7 Deceptions About Bin Laden's Killing Pushed by the Obama Administration: AlterNet

[Nostalgic]

From AlterNet:

7 Deceptions About Bin Laden's Killing Pushed by the Obama Administration

As the week wore on, many of the details of the historic raid were "revised."
May 5, 2011

The Obama administration deftly shaped the media coverage of its prized kill by detailing a picture-perfect, morally unambiguous special forces operation, which culminated in the death of Osama bin Laden. Most of the details of that narrative have now unravelled, but the conventional wisdom that the tale established remains. As Glenn Greenwald put it, that's par for the course: “the narrative is set forever by first-day government falsehoods uncritically amplified by establishment media outlets, which endure no matter how definitively they are disproven in subsequent days.”

In his address to the American people, and in subsequent media briefings by senior officials, we were told that a small force of as many as 25 Navy Seals stormed the compound with orders to take bin Laden alive, if possible. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that once inside the compound, they came under heavy fire and “were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.” The SEALs killed Osama bin Laden's son when he lunged for them on a staircase, and finally encountered their quarry in a bedroom, where, after taking a woman believed to be his wife as a human shield, bin Laden died in a vicious fire-fight. The operation, Obama said, was carried out “with extraordinary courage and capability.”

As the week wore on, all of these details were "revised," and the administration claims that the initial, improbably clean account of what happened was merely a product of the "fog of war." And, as Salon's Justin Elliott notes, “despite the major misstatements by the administration on perhaps the biggest story of the year, the media has largely taken a deferential stance” to that position.

Let's look at what has changed since that first draft of history was written by the administration.

http://www.alternet.org/news/150857/7_deceptions_about_bin_laden%27s_killing_pushed_by_the_obama_administration/?page=entire

[VeryConfused]

1. When alternet authors produce something real and tangible

they will be worth listening to. Otherwise this is nothing more than worthless cyber babble. Results matter

[rfranklin]

2. However, it does not look good when the story keeps changing...

They should have just stuck to the original story line, whether or not it was accurate. Otherwise it begins to look like Jessica Lynch all over again.

[VeryConfused]

3. I am sick and tired of people who have produced nothing but hot air

pretending they have a clue how to get things done. I a tired of these same people constantly telling the president that he is holding the mop wrong as they sit on their ever expanding backsides. Articles like these prove the old adage that TALK IS CHEAP

[rfranklin]

5. Your point about the article may well be very true...

but the perceptions created by a changing story are still a serious consideration.

[VeryConfused]

7. The perception is only in the minds of those that don't understand

the fog of war. Those that understand the fog of war and how the real world works, don't give this incident a moment's notice

[rfranklin]

8. Except that in this case the SEALs were wearing video cameras...

did they get fogged up too? Basically you are talking about something you know nothing about either.

[VeryConfused]

11. If you understand the subject you would appreciate that your statements

are pretty much nonsensical. I don't expect you to have the prerequisite knowledge to comment, but it would be nice if you had the self awareness and restraint to listen to those that do.

[rfranklin]

12. Well your moniker is certainly appropriate...

where did you serve in combat?

[VeryConfused]

14. I can't say

[rfranklin]

15. LOL...good one!

[shraby]

4. What we had was reporters badgering officials (who knew

nothing) for details before the Seals had even been debriefed. The anonymous officials offered the unknown details as fact. You notice that none of the officials giving early details were identified. It was all bad info with a few nuggets that turned out to be true. Therefore, the "story changed" all the time. It almost had to considering the sloppy reporting involved.

[pmorlan1]

6. Principle Free Zone

This is so disturbing that people are actually making excuses for the government lying to us. Instead of being upset about being lied to you defend the liars and attack the messengers who reveal the deception. It's now clear how our country has ended up in such a mess. We have people on the left and people on the right that will defend whatever their respective leaders do even if it's wrong. If the Bush administration had done the same thing you would be howling. I'm sorry but this thread is a principle free zone.

[BobbyBoring]

10. My feelings exactly

:toast:

[KoKo]

13. +1 and that people here aren't familiar with all the differing reports

because they didn't choose to read or have time to read them to see that these are all Mainstream Sites that the changes in information have been coming from. And, in almost all reports there are anonymous, unnamed officials who keep changing the stories. Sometimes they are listed as Pentagon sometimes "Government" but we need to be aware that both House and Senate have Intelligence Committee people on both sides who also could be doing the leaking. Lieberman and Saxby Chambliss are known gossips and disinformationists.

So, that these stories keep changing could be due to warring factions at Pentagon, State Department and Pentagon. Also from our own Military. Disinformation. I don't think Obama can really control it because he doesn't know the inner working of how the mission was accomplished and doesn't have any information other than what he's given.

We need to keep questioning these "Official Sources" who keep changing details of what happened.

That has nothing to do with Obama or questioning Obama. It's questioning those that we pay salaries to who are in our Government and House and Senate.

[qazplm]

9. going through them one by one

1. This has been cleared up, therefore it is not a lie. A lie is something you do when you want to deceive. You usually don't immediately follow it up with the truth particularly when you do it voluntarily.

2. Ditto

3. This is not clear. So I'll give them this one at least to the extent that the government has not clearly stated whether the orders were solely to kill or whether they were to capture.

4. You cannot fit 79 humans on two helicopters like the ones used in this operation. The only helicopters that could hold that many people in just two would be Chinooks. You can't carry that many on one helicopter (since the other went down) because the max on a Chinook is 55. Even if you allowed for an emergency we are talking about 24 extra people plus a bunch of seized stuff, and the body of Bin Laden. So this is plainly not a valid criticism.

5. Just plain silly.

6. I'd argue a 250K home in Pakistan is still fairly luxurious. We know it was the biggest house in the neighborhood, we saw a satellite in the yard, one can quibble with what luxurious means but it was by no means a hovel.

7. Not sure what the lie is supposed to be here. They were monitoring reports in real time, but they also had periods of time where they didn't exactly know what was going on, it is not like there was a floating tv camera recording all of the action as it unfolded.

This is a silly list by alternet.

5.