I took a long hard look at that infamous photograph of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, General Marshall Brad Webb and all the major voices in the so-called “War on Terror” seated in the Situation Room in the White House on May 1, 2011. It is a profoundly disturbing photograph. It appeared in probably every daily newspaper around the world as well as one of the most viewed photographs ever on flickr, the online photo management website.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5680724572/in/photostream
The world’s most powerful men and women sit there in a state of voyeuristic attention to the targeted killing of Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, in his miserable compound in Abbottobad in Pakistan. You can see President Obama sitting there with shrunken shoulders, clenched jaw and staring forward intensely as he and his fellow collaborators witness the planned horror on the screen. In my view, Obama cuts a rather pathetic figure probably much like Osama slunk in his compound.
Besides him, Brigadier General Brad Webb of Joint Operations Command stares down at his computer. His large presence dwarfs the shrunken President. The photograph serves as a telling memorial of a President who dutifully obeys orders as spokesperson on behalf of the military/political/corporate complex that runs America. An election of Republican or Democrat makes no difference to the powers that control US domestic and foreign policy.
You then turn your eye to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, with her hands clasped over her mouth as she watches the raid and the assassinations. What emotions does Hillary Clinton suppress as she witnesses the killing of bin Laden, the gunning down of bin Laden’s wife and the terrible anguish of bin Laden’s 12 year old daughter? Clinton is the mother of a daughter? How does Mrs Clinton feel as a mother?
Besides the President, vice-President, Secretary of State the Brigadier General, the photos show the main US operatives for the so called War on Terror or we should rename it as the West’s War of Terror?
Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough;
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates. Standing, from left, are:
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley;
Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President;
Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan,
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism;
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
We, democratic citizens, need to ask the question: “Are there grounds to arrest everyone in this room for the possible sanction of War Crimes?
For decades, the US government/military/corporate complex, regardless of who occupies the White House, has backed authoritarian regimes in the Arab world; ensured Arab citizens lacked a democratic voice and supported the Israel government’s subjugation and daily abuse of human rights of Palestinians. To Arab citizens, US policy seems like one long history of economic colonialism to exploit people and resources, especially oil, the blood line of Western life.
I remember being on a flight to California on 9/11. We were in US airspace when US ground control ordered us back to London. I remember the world wide sympathy for the USA.I remember the Islamic clerics and imams who condemned Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for orchestrating such a murderous and unspeakable horror on New York citizens and others. Imams denounced bin Laden as an utter fraud who had no religious authority to launch a religious jihad.
The day after the assassination of bin Laden, President Obama told the world. “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims … So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”
This is the voice of the same President who has faithfully followed the political/military policies of his predecessor, George Bush.
Look at the cost of the pursuit of the US and its allies War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US, UK and its allies
- launched a massive war on Afghanistan weeks after 9/11 despite the fact that not a single Afghani citizen boarded the doomed Boston flights on 9/11.
- launched a massive war on Iraq to get rid of non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The US employed uranium tipped missiles, cluster bombs and white phosphorous, an incendiary device used to set fire to citizens and homes.caused more than one million deaths of men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and increasing numbers in Pakistan.Millions more maimed, wounded and traumatised.
- Made the war in these countries equal a 9/11 on a weekly basis in Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11. US troops invasion of holy places such as Fallujah, Iraq, caused terrible suffering, death and destruction of much of a beautiful city and its countless mosques. US government admitted use of white phosphorous in Fallujah.
- US President orders weekly the sending of unmanned droned missiles into Pakistan to bomb remote villages and transport where Al Qaeda suspects may possibly be. Professors of international law have stated that those who operate the computers in the USA could face war crimes for these illegal attacks on the people of a sovereign country. US thus instilled terror and hatred throughout Pakistan that slumps from one crisis to another.
- Tens of thousands of citizens arrested, imprisoned and subjected to torture in the brutal pursuit of information in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere. The CIA arranged for the rendition of certain citizens to different places for “enhanced interrogation techniques” – special forms of torture.
- Guantanamo Bay. Obama signed an agreement on January 20, 2011, to continue this living hell for Jihadist suspects.
- More than six thousand military personnel from the USA alone have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are an estimated 32,000 brain injuries alone to soldiers. They are countless military personnel who have lost limbs, eyesight and bodily organs. Psychological breakdown, ongoing stress disorder and suicidal depression affect 30% of more than one million troops sent to the Arab world in the past 10 years.
- Obama sent 30,000 soldiers – nearly a 50% increasse in 2010 to Afghanistan. This made the total number of troops around 96,000 for involvement in air and ground attacks on Afghanis.
- The USA political/military machine and NATO has also turned its attention to Libya with more than 5000 air sorties on Libya since March in its efforts to get rid of Colonel Gaddafi and his regime.
President Obama blocked release of a photograph of the corpse of Osama bin Laden in case it cited Arab outrage – as if the above acts of war on Arab nations did not endorse Arab resentment and encourage recruitment to terrorist organisations.
The President and his operatives still do not realise that the American military bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha, Iraq and Afghanistan continue to sustain resentment towards the USA. Would US citizens appreciate Arab military bases in the USA? The US/NATO/British/French policy does more to engender hatred and acts of terror than that pathetic figure hiding in a compound in Abbottobad, Pakistan.
I wondered why they chose May 1, 2011 to raid the compound to kill bin Laden. Why did the White House release this photograph on May 2. Was it to turn the world’s attention away from what happened on April 30 in Libya – the day before the killing of bin Laden.?
The day before NATO with full US support bombed Gaddafi’s compound on Saturday, killing his 29-year-old son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, all of whom were under the age of 12. Gaddafi was reportedly inside the compound at the time of the attack. Such NATO air strike confirms another illegal policy of assassination.
There was no international outrage over the bombing of a home with children. The world’s media focussed on events in Abbottobad until the public lost any concern about the killing of grandchildren. Perhaps we should rename NATO as the North Atlantic Terrorist Organisation. The UN had agreed in March, 2011 to order a no fly zone in Libya to protect the Libyan citizens trying to overthrow their dictator.
US, UK, NATO and allies show as much barbarism as those they condemn.
Without access to medical attention, Osama bin Laden could have died from natural causes in his compound but that would not have fitted the Hollywood script of cowboys riding into town to shoot up the outlaws.
We need an American Spring. We need a European Spring. We have an Arab Spring – a revolution that the people start on the streets. We need to hold our leaders accountable.
