A Message Full of Coincidence
So, as Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice headed toward the climactic “you’re fired” of tonight’s episode, NBC periodically killed the sound to play a jingle and run ticker text about a pending important message from President Obama. The actual interruption came right as the show built up to a crest.
Apparently, Osama bin Laden has been confirmed as dead. I’m not sure if just happened or at some point today, yesterday, last week, but it sure is curious that this big announcement would have to be made on a Sunday night with only an intense twelve minutes remaining on a show produced by a political competitor of the president’s.
I wouldn’t take this so far as to imply political motives, but it’s also very helpful to Mr. Obama, considering unrest about gas and grocery prices and growing dissatisfaction with his military activities.
10:59 p.m.
The President hasn’t come on, yet, but the commentators on NBC are making bin Laden’s death out to be much more than it really is. He was a symbol, but whether he’s been alive or dead has been largely irrelevant for the past six years. The real success of the decade-long war effort is the lack of additional large-scale terror attacks on U.S. soil.
From the commentary, thus far, the administration has been gathering details all day and has the terror master’s body.
Is Trump going to demand the release of bin Laden’s birth certificate, too?
Well, eight years later, that big “Mission Accomplished” sign on the deck behind Dubya is finally telling the truth.
We’ll have to import some crow from China to serve all the people who’ll need it tomorrow.
No Bella, the Don wants to see the death certificate, the long form. Lol
Bin Laden may not have been in operational command but he was hardly irrelevant.He was an inspirational figure to Islamic extremists worldwide.
Zahawari(sp?)is considered the day to day commander of operations for Al Qaeda.
In the short term,there may be an upsurge in terrorist violence in places like Indonesia and the Philippines and other locales where terrorists don’t fit the “Middle Eastern”archetype.
I can’t believe there was any petty motive to ruin Trump’s “reality”show-this is such big news that I believe such political considerations are off the table for the moment.
Now,I did see some disgusting behavior by Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd on NBC gloating over what Todd called Bush’s “infamous mission accomplished” also being on May 1.
All credit to American forces and their commanders and whatever allies assisted us if any.
Did anyone catch Geraldo’s slip saying “Obama’s dead instead of Osama’s dead”?I guess it was like Al Gore saying Michael Jackson instead of Michael Jordan.
Geraldo caught himself fast and corrected it.
Are you kidding me? I laugh when Faux News made some political remarks about how apparently Speaker Boehner had just been over there, but really?
Because ONE channel on TV happened to be carrying celebrity apprentice, you tangent off? Imagine the millions of Americans who either weren’t watching TV or were watching something more interesting — bet they cared a lot about that coincidence.
I’m sorry Justin, but I not only don’t think Mr. Trump is that important, but this is going to remembered in my mind as the night you “jumped the shark”. The world doesn’t revolve around your TV preferences.
Some very brave American men (and women?) just carried out a raid into what was described as a “firefight” — into harms way — but you stop just short of implying political motive for that. Wow dude.
I would have been quite pleased had we found the dude under President Bush. Now I’m just happy he’s gone.
One thing is puzzling me.The president said distinctly that he was killed TODAY.
News reports are indicating it was a week ago and a DNA check had been done.
It’s damn near impossible to kill someone in a firefight and have his DNA checked within one day.(Except maybe in a David Mamet film.)Especially when he was killed in a possibly hostile area.
bella-if you want to talk about eating crow,go get your spoon.
I bet the people that pulled this off were some of the “rubes”you look down your nose at.
I doubt they were drawn from the ranks of the faculty lounge/coffeehouse “intellectuals”you seem to parrot most of the time.
So can we bring home all the troops in Afghanistan tomorrow?
Actually,Patrick,things may heat up fast in Afghanistan.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda are not two peas in a pod.
The people who want to dump on Bush now better remember that our Defense Secretary is a Bush holdover,a smart move by Obama.Something tells me Gates had a big hand in this.
Obama deserves credit for “green lighting” this operation and allowing the experts to do their jobs.
This was good decision making,something Obama has been weak on previously.
This was good for the free world and the USA in particular,and I don’t care who’s watch it happened on as long as it was done.
I am at one with Joe on wondering when this happened, although the statement is “today”.
I also noticed the report of a DNA “match”. My best info, which may be behind the times, is that if the decks are cleared, a “quick and dirty” DNA match takes about 12 hours. Authoritative work somewhat longer.
I also noticed we had a big shake up in “intelligence” this week. I am wondering if this effected timing.
I guess it is obvious I am not just accepting the story as presented.
bin Laden was taken down face to face and at the hand of Americans. Justice!
Kudos to the fine men and women in the intelligence services and special ops. They are the very best of us.
Justin I find your attitude regarding bin Laden’s death rather puzzling. A symbol?? Osama bin Laden was a mass murderer on the run and we finally found him and we killed him.
Btw Joe the WH claims bin Laden was given the option to surrender. I do not believe that for one second. There is no way they were leaving that compound with a living breathing Osama bin Laden. Having him in custody would have created a major headache for this country. This op reminds me of the way the Mossad operates. Whether it takes 10 minutes or 10 years you hunt them down and you kill them.
ps – don’t let bella and swazy bother you. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
jparis,
It has nothing to do with “my TV preferences.” It just struck me (as a sometime author of short stories and such) as curious that the White House released the information at around 10:50 p.m., especially considering that the President didn’t actually get on the air until after 11:30 p.m. Considering how quickly the coincidence apparently came to the minds of a wide group of people, judging by Internet commentary, it surely occurred to the administration, and whether Trump justifies the attention or not (he doesn’t), he’s been getting it, and with the help of Obama.
Note, too, that I’m not saying that the attack on bin Laden was a political gambit, as you imply. I’m saying that the timing of the announcement has somewhat of that air. And inasmuch as I don’t imagine very many people will first get wind of the story from
Anchor Rising, my commentary is in now way meant as a scale of its important aspects.
Tim,
It has seemed to me for many years, now, that whether bin Laden was alive or dead mattered very little operationally to al Qaeda. The premise of the War on Terror is that we’re fighting a variably loose affiliation of people united generally by a religiously based ideology. Osama bin Laden was a driving force behind 9-11 and his particular terrorist organization, and he’s been the face that we put on the group. Up to now, he was either dead or pushed into the shadows.
It’s awesome that he did not have a chance to reemerge triumphant — say after a premature withdrawal from the region on our part — but the real success is that his organization hasn’t managed another attack on our soil, and for that, we have largely the Bush administration to thank.
Obama is merely the beneficiary of the fine work done by our military. All honor to the people who did the real work. It disgusts me the way that Obama bin Lyin’ is grabbing the credit despite his, and his party’s, doing everything possible to hobble our troops in Afghanistan.
As Joe said, kudos to President Obama for doing the right thing.
Bravo to everyone who carried out the mission and/or obtained the necessary intelligence to facilitate it.
I wonder how the misogynistic members of al Qaeda feel about their leader’s craven attempt to shield himself with a lowly woman when push came to shove?
Or the Democrat apologists for Islamofascists everywhere.
Warrington/Joe, I agree that the timing of the details are sketchy and probably will be unless they ever release the minute by minute story of how it happened. However, using some general timeframes, the mission inside the house took 40 minutes from in to out. Pakistan is 9 hours ahead of eastern time. So if this happened in the early morning hours, it could have technically started late Saturday afternoon, but because it was Sunday in Pakistan, that they said “today”. Obama was informed of their success at 4 pm Sunday. So if the mission was carried out at about 1 am Pakistan time, or 4 pm Saturday eastern time, right there is 24 hours between when the mission could have completed until Obama was notified.
I agree that the details are a little sketchy, but the rough timeline mentioned may not be impossible.
I think they had to wait to get the DNA, and they also wanted it to be on May 1st. Look at the history of that day. We found out Hitler was dead on May 1st, and May 1st was also the day of the Mission Accomplished banner.
LOL-a chance to surrener-sure-“bang,bang,hands up”-as it SHOULD be in this case.
Well, here’s one piece that’s fitting the timeline I described from a Ted Nesi article up on the WPRI blog now:
“His first tweet was innocuous: “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).””
So this started at about 4 pm Saturday, EDT.
But now without the body, it’s up to you whether you believe the DNA evidence. Clearly the US was in possession of bin Laden DNA, so whatever they trot out for anyone to investigate, I don’t know how anyone could know that one is the control and the other was taken from his body this weekend.
Patrick, the US has the DNA of OBL’s sister. That’s how they matched it.
sleepydog, matched her DNA to what? That’s my point. How do we have any idea that they matched his sister’s DNA to his from this weekend, or matched his sister’s DNA to a second sample from his sister or matched it to any of the other 55 siblings? Now that the body is gone, there is no way to do any other forensics.
To think some people didn’t think Obama was tough enough to be commander in chief. Barbecue sauce on the crow?
Obama is taking credit for the gift he received from the very military people whom he has despised for his entire life. This is so dishonest, so self-centered, so insulting to the military and the public in general, that most of us are barfing.
Would you like another ice cube with your Kool-Aid, Bella?
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”
-George W Bush…..3/13/02
Hey Swaz, you just go ahead and continue to post phony quotes from Leftist websites. If anyone has an inclination to believe anything you write, perhaps these will alert them.
Youtube is such a leftist website!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o&feature=related
So we’re spamming the blog now and cross-posting? Can’t we keep it to one post at a time with the same links and comments? That’s some pretty trollish behavior there.
bella-Obama has had a problem with making hard decisions in a timely fashion.
This time he did right and let the correct people do it thway it had to be done.
Jimmy Carter failed miserably in the desert during the iranian hostage crisis.A lot of good people were killed and no one was rescued.
Clinton and Aspin let the Mogadishu raid go off without an AC130 or any armor for backup- again,good people got killed and the man they were seeking was never caught.
Maybe Obama didn’t want to get into a jackpot like they did.
He didn’t show himself necessarily tough,but at least he was decisive and let the really tough people take care of things.
Trying to communicate with you is like talking to one of those dolls with a pull string that repeats the same rancid pablum over and over.
I bet you raise some eyebrows at Stone Soup or the Coffee Exchange.
Swaz,
You lost all credibility if you ever had any. If you watch the entire clip, you have not only rewritten what he said, you have taken what he actually said out of context. Obama got his credit. You can’t magnify that anymore then he did in his own speech last night.
Posted by Patrick at May 2, 2011 9:27 AM
“I agree that the details are a little sketchy, but the rough timeline mentioned may not be impossible.”
Patrick,
After I posted, I did give some thought to the “Pearl Harbor Day” thing. Either Dec. 7., or Dec.8, depending on where you found yourself on the earth’s surface.
I think I was thrown of by Obama’s attempts at macho. To his credit, he gave the command that Clinton feared, and OBL is no longer with us.
Obama gave plenty of credit to Bush and the troops in the field, as was the appropriate thing to do. This argument that Obama is hogging the credit is such a crock.
Victory has many fathers. Defeat is an orphan.
bella-I have no problem whatsoever giving credit to Obama for learning from the needless costly mistakes Clinton(Mogadishu)and Carter(failed rescue attempt)-he appears to have exercised mature decisionmaking and some POLITICAL courage.
He’s never had to find out if he had the other kind of courage.Not a criticism,just a fact.
The Pres made the right decision, that’s the job description, that’s what he’s elected to do. Hand out for a back pat and a ‘good job’. The thanks and praise goes to the U.S. military, who have been on this path for almost 10 years, and our intelligence agencies.
Unfortunately the war on terror isn’t over. Now it is Obama’s job to make the right decisions to keep this country and Americans safe from attacks, especially on U.S. soil, safe from the terrorists who are living right here, hiding in plain sight.
Now when will Obama get serious about the border and the chaotic state of illegal immigration?
This crap about “comprehensive immigration reform”is just a design to give amnesty across the board-to ordinary illegals,criminals,and whatever terrorists happen to slide through the process-that last attempt would’ve allowed the government a whole 24 hours to evaluate an applicant.
An appeal of a rating to the VA takes 1 to 5 years nowadays.
The comparison speaks for itself.
The bleeding heart liberals and “social justice”advocates are digging this country’s grave.
News reports yesterday said that the military was ready to go on Thursday, but Obama nearly blew it all by insisting that he wanted to “sleep on it” and didn’t give the go-ahead until 16 hours later. Was he trying to fail?
I don’t think Obama dithered.
He had real concerns about a potential mission failure that could have resulted in the loss of many excellent people.The mistakes Clinton and Carter made must have weighed on him.This could have gone real bad.Thanks to the outstanding performance of our military and intelligence personnel it didn’t.
He finally had a dilemma he couldn’t sidestep and he did very well.