[absynthe]

If we were smart we would make an example of countries that let the planet's most wanted terrorist live like this:





He lived in a fucking mansion since 2005??? And Pakistan had no idea??? Are you kidding me?

Quote

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan said Wednesday that a peace deal with Islamic militants in a border province would not give safe harbor to Osama bin Laden if he is found in the country.

"Pakistan is committed to its policy on the war on terror, and Osama caught anywhere in Pakistan would be brought to justice," the country's top army spokesman, Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told The Associated Press.

"No amnesty has been granted to Osama bin Laden," it said. "He deserves no mercy."

WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT.


I think we should show the rest of the planet exactly what happens when you aid and abet. I think a Pakistani invasion is more justified than Iraq ever was.

[Creecher]

That would be the dumbest fucking idea ever.

[stayscrisp]

If there was ever a thread worth closing it's this one!

[Craig328]

Well, while I think an invasion is pretty much the entirely wrong way to handle it, the situation does demand answers to some questions:

There are pics on the web this morning purporting to show Pakistani soldiers patrolling near the compound where Bin Laden was aced. (Edit: they are supposedly "before" pics as the compound they're near is intact)

By the accounts we have now, he could have been at this compound indeed since 2005...which is 6 freakin' years.

While the compound is unusually large and apparently obviously built for privacy and defense, nobody in the area asked questions? Wait til we find the property ownership records and discover it was owned by the Pakistani army...

The building, while it had electricity did not have either telephone or internet connectivity and the residents there were noted for burning their trash (apparently out of the ordinary enough to be noted).

There are lotsa questions that need answers and I'm guessing there's more than a few folks in Pakistan sweating a little harder this morning...

This post has been edited by Craig328: 02 May 2011 - 06:36 AM

[xclite]

There is a lot of speculation. I agree with Craig - it's hard to bitch about the US claiming you house terrorists when you are, in fact, housing a terrorist. In a mansion. Fewer than 100 miles from your capitol.

[macosxnerd101]

NeverPool, on 02 May 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

That would be the dumbest fucking idea ever.

I tend to agree here. What would be gained by an invasion? We spend a lot of money to sit in the country just to stick it to the middle east and have our soldiers get shot at? At the very least, if we are going to use military force (for the record, I'm not advocating this), just bomb them. We have drone planes we can fly over, we can launch from America, etc. We don't have to necessarily send manpower over to Pakistan.

Quote

I think we should show the rest of the planet exactly what happens when you aid and abet. I think a Pakistani invasion is more justified than Iraq ever was.

If that's the case, then we would have grievances against many more middle eastern nations. There is a certain amount of intimidation that goes on with the terrorists in a nation, as well as government cooperation in mutual hate of America. This is nothing new. The fact that we got Osama so close to Pakistan's capital where there was strong Pakistani military, intelligence, and police presence is an embarassment to them if they deny aiding him. If the acknowledge it, they risk alienating the rest of the world.

[Craig328]

Well, a certain amount of the shit is bound to stick to them. He was in their country after all. That alone means they screwed the pooch somewhere in all this. He's literally a block away from one of their military academies. The house was apparently three stories with a high outer wall and an additional wall around the third floor (can't quite picture that but that's the description). There are pictures of army patrols in the area which would lead one to think they'd take enough interest in their neighbors to know who they are or what they're building nearby...so I think it's kind of unlikely they didn't have at least SOME suspicion of who's living in the new, big, expensive house just down the street.

It'll all come out in the coming days and weeks and I have no doubt it'll reveal that lots of folks in Pakistan knew about this. Relations with those folks are about to go from bad to worse.

This post has been edited by Craig328: 02 May 2011 - 07:31 AM

[absynthe]

I dont think its stupid. I just think we have alot more justification for blowing up a place that harbors the person that put together 9-11 then a place that was led by Saddam.

[Sethro117]

Lets not all jump to conclusions. It is possible they didnt know who was there albeit unlikely. I'm sure when someone rang the doorbell, Osama didnt run down the stairs to see who it was. Look at the Fritzl case, housed his daughter for 27 years or something and no one knew?

I'm not saying that if found out they knew that we sit aside but I dont think an invasion or war with them is the answer. We have to wait until everything is released in the official report and go from there.

[creativecoding]

What if they didn't know he lived there? Its not like pakistanian officials visit every house for a "osama check".

[Craig328]

No, that's true enough as far as it goes. That said, we already know that the house didn't have phone or internet and we know the occupants burned their trash which was unusual enough to be noted enough to be mentioned today. This is info WE'RE releasing...and we're on the other side of the globe. Pakistani intel is a lot closer and has way more capability to gather this info than we do. So, they have what you would think would be a superior ability to possess this info.

Then you have pics like these today: Pakistani soldier stands near compound which is to be compared to this image here which is supposedly the compound the Seals raided last night and set fire to:


Now the first image, regardless of whether the building is the correct one or not, seems like it would be before the raid (you'd expect to see soldiers and security swarming the place today) because of the lack of a burning building and destroyed walls and whatnot. So, thing is, the Pakistani army had patrols in the area and one thing you do when patrolling an area is develop information about the people in the area you're patrolling. That's kind of the point of patrolling.

So, if they're doing that and they don't twig to Osama being in the neighborhood, then they're either completely incompetent or they knew he was there and the official word was to shut up about it.

Kind of makes you wonder though if the army patrols the rest of the city or just this neighborhood. Patrolling is normally something you do when you have some kind of security concern...like when you have a military academy full of your best and brightest that someone who may have reason to hate the army might want to kill in an attack.

[xclite]

Craig328, on 02 May 2011 - 11:13 AM, said:

So, if they're doing that and they don't twig to Osama being in the neighborhood, then they're either completely incompetent or they knew he was there and the official word was to shut up about it.

Yes. If another country, thousands of miles away knows you've got one of the most wanted terrorists in the world...

[Sethro117]

I just watched a video on MSNBC and the reporter was talking about how most of the houses are compound like and the community houses the wealthier citizens like doctors and such. The house has allegedly been owned by the same man for a decade which again the 10 year mark of 9/11 is coming up so it is possible that Pakistan knew he was there. Or the patrols were like community security since wealthy people lived in the area.

I'm just saying everyone has the same information I have and assumptions and speculations can be made but each of our arguments are invalid because none of us know.

[Craig328]

See that could be true too. However, community security implies neighbors getting together with one another to organize security. Surely someone went and knocked on the door and was either told "go away" or "Osama lives here, don't tell anyone". Those are your only two options really.

The "go away" option makes people wonder about the neighbors. Imagine if you had a neighbor who was a hermit but who had enough money to build a compound (apparently built 6 years ago) and have security. Maybe he's a new doctor or lawyer in the neighborhood so you wander by to say hello...and get told to get lost. You'll have some speculation and curiosity about the occupants. That's just natural. And the dude was living there for possibly as much a 5-6 years.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's kind of impossible to live as an unknown amongst affluent people who perhaps fear enough for their safety to organize community security. They're organizing against the unknown...so they won't simply shrug away an unknown in their midst without question.

But I don't think it was community security. The web has pics of army patrols in this town. It was the army.

[Christoph]

Invasion? Shit, last I heard Pakistan didn't even know we went in to kill Osama. Has anyone heard if we have even TOLD them yet?