Sunday 16 September 2007

Osama Bin Liar

Osama Bin Laden's recent video message to the world of saints and scholars and suicidalists has been compared to the rantings of your basic leftist, your postmodern academic, your death-metal nihilist and your common garden anti-globalisation nutcase. (But of course, I repeat myself.)

No surprise then that, like most specimens emanating from those entities -- and here we're looking at the likes of Michael Moore and Al Bore -- it's awfully full of what we might politely call "untruths."

My colleague Barry Paul has picked out the most egregious factual errors and contradictions (Bin Liner's claims are given in italics; Barry's fisking appears in bold).

FACTUAL ERRORS

Bush not giving the United Nations expanded jurisdiction in Iraq.
The UN had in fact established its HQ in Baghdad until the suicide bombing of Aug 2003 killing de Mello and others.

US engaged in genocide of peoples, only "a few specimens" of Red Indians were spared.
More than 6 million Native Americans today identify themselves as such, hardly “a few specimens.”

More than a million orphans in Baghdad alone, hundreds of thousands of widows, killing of 650,000 people of Iraq as a result of the war.
These figures are disputed, but the vast majority of civilian casualties are the the direct result of ongoing sectarian Shia v Sunni violence.

During the Vietnam war Rumsfeld and his aides murdered two million villagers.
In fact, Donald Rumsfeld was not the Sec of Defense until 1975-77, under Gerald Ford, AFTER the Vietnam war had ended.

"When Kennedy took over the presidency and deviated from the general line of policy and wanted to stop this unjust [Vietnam] war, that angered the major corporations who were benefiting from its continuation, and so Kennedy was killed.
In fact, it was Kennedy who ramped up the US engagement in what was then a French war, sending 1,364 advisors to Sth Vietnam in 1961; increasing this number in 1962 to 9,865 -- at the time of his untimely death in Nov 1963 there were 15,500 Americans in this country. So much for the claim he was wanting to stop the war.

"You neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war [Vietnam], not even the most violent of its murderers Rumsfeld."
See comment above.

"Bush [Jnr] picked Rumsfeld as Sec of Defense in his first term, after picking Cheney, Powell and Armitage despite their horrific and bloody history of murdering humans."
In fact, Dick Cheney was prominent in commercial life; Colin Powell has a distinguished career as a professional soldier; and Richard Armitage was an advisor, emissary and negotiator. Unlike Osama who murders people in cold blood, they are far from being “bloody murderers.”

"They are the same reasons which led to the failure of Kennedy to stop the Vietnam war."
See comment above. Kennedy began the large-scale US involvement in Vietnam.

"Emissions from the [US] factories of the major corporations, plus not observing Kyoto accord, are causing death and displacement of millions of human beings especially in Africa."
The pseudo-scientific opinion is premature, to say the least, and the population claim palpably false.

CONTRADICTIONS
"And from his [Allah’s] law is retaliation in kind: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and the killer is killed."
"Religion of peace," anyone?

"Bush is working with al-Maliki to spread freedom in Iraq. but he is in fact working with the leaders of one sect against another sect in the belief that this will quickly decide the war in his favour."
OBL shows his hatred for the Shia. Once again, "religion of peace" anyone?

"In fact, burning living beings is forbidden in our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of man?"
Try telling that to the relatives of the 3 thousand innocents burned on 9/11, or the thousands killed by Al-Qaeda and their comrades in Madrid, Bali, Cairo, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Cairo, Iraq and London.

"The holocaust of the Jews was carried out by your brethren in the middle of Europe, but had it been closer to our countries, most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us."
! Then why wage intifada now against the Jews in their chosen haven(s) today?

"There are two solutions for stopping the [Iraq] war. The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty and our brothers are carrying it out."
That is one way to stop the war?

"The world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations."
Railing against the capitalist system, yet the bin Laden family is immensely wealthy and intimately connected to the Saudi royal family. The Saudi Binladin Group, a global construction and equity management conglomerate from whom the murderer Bin Liar derives his wealth, grosses US $5 billion annually.

"Since the essense of man-made positive laws is that they serve the interests of those with the capital, and thus make the rich richer and the poor poorer..."
See comment above re Saudi Binladin Group.

"It would benefit you to listen to the poignant messages of your soldiers in Iraq who are paying with their blood, nerves, and scattered limbs."
All US troops form a volunteer force, and as such take pride in doing their job in a professional manner.

"I invite you to embrace Islam. The true religion also puts peoples’ lives in order with its laws; protests their needs and interests; refines their morals; protects them from evils; and guarantees for them entrance into Paradise."
There are only two snags. First,nobody is able to confirm the wonders of Islamic Paradise. And second, as the Danish cartoonists pointed out (and they would know), Allah has already run out of virgins.

* * * *
It seems that whatever amenities Bin Liar has with him in his cave, he has neither a basic encyclopaedia or even a textbook of elementary logic-- unless that is he simply intended to rely upon the ignorance and braindead reasoning of the ill-educated and unwashed anti-globalisation nutcases to pass on his rants as if it were one of their own.

After all, most of them are only too happy to wear murderers like him on their T-shirts and pass shit like this around. Just ask the agents of Che Guevara and Michael Moore.

Of all the claims about what the tape shows, only two seem to have any veracity:
  1. That it really was put together by an American death-metaller.
  2. That in peddling pissant propaganda like this it's even more clear than it has been than that this is a man on the run who is virtually impotent.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did the Islamic world, once a technological and scientific wonderland that made the Europeans seem primitive by comparison, turn in war raveged wasteland, which starves those inside of it, and shoots those outside?

Anonymous said...

All true PC - but his in no way reflects positiviely on your hero George Bush and his ridiculous 'war'.

My friend Paula says this :

Mad.

Six years later, billions of dollars spent, 3,000+ soldiers dead, and the real killer is sitting over there laughing at us and making videotapes. Fuckheads.


Also my hero Greenspan has fired a broadside at Bush for "following an economic agenda driven by politics instead of sound policy, with little concern for future consequences."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amfeUB4gqTWw&refer=home

Anonymous said...

'this' and 'positively'

Anonymous said...

Impotent? Not in a fourth-generation war, where the battlegrounds are political and information the main weapon. There's no indication that he's been running, or that he is located in a cave.

Besides, the significant part of the video may be the call to convert to Islam, which appears to be a warning of an imminent attack, as mandated by the Qu'ran...

Anonymous said...

You don't want to pay this fellow much attention. Afterall, he thinks *he* organised 911.

JC

Anonymous said...

He was right about Vietnam, except for the Rumsfeld bit. From Wikipedia:

"Vietnamese civilians: 900,000 to 4,000,000 killed: According to the Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs released figures on April 3, 1995, 2 million civilians in the north and 2 million in the south were killed between 1954 and 1975. The figure for North Vietnam is highly improbable. [citation needed]
~3,000,000 affected by Agent Orange".

Anonymous said...

If I were President I would have focused my energy and resources on finding and capturing/killing Osama. It was foolishness to declare that he was not important. Sure, another may spring up once Osama is eliminated - all the more reason to perfect tracking and killing such beasts. Something akin to the Manhatten project needed to be set up to develop and harness all the technology availible for the task.

Anonymous said...

Bin Laden may very well be on the run, as you say. But as the coward he is its more likely he is cowering in some Tora Bora cave instead of getting out to the "front line" as George W.is in Iraq.

Some further facts:
Osama was born in 1957 in Saudi Arabia, the 17th child of Muhammed Awad bin Laden. His Mother was Alia Ghanem, Muhammed's 10th Wife [the Koran allowed a man to have multiple wives, although no more than 4 at one time].
OBL departed Saudi Arabia in 1991 incensed over the royal family's allowing the country to become a US base during the first Gulf War. There was a falling out and the govt revoked his citizenship in 1994. OBL's Son Oman, born 1981, also fell out with his Father over the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Seems Osama causes strife in places as well as the secular West!

Deadman said...

"There are only two snags."

Three - Some of us don't want bloody Islamic crap religion.

Anonymous said...

Quoting: "Also my hero Greenspan has fired a broadside at Bush for following an economic agenda driven by politics instead of sound policy, with little concern for future consequences."

What a hypocrit Greenspan is. He knows that what he was doing during his career running the Fed was fraud (see his writings on the subject, for instance, an article in "Capitalism, an unknown ideal.") and motivated by political pragmatism. He betrayed his own principes and now, knwing full-well that the economy is in dire straights thanks to his crooked monkey-business, he seeks to off-load responsibility for what is about to occur. What an utter bastard. It would be better were to to off himself.

Banker

Comrade MOT said...

Even if we assumed that Osama was right(which he is not) on most of his points, it is a little hyporcritical to suggest that the west wasnt nice enough to jews, wasnt nice enough to American indians, yet they kill innocent civilians(including muslims, and not just the people who do the things they dont like). He give these reasons (west being too capitalistic, anti environmental, and being genicidic etc) for killing people but most of the people he kills had nothing to do with it or even aggree with him on those points.