Burying bin Laden

A strange story showed up today on Drudge and other sites about bin Laden's burial:

Internal emails among U.S. military officers indicate that no American sailors watched Osama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the secret ceremony.

The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader's death. The emails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department.

Well, that might start some conspiracy theories.  But wait--even a modicum of shallow thought might explain the lack of sailor witnesses: the brass didn't want any play-by-play descriptions leaking out to the web that could inflame the moderate Muslims (the ones who weren't happy the terror leader died).  Indeed, the government has been using the state secrets reason to withhold most everything about the event under that same premise since 2011. 

The veil over Benghazi is partially associated with the same thing--fear of outrage, which is one reason they blamed the obscure movie and bought ad time in Pakistan to apologize--after the Susan Rice appearance on the Sunday shows blaming the movie.   But such things also help the political narrative.  Anyway, check this:

In a response to separate requests from the AP for information about the mission, the Defense Department said in March that it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden's body on the Vinson. The Pentagon also said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden's body if he were killed.

Why would releasing DNA tests inflame anyone?   Here's something else weird.  When the last round of Wiki Leaks came out there was a brief sensational Drudge story about the body:

Fred Burton, vice president for intelligence at Stratfor, wrote to a colleague at 5.51am on May 2, the day the al-Qaeda leader was killed, saying: “Body bound for Dover, DE on CIA plane. Than [sic] onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda.” An earlier email from Burton to colleagues stated: “Reportedly, we took the body with us. Thank goodness.”

Burton's not some guy sitting around in his pajamas, he's a former State Department intel professional.  After about an hour Drudge took the story down and completely disappeared it off his site.  Burton later emailed Stratfor's founder George Friedman and said that UBL was with the fishes. 

And no doubt he is--somewhere.  Maybe off the coast of Maryland, maybe the Persian Gulf, who knows.  That's the thing, we must have faith. 

Not everyone has faith.  Some will say this latest information proves the entire raid was as phony as a million dollar bill.  Possible?  Well, the circle of knowledge isn't huge:  high level CIA and a few operatives, high-level military (to include Petraeus), the SEALS, a few helicopter pilots, the command staff of the Carl Vinson and one Muslim sailor who prepared the body--and the bin Laden wives.  And of course Obama. Obviously there was no embedded media at any location for any of the events.  There have been no pictures or other documentation released other than a book by a former SEAL team member, who divulged from the official narrative.

If you think this is silly imagine Bush/Cheney getting rid of UBL in the same fashion, a year before an election!  The late great Walter Cronkite thought Rove might have been keeping UBL alive by faking the recordings in the basement.  That bastard, Rove! 

But c'mon, Obama may be gutsy but it's hard to believe he'd risk everything on a fake raid pulled off just to help end the WoT and get reelected, right?   Somebody would talk somewhere.  With the stakes so high a lot would be required to keep the lid on everything, which itself could be problematic.  Think Chicago.

But not everyone could talk even if they wanted to.  For example, if indeed UBL disappeared in 2001 then Bush insiders could hardly talk, nor could the Taliban, the remaining AQ higher-ups (who aren't dead), Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.  If Iran knew it's hard to think they wouldn't have dropped the dime on Bush long ago.   The SEALS can't talk--they have to keep their clearances and oaths and the bin Laden wives have disappeared--to Saudi Arabia!  

A few others would definitely know and have no reason to keep it quiet--KSM and cohorts.  Does everyone know they are on trial down at GITMO right now?   We'll see what they say, if it gets reported.  And Obama--he would have known coming in the door in 2009.  But if he knew UBL was dead and was playing along to surge troops in Afghanistan that itself was a liability.  Best to remove the liability. 

OK, OK!  Flimsy!  Yes.  Matter of fact his post is probably racist.  And maybe sexist.  Somebody would have leaked, surely.   Sure, it's weird that we have all this secrecy but Obama was reelected and everyone should just look forward now.  The wars are over.  GM is alive.  It's time to nation-build at home.