Beloved character actor Osama bin Laden, star of TV's "Fox News", dies age 54

[SeeBass]

The Mossad use to bury nazi war criminals at sea too.

[Cowperson]

I think its fairly poetic as well this happened only a few days after the incident-free Royal Weddingi.

In the days and months after 9/11, you saw extreme fear overtaking common undertakings and it lasted for years.

In the month after 9/11, New York Giants fans who had held season tickets for generations were cancelling them, people were selling their Manhattan apartments for fractions of their worth and, more personally, upon winning a trip to LA from the Flames and inviting some people to go with me, spouses were concerned LA might be vaporized while we were there and wondering how we'd get back over the border. Seriously.

Through to at least 2003, any hint of terrorist activity or actual activity would send stock markets plunging, a hint of the real impact that exceeded the loss of two office towers.

I like it that this news today has had zero impact on equity markets this morning. Nothing. not even a blip. The death of Bin Laden is completely insignificant to the functioning of the capital markets he had originally targetted.

I like it that such an obvious target like the Royal Wedding, with 1.5 million potential victims on live tv with an audience of 2 billion, could be carrried off without a hitch and be a joyous day throughout.

He might have died yesterday but the fear he had created had died long before.

Cowperson

[Vulcan]

Well this sure beats the Bay of Pigs and the Iran rescue fiasco. Kudos to the Navy Seals.

[transplant99]

Just listened to a report that the whole operation yesterday was streamed back to the situation room and everyone including Obama watched the whole thing go down live and in color. (maybe B&W?) When the reports came back they had the body and no Americans were injured the whole room erupted in applause.

How bad ass is that? Sounds like a movie scene.

[FlamesAddiction]

What's the significance of burrying him at sea? Is it so that no state can claim him (or wants to claim him)?

[JBR]

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

The buried at sea is a pretty darn good idea.

So, who wants to create the first "Bin Laden's actually still alive" conspiracy theory?

I heard that he actually flipped sides, and is know helping the CIA. True story.

Agreed.

The way I heard it explained is that Muslim protocol is to be buried within 24 hours of death and the US wanted to respect this tradition, and kudos to them for it.

The US feared that burying him anywhere on land would immediately create a shrine/mecca type place for radicals to rally around.

This solves both problems.

[Yasa]

Originally Posted by worth

Talk Abbottabad place to hide.

/ripoff

White text aside, that's a Yasa-grade level pun. I ran out of thanks, so...I hope me replying to you counts.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

What's the significance of burrying him at sea? Is it so that no state can claim him (or wants to claim him)?

I would assume so that there is no gravesite that could be the target of ongoing vandalism/violence.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

What's the significance of burrying him at sea? Is it so that no state can claim him (or wants to claim him)?

Apparently the US offered to send the body to Saudi Arabia but they (the family/goverment) declined it.

The site of Saddams body has become something of a shrine so no doubt the refusal was not unwelcome.

[LChoy]

ABC report on the raid:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/inside...3506413&page=1

- Pakistan wasn't informed ahead of time of the operation
- Read else where that it was SEAL Team 6 (the elite of the SEAL teams. 2 dozen of them, with another 2 dozen on stand by for support)
- Helicopter carrying them in broke down and had to be destroyed

Interesting choice with Seal Team 6. There have always been a friendly rivalry between Delta Force (Army) and Seal Team 6 (Navy). There are Seal teams on every carrier group, but this team is special and has to be flown in on missions unless they were already in theatre. Now this is the second high profile operation in recent years that made it to the public for this unit (Before, it was the dramatic "rescue" of the female American soldier from an Iraqi hospital). With hunting Bin Ladin considered the most important counter terrorism operation, it effectively puts Seal team 6 as the best unit in the US special forces command.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

What's the significance of burrying him at sea? Is it so that no state can claim him (or wants to claim him)?

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/0...iref=allsearch


And I guess "Islamic practice" suggests a rather quick burial?

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

Google 'Bin Laden Dead' and switch to images......you'll find the unmistakable headshot (pun intended).

I believe that pic was already put into the thread, and was noted as being fake a long time ago. It's also been around for a long time.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Lchoy

With hunting Bin Ladin considered the most important counter terrorism operation, it effectively puts Seal team 6 as the best unit in the US special forces command.

Hmmm, sounds like a real life Rainbow Six.

[troutman]

I got chills when Obama hinted that a number of other terrorist attacks have been foiled. We will likely never know how many close calls there have been. Some have been critical with the benefit of hindsight, but we will probably never know about some of the successes.

[Ozy_Flame]

Islamic practice is that, if a body is to be buried at sea, it is cast in a clay encasing, or tied with weights to its feet that would sink to the bottom.

Somehow bin Laden's corpse getting picked at by sharks and stung by eels is an additional guilty pleasure.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

How do we know he's even dead? No photos of his body or evidence whatsoever. Because a corporate controlled media and president said so?

I call BS.

Again, pictures or it didn't happen.

The potential backlash from conspiracy theorists doesn't determine how the US government makes decisions.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Hmmm, sounds like a real life Rainbow Six.

*nerd hat on*

- John Clark (the director of Rainbow) was a former Seal
- The book/game had the American component of Rainbow made up mostly of DELTA members. Bogart (the 2nd assaulter on the list was from the FBI's HRT).
- The book, there was a reference to a Chin character, a half Chinese half Latino soldier that grew up a few blocks away from Domingo (Ding) Chavez. Chin was from Seal Team 6
- Ding was never part of any offical special forces group, rather was pulled from an light infantry unit to be part of a special warfare group under the CIA
Seal Team 6 was founded by Richard "Dick" Marcinko, an ex-Seal Team 3 and now an author

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Islamic practice is that, if a body is to be buried at sea, it is cast in a clay encasing, or tied with weights to its feet that would sink to the bottom.

Somehow bin Laden's corpse getting picked at by sharks and stung by eels is an additional guilty pleasure.

isn't that how all sea burials are done? wouldn't be much of a respectable burial if a corpse could end up floating ashore or get stuck to a cruise liner or something

[Flaming Choy]

Originally Posted by Lchoy

- Helicopter carrying them in broke down and had to be destroyed

What do they use to destroy the helicopter? C4? some kind of thermite?