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Another Perspective
Law & Order: Special SEALs Unit
An alternative scenario.
In light of the many concerns being raised about the killing of Osama bin Laden by the Navy SEALs — questions of propriety, civil rights, privacy, etc. — I thought it might be helpful to prepare a scenario that could have been followed instead:
SEAL Commander (knocking on door of the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad): Mr. Bin Laden, Jack Hartz here of the SEALs elite Sixth Team unit. Do you have a moment?
Bin Laden: Well, we’re right in the middle of dinner. Can you come back later — in about an hour, say?
SEAL Commander: Gee, we’d like to, sir, but this is pretty urgent. It shouldn’t take but a minute.
Bin Laden (grumbling): Oh, for Allah’s sake, OK, OK! (unlatches the door).
SEAL Commander: Thanks so much! Sorry to bust in like this, but we’re under orders to capture you dead or alive. It’s not my idea, you understand.
Bin Laden: I know but it’s Sunday night. We were just about to watch “24.” So what’s the big deal that this visit couldn’t wait until Monday?
SEAL Commander: We want to inform that you have the right to remain silent and….
Bin Laden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what do you want to know exactly?
SEAL Commander: We’ll need to see a picture ID, first of all, to make sure you are indeed the Osama bin Laden. And then we need to take a DNA sample for final proof. Sorry for the intrusion and all but we try to do this by the book.
Bin Laden: No problem. You fellas got a job to do. But why me? I’m just a simple rug merchant. Say, can I get you boys anything — coffee, soda?
SEAL Commander: We understand you may be the guy behind the World Trade Center slaughter and we need to ask you a few questions. If you resist, I’m afraid we may need to kill you. It’s just routine.
Bin Laden: I’m cool with that. I don’t want to cause any trouble.
SEAL Commander: We do appreciate your cooperation, Mr. Bin Laden. Now then, did you in fact have anything to do with bringing down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001?
Bin Laden: Yeah, I remember reading about that. Terrible tragedy. But was I involved? No, no, no, you’ve got the wrong guy. There are a lot of Bin Ladens in these parts. People are always confusing us. Just last week, some guy from Pakistani intelligence came by to see if I was somehow connected to al Qaeda. He later apologized for the mix-up.
About the Author
Gerald Nachman is a writer in San Francisco and most recently the author of Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan’s America (University of California Press).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Gerald Nachman
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Conservative View| 5.6.11 @ 8:32AM
The underlining thesis of this article is all to real to be funny.
There are calls for the international court to indite President Obama for crimes against humanity because we assinated Usama. Note that Usama who killed three thousand Americans never received such an honor.
Since when do foreign courts have sway over American citizens within our boarders? Who gave the international court the right to indite any American, much less our President? I submit that it is time to review our international treaties to see which ones of them actually allow us to use all means necessary to secure our safety.
Example; the Geneva Convention, the rules of war. Must we refrain from using Napalm if napalm is the right weapon to burn terrorists out of caves? Must we spend billions of dollars on smart weapons to keep from killing a single citizen? Do we have to treat POW's like visiting kings?
How about the UN itself? Do we need to spend billions on an institution that says much, does nothing, and tells the world over and over again just how bad we Americans really are? What do we get from the UN? I submit not a damn thing. If we were to pull out of it, the UN would cease to be anying at all, ( not that it 's anything at all now) its' resolutions meaningless. Oh, and the people of NYC would dance in the streets once the UN DPL licence plates stopped double parking on the roads.
I argue that any treaty, or "moral code" that does not allow a Government to use any and all means necessary to secure the lives and property of its' citizens is by its' very nature illegal and immoral. The only moral code that a government may employ is one that protects its' citizens, for that is the very purpose of a government. Any other moral code, any other legal system, is counter to this condition and thus immoral and without legal standing.
So screw the international court. Let the liberal elite scream about how American is the true bad guy. Let the gutless international comunity weap and scream. It is America, this time around, that has stood upon the moral foundation of government.
Oh, and lets get rid of some of these treaties.
Mike| 5.6.11 @ 9:05AM
Well said CV but I must take issue with one comment you made. You said:
"What do we get from the UN? I submit not a damn thing"
That is just untrue. I personally get indigestion and high blood pressure. And don't forget those fasionable blue helmets.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Conservative View| 5.6.11 @ 9:37AM
Oh, yes, you are quite right. I forgot, the UN does give us a fashion statement.
Michael L. Hauschild| 5.6.11 @ 12:02PM
Hey, don’t forget the sexual satisfaction they will provide your daughters given the opportunity; oh ya, and the cholera, don’t forget that either.
Frisbee| 5.6.11 @ 12:45PM
Hey, I was just thinking, isn't Obama's attack on Osama an admission by the left that 9-11 was NOT an inside Bush-Cheney job?
The Grey Piper| 5.8.11 @ 11:21AM
No, no, dontcha get it? Bush and bin Laden were all in it *together*.
Along with the Saudis, the Freemasons, the J*ws, the CIA, FBI, and WCTU.
Alan Brooks| 5.6.11 @ 6:59PM
Here's what Clint/Tim might say:
"Moishe Dayan Eyepatch Silly Putty Ninja Turtle Pogo Stick Apocalypse Crank Lady-fingers..."
Margie| 5.6.11 @ 10:06PM
LOL. Go for it, Brooks.
Alan Brooks| 5.7.11 @ 9:23AM
"Piggly Wiggly Hitler-Moustache Oingo Boingo IDF Lady Mama Pajama Hippo Hurricane Holler...'
Alan Brooks| 5.7.11 @ 12:06PM
... "MY What Big Teeth You Have Grandma",
said Little Red Riding Clint.
"The Better to Spy For the Mossad With, My Dear"
said the Big Bad IDF Wolf
The Grey Piper| 5.8.11 @ 11:22AM
Please. You sound like Chris Matthews.
Alan Brooks| 5.8.11 @ 5:27PM
Grey Poopon, I take that as a compliment (because you don't doesn't mean someone else cannot):
Here is another one:
"One little Clintie built his house out of straw;
another built his house out of wood;
the third little Clintie built his house with brick.
But the Big IDF-Mossad Wolf blew down all the houses and ate up the three little Clinties."
The moral of the story?: all Clint/Tims* DESERVE to be eaten up!
C Smith| 5.6.11 @ 10:16AM
For a almost a decade the world has been asking: "Where is Osama"? Now the world is asking every other question but "Where is Osama now"?
Under our feet this very moment is a subterranean world. The Hebrew Scriptures refer to it as the pit, the abyss, the nether parts of the earth, Abaddon.... No, it is not Hell. Hell is not yet. The Judgment must come first. The name of this present shadow land is called Sheol. And within it a place reserved for those who "caused terror in the land of the living."
"Asshur is there and all her company... all of them slain, fallen by the sword... which caused terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:22-23).
"There is Elam and all her multitude... fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:24).
There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude... they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen... which are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:26-27).
There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit" (Ezekiel 32:29).
"There be the princes of the north... with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword...." (Ezekiel 32:30).
"Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee" (Isaiah 14:9-11).
http://theisraelofgod.blogspot.....-dead.html
Frisbee| 5.6.11 @ 12:50PM
The imagery of the scriptures should not be taken litero-physically in this regard. Sheol, purgatory, and hell are not physically some length beneath the surface of the earth, just as heaven is not physically some distance above the surface. In visions sometimes the heavens or the earth were "opened" so that hell or heaven could be seen (Fatima, St Stephen), but these were apparitions.
Margie| 5.6.11 @ 10:10PM
You don't quote the Scripture because you don't believe it. And if you reject the Scripture as it is written~ you reject God.
"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the Holy Angels." Lk. 9:26.
Who are YOU to tell God that His Heaven and His Hell are not to be taken seriously, and that they are "apparitions?
Dave Williams| 5.6.11 @ 1:03PM
Oh, for Pete's sake....how can any thinking adult believe this drivel? There is NO evidence, let alone PROOF that there is anything after death except rotting of the body and extinction of the soul, whatever that is. That said, it is pleasant to know that that POS Bin Laden no longer gets to breathe, and never will again.
RAMIII| 5.6.11 @ 2:01PM
It is interesting to me that "there is NO evidence, let alone PROOF that" you are thinking unless you write it down, or for that matter any "invisible" process.
Stuart Koehl| 5.6.11 @ 2:56PM
"There is NO evidence, let alone PROOF that there is anything after death except rotting of the body and extinction of the soul, whatever that is."
On the other hand, no evidence, let alone PROOF that there is not. In a few decades you'll know, one way or the other.
The question is, what will you do if you have been wrong?
That's the big problem with atheism--it requires a greater act of faith to not to believe than it does to believe. Must be why atheists are so touchy about the subject. Or, as Satchel Paige liked to say, "Don't look back--something might be gaining on you".
John II| 5.6.11 @ 4:46PM
Actually there's abundant evidence for both, but it comes in the form of what Wordsworth called "intimations." Every time Professor Obama holds forth in public, for example, I behold evidence of hell right here on earth. And every time the teleprompter goes down and the stale cadences collapse into sheer stuttering gibberish, I behold evidence of heaven winking at hell.
And now back to "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), in which Don Ameche, a recently deceased philanderer, is rejected by the Devil because of the former's incipient goodness and modesty, even after inventing the telephone in an earlier flick. The Devil is played by a huge former bouncer named Laird Gregar the year before he really died, at age 28, of -- I'm not kidding -- heart failure brought on by a crash diet. When you add up such nuanced events, you have strong evidence for heaven and hell.
Frisbee| 5.6.11 @ 12:50PM
The imagery of the scriptures should not be taken litero-physically in this regard. Sheol, purgatory, and hell are not physically some length beneath the surface of the earth, just as heaven is not physically some distance above the surface. In visions sometimes the heavens or the earth were "opened" so that hell or heaven could be seen (Fatima, St Stephen), but these were apparitions.
Margie| 5.6.11 @ 10:16PM
"For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomor'rah to ashes He condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the Day of Judgment.." 2 Pe. 2:4-9.
"And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur." Rev. 19:20.
Who does "Frisbee" think he/she is?
Repent and believe the real Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Grey Piper| 5.8.11 @ 11:27AM
Dear God, make it stop. MAKE IT STOP!!!!
mingxingye | 5.7.11 @ 1:03PM
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jon b| 5.7.11 @ 4:06PM
You guys are just delusional, and show exactly what happens when self absorbed pseudo intellectuals assume too much power in this country
cris | 5.7.11 @ 11:36PM
What really happen, per Obama White House:
Just released & declassified- President Obama Sunday, May 1, 2011(recap)
Breakfast, 2 rounds of golf, he then led an extremely important staff meeting/discussion on the NFL Draft, after a quick lunch he flew to Chicago to appear on Oprah, next he boarded Air-Force One, changed suits and flew to California to attend a fundraiser for his 2012 reelection campaign. At this point, most people would retire to bed and call it a day, but not our fearless Commander and Chief!
Instead, President Obama boarded Air Force One changed into his camouflaged Special Forces mission uniform and ordered the pilot to fly at maximum speed to the Northern Afghanistan Border, where he quickly disembarked from Air Force One and hopped on an idling Team 6 Navy Seal helicopter, which was awaiting his arrival.
Without missing a beat the jet propelled chopper crossed the Pakistan border and dropped the President inside Osama Bin Laden’s compound, where under heavy fire Barrack single handedly neutralized the 5 terrorist guards on duty with 5 consecutive kill shots (this incredible efficiency was the result of his new "Green" combat initiative), without hesitation, President Obama then scaled the 18 foot, barb-wired concrete wall protecting Bin Laden's private living quarters, after-which he miraculous dove 14 feet, crashed through a large window, somersaulted into an upright position and miraculously fired his 6th round into the face of Bin Laden!
Immediately following his acrobatic kill shot, 4 of his Seal teammates busted into the room. Having no time to waste: Obama instructed them what to do, exited the compound, jumped on the helicopter and flew back to Air-force one, which he then ordered to Washington at top speed. As staff members removed his facial battle paint and helped him change into a business suit, they were startled to discover a .45 caliber slug lodged in his Kevlar Vest. However to ease their anxiety, Obama assured them he felt no pain, and that it was, "all in a day's work.”
Upon landing the President was whisked away to the White House via helicopter where he delivered his post 1:00 AM speech to the Nation.
How on earth did American survive for 2008 years without him?
The Grey Piper| 5.8.11 @ 11:26AM
Please. The SEALs were just a diversion for Chuck Norris.
Seriously, can y'all imagine Sock Puppet pulling a Teddy Roosevelt and finishing off a speech (without teleprompter, no less!) after being shot?
Dee See| 5.8.11 @ 10:28PM
---NICE article.
NOW, back to the world media cover-up
of history's most awesome radiation disaster
(Fukishima) --even as chart busting fallout
readings have now been confirmed in
backyard gardens ---in Kent England!
SEE Alan Watt 'Humiliation of Information'
report pt.2 on Youtube a s a p.
sex toys | 7.4.11 @ 1:18AM
Moyers' phony quote has one thing correct. NPR/PBS is a gift to liberalism. Why would they fight so hard against de-funding?