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Cnn: Pentagon illegally destroyed photos of dead osama bin laden

apdst said:
I think that's a weak excuse.
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Perhaps weak, but symbolism is a powerful thing and deprivation of it for their leader OBL seems appropriate. I'll need a helluva lot more evidence to change my opinion, while a simple lack of evidence doesn't say much. As much as I detest this President and everything he stands for, he did stumble and do something good in this instance. He waved it in front of our faces enough... but I don't think there's much for a conspiracy theorist to work with in this case, and that's a good thing.
 

The Islamofacists aren't going to hate us anymore than they already do, just because we offed UBL.

They know we offed UBL; or do they? Do they already know that UBL was dead long before the raid on Abottabad?

My point is, since the IF's are going to hate us anyway and they're going to come up with anti-American propaganda even if they have to lie; what difference does it make if we publicize the evidence of UBL's termination.
 

Let's say we had hours of tape, names, ranks of the men who were there dumping OBL's body in the water, reams of pictures of dead OBL.... The islamofascists in this case are irrelevant - but you're right they won't hate us any more or less. What the islamofascists believe or do not believe he's dead - does it matter? Do we care? I think everyone is agreement that OBL is no longer consulting Al Qaeda. It may not make a difference if we publicize it, but I don't get the benefit of doing so.
 
shrubnose said:
If Osama bin Laden wasn't killed, where is he now?
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Osama and Obama, with a one letter difference in their "names" have never been seen at the same time despite them both being famous.







:roll:
 

The SEAL team didn't all die. One of them wrote a book, for crying out loud.
 




Obviously anyone could make up any story, actually proving that story is another matter.
 
shrubnose said:
Obviously anyone could make up any story, actually proving that story is another matter.
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Well, again, that is my point! We are rapidly running out of evidence to prove the official report!
 

Yeah - well maybe the government should sell them on Ebay, they might go for high.
 

I also think the photos should have been released, I thought it was a mistake not to do so. But I'm not convinced that we have a right to see the photos given their nature and context as part of our foreign and security policy.
 

You don't know that though. It isn't implausible to imagine that parading Bin Laden's corpse over the media would result in negative consequences for the United States either in terms of popular distaste in the places where we need support, by encouraging recruits to take the leap and join a militant organization, or even to coax groups into launching attacks that otherwise would not have been launched to avenge the humiliation.

Again I think the benefits outweigh those potential consequences but dismissing them outright is irresponsible.
 
I'll believe something is foul when someone produces evidence that shows someone lied, hid the truth, tried to mislead the public, or that he's really alive and hunkered down in fear of being discovered.

Until someone provides proof otherwise - he's dead - and I really don't need to see photos (I'm puzzled as to why people are still hounding on this, too).
 

Anyone that would be pissed off about it already hates us and nothing we do will make them not hate us. That being the reality, it serves as a lame excuse to destroy the historical record of the most important kill we've scored since WW2; unless, of course, there's another motive for destroying the alleged evidence.
 
These are photos you're never going to see anyway, why do you care?
 

I'm equally puzzled as to why someone would make such an effort to destroy all the evidence of the event.
 

The Admiral's order would have Navy photos destroyed, but would have no effect on any photos already in CIA hands. So they should ask for CIA photos.
 
Americans do not have a right to see those photos, for at least 7 years after they were made, if not longer to protect the technology used in taking those photos.
 

Several points. One is that once again you do not know that you merely believe it. Moreover there is a vast continuum of hatred and dislike and you do not know that the release of these photos would not push people further in a particular direction. Secondly there is a large difference between dislike or hate and choosing to pick up a weapon. Finally the point that it might have encouraged or forced groups to carry out or attempt to carry out heavy attacks to avenge the humiliation of the plastering of his photo around the world that they otherwise would not have.

Fact of the matter is we don't know and there is reason enough to at least consider those points.
 

J
How many Islamofacists have stopped hating us, because of our sensitivity attempts? Name one islamofacist group that restated their anti-American platform.
 
APACHERAT said:
The Pentagon is the civilian part of our military. There is only one person above the Secretary of Defense in the Chain of Command, the Commander in Chief aka POTUS.
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False, the POTUS is outranked by lobbyists, who are outranked by their clients (hedge funds, oil cos., Wallstreet, etc.)
 
apdst said:
J
How many Islamofacists have stopped hating us, because of our sensitivity attempts? Name one islamofacist group that restated their anti-American platform.
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That isn't what I said.
 
Sherman123 said:
That isn't what I said.
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You claim publicizing these photos could cause retaliation. Show one IF group that has changed it's anti-American platform because of the measures we've taken to appease their sensitivities.

We've heard time-and-again that these offenses will cause increased retaliatory attacks. Those haven't happened.
 

Under the Goldwater-Nichols Act, in this particular mission the chain of command is POTUS (CnC) to Secretary of Defense Gates to Admiral McRaven who was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). There were only two individuals above McRaven who could have ordered McRaven to have the photos destroyed. Sec. Def. Gates and President Obama. Since Gates in his book has said that he was left out of the loop many times by the Obama White House and second rate incompetent civilians in the White House have been playing generals, it looks like it was Obama or Valerie Jarrett who ordered the photos destroyed.

BTW: McRaven is known as an Obama yes man.
 

You have no way of knowing that it was Obama or Jarrett.
 

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure the dude is for real dead. Could be, but all we really have for evidence is the word of our government, and that thing isn't trustworthy in the least.
 
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