Conspiracy theory around Osama and Obama

Sharmila Ravinder 
03 May 2011, 12:09 PM IST

I have always been in a quandary. Many times I have asked, do we live in a world of conspiracy or are the ways of this world more straightforward than what it seems. Are we getting more pessimistic with our agnostic attitude? We live in a world where news breaks to us on a twenty-four by seven basis and we feed off tit bits of information as manna for the mind. To accept or not accept a story at face value is akin to making a choice between the blissful blue pill of illusion and the agonizing red pill of harsh reality. How many times do we remain sceptical of information that comes to us and on how many occasions do we try to look for more meaning into the daily despatch.

The latest news that is hogging space in every form of media network across the world is of Osama’s death. Osama Bin Laden’s body was dumped at sea a decade later and a trillion dollars after. A DNA test prior to dumping the world’s most dreaded terrorist confirmed a 99% match by the US Government. The US Government was in a haste to get rid of Osama unlike in the case of Saddam Hussein where a full-blown trial was held for mass consumption. Neither was there any victory parade with Osama’s dead body as was the case with Saddam Hussein’s sons. Many have been asking the question, why could Osama not been captured alive? The US Government had indicated it was never their mission to capture Osama alive.

Sometime back in March 2010, Eric Holder Jr, Attorney General of the United States, appearing in front of a Congressional panel was asked the question how would the Government handle Osama Bin Laden if he were to be ever captured alive.  Would there be a federal court trial or a military commission? The Attorney General stated that Bin Laden “will never appear in an American courtroom,” according to The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson. “Let’s deal with the reality here. The reality is we will be reading Miranda rights to a corpse.” Holder said he was being “flippant” but added that bin Laden “will be killed by us or by his own people.” In contrast, when a similar question was posed to Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan seemed genuinely puzzled when asked if his troops had given up on capturing bin Laden alive. “Wow. No,” he said. And CIA Director Leon Panetta asserted that bin Laden would be taken to a military base and interrogated by U.S. agents.

The Attorney General’s prediction now overrides both the NATO commander’s as well as the CIA Director’s statement. Osama’s obituary announcement comes at a time when Obama is gearing up for a reelection for a second term. It also keeps the “ birth certificate “ controversy of Obama’s clearly in the back burners for the time being. The timing is perfect. George Bush’s Texan attitude towards terrorists was to “smoke them” out of their holes, but Obama will be labeled as the one for smoking out the world’s biggest terrorist not out of a hole but out of a gigantic million dollar hovel that served as a fortress in an upscale locality of Pakistan’s capital. read more