Monday, May 9, 2011
Obama: “We Could Not Say Definitively That Bin Laden Was There”
President says intelligence was 55/45, man inside compound could have been “prince from Dubai”; Abbottabad resident tells BBC man seen watching television in video released by White House was his neighbor, not Osama
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 9, 2011
During his 60 Minutes interview with CBS News last night, Barack Obama admitted that US intelligence was only 55/45 confident that Bin Laden was even in the compound raided last Sunday night, fearing that the occupant could actually have been a “prince from Dubai,” a skepticism shared by residents of Abbottabad, one of whom told the BBC that the man seen watching television in the tapes released by the White House Saturday was in fact his neighbor, not Bin Laden.
The relevant comments are made after the 10 minute mark.
“Obviously, we’re going into the sovereign territory of another country and landing helicopters and conducting a military operation. And so if it turns out that it’s a wealthy, you know, prince from Dubai who’s in this compound, and, you know, we’ve spent Special Forces in — we’ve got problems,” Obama told 60 Minutes host Steve Kroft.
“At the end of the day, this was still a 55/45 situation. I mean, we could not say definitively that bin Laden was there. Had he not been there, then there would have been significant consequences,” the president added.
The White House’s massive uncertainty that Bin Laden was even in the compound and that US forces could instead have been raiding a “prince from Dubai,” is interesting given the fact that the vast majority of neighbors who lived around the house in Abbottabad remain convinced that both the man who lived there and the individual shown watching television in the tape released by US officials Saturday was not Bin Laden.
In a BBC News report, Orla Guerin interviewed dozens of people who were adamant that Bin Laden did not live in the compound, with none of them ever witnessing him or hearing rumors that he was there in the five years that Obama claimed Bin Laden was a resident in the town.
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“It’s all a fake, nothing happened,” said a newspaper seller who has been working in the town for 50 years.
Another resident told Guerin that the man seen in the video footage of Osama allegedly flicking between television channels is in fact his neighbor, not Bin Laden.
“His name is Akhbar Han, he owns the house they said was Osama’s house, I know him very well,” the man stated.
After speaking to “more than 50 people in the market,” Guerin found only one who believed that the man watching television was Bin Laden.
As we documented on Saturday, while the face of the man watching television can hardly be seen, the other videos released by the White House show a Bin Laden that looks a lot younger and healthier than he did in 2001. All of the other videos look almost identical to footage first released in 2007 by the Pentagon front group SITE.
A separate CCTV news report featured interviews with Abbottabad residents who swore that “Osama was never here,” and that a fable had been invented to help the US isolate Pakistan geopolitically.
“I have lived here all my life, I have never seen Osama Bin Laden come or go from here, we are a close knit community, at least we would have seen him once, but we did not,” said another.
Members of Pakistan’s anti-terrorist unit could not confirm Bin Laden’s presence either, according to the report, which noted that the consensus that the whole operation was a “hoax” prevailed.
Last week, another Abbottabad resident who lived 5 minutes from the alleged Bin Laden compound and also owned a house next door said he never saw any sign that Bin Laden lived in the house, adding that the area was restricted due to it being next door to a Pakistani military facility, and that all new residents had to show ID cards before they could enter the area.
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Housing crash is getting worse Brett Arends' ROI
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — If you thought the housing crisis was bad, think again.
It’s worse.
New data just out from Zillow, the real-estate information company, show house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the Lehman collapse.
4 Arrested After Suspicious Incident At DIA
DENVER (CBS4) – Four people were arrested after a suspicious incident at Denver International Airport.
The incident happened Saturday morning at the south end security checkpoint. Airport personnel noticed someone videotaping the security lines. Police then confronted the person with the camera and the three people in line who were being taped. Two of those people did not have IDs or boarding passes.
Police arrested the man with the camera and the three people in line. Police say they don’t know what the group was doing. They were arrested on suspicion of interfering with a transportation facility.
Security was stopped for a few minutes and police conducted a security sweep but didn’t find any problems.
Schumer proposes 'no-ride list' for Amtrak trains
NEW YORK — A senator on Sunday called for a "no-ride list" for Amtrak trains after intelligence gleaned from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound pointed to potential attacks on the nation's train system.
Sen. Charles Schumer said he would push as well for added funding for rail security and commuter and passenger train track inspections and more monitoring of stations nationwide.
Reinstate torture methods in US: Cheney
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Cheney claimed that torture methods used against alleged terror suspects when he was serving during the Bush administration contributed to the tracking down of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was reportedly killed last week in Pakistan, AFP reported.
"All have said one way or the other that the enhanced interrogation program played a role," said Cheney, adding that "My guess is that's probably the case that it contributed, just as did a number of other factors."
When asked whether harsh techniques such as waterboarding should be brought back if the US were to hunt a new target of high value, Cheney insisted, "I certainly would advocate it. I'd be a strong supporter of it."
The former vice president went on to shrug off the tide of outside criticism that the use of waterboarding, or simulated drowning, is tantamount to torture, claiming that former officials in the George W. Bush administration tried very hard to ensure that what they did was legal.
"Waterboarding and all of the other techniques that were used are techniques that we use training our own people," Cheney noted. "This is stuff that we've done for years with own military personnel and to suggest that it's torture I just think is wrong."
Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst
Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.
A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.
All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying."
International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible. Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Confederate day to close county, state offices
ANDERSON COUNTY — For organizers of Confederate Memorial Day events, recognizing the dead is not about re-fighting the Civil War, but honoring those who fought in it.
Julia Barnes, Piedmont District director of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said the day was about remembering the sacrifices made by the veterans.
“I think that people are beginning to understand that our soldiers during the Civil War were still veterans. We’re not refighting the war, we’re remembering the veterans — just like we do our Revolutionary War veterans and the veterans of World War I and World War II,” Barnes said. “They were doing what they felt was honorable in representing South Carolina. South Carolinians were not citizens of the United States during the Civil War, they were citizens of the Confederacy and they were attacked.”
On May 10, South Carolina’s Memorial Day, members of the various chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy will remember Confederate and Union Soldiers across the state.
In Anderson County, two different groups will celebrate the day in different ways.
Marion Whitehurst, president of the John C. Calhoun Chapter of the UDC, said her group would gather at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Old Stone Church cemetery in Pendleton to mark the 45 graves and read off the names of the Confederate dead buried there. The group will also mark the graves of some 13 Revolutionary War patriots, including two women, she said.
In Belton, members of the UDC chapter there will hold a memorial service at 11 a.m. at the Belton Confederate Memorial across from the city cemetery.
Other events are planned for the weekend.
On May 14, a memorial service will be held at noon on the square in Anderson. Later, at 6 p.m., a Civil War Roundtable will be held at Mama Penn’s in Anderson. The evening will feature Nora Brooks, who will provide attendees at a look inside the life of Mildred Childe Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s youngest daughter.
On May 15, the Daughters of the American Revolution will present a historical preservation award to Timothy Drake for his work on the restoration of Woodburn and Ashtabula mansions. The event will be held at 2 p.m. at the Belton Museum.
This event marks the death of Gen. Andrew Stonewall Jackson. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Barnes said the marking of the sesquicentennial has precipitated a change in people’s perception of Confederate Memorial Day and what it means.
“There’s a heightened interest in the Civil War,” she said. “There’s been a lot of stuff on television and in magazines and in the newspaper. I think it’s bringing it more to the people’s attention. And there’s a lot more interest in society as a whole and how the war impacted the men and women of the time.”
Houston to Chicago Flight Diverts in St. Louis
CHICAGO – A Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago diverted in St. Louis after officials say a passenger tried to open a plane door during the flight.
Continental spokeswoman Julie King says Flight No. 546 landed Sunday around 1:30 p.m. at Lambert St. Louis-International Airport and was grounded about an hour before leaving for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford confirms an "unruly" passenger tried to open the door.
FBI and airport police in St. Louis are questioning the passenger. Lambert spokesman Jeff Lea says the 34-year-old Illinois man got up 20 minutes after takeoff and said he had to get off the plane. No charges have been filed.
Aviation experts say it's impossible to open a door during flight because of pressurized air in the cabin.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/08/houston-chicago-flight-diverts-st-louis/#ixzz1LofHjHOr
Scepticism in Pakistan over bin Laden's alleged role
CHAK SHAH MOHAMMAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security officials reacted with scepticism on Sunday to a U.S. assertion that Osama bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network from his compound in Abbottabad where he was killed on May 2.
Washington said on Saturday that, based on a trove of documents and computer equipment seized in the raid, bin Laden's hideout north of Islamabad was an "active command and control centre" for al Qaeda where he was involved in plotting future attacks on the United States.
"It sounds ridiculous," said a senior intelligence official. "It doesn't sound like he was running a terror network."
Pakistan, heavily dependent on billions of dollars in U.S. aid, is under intense pressure to explain how the al Qaeda leader could have spent so many years undetected just a few hours' drive from its intelligence headquarters in the capital.
Suspicion has deepened that Pakistan's pervasive Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups, may have had ties with bin Laden -- or that at least some of its agents did. The agency has been described as a state within a state.
Pakistan has dismissed such suggestions and says it has paid the highest price in human life and money supporting the U.S. war on militancy launched after bin Laden's followers staged the September 11, 2001, attacks on America.
The Obama administration has seen no evidence Pakistan's government knew bin Laden was living in that country before his killing, the U.S. national security adviser said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to "take the nation into confidence" in parliament on Monday, his first statement to the people more than a week after the incident embarrassed the country.
Pakistani officials said the fact that there was no internet connection or even phone line in
FOX News Focus Group gets it Wrong- Ron Paul Walks Away a Winner | _
Probably the largest example of a blunder I have ever witnessed came from a so-called professional news organization. How FOX News expects America to buy this garbage is laughable. These supposed 29 most important people in America obviously were listening to another debate, or didn’t like Ron Paul as obviously most of the other 90 percent did. Ron Paul showed so much promise during the debates that it brought in a new sense of politics altogether, actually, referring to the United States Constitution like never before. Extremely refreshing from a United States presidential candidate.
FOX News should be given the “Rubber Chicken of the Year” award for putting forth this obviously rigged side show. Who did these so-called news professionals expect would buy this garbage anyway? When only certain people are picked to speak as others are left out, fairness goes out the window.
A fair focus group is a group consisting of a mix, not just a group coming from the Herman Cain camp. Obviously, these people all had a non Ron Paul agenda of some sort. The applause heard for Ron Paul’sanswers goes to show you that FOX was scrambling to give us a faulty result. The billionaire that owns FOX News doesn’t want anybody elected unless he is big business oriented.
Ron Paul’s first three answers, if implemented would have brought America back to a leading world position within a week. Hence, a big problem for the millionaires FOX News caters too. FOX News is obviously biased.
Below is an example of the circus act by the so-called focus group. The first question asked by the no nonsense, instrument of political fairness, ring master is a real humdinger, see for yourself:
Wow, do you think that might have been orchestrated just a bit?
Herman Cain was the former chief of the Kansas City Reserve Bank. An arm of the Federal Reserve, a place where the fiat currency printing presses haven’t stopped running since 2008. This puts Herman Cain in the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout camp. TARP has done nothing except bring America to it’s knees.
His other big business accomplishments were that he was a former Coca-Cola business analyst. After leaving Coca-Cola he went to Pillsbury and eventually went to work for Burger King, at the time a subsidiary of Pillsbury, bringing his assigned region big profits. He became noticed and was given the CEO position over at Godfathers Pizza, at the time was another Pillsbury subsidiary bringing it profitability.
Eventually, he and a group of investors bought out Godfathers and he became the CEO. Earlier, he had been the President of the National Restaurant Association as well. This puts Herman Cain on the FOX News “A” list because of all of the big business accomplishments. Herman Cain’s past business ties has paid FOX News big business add revenues in the past; making Herman Cain a FOX News good guy, hence the wink and nudge.
As seen below, Ron Paul looked like he was already the president of the United States taking care of business as seen below:
You can judge for yourselves about how the other candidates held up. For posterity’s sake, we will post Ron Paul’s highlights up, as this is obviously the man that will show the world some American class. No longer bowing low to the enemies that want to take us down. All the other candidates involved here are basically phonies, only out to enrich themselves in some shape or form. The others are in no way qualified to fix Americas problems such as they are now.
‘Heads Will Roll’ After Bin Laden Probe, Pakistani Envoy Says
May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. said “heads will roll” after his country finishes its investigation into how Osama bin Laden managed to hide out near the capital city of Islamabad in the compound where he was killed by U.S. forces.
Once the investigation is complete, “if those heads are rolled on account of incompetence, we will share that information,” Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “And if, God forbid, somebody’s complicity is discovered, there will be zero tolerance for that.”
Haqqani told CNN he didn’t know whether the al-Qaeda leader had help from his country’s government or military to stay concealed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said today that he hasn’t seen any evidence that Pakistani leaders knew about Bin Laden.
“What we need now is for Pakistan’s elected leaders to exercise the leadership and get to the bottom of the matter,” Haqqani said, during an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program.
The U.S. is in the midst of assessing its relationship with Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. U.S. Navy SEAL commandos killed bin Laden on May 2 in the Abbottabad complex where he had been hiding out. Bin Laden “had an operational and strategic role” in running al-Qaeda, Donilon said on CNN’s “State of the Union” today.