Sic Semper Tyrannis

Osama bin Laden : The real story? - FB Ali

The killing of bin Laden in a US Special Forces raid on a house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad unleashed a torrent of stories about the event. The accounts by various US officials (given in bits and pieces immediately after the raid) gave little information on the details of the operation, and none on the ‘back story’. This left the field open to a lot of speculative accounts about how the raid took place and the events leading up to it. A rash of conspiracy theories also sprang up, many of which flatly denied bin Laden was even present in the house, while others put forward various versions of the Pakistani role in these events.

Recently, two accounts have been published that claim to be based on information from sources ‘in the know’ or ones who actually participated in the planning (though perhaps not the execution) of the raid. The first was a detailed account by Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker, based on interviews with and information provided by senior White House staff and some of the planners of the raid. This was obviously the “official” version, what the US administration would like people to believe. The second is a post on her blog by RJ Hillhouse, in which she quotes her intelligence sources on certain aspects of the raid, especially the events leading up to it.

By studying these two accounts, separating the grain from the chaff, and judiciously filling in some of the blanks, it is possible to come up with what is likely to be fairly close to the real story.

 

J Ponders Upon Libya

J sent this as a comment to my last post about Libya. I think it deserves post status. I 

The following is designed to generate further discussion regarding a post-Qaddafi Libya. There are now questions being raised by 'many' regarding the war in Libya:

1. 'Why' was Qaddafi overthrown, especially when some say/allege that he worked in his people's best interests. a. 1951, Libya was the poorest nation in the world. b. Before the NATO invasion, Libyans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the entirety of Africa. A standard of living that was even ahead of Russia, Brazil, & Saudi Arabia. c. In Qaddafi Libya, homes were considered a 'human right'. d. Newly married Libyan couples received $50,000 from the Qaddafi government to buy their own home. e. Electricity under the Qaddafi government was 'free' to 'everyone'. f. Qaddafi personally vowed to house 'every' Libyan before his own parents. Qaddafi kept that promise to his people, his own father died before he was able to be housed. g. 'Before' Qaddafi, only 1/5th of Libyans were literate. Under Qaddafi, Libyan education was free and considered high quality when measured against Western education standards. The literacy rate under Qaddafi rose to 83%. h. Under Qaddafi, Libya's healthcare was free and high quality when measured against modern healthcare standards. i. If Libyans could not find the healthcare or education they needed in Libya, then the Libyan Government of Qaddafi 'funded them' to 'go abroad' and access it. j. Under Qaddafi ALL loans were 'interest free' a.k.a. 0%, this was 'by law'. k. If a Libyan went to buy a car, the Qaddafi Government paid for 50% of its price, while the Libyan paid the remaining 50%. l. In Qaddafi Libya, the price of gasoline was $0.14/gallon. m. Any Libyan wishing to become a farmer was given 'free use' of -- 1. land; 2. a home; 3. farming equipment; 4. livestock & seeds.

Sharia Law is NOT Closer to America than it Appears Part III: Fear Inc.

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

LeaNder, in comments to COL Lang's (working) vacation notification brought up the new Center for  American Progress (CAP) report: Fear Inc.   SST readers can find both links to the whole report as pdf, as well as its specific chapters, at the link, as well as CAP's write up on the report.  I pulled the whole thing over the weekend and have only had a chance to read through about a third of it, with the plan to do a post about the whole thing tonight.  I recommend that anyone who is interested in how this concept of a concerted attempt by Muslims to impose sharia (as if it was one monolithic set of religio-legal concepts) through subterfuge on unsuspecting Americans click through and give it a look.  From what I can tell so far they have done a very thorough job in their research and investigation and I doubt anyone will be surprised, both based on what several of us have written about on SST, and others have written elsewhere about just who is spreading this privately funded false message intended to promote anti-Muslim anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and hate.

Just one housekeeping note: I do have official duties during the day (and sometimes after hours as well).  While US Army War College (USAWC) encourages its personnel to blog, as well as publish in more traditional venues, I may not get to comments that have been posted immediately.  I will clear comments as often as I can my schedule permitting.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

Vacation

 
I am taking a vacation from SST for the month of September.  Adam Silverman will handle editorial duties here to the extent that he finds necessay or desirable.  p

NY City -Center of the Universe

 
Isn't there some way to force New York City out of the Union?  This idea has been festering in what passes for my mind for a long time.  New Yorkers (of the city) are so self absorbed and regiocentric that it makes one ill.  The local culture there is so alien to the rest of the country as to be absurd.  The Irene weather coverage exemplified this.  The "weather guessers" covered the rest of the storms track but when it appeared that the storm would touch "the big apple" then all the "stops" were pulled out and the spectacle was presented Sunday morning of a Weather Channel reporter standing in Battery Park at the foot of Manhattan in six inches of water saying that she was at "ground zero" for Irene.

BTW, we have blue sky in patches in Alexandria now.

Seriously, the morning TV drivel is an example.  All these show are so New York centric as to be somewhat irrelevant to the peasanty in other places.  "Morning Joe" is probably the worst of the lot in this regard.  "Donny Deutsch?"  Who the hell is this man to have his egotistical opinions inflicted on the public so often?  A nouveau riche millionaire who is a feature on the New York egotist scene?  Why should we care what he thinks?  Mika Brzzzznsccki?  Who cares what this empty headed fille a papa thinks?   She perfectly represents the nagging scold type of self-satisfied New York matron.  Poor Joe Scarborough, he is evidently condemned by the lure of money to live in that awful place.   Well, perhaps Irene will give THE CITY a good rinsing.

 
  pl

 

 

Americans and "Machine War"

 
The Libyan rebels took Tripoli a week ago.  Within a few hours the punditry and the media talking heads began to minimize the role played by Libyan guerrilla fighters in this triumph.

A number of people have talked to me about their view of what happened in the campaign against Qathafy that began last spring.  The nearly universal opinion among them has been that NATO air power did it all and the guerrilas are just a sort of armed mob herded around by the CIA as props in a drama.  The CIA part of this is to be expected.  According to the CIA, they have been the decisive factor in everything violent since World War 2. 

More worrisome is the feature of the American mind that insists that war is about machines and technology to the exclusion of any significant role for humans as humans.

People have been contacting me to ask if I "know" that this or that kind of munition was decisive or if the USAF really won the war using predator drones, etc. 

In fact, this little war was won by a combination of covert assistance in training and advising the Libyan rebels AND NATO airpower.  pl

The Edmondson Sisters

 
There is a little restaurant on Duke Street near my home.  It is about half a mile from the US Courthouse that you all have seen on television in connection with the Moussawi trial, etc.  That is the modern new building with a magnificent statue of blind justice projecting from the gallery over the front door.

I sometimes have breakfast in the restaurant.  Next to this little place is a modern office building and an 18th Century house which shows clearly in photographs of this area during the WBS.  There was a Union Army garrison on Shuter's Hill a few hundred yards away and just near my house.  There is a striking bronze statue of two women besde the restaurant.  I went to look at this statue a few days ago.  It is set back from the street.

All that is inscribed on the prediment is, "The Edmondson Sisters."  I had never heard of them.  Having read their story in this wiki, I am struck by the extent to which it is indicative of the complex status of people of color in the Upper South before the WBS. 

Their father was a free man of color and a landowner in Maryland.  Their mother was a slave who did not belong to her husband.  According to Maryland law the children of a female slave were slaves.  If their mother had been free, they would have been free people.  Their owner hired them out to work as domestics in some elite house in Washington.  This would have been the home of some business or government person.  Hiring slaves out became a common practise in the 19th Century because there were quite a lot of people who were suitable to be house servants; maids, cooks, butlers, coachmen, etc., or were skilled craftsmen; carpernters, coopers, blacksmiths and the like.  The slave and the owner usually shared the wages paid.  Sometimes the slave's portion was used to buy freedom.  The girls, having been raised in freedom in fact if not in law on their father's farm understandably did not like their status as domestic servants and slaves.  They tried to escape, were captured and sold to a slave trading company based in Alexandria.  After much travail their father and various Nrthern abolitionists raised enough money to buy them from the slave trading company.  They became quite educated and led productive and hopefully happy lives.

If you wrote the kind of fiction that I write you would find this interesting.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonson_sisters

Libya on the John Batchelor Show

 
http://wabcradio.com/FlashPlayer/default.asp?SPID=33447&ID=2270852

pl

 

Libya on the Pat Campbell show

 
http://podcast.1170kfaq.com/PatCampbellShow/tabid/1852/Default.aspx

pl

Wrath of God on the Potomac (humor)

 
According to the pietist wing of the Republican Party most evil resides in Washington., D.C.  I envision this perceived phenomenon as something like the New York City in "Ghostbusters" but with demons inhabiting the corridors of the Department of State and Congress (with certain saintly exceptions).  Across the river stands "Gondor"  (DoD) stoutly defending righteousness and civic virtue.  The walls of the "White City" are built of concrete in a strange and mystic five sided shape.  I see, a pentagram of course!  Will the "watch on the Potomac" fail on the 14th Street Bridge?  Who can say?

Yesterday, was it only yesterday?  The walls of Mordor shook and the wicked fled into the streets of Gomorrah (Foggy Bottom).  Sauron had already fled unto a strange foreign islet where his masters and familiars gather to feast and celebrate in coven. 

Fair Virginia was targeted by subterranean forces for destruction, but the walls held with but a few edifices of the faithful damaged in the struggle and two Rosenthal vases destroyed in our bunker here in Rosemont.

We will go on!  Inspired by "our" leaders, the sainted ones,  we will never compromise.  Never!  pl