OBL

I doubt Osama was still an effective leader given his supposed health problems, but he was nonetheless a symbolic leader.

He ended up killed because there was a firefight. He was defended.

In political terms, after us taking him off to take DNA samples, what country would realistically want to welcome the body back for repatriation and burial? That one would quickly become a major hot potato, liability and issue for the leaders of any nations who would do so. And, would we really want to have a shrine left to him?

> My theory, FWIW, is that Al Qeada held what passes for an election a while back, and Osama lost.
>
> In the aftermath he was "given up" by his former comrades.
>
> All credit to the CIA, Navy Seals, NSA etc.., etc., but after 9 years, I'm guessing there was a bit more than luck and hard work involved here. After all, from a terrorist viewpoint, OBL is now more valuable as a dead martyr than a live recluse.
>
> Keep in mind that this is only twelve hours or so after the event, and there are many facts yet to emerge...what we are hearing now may not be entirely accurate.
>
>
> But, based upon what's out there now, I have several big disappointments here:
>
> 1. He was killed, not captured alive......I'd like to think that we might have gotten some information out of him, or at gotten some mileage out of a video of him in shackles.
>
> 2. No internet, telephone or TV in the house.......again, less chance to link to others.
>
> 3. "Burial at sea"? WTF?!?!?!?!? Is the intent to perpetuate rumors and wild hypotheses about his death?
>
> 4. Using the coordinates published in a post below, take a look at this site on Google Maps, or any other aerial mapping site.......this is no remote hideout. OBL was living among what appears to be a suburban community in the outskirts of Islamabad.
>
>
>> http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=34.187666&lon=73.24262&z=14&l=0&m=b give a good overview, and if you move your mouse over the polygons, you see businesses, colleges and research centers.
>
>
> The house identified is less than a mile from the Pakistani Military academy, and half a mile from their polo field. They practically had to pass the house to go play polo!
>
>
> Finally, is anyone surprised that one of those killed was a woman being used as a human shield by someone in the compound? Cowards to the end.

My speculations, also from shaky reports only hours after this whole thing has happened.

1. Dead, Yes. I read one report saying he was killed with an american bullet, but even if not, his bodyguards had standing orders to shoot him if he was to be captured. If this happened in any metropolitan city Im sure the same thing would have happened. Gun + resistance = death.

2. No Connections, Yep, OBL was king of hand written notes, and trusted couriers. That is the reason the CIA found him. They search for and found his courier, who lived in owned the house. They burned all trash as well.

3. After DNA was taken from OBL and verified to his families DNA of record (sister) his body was buried traditionally. Probably one of the smartest things to do was to keep with Islamic burial traditions and not PO another 1.5 billion people. This also removes the element of his peeps parading his body through the streets as a martyr. Although I'm sure Trump will want a death certificate.
An add to this is that the large majority of the world that is muslim wanted to see OBL stopped and taken out. Prior to his turn on the west his sect killed and bombed more Muslims than anyone else.

4. House was built at the remote end of town in 2005 and then since that time homes have expanded out around it.

Im looking forward to more details but so far everything I have read has been pretty straight forward. Im sure the Spinning media outlets will do their darnedest to sell some slice of the limelight.

Fox News today said that 4 years ago a detainee in "Gitmo" gave information about an Al Qeada courier who was trusted by Bin Laden. They recently found out the courier was living at his parent’s house in Pakistan. When they checked the house out, they found it was a fortified compound, and suspected there might be something interesting in there.

It sounds like good investigation and a bit of good luck.

You think that those 1000 virgins are mermaids?

Would there not be a human nature of wondering 'Who's behind the wall ?' in any urban centre anywhere in the World ?

Derek

pretty funny, Tim..

now to get the coffee off my keyboard.

:beer:

> You think that those 1000 virgins are mermaids?

pretty funny, Tim..

I have to admit that I stole that from some fellow Texas surveyors on Facebook.

Pretty funny when you think about it.

Especially if the wall is 7 feet high around the balcony! Not many people in that area of the world probably need a 7 foot wall around their patios to hide them from view! The whole thing is interesting, to say the least!

The W.H. has since revised a few details about using a woman for a human shield and OBL firing back.

From what I have read, once they found out his courier's name, they were actually listening in on his cell phone calls and tracking his movements. He was smart enough to turn it off before he would go back to the compound, until he made the mistake of turning it on at the compound. That's when they started to monitor it closer and realized they had found what they were looking for.