Opinion

Bin Laden buried in sea of question marks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-07 20:26

BEIJING - Thanks to modern technology, particularly satellite imagery and live video beamed from combatants, truth should no longer be the first casualty of war.

However, a plethora of suspicions and questions have still arisen around the killing of Osama bin Laden in the wake of the much hailed raid on the hideout of the al-Qaida mastermind.

A long tradition of "war spin" from Washington - misinformation and disinformation particularly for the purpose of psychological warfare - has even given rise to conspiracy theories that bin Laden's death was a fiction.

In addition, what is credited as a watershed in the global counterterrorism campaign has also generated loud questioning voices over heavy US military presence in Afghanistan and the US-Pakistan counterterrorism cooperation.

Can contradictory narrative be believed?

While US officials said DNA testing on bin Laden's body yielded a match with "99.9 percent certainty" to the DNA samples collected from his family members, many, especially those in the Muslim world, remained unconvinced of the al-Qaida leader's demise.

Even an al-Qaida statement, which was posted on a website allegedly operated by the terrorist organization, confirming the killing of bin Laden by the Navy SEALs last Sunday failed to quell suspicions.

"It's natural and normal for people to have various questions over bin Laden's death, as so many points remain unanswered," a resident in Abbottabad outside Islamabad, where bin Laden was hiding and killed by US Navy SEAL forces, told Xinhua.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban movement, which had been a close ally of bin Laden, said earlier in a statement that it was "premature" to comment on the death, citing reasons of no "convincing documents" to prove the US claim.

Among the suspicions about bin Laden's death is the US authorities' refusal to release any photographs of bin Laden's remains. Even some US lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, conceded that the administration will probably need to release photos to prevent conspiracy theories from taking root.

So far, US President Barack Obama has rejected to release photos of bin Laden's body, citing a possible backlash from the Muslim world and saying the United States should not brandish "trophies" of its victory.

But commentaries in Middle East newspapers said the absence of photos as well as the hurried dumping of bin Laden's body into sea contrasted with the release of the photos of the bloody bodies of slain Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, in 2003.

Meanwhile, the White House's inconsistent details about the commando raid also fueled the escalating suspicions. The White House admitted Tuesday night that its initial account of the killing of bin Laden had been riddled with errors.

On Monday, the White House said bin Laden was armed and involved in a firefight, which was why the Navy SEALs chose to shoot him dead right away. In an embarrassing climb-down on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said bin Laden did not fire on the Navy SEALs. "He was not armed," Carney corrected.

What has also been proved false was the initial dramatic description of bin Laden using a woman as a "human shield" and forcing her to sacrifice her life, implying a cowardly act of self-defense by the al-Qaida mastermind. The woman was still alive and was taken into custody with several of bin Laden's children, according to Carney's new version.

The killing's legality has also been questioned, with some asking why bin Laden was not captured alive, given the context that he was unarmed when he was shot.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said in an interview with "NBC Nightly News" that the Navy SEALs had got the permission from Obama to kill the most wanted man of the United States, an order many believe would relieve the administration of a lengthy judicial process and radical revenge attacks from al-Qaida in a trial of bin Laden.

Jeff Greenfield, a veteran US correspondent, wrote in The Washington Post that US officials would face "a far more consequential challenge"  in the trial than the killing of bin Laden.

Echoing the sentiment of his colleagues, Christof Heyns, the UN independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, has called on the United States to reveal more details of the raid on bin Laden's Pakistan hideout to allow experts to assess the legality of his killing.

He said in a statement on Friday that Washington "should disclose the supporting facts to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards" and "it will be particularly important to know if the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture bin Laden."

Others have also questioned the timing of the announcement of bin Laden's death. Many said that the bombshell news came in favor of Obama at a time his public approval ratings slipped when he was preparing for re-election next year. Obama's approval ratings dramatically rebounded after the announcement.

Is al-qaida crippled?

Obama said the death of bin Laden marked the most significant achievement to date in US efforts to defeat al-Qaida.

While recognizing the decapitation strike on al-Qaida will deal a psychological blow to the global terrorist network, many analysts say that the fight against global terrorism is far from over.

Bin Laden was more of a chairman-of-the-board type of figure, and not really a CEO or a COO, Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence at the US intelligence company of Stratfor, told Xinhua. He noted that much of the group's organizational matters are handled by subordinates. "He was more of a figurehead."

"It's very important for us to remember that the jihadist movement is far wider than just al-Qaida the core organization, (which is) just a small vanguard," he warned.

Still, al-Qaida is not the only terrorist organization around the world.

Over the years, al-Qaida has evolved from being merely an organization to an ideology for global terrorism and has become decentralized. Bin Laden, who had been eluding manhunt for more than 10 years, had largely lost control of the terrorist cells and stood as a symbolic figure.

Many regional and local terrorist groups have sprouted, with al-Qaida as their ruling ideology. These will likely continue, and could become more virulent in the coming days.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that at the time of the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaida had only about 200 members, but now it is vaster and "more far-reaching than before the US sought to take it down."