The Obama administration is blaming the “fog of war” for confusion around the actual events in Abbottabad that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, but its record of obfuscation and deception makes it easy to see other agendas at work.
As Crikey showed yesterday, narratives around bin Laden’s willingness to use others as a human shield, and the importance of intelligence gained from the appalling human rights black hole that is Guantanamo Bay, were suspect even as they were being promoted by administration sources and eager spruikers in the US and foreign media. Both are now discredited.
And both were wholly unnecessary. It serves no purpose to further demonise a man who is already hated across much of the world, and whose terrorist organisation, to the extent that it remains a viable network, looks increasingly irrelevant as young Arab men and women seize their own futures in cities across the Middle East, futures bound up with greater liberty and freedom and not the fantasies of religious fundamentalism. The issue of how bin Laden was eventually located is one that should lie at the heart of the relations of the United States, and its western allies, with Pakistan, where bin Laden has been sheltered and hidden for much of the last decade.
Instead, the impression is left of an administration for whom, as for its predecessor, misleading propaganda is a core component of everything it says. Worse, the media, both in the United States and elsewhere, appears unwilling or unable to filter for this inbuilt bias toward deception.
See how power works in this country.
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And the full video of the shootings released by Wikileaks and which was being circulated via Facebook now seems to have “disappeared” due to a “malicious” software problem!
I point out that the US Government has all the information about the raid and corrected the record within 24 hours of it circulating in the media. For you to opine that “misleading propaganda is a core component of everything (the US administration) says, in spite of its speedy clarifications, leads me to believe that it is more like Crikey that, “Appears unwilling or unable to filter for this inbuilt bias toward deception”.
When GWB did it, the media gave him a pass. When Obama does it, it’s obfuscation.
This is the huge benefit of Wikileaks. I doubt the USAdm would have altered any ‘official’ line had they not been fully aware that it was highly likely that the true version would be released to the public.
OK. DAVID HAND ?
Wikileaks will fix any software glitches. They are experienced at that.
Hey Elan,
The problem is the original, anonymous information, not the subsequent clarifications. The USA should be praised for putting the record straight so quickly, not castigated for it. And the Wikileaks reference is absurd and for you to believe it makes you look silly. Surely y0u’re not suggesting, that Wikileaks released a full video of the operation? How would they get it, considering the event only occurred 5 days ago?