Entries from May 2011 ↓

I had assumed that the Abbottabad operation took place on Sunday evening Eastern time.

But there was an unwitting witness to the operation who was tweeting about it live — at 1 AM Pakistan time. Sohaib Athar tweeted, “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).” This would be 4 PM EST.

Given that the on-site operation took about 40 minutes, and that includes recovering evidence about al-Qaeda operations from the scene, it was all over by 5 PM Washington time.

In fact. reports say bin Laden’s body was buried at sea at 2 AM local time, again 5 PM Washington time.

So the President waited six and a half hours to make the short historic announcement.*

Why? Was he waiting for the DNA confirmation? (DNA testing seems to take weeks in ordinary circumstances, which these, of course, weren’t.)

*There’s a ruckus now about Keith Urbahn, a former White House staffer in the Bush administration, breaking the story an hour early on Twitter, based on a TV producer’s unsubstantiated rumor.

Rachel Maddow has ridiculed this idea, stating that many major al-Qaeda leaders were captured in large cities in Pakistan — just like Osama Bin Laden himself.

In March, 2002 Abu Zubaidah was captured in Faisalaba. In September of that year, Ramzi Binalshibh was arrested in Karachi. In March, 2003 the infamous Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested in Rawalpindi. He was a major force in the 911 events and involved in the the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl. Two weeks later, Yassir al-Jaziri was arrested in Lahore. He is thought to be number seven in the Al Qaeda chain of command.

In July of 2004, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was arrested in Gujra, Pakistan. He was tied to the the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

In May 2005, Abu Faraj al-Libi was arrested by the Pakistani intelligence near Peshawar. He’s thought to be the number three man in al-Qaeda at the time. He had received word that he had been made operational leader from a courier sent by bin Laden himself.

Tracing the activities of that courier led to discovering bin Laden’s whereabouts. It turned out that bin Laden was sequestered in a compound once occupied by al-Libi. Hiding in plain sight.

All al-Qaeda members. All captured in Pakistan. Not a single one hiding in caves in the lawless tribal region in the northwest part of the country, where the US supposedly thought Bin Laden and his associates were.

President Obama tonight reported that the Al Qaeda leader was killed in a firefight resulting from a targeted operation that the President ordered today in Pakistan.

While the notorious mastermind behind 911 and other horrific attacks on the US has been rumored to be in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas, he was found to be hiding in Abbottabad, a city of 120,000 only an hour north of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

(The mastermind link above is to The New York Times obituary, one of the longest on record — certainly of a non-American. Sadly, as sometimes happens, the main writer of the piece has pre-deceased his subject.)

The city, a tourist destination famed for its breathtaking mountain views, has a large Pakistani army base and a military academy, so it is not isolated from Pakistani military and counter-intelligence forces. Remarkable, hiding in plain sight. Remember, the “hiding in Afghanistan’s caves” theory in the previous administration?

Having eluded a worldwide manhunt for so long, Osama Bin Laden probably felt more and more secure, especially being outside the easy reach of US troops in Afghanistan. However, America had been tracking strong leads since last August, according to the President.

“Justice has been done,” said President Obama.

Frankly, I thought he would escape capture by American forces forever and upon hearing the rumors of his death, I thought it was due to natural causes. Oh, ye of little faith.

Watch the President’s announcement here and here.

I’m sure many Americans who remember the 9/11/2001 catastrophes vividly cannot quite believe this breaking news.

God bless the United States of America.

Prince William gets that accolade because his parents’ wedding was a whopping 30 years ago — very last century.

The bride’s gown was far beyond those shown on Say Yes to the Dress, yet it didn’t have any Swarovski crystals on it to make her feel like a royal… Oh, wait now Kate Middleton is a royal. Just custom-designed lace, a diamond tiara, a sensible-length train carried by an adult — not a bevy of six-year olds as in Princess Diana’s case. (At one point, they just rolled it up and tossed into her coach, because everything is perfectly timed and did not allow for proper handling by the very young bridesmaids. )

Prince Williams wore the striking scarlet uniform of a colonel in the Irish Guards. He is commissioned in the Guards, the Army and the RAF. I think it was largely a fashion decision to look less somber next to his bride, in her much anticipated elaborate wedding dress. He served more time in the RAF and has only attained the honorary Irish Guard affiliation this year.

Of course, the whole historic event may all be designed by committees and cabals to suit current protocols.

There were several good moments: the groom’s difficulty placing that wedding band on her finger — again very modest and sensible. It’s maybe 3mm wide. I’ve seen the Duchess of Binghamton with gaudier rings. No need to overdo it with a diamond band, as her engagement ring was the groom’s mother’s — an 18-carat sapphire and diamond ring, easily big enough to look fake.

The Queen looked lovely in a springtime yellow dress with matching hat. There were two interesting queenly formalities shown in the broadcast. The Queen did not sing “God Save the Queen.” God save me? Really! (She doesn’t issue herself a passport, either.) And when the newlywed Duchess of Cambridge — and future queen herself — cursied before her, the Queen smiled.

P.S. I guessed the bride’s height. Much shorter than Prince William’s 6′ 3″, she is 5′ 10″.
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