of sceptics something Obama should have foreseen therefore kept the body.
Since when did Obama and his purged advisors ever consider Arab, Muslim or other groups apart from Jewish.
They killed him military style.., shot in his left eye and then his heart.., which means that they where there to kill this man not to capture him.., this is a military assassination style saying that I am here to kill you nor injure you or capture you. Although his death is a good thing but I wonder if he was taken a life and US justice department or ICC would wanted him to stand trail…, what would he have said then.., what would he have exposed to the world. Milosevic demanded for Bill Clinton to appear in La Hage court of war crimes so as Tony Blair and others.., few months later he hade a heart attack and was pronounced dead.., non of these men’s that he asked for ever appeared nor they give any statements to the court.., now …, do you think what I am thinking….!
Bin Laden's grave site becoming a shrine for his followers would be the worst sort of punishment for Bin Laden since he was a strict Wahabbi against the concept of shrines!
The way this played out, assuming that this was indeed bin Laden's body considering that a decade ago he had serious kidney disease and diabetes and required regular dialysis. i don't know how many years actuarial tables would give a man his age in that condition who spent at least part of the time living in caves, but 10 years sounds a little on the long side. If it was indeed bin Laden's body buried at sea, this was about as stupid an act since — well, name it I guess. We probably shouldn't have expected anything other.
Also, they double tapped him according to reports – or executed him twice, which is extremely illegal, not that that would bother anybody in DC, but just adds to the conspiracy theories that you can see already forming. This will end up like John Wilkes Booth. The shrine excuse is basically the one they used for dumping Booth in a hole in a ground but at least they could get at his body and there are still plenty of people who doubt it was him. But of course the more uncertainty, the better for the power elite.
Nothing to say every things been said in the previous comments but I agree there was probably no Osama anyway.Just more lies to add to the millions told every year.
Who is to say that Osama hasn't been dead for nearly a decade and merely pulled out of his freezer for just such an occasion? Having him found dead nine years ago at the beginning of this sad charade would have been unacceptable because the Empire needed him alive in order to justify the Security State it had planned to put into operation. With no bogey man there would then be no golden goodies to enrich themselves. Dumping the body at sea would mean nobody could independently ever verify just who it was nor how long they'd actually been dead. As has been said before…how convenient.
this is justice? bin laden isn't even considered a suspect in the 9/11 twin tower hijackings by the FBI. don't believe me? you better look fast at the FBI's most wanted list before they take him off it permanently. http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten
He was indicted for the 1998 bombings and more charges would have been laid upon capture.
Just like how Radko Mladic was initially charged with Screbrenica and not the seige of Sarajevo.
I do not agree with Osama's beliefs but I sure do respect him much more than I respect Americans. This guy was clear, he put his money where his mouth is and fought for what he thought was right. He never wavered and never tried to wiggle his way out like most American politicians although he was facing the most powerful military in the world.
This so called great nation is happy now that they MIGHT have killed him, but these morons do not think about the cost? Is it normal for a superpower to take 10 years, 3 wars, so many casualties, trillions in costs and an almost bankrupt economy to kill ONE guy. Pathetic nation.
Yeah, but don't forget all those "Al-Qaida number 2's" we killed along the way.
That's gotta knock the cost down to something like only tens of billions per "Al-Qaida leader" killed.
I would have shipped it back to his sponsors; the Saudi royals.
No Klyde, his sponsors are the people who kiled him not the Saudis.
Apparently, one of Washington's chief concerns with a normal burial for Osama bin Laden, is that his burial site may become a shrine for pilgrims. But, according to Wahabi tradition this would not have become a problem as Wahabi grave sites are unmarked. On another point, OBL has been rumoured deceased for a long time (12/01). Pakistan's Mushaarraf stated some time ago that OBL was dead. A Taliban official claims to have attended his funeral among a throng of supporters and al-Qaeda members. It seems unlikely, given his medical record that he could have survived unoticed with his medical requirements to include dyalysis equipment, etc., etc.
Other questions persist as well. Why did the Bush administration re4fuse to take OBL into custody when offered on numerous occassions by the Taliban? Or why did they not respond to information from the Sudan as to his flight intinerary from Sudan to Afghanistan where he would have been an easy mark for capture or assassination?
For me, there are yet too many unanswered questions.
They really missed an opportunity to create a new kind of terrorist bug zapper – create a bin Laden shrine and track the movements of everyone who visits it. Or just install giant bug zapping things…
What are the chances that it was really OBL?
What are the chances that -if it was- they didn't bother to
nail him until it was most convenient for the powers-that-be?
And -of course- we can trust their dna analysis…they would
NEVER lie about anything like that.
They would NEVER bury him at sea for the reason that
mobsters do the same thing: so that it would never be found and
they get to be the only ones telling the story…
From another blog (Not my writing but too good not to pass on):
Empire and Rebellion said…
Is Bin Laden buried at sea:
Near the Iraq WMDs?
In the Gulf of Tonkin?
Across from the USS Maine (but turn around if you come to the USS Liberty — you've passed it)?
Behind the box containing all the unrecovered 9/11 airliner flight recorders?
On a shelf with the US weapons COL Oliver North sold to Iran in his little Enterprise just after convincing his buddies in Iran to wait to release the American hostages until AFTER the 1980 US presidential election and induction ceremony on Jan 3?
In a cupboard that's holding the video cameras the government confiscated from Manhattan on 9/11?
For the same reason the world trade center debris was shipped over seas before anyone could investigate the material?
Because the Republicans would still want his birth certificate, then his other birth certificate, then his school records?
Fully agree John. Personally, I think OBL has been dead since 2001. They just kept the legend going to justify a couple of wars in the Middle East. Now with the ongoing protests there is plenty of opportunity to start new wars (e.g. Libya). No need for old OBL any more. And with the coming elections, always good to sell the people a success story. So they killed the legend.
They just kept the legend going to justify a couple of wars in the Middle East.
———
By that logic, does his killing mean that they now want to end those wars?
Keep on dreaming.
Haven't you heard the latest 2 minute hate? The latest 2 minute hate is that we have to be even more afraid of Al-Qaida now because they'll want to get us for killing OBL. The wars must continue and expand even more because otherwise they'll be so mad at OBL's death that they'll come over here and fight us in our shopping malls.
Don't tell anyone I told you. And you'd better learn to keep up to date on your hating if you don't want to end up in the basement of the Ministry of Education.
If the American really were in a possesion of OBL's corps then the Taliban betrayed him which is untrue. When Bush ordered the Taliban to surrender OBL to the American they refused knowing the consequenses. How could they betray him later, hence, he was the son of law for the most powerful leader of the Taliban Mullah Omar. OBL died back in December 2001 from Kidney failure and was barried in unmarked grave in Afghanistan according to the Sunni sharea'.
When I first heard about the killing of bin Laden, my reaction was to wait and hear more of the story and then decide what to make of it. Sometimes our government lies but not always. Then I heard they dumped the body at sea, right away, and I decided the whole story is a charade. This article is making kind of irrelevant points, whether they should have desecrated the body or what kind of burial, etc. The relevant point is that it is bizarre for them to immediately dispose of the most important forensic evidence of at least the last 10 years.
This is pure Mafia: HE SLEEPS WITH THE FISHES.
What a degrading government we have. How far has the Pentagon's star fallen?
How far has the Pentagon's star fallen ….. to the depths of Mordor
none of this makes sense. We paraded saddam though the streets when we caught him and took pictures of him both when he was caught and when he was executed, but your telling me that within just a few hours, Bin laden was both assassinated and his body disposed of into the ocean without any evidence what so ever??
not so much as a picture? we didnt think it worthy to interrogate said terrorist leader??
and what makes less sense is that the US military honored the supposed terrorist murderer with an "islamic" burial when being dumped into the ocean is as un-islamic as you can get..
I suggest that we are being lied to ROYALLY
“Some expressed concern that if he had been buried on land it would have provided a site for a shrine for his followers”
Who exactly thinks that?
The US government assassinating Bin Laden is not a good idea if they wanted to prevent him from being a martyr.
The assassination site will be a good surrogate for Bin Laden’s body, sort of like Freddy Hampton’s (Black Panther) apartment in Chicago.
In the Christian tradition lack of a body never stopped followers. In fact lack of a body just increased the number of holy sites and lack of relics just caused people to get more imaginative about what they considered a holy relic.
In the Sunni Muslim tradition I do not see much worship of holy relics. Maybe an expert can comment on if Bin Laden’s body could become a Sunni Muslim shrine. My internet searching does not indicate Sunni Muslims have much in terms of holy relics as compared to say Catholics.
The Orthodox Jews seem to have some reverence for the graves of past religious figures and visit them even in out of the way locations in the Ukraine.
IMO the body should have been returned to next of kin.
The people who want a shrine to OBL will just build one anyways. They'll just pick a good location, one with room for a big gift shop and convenient parking.
Did you note the NYT story reporting that the military flew bin Laden's body to Afghanistan, then buried him at sea? It was in yesterday's Times. Must have been the Afghan Ocean. How anyone can believe anything the government says is beyond me.
This whole thing stinks to high heaven! Don't point this out though, as you will labeled a "conspiracy theorist," (what does that even mean?) or a "deather."
The single most important 'kill' of the past decade and all the physical evidence disappears?
We have troops- yes, even the elite ones- taking battlefield photos all the time, yet not one has surfaced of this particular event? Not one 'unnamed source' with any scrap of an eyewitness account? Not one sailor or Marine on the USS Carl Vinson thought to take a photo of the burial at sea and send it out in an email?
What has happened to the housekeepers and those who were 'taken to a safe place' during and after the engagement? I assume they will all be remanded to Gitmo for trial, since, of course, they were caught red-handed assisting The Most Evil Man Since Hitler. I, for one, will be very interested to hear their testimony- assuming they live long enough to testify. What of the Pakistani officers and housekeepers who lived in TMEMSH's neighborhood? Have they all been arrested and/or detained- or are they, too all being sent to Gitmo for some good old-fashioned waterboarding?
As for the burial itself, the 'gubmit' is trotting out the line that OBL was buried at sea in accordance with the Shari'a- that alone is enough to sink the whole story. He didn't die at sea, therefore no reason to bury him at sea. EVEN IF he was in custody- alive- and died on board the aircraft carrier…. who are the Muslims on board who prepared his body? We don't just wrap a sheet around someone and toss them somewhere, at sea or on land. It's a very exacting and detailed process we go through to prepare a body for burial- who on the Vinson had that sort of knowledge?
There are just too many questions arising from this event for my comfort- the whole event and story line is a little too convenient for my taste, and I think there's a very, very high probability the government is making it up as they go and/or covering up The Real Story.
The only way you'll read their testimony is through Wikileaks.
WHAT A TOTAL JOKE. BURIAL AT SEA IS NOT A MUSLIM BURIAL. WE HUNT SOME GUY FOR 10 YEARS AND SPEND BILLIONS TO CATCH HIM, THEN ARE LIKE, ‘QUICK GET RID OF HIM!’
PRETTY OBVIOUS HE’S BEEN DEAD FOR YEARS, SO THIS WAS ALL JUST A PROPAGANDA STUNT.
[moderator’s note: Look on the right side of your keyboard, and you’ll see a little LED light. Look on the left side of your keyboard and you’ll see a key marked “Caps Lock.” Press it and the little light will go off. – TLK]
Obama cannot stop his kowtowing to Muslims even after he puts a bullet into their brains. Nauseating.
Executing Osama saves them having a trial – even a sham one in the us. Also, is targeted killing against the geneva convention especially if he was, as they say, unarmed?
But I do wonder what they’re hiding. Was the body desecrated and rather than expose yet another geneva convention violation, could they have just got rid of it asap. It could be that the actual kill shot did not come from an american although they could swap bullets and claim the credit even if this was true. Or they might actually have kept the body for further study (or mementos which isn’t unprecedented).
This is hardly a "hot topic for debate…" Most Americans couldn't care less about how UBL's body was disposed of, and are cheering his death. The guy was responsible for the deaths of thousands of muslims, Americans, Africans, Arabs, etc. etc. The beheading of peace-loving journalist and musician Daniel Pearl was only one of his hideous crimes.
bigkoala@verizon.net
Dictators and tyrannies assassinate.
Democracies hold a trial
If I was Al-Qaida, I'd get a double to make a new "Bin Laden" movie just to mess with everyone.
Now when they release the phony photos people will be like, That Proves It! So much propaganda.