person:bin laden

Inside America’s Dirty Wars
http://www.thenation.com/article/173980/inside-americas-dirty-wars?page=full

While the battle over leaks concerning the operation—as well as the various contradictory stories on how bin Laden was killed—raged in the media, the White House was deeply immersed in planning more lethal operations against so-called “High Value Targets.” Chief among these was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen of Yemeni descent born in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

#JSOC #exécutions #guerre

En opposition à un article du (planqué) va-t-en guerre Charles Krauthammer qui soutient l’assassinat « préventif » par drones.

On Drones, Contra Krauthammer http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340813/drones-contra-krauthammer-kevin-d-williamson

If sympathizing with our enemies and propagandizing on their behalf is the equivalent of making war on the country, then the Johnson and Nixon administrations should have bombed every elite college campus in the country during the 1960s.

And as satisfying as putting Jane Fonda on a kill list might have been, I do not think that our understanding of the law of war would encourage such a thing, even though she did give priceless aid to the Communist aggressors in Vietnam. Students in Ann Arbor, Mich., were actively and openly raising funds for the Viet Cong throughout the war. Would it have been proper to put them on kill lists? I do not think that it would. There is a difference between sympathizing with our enemies and taking up arms against the country; there is even a difference between actively aiding our enemies and taking up arms against the country, which is why we have treason trials rather than summary execution.

Navy Seal who allegedly shot Bin Laden says US military has abandoned him | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/navy-seal-bin-laden-military-benefits

Retired commando alleges he’s been left without healthcare or financial support as he struggles to adapt to a new civilian life

#pôle_emploi

Le film Zero Dark Thirty ou comment apprendre à aimer la torture (Tomdispatch.com) — Karen J. Greenberg
http://www.legrandsoir.info/le-film-zero-dark-thirty-ou-comment-apprendre-a-aimer-la-torture-tomdi

Le 11 janvier, 11 ans jour pour jour après l’ouverture de la célèbre prison de #Guantanamo par l’administration Bush, le #film Zero Dark Thirty de Kathryn Bigelow sur la chasse d’Oussama Ben Laden sort sur tous les écrans (aux Etats-Unis - NdT). A l’évidence, les producteurs et distributeurs ignorent tout de la signification de cette date – une illustration parfaite de l’insouciance et inconscience de ce film qui sera malheureusement perçu par de nombreux esprits Américains comme un documentaire historique.

Le fait est que Zero Dark Thirty aurait pu être écrit par le cercle rapproché des conseillers à la sécurité nationale qui ont assisté le Président George W. Bush dans la mise en place de la politique post-11/9 qui a abouti à l’ouverture de la prison de Guantanamo et d’un réseau global de « sites noirs » clandestins et constituer dans la foulée tout un monde clandestin d’injustices et de tortures sordides – qualifiées par euphémisme de « techniques d’interrogatoires poussés ». C’est aussi un film qui aurait pu être promu (et il l’a d’ailleurs été) par l’administration Obama qui a défendu l’impunité pour de tels actes. Il aurait pu être intitulé « Retour vers le Futur, 4ème partie », car le film, comme la population à laquelle il s’adresse, semble être coincée pour toujours dans un espace-temps marqué par le désir de vengeance et d’orgueil qui a balayé le pays au lendemain des attentats du 11/9.

#propagande

#Polio Eradication : The Bad News Continues | Wired
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/polio-more-bad

The crisis in Pakistan is not just about the changeable fortunes of the polio campaign, which has waxed and waned in public opinion since its launch in 1988. It is specifically in response to the admitted-to ruse by the CIA, which used a pretense of administering injectable hepatitis B vaccine in an attempt to harvest DNA from children who were believed to be related to bin Laden, as a way of proving he was in a particular area. They did not succeed –  his location was proven by other means — but the damage to public heath looks to be long-lasting.

So long-lasting, in fact, that the deans of 12 public-health schools in the United States (Columbia, Emory, Harvard and others) have sent an open appeal to President Obama excoriating the CIA attempt and asking that it never happen again.

#santé #vaccination #espionnage #cia

A New Chapter - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/23/a-new-chapter.html
Dec 24, 2012

Sometimes, change isn’t just good, it’s necessary.

The issue in your hand is the last edition of Newsweek in print. The next, in the first week of January, will be on your iPad or Kindle or phone. By late February, you will see the full evolution of the spanking-new, all-digital Newsweek Global, currently in development.

Here’s a video tribute to Newsweek’s esteemed history, 80 years of informing, exposing, explaining, enlightening, and trailblazing.

It’s been a turbulent two-year journey, culminating in our decision to leave print and take the leap into a digital future. In 2010 the 92-year-old audio tycoon Sidney Harman bought a moribund Newsweek from the Washington Post Co. for a dollar in a quixotic bid to save a legendary magazine. Shortly after, the incurable old romantic asked The Daily Beast, the news site I founded with Barry Diller’s IAC in 2008, for its hand in marriage. And it’s been a blast.

#media #presse #internet #newsweek

Obama officials’ spin on Benghazi attack mirrors Bin Laden raid untruths | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/20/obama-officials-spin-benghazi-attack

For a full week now, administration officials have categorically insisted that the prime, if not only, cause of the attack was spontaneous anger over the anti-Muhammad film, The Innocence of Muslims.

(…) most evidence from the start strongly suggested that the White House’s claims – that this attack was motivated by anger over a film – were false. From McClatchy:

“The head of Libya’s interim government, key US lawmakers and experts contend that the attack appeared long-planned, complex and well-coordinated, matching descriptions given to McClatchy last week by the consulate’s landlord and a wounded security guard, who denied there was a protest at the time and said the attackers carried the banner of Ansar al-Shariah, an Islamist militia.”

Indeed, Libya’s president has spent the week publicly announcing that there is “no doubt” the attack was planned well in advance and had nothing to do with the video.

Desmond Tutu appelle à déférer Tony Blair et Georges Bush devant la Cour pénale internationale :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/02/desmond-tutu-tony-blair-iraq

On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the international speakers’ circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush’s chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein?

The cost of the decision to rid Iraq of its by-all-accounts despotic and murderous leader has been staggering, beginning in Iraq itself. Last year, an average of 6.5 people died there each day in suicide attacks and vehicle bombs, according to the Iraqi Body Count project. More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.

On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.

Il y a quelques semaines j’ai posté des tweets d’Iyad Badhdadi sur Les différents courants dans l’islam et comment distinguer les extrêmistes de non extrêmistes.
Voici la suite de sa conférence - Désolée c’est en anglais.

There’s a lot of anxiety about the MB and Salafi parties and while I don’t think it’s unfounded, I think it’s short-sighted. I’ve said several times that Islamism is a very wide spectrum. On this spectrum the MB is a range rather than a point. It’s important to note that the MB was initially formed in the crucible of the late 1920s and shaped through to the 1960s.

The MB is not the child of the Arab Spring, or the father of the Arab Spring, and wasn’t formed in the crucible of the Arab Spring. Until the Arab Spring, the MB had a grudging truce with the tyrants, like a long-nagging couple who just learned to live with each other.

When the Arab Spring started, the MB was merely the most politically organized non-state group at the time. Tweep @APHClarkson described it as a crisis of organization – that ideological alternatives to the MB exist but are simply not organized.

APHClarkson
@iyad_elbaghdadi a crisis of organisation. The alternatives to MB are there but, with exception of Libya’s NFA, have not built mass parties

iyad_elbaghdadi

I’d like to challenge that, though. I don’t think an ideological alternative is truly ready. And if one was, it probably should wait. The MB goes on because there’s no alternative to the MB. That says a lot about our intellectual crisis and not much about the MB.
The Islamism of the Age of Tyranny is on the way out, and it shouldn’t be obstructed. It should be allowed to run itself into the ground.
I truly believe that standing in a way of an idea prolongs its run; better just step out of its way and let it fall on its face.
Several Islamisms are around today that were forged in an Age of Tyranny, born of the same womb as the Mubaraks, Assads, and Gaddafis.
With the Mubaraks, Gaddafis, and Assads (almost) gone, these “Islamisms” think they own the scene. But they’re actually in hostile waters.
The Arab Spring has low tolerance for authoritarians and totalitarians. But it also longs for a reconnection to (or rediscovery of) Islam.

So these ideologies in the Arab Spring are like a huge salt water fish in a river. It’s thinks it owns the place, but it’s actually dying. When you remove a fish from water it thrashes around a lot. This isn’t a sign of vivaciousness. It’s a sign of imminent death. That’s why I’m not worried about the MB or Salafism. As per the analogy above, they’ll have to either grow fresh-water lungs, or just die.

What I’m truly worried about, though, is the reintroduction of the idea of change through violence into the Muslim psyche. This is where we get to #Syria, folks. And this is what I’m really worried about.

To truly understand what I’m saying you should know I’m more concerned with ideas than events.
I’d rather if the idea of liberty wins decisively 30 years from now, than if it takes parliament today but last no longer than a generation.
What Tunisia and Egypt said, very loud, was that we don’t need violence to achieve change.
Libya and Syria challenged that. I hereby declare that it was naïve of me to think that someone like Assad or Gaddafi can be removed peacefully.
In fact, I truly believe that if Ben Ali or Mubarak or Saleh had the chance, they’d have done what Assad and Gaddafi did. Libya introduced the idea of a national liberation war not from a foreign enemy but from a tyrant of our own flesh & blood.
Syria, however, is reintroducing some very dark ideas into the Muslim psyche.
(By “Syria” here, I mean the Syrian conflict/situation as it stands today.)
Syria is saying: The world doesn’t care, even if you all get slaughtered.
Syria is saying: You are on your own, not only against your tyrant but against the world behind him.
Syria is saying: Foreign powers want us to remain subjugated. They are not a friend, they are an enem ;
Syria is saying: The West only talks of your liberty and your human rights if you live in an island of oil.
Syria is saying: If your land has no oil, then the West does not deem you worthy of liberty or human rights.
Syria is saying: The chemical weapons the tyrant has are more important to the world than the blood of all those women & children.
The Syria situation is, in short, saying all these things that Alqaeda and the Jihadists have been saying for decades.
Ideas die when events disprove their logic, and live & grow when ideas confirm them.
That’s why fighting Alqaeda circa 2003-4 was so frustrating; no matter how many the US would kill in Iraq, it was proving their logic. That’s also why a single man, Mohammad Bouazizi, did more to challenge the idea of Alqaeda than the entire US army.
The Syria stalemate is vindicating all of the ideas that made Alqaeda and Jihadism popular.
As the West worries about Alqaeda finding safe haven in Syria, I worry about it finding safe haven again in the Muslim heart & mind.
Shortly after Bin Laden’s death, I wrote this: http://bit.ly/izrjxw – arguing that when he died, Alqaeda was already a fossil.
The Syria stalemate has resuscitated that fossil and blew new life into its lungs, and new blood into its veins.
So once again I say, if something isn’t done about Syria, Alqaeda’s idea (if not Alqaeda itself) will live again.

It may be already too late.

International - Conor Friedersdorf - What Bush’s Iraq War and Obama’s #Drone Strikes Have in Common - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/what-bushs-iraq-war-and-obamas-drone-strikes-have-in-common/258533

People are killed even when we don’t know their identities! Civilian casualties are commonplace! Saying that a drone program “has to be conducted with extreme care” is empty rhetoric if you support it despite the obvious lack of extreme care. Does anyone’s notion of “extreme care” include killing groups of people whose identity you don’t know via a remote control robot flying over a faraway country at 20,000 feet in the air?

Traduction rapide d’un passage du dernier billet d’As‘ad AbuKhalil dans la version anglophone du Akhbar : Some Questions on the Houla Massacre... and Beyond
http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/some-questions-houla-massacreand-beyond

L’histoire de Houla est encore trouble. Personne ne sait ce qui s’est passé. Nous savons que des civils innocents ont été tués. Nous savons que les deux côtés s’accusent mutuellement et nous savons que les deux camps sont habitués à mentir. Mais nous pouvons poser quelques questions :

– Pourquoi les médias occidentaux ignorent-ils les histoires d’enlèvements et d’assassinats de civils perpétrés par l’Armée syrienne libre (qui en réalité n’est qu’un nom emprunté par une variété de gangs et de bandes à l’idéologie largement islamiste – et dans certains cas ben-ladiste) ?

– Pourquoi n’y a-t-il eu aucune tentative de déconstruire les histoires diffusées par l’opposition syrienne en exil ? Initialement, ils ont prétendu que l’armée syrienne avait tué les civils par bombardement. C’est seulement le jour suivant, lorsque l’ONU a affirmé que moins de 20 personnes avaient été tuées par bombardement (et 20 personnes, ça n’est pas un petit nombre, et ils doivent être ajoutés à la liste honteuse des crimes commis par ce régime qui devrait être renversé et traduit en justice), et que la plupart avait été tués à bout portant. Il y eu des affirmations d’attaques au couteau, mais il semble que la plupart ont été abattus.

– Pourquoi y a-t-il eu des tentatives pour faire comme si le massacre de Houla était un crime confessionnel (par des chiites/alaouites contre des sunnites) alors qu’il apparaît que sans doute un tiers des victimes étaient chiites ? Y a-t-il eu des assassinats confessionnels dans la région avant ce massacre ? Pourquoi ne trouve dans la presse occidentale aucune référence aux kidnappings confessionnels (par des groupes armés salafistes à Daraa comprenant même quelques Libyens, selon le correspondant d’Al-Akhbar qui s’est rendu sur place) contre les Druzes dans la région de Sweida (les Druzes, à leur tour, ont enlevé des gens de Daraa avant que la question ne soit résolue par l’échange des otages) ?

– Pourquoi les médias n’ont-ils pas noté que l’Armée syrienne libre, le Conseil national syrien et les Frères musulmans avaient admis qu’ils étaient en contact avec le groupe confessionnel qui a kidnappé les pélerins libanais chiites ? En fait, le fameux dissident syrien libéral, Haytham al-Malih, a déclaré au quotidien Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, détenu par un prince séoudien, qu’il soutenait l’enlèvement et a appelé les kidnappeurs à ne pas libérer les pélerins.

Est-il possible de croire l’histoire telle qu’on nous l’a racontée : que les chiites et les alaouites vivant dans une zone majoritairement sunnite ont soudainement décidé de se retourner contre la majorité et de les massacrer ? Et comment les survivants ont-ils connu l’identité confessionnelle des assassins ? Hé bien, selon Neil MacFarquhar, ils leur ont bizarrement dit : « nous sommes des shabiha ». Ils ont tout fait sauf laisser des photos de Bashar Assad derrière eux. Une autre histoire (surtout diffusée sur Twitter) est encore plus bizarre : apparemment, les tueurs avaient des « slogans chiites écrits sur le front » (cette histoire a été écrite par un reporter occidental puis diffusé par le journaliste séoudien Jamal Khashoggi (qui va bientôt diriger la station d’information propriété du prince Al-Walid bin Talal).

#Megaupload mis hors ligne par la justice américaine | bluetouff
http://reflets.info/megaupload-mis-hors-ligne-par-la-justice-americaine

Et VLAN ! Megaupload est booté hors ligne par les fédéraux. Accusé de violer les lois sur le copyright le site ne ping déjà plus. Nous vous avions parlé, en des termes peu élogieux, de Megaupload et de la constellation de sites : streaming, régie publicitaire... un chouette business, bien juteux, principalement fruit d’une monétisation par la publicité de matériaux copyrightés et d’abonnements vendus pour y accéder sans restriction. Le business n’était clairement pas un modèle de propreté. Les mystérieux dirigeants de Megaupload ne le sont plus, ils ont aujourd’hui été arrêtés en Nouvelle Zélande. Même si on ne va pas pleurer Megaupload, on ne peut que déplorer cette offensive des pro copyrights qui brident, chaque jour un peu plus Internet. Le domaine Megaupload.com n’est plus accessible, on ne sait pas pour le moment si c’est la justice américaine l’a saisi, comme l’avait fait pour le domaine Wikileaks.org avant la publication des cables diplomatiques, mais voici les quelqu

#A_la_Une #Technos #Copyright #Justice #USA

For Twitter, free speech matters — not real names — Tech News and Analysis
http://gigaom.com/2011/10/18/for-twitter-free-speech-is-what-matters-not-real-names

“The free-speech wing of the free-speech party”

Being used by dissidents in Tunisia and Egypt and Iran and elsewhere to communicate information, and allowing virtually anyone to commit acts of “citizen journalism” (as Sohaib Athar of Pakistan did when he live-tweeted the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound) is a pretty vital role to play, and part of the ongoing disruption of media that Om has called the “democratization of distribution.” So it’s refreshing to hear Costolo putting a stake in the ground about freedom of speech. As he put it in his interview, quoting Twitter’s general counsel Alex MacGillivray:

This isn’t just an idle boast either — Twitter’s commitment to this principle has been put to the test more than once already. In Britain, the company was hauled on the carpet by the British authorities along with Facebook and Research In Motion after the riots in London, because the governing party was considering blocking access to networks such as Twitter and BlackBerry instant messaging. In his Web 2.0 interview, Costolo said that the company resisted this idea, and instead pointed out that many of the Twitter messages about the riot were actually about cleaning up or promoting good behavior rather than inciting violence as many critics of the service seemed to suggest. Said Costolo:

One of our core values is respect and the need to defend the user’s voice.

#twitter #freespeech

#WikiLeaks cables and the Iraq War - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/23/wikileaks_cables_and_the_iraq_war

à propos de Bradley Manning :

In other words, whoever leaked that cable cast light on a heinous American war crime and, by doing so, likely played some significant role in thwarting an agreement between the Obama and Maliki governments to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and thus helped end this stage of the Iraq war (h/t Trevor Timm). Moreover, whoever leaked these cables — as even virulent WikiLeaks critic Bill Keller repeatedly acknowledged — likely played some significant in helping spark the Arab Spring protests by documenting just how deeply corrupt those U.S.-supported kleptocrats were. And in general, whoever leaked those cables has done more to publicize the corrupt, illegal and deceitful acts of the world’s most powerful factions — and to educate the world about how they behave — than all “watchdog” media outlets combined (indeed, the amount of news reports on a wide array of topics featuring WikiLeaks cables as the primary source is staggering). In sum, whoever leaked those cables is responsible for one of the most consequential, beneficial and noble acts of this generation.

#cablegate #journalisme #justice #irak

Blowback in Somalia (The Nation)
http://www.thenation.com/article/163210/blowback-somalia?page=full

Perhaps more than any other figure, Indha Adde embodies the mind-boggling constellation of allegiances and double-crosses that has marked Somalia since its last stable government fell in 1991. And his current role encapsulates the contradictions of the country’s present: he is a warlord who believes in Sharia law, is friendly with the CIA, and takes money and weapons from AMISOM. There are large parts of Mogadishu that are not accessible without his permission, and he controls one of the largest militias and possesses more technicals (truck-mounted heavy automatic weapons) in the city than any other warlord. (...)

J’étais en train de me souvenir de cette vieille série de 1993 d’Oliver Stone, Wild Palms, et je suis tombé là-dessus. Le billet (auquel je ne pige globalement que pouic) contient ce paragraphe sur le rapport d’Oliver Stone et Paul Verhoeven aux idées libertariennes.

Afghan Fire Drill, by Michael Gilson De Lemos
http://orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/afghan_fire_drill.htm

Meanwhile . . . silence on thousands of “detainees” worthy of the movie Wild Palms of Oliver Stone, that depicts an explicitly-stylized Libertarian struggle to free America from a conspiracy of statists and religious fanatics where thousands disappear in supra-legal processes after a concocted terrorism incident. (Mr. Stone is not a Libertarian, but like many in Hollywood — such as Paul Verhoeven, who has made Starship Troopers and movies exploring what one might call the FAQS of Libertarian ideas, such as police privatization vs. civic spirit in RoboCop, or whether privatization brings fascism in Total Recall — is interested in coming to grips with it, and was made aware of Libertarianism by the unsung and indefatigable late LIO advisor Dr. Timothy Leary — whose impressionistically-written, thought-provoking exploration on how psychic shocks generate political behavior and make obvious truths literally psychologically invisible, Neuropolitique, seems more relevant then ever.

The Kingdom and the Towers | Politics | Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/08/9-11-2011-201108

Late on the night of the 13th, Prince Bandar’s assistant called the F.B.I.’s assistant director for counterterrorism, Dale Watson. He needed help, the assistant said, in getting bin Laden “family members” out of the country. Watson said Saudi officials should call the White House or the State Department. The request found its way to counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, who has acknowledged that he gave the go-ahead for the flights. He has said he has “no recollection” of having cleared it with anyone more senior in the administration.

An F.B.I. memo written two years after the exodus appears to acknowledge that some of the departing Saudis may have had information pertinent to the investigation. Asked on CNN the same year whether he could say unequivocally that no one on the evacuation flights had been involved in 9/11, Saudi Embassy information officer Nail al-Jubeir responded by saying he was sure of only two things, that “there is the existence of God, and then we will die at the end of the world. Everything else, we don’t know.”

L’Arabie séoudite et le 11 septembre : en France, on a tellement appris à aboyer contre les complotistes et conspirationnistes de tous poils, qu’on est très surpris de lire un tel article dans Vanity Fair.

Panetta on Al Qaeda : Leon Panetta says Al Qaeda defeat is "within reach" - latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-panetta-qaeda-20110710,0,2299598.story

May showed that 10 years of U.S. operations against Al Qaeda had left it with fewer than two dozen key operatives, most of whom are in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

– Balancer des missiles de croisière sur les lieux pré-cités :
☑ check

“It is certainly true that Al Qaeda’s leadership has been significantly eroded over the past two years,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, but “there is no empirical evidence that either the appeal of its message or the flow of recruits into its ranks has actually diminished.”

– Annoncer que le ralentissement de l’augmentation du nombre de recrutements est au point mort, mais en fait on ne sait pas trop :
☑ check

The Taliban movement has a primarily domestic agenda that differs from the global jihad espoused by Al Qaeda, and links between the two groups have loosened considerably in the nearly 10 years since the Taliban gave sanctuary to Bin Laden in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

– Expliquer, après tout ça, que finalement les Talibans ne sont pas nos ennemis (ils n’ont jamais qu’un « agenda domestique », et pas de jihad mondialisé)
☑ check

The U.S. believes Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian who succeeded Bin Laden as Al Qaeda’s top leader, was probably hiding in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas

– Coco, t’oublies pas de balancer des missiles de croisière là-bas, hein ?
☑ check

Panetta said that Yemen — not Pakistan — poses the most potent threat of terrorist attacks on America, from an Al Qaeda offshoot known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

– Ah ben finalement, les missiles de croisière, c’est pour le Yemen.
☑ check

– Pardon, tu parles bien du Yemen d’Ali Abdullah Saleh ?
☑ check

Bin Laden sought to rename al-Qaeda to counter negative perceptions
http://centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/features/caii/features/main/2011/07/01/feature-02

That is the conclusion U.S. officials drew from a letter they said bin Laden prepared on his computer, which was confiscated along with several other documents from his home in Abbottabad. The letter reveals that bin Laden was cognizant of the need to “re-brand” al-Qaeda to include changing the organisation’s name so the new name would not carry the stigma attached to the old one.

Après le porno, le rebranding. Je sens que les « révélations » des ordinateurs de Ben Laden vont nous amuser pendant des années. Le service de comm chargé d’inventer ces foutaises doit bien rigoler à sortir les trucs les plus improbables possibles puis à les voir repris et analysés le plus sérieusement du monde par des journalistes.

ProPublica ProPublica
Letter from CIA chief undercuts claim torture was key to killing bin Laden: http://j.mp/iRraZm via @washingtonpost

#ACJ

Le journal du Courant du Futur de Saad Hariri (le quotidien porte le même nom que son parti politique), Al Mustaqbal, publie une tribune signée du Mufti du Mont Liban.
http://almustaqbal.com/stories.aspx?StoryID=465814

Je vous livre une traduction du commentaire que vient d’en faire Angry Arab, parce que c’est très instructif.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/tribute-to-bin-laden-in-mouthpiece-of.html

C’est sidérant, quand on y pense. Les alliés des États-Unis et de l’Arabie séoudite au Liban sont ceux qui ont le plus spectaculairement fait l’éloge de Ben Laden et qui en ont porté le deuil. De la même façon que les supporters de Hariri au Liban (ces salafistes qui ont été élevés et financés par l’Arabie séoudite) ont pleuré Zarkaoui et Saddam.

Mais regardez celui-là : il n’est pas un salafiste paumé. Lui (Muhammad `Ali Al-Juzu) est un religieux important, Mufti du Mont Liban, et un membre important du département de la propagande de la famille Hariri (on a signalé qu’il entretenait des liens étroits avec les services de renseignement égyptiens durant le régime de Moubarak).

Il nie que Ben Laden ait été un terroriste, et prétend que les États-Unis possèdent « une longue et large histoire de fabrication du terrorisme, causant sa formation ». Il écrit que le terrorisme est attribué à tort à Ben Laden, et que Ben Laden a abondonné sa forture pour aller « soutenir » la population musulmane victimes du conflit. Ce religieux (qui est connu au Liban pour ses éructations vomitives régulières de haine et de confessionnalisme) nie qu’Al Qaida soit derrière le 11 Septembre et prétend qu’« un cerveau occidental » était derrière cette affaire. Il conclut son hommage émouvant en prétendant que « Ben Laden est entré dans l’histoire par la grande porte ».

Vous voyez pourquoi je me moque systématiquement des références des médias occidentaux à la « coalition pro-occidentale du 14 Mars » ? Ce type est un membre de premier plan de la coalition sectaire du 14 Mars. Mais la famille Hariri ne sort pas ce genre de bonhomme pour parler aux journalistes occidentaux qui débarquent au Liban. Ils sortent d’autres personnages pour donner une image différente.

Je vous recopie aussi la dernière déclaration du mufti :

بن لادن دخل التاريخ من أوسع أبوابه، وأصبح بطل الارهاب في العالم، وأخاف اميركا وأخاف الغرب كله، هكذا أرادت ان تصوره الدعاية الاميركية الصهيونية. اما نتانياهو اما باراك اما الديكتاتوريون الصهاينة فهم يدافعون عن أنفسهم في فلسطين. ليست بطولة ولا رجولة ما فعله اوباما عندما قتل بن لادن، لانه ترك الارهابيين الحقيقيين في اسرائيل والعالم العربي واغتال رجلا أعزل وهذه هي ازدواجية المعايير.

#liban #ben_laden

Beyond Bin Laden by Richard N. Haass - Project Syndicate
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/haass36/English

But no amount of external assistance can compensate for a lack of motivation and commitment. Pakistani leaders must choose once and for all. It is not enough to be a limited partner in the struggle against terror; Pakistan needs to become a full partner.

There will be Pakistanis who protest against the recent American military action, arguing that it violated Pakistan’s sovereignty. But sovereignty is not an absolute; it involves obligations as well as rights. Pakistanis must understand that they will forfeit some of those rights if they do not meet their obligation to ensure that their territory is not used to shelter terrorists.

If things do not change, the sort of independent military operation carried out by US soldiers will become less the exception than the rule. This is not nearly as desirable an outcome as Pakistan joining what should be a common international effort. At stake is not only assistance, but Pakistan’s own future, for, in the absence of genuine commitment to counter-terrorism, it is only a matter of time before the country falls victim to the infection that it refuses to treat.

Chaque jour, les menaces américaines contre le Pakistan prennent une forme de plus en plus claire. Ici, Richard N. Haass, président du Council on Foreign Relations.

Avec une expression du mépris impérialiste pour le reste du monde qui force le respect.

#pakistan

Bon esprit // #Cheney Takes Credit for Osama, Thinks Obama Should Start Torturing Again | Death and Taxes
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/87128/cheney-takes-credit-for-osama-thinks-obama-should-start-torturing-

“Which raises the question, if we were to now capture another new high value target, which is certainly more likely given this apparent trove of information that they recovered in bin Laden’s compound, should the president reinstate enhanced interrogation including waterboarding? …I certainly would advocate it. I’d be a strong supporter of it.”

#torture #etats_unis

Religious paper cuts Clinton from iconic photo – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/09/religious-paper-cuts-clinton-from-iconic-photo

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication ran a doctored copy of the iconic “Situation Room Photo” last Friday – you know, the one taken of President Barack Obama and his national security team during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/05/09/dertzitung.t1larg.jpg

#religion #wtf

Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death (Guernica)
http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/2652/noam_chomsky_my_reaction_to_os

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.