American Everyman – by Scott Creighton
To start off let’s make this very clear: President Peace Prize did not kill Osama bin Laden. I don’t care which version of the fairy tale you chose to “BELIEVE” in.
Sy Hersh’s painfully contrived new version of “The Death of bin Laden 2.0” is still being hotly debated across the interwebs. I picked his offering apart the other day and have very little interest in spending much time on his ridiculously cobbled together narrative that he clearly cooked up, by his own admission, like a stenographer recording the secret CIA “retired official’s” new version of events.
It was painful to read his work then as it’s painful to even mention it now.
However, there is a new development which might shed a little light on the 1. validity of Mr. Hersh’s crappy new “official story” and 2. at least part of the MOTIVE behind it.
This morning there is a new wrinkle to the story that Sy Hersh slathered all over us when he published his “The Death of bin Laden 2.0” propaganda.
A Pakistani newspaper has published the name of the secret Pakistani former intelligence officer who Sy Hersh claims his “secret retired intelligence official” says was the one who came to US intelligence officials and fingered bin Laden’s hideout inAbbottabad.
Well-informed intelligence circles in the garrison town of Rawalpindi concede that the vital information about the bin Laden compound was actually provided to the Americans by none other than an ISI official – Brigadier Usman Khalid. The retired Brigadier, who has already been granted American citizenship along with his entire family members, persuaded Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician, to conduct a fake polio campaign in the Bilal Town area of Abbottabad to help the Central Intelligence Agency hunt down Osama. The News International
According to The News, the real player behind the hiding of bin Laden wasn’t the ISI or even Pakistani military leaders and it wasn’t, as it was claimed in Sy’s pathetic drivel, because the ISI caught bin Laden in 2006 and were keeping him imprisoned at that little hovel of a “compound”
No, according to this story, the main culprit was none other than President Pervez Musharraf himself.
“Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani was ISI chief at the time, but the dominant figure was President Pervez Musharraf”. Ignatius referred to former ISI chief General Ziauddin Butt and noted that a report in the Pakistani press in December had quoted him as saying that Osama’s stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brigadier (R) Ijaz Shah on Musharraf’s orders. General Ziauddin Butt repeated his claim in the February 2012 issue of the Newsweek magazine, in an online interview conducted by Bruce Riedel. Riedel quoted Lt Gen Butt as saying: “General Musharraf knew that Osama bin Laden was in Abbottabad.” Ziauddin Butt claimed that Ijaz Shah was responsible for setting up bin Laden in Abbottabad, ensuring his safety and keeping him hidden from the outside. On the other hand, Musharraf has refuted having any knowledge about Osama living in Pakistan during his tenure. The News International
So you see, according to this version, it wasn’t the Pakistani military nor their intelligence agency (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CIA) that was to blame for hiding bin Laden in Pakistan, it was the Pakistani government run by former president Musharraf.
And of course the proof of that new pudding flavor is one Brigadier Usman Khalid, living as a very wealthy man right here in the states under an assumed name… in hiding.
So you see, Sy Hersh’s story MUST be accurate. The Pakistanis even say it is.
Well, before we take this at face value, let’s break it down a little shall we?
First of all, the story comes from The News which is:
- Group Chairman: Mir Javed Rahman
- Founded by: Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman
- Editor-in-Chief: Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman
The News was founded ions ago by the father of the current owners and operators of the rag, Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman. He created it when he created something called The Jang Group.
Jang has an interesting history:
This is LEAKED Document from Mir Khalil ur Rahman Foundation ( I.I Chandigarh which is the governing NGO of Jang / Geo Group). This Document was Submitted to the Bureau 0f Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), United States Department of State on 30th June 2013 for Access to Justice: Media Campaign – “A Proposal to change judiciary according to Geo / Jang Group’s willingness with the blessing of US as 3 Million $$$ Donation !! “. source
“The chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has asked to probe about the funding coming to Jang and Geo group stating that what the group did with DG-ISI was even worst what an enemy would have done.“ Pakistan Tribute
The News (Jang Group) on Saturday selectively quoted a foreign newspaper as the basis for an article making unsupported claims that President Zardari allowed US to boost drone strikes. Today, Jang Group repeated this misleading practice in a front page article that appeared in both The Newsand Daily Jang. Only this time, the article was actually written by a former CIA official. Pakistan Media Watch
I think it’s fair too say this Jang Group is likely and extension of the US State Department and the CIA in Pakistan. The same family that owns this paper and the Jang Group also owns something called GEO TV in Pakistan which is viewed by some as the Voice of America in the country.
The best way to make that connection is through David Hazinski. Here is a little from his bio page at Grady College where he is on staff.
He (David) owns Intelligent Media Consultants, LLC, a company responsible for training the staffs and helping to launch eight television networks around the world, mostly on the sub-continent. These include Aaj Tak and CNN-IBN in India and GEO TV in Pakistan. He has also consulted for broadcasters and publishers such as the Voice of America, Gramedia in Indonesia, and Alsumaria in Beirut and Baghdad. While on the faculty, Hazinski spent two years as writer, co-host and technology advisor of the internationally syndicated World Business Review with Caspar Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan David’s bio page
Mr. Hazinski not only consulted on the creation of Geo TV, he built it himself and then handpicked and trained the staff. While he was training this staff in his own brand of “journalism” the dreaded “terrorists” set off a bomb nearby, according to Mr. Hazinzki, and thus began GEO TV’s long history of supporting any and every US intelligence industry agenda in the country of Pakistan.
It should also be noted our friend here, Mr. Hazinski, has a deep-seated hatred for citizen journalists and bloggers.
This new system for what Hazinski calls “cottage industry journalists” came from his skepticism. He received a lot of heat from independent bloggers and citizen journalists for his op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution titled,Unfettered ‘Citizen Journalism Too Risky.
“While it has its place, the reality is it really isn’t journalism at all, and it opens up information flow to the strong probability of fraud and abuse. The news industry should find some way to monitor and regulate this new trend,” wrote Hazinski. source
Imagine that. A CIA-linked Mockingbird asset doesn’t like independent journalism. Go figure.
Anyway, enough about Jang Group, The News, GEO TV and their CIA/ISI links.
How about the guy who wrote the story for the CIA/ISI linked Pakistani propaganda rag?
His name is Amir Mir and his brother is none other than Hamid Mir of CIA/VOA GEO TV.
“… some known pro-Taliban personalities accuse him of being a CIAagent.[40][41] Despite the pro-Taliban accusation Hamid Mir criticised the Taliban to such an extent for the attempt to assassinate schoolgirl MalalaYousufzai that they planted a bomb under his car which was later defused.[42] According to some analysts, Mir always propagated the agenda of Western forces. Zaid Hamid, founder of Brass Tacks, called him a CIA agent on an ABN Chicago Radio talk show.[43] Wiki
Amir himself is not much better than his older brother and certainly seems to be following in his footsteps.
Amir also has a rather interesting obsession which I think is more than relevant to this new wrinkle in the BS Sy Hersh story:
Amir Mir has been an outspoken critic of former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, condemning him as a military dictator who violated Pakistan’s democracy and constitution. When he was declared the best reporter of 2005 by the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), he refused to accept the award as it was to be presented by Musharraf. He also criticised the APNS for inviting Musharraf, who Mir said was a military dictator who did not respect the freedom of expression. In his book The True Face of Jehadis: Inside Pakistan’s Network of Terror, Mir claims that Musharraf himself believes in Islamic fundamentalism.[1] Mir accuses Musharraf of making half-hearted efforts to curb radical Islamic groups operating in Pakistan.[1] Wiki
Yes folks, the author of that new article about how Musharraf and not the ISI was responsible for hiding bin Laden in Pakistan was none other than a long standing rival of Musharraf with an established history of blaming him for everything under the sun.
And it was published by a CIA Mockingbird asset.
Of course, the New York Times is running with the story sans any mention of these few troubling tidbits of information. All they say is the reporter is “well connected” and his work “should be taken seriously’
The News reported Tuesday that Pakistani intelligence officials have conceded that it was indeed a walk-in who provided the information on Bin Laden. The newspaper names the officer as Brigadier Usman Khalid; the reporter is sufficiently well connected that he should be taken seriously. New York Times
Yeah he’s well connected. He’s well connected to the CIA who spoon-fed Seymour the bullshit story in the first place.
Unless you take the time to do the background research on stories like this one, it’s easy to fall for the megaphoning of disinformation like this story is clearly doing. Even Patrick Martin from the WSWS fell for it. As did someone at Democratic Underground.
The real kicker in this new wrinkle is the fact that it’s not supported by one single shred of evidence. In that sense, it’s kinda like Symour Hersh’s “The Death of bin Laden 2.0” as well as “Death of bin Laden 1.0″ story. None of them, not single version of events, is supported by one single hard fact. Not one. Of course, in polite circles, you aren’t supposed to mention that fact.
However you view the death of bin Laden, whether you think he went out hiding behind women-folk or sitting like an invalid in a chair watching a 14″ TV or if you think he died back in Dec. of 2001… fact is, this latest addition to the story is complete bunk and the ONLY thing one can clearly prove about this story is it has CIA fingerprints all over it just like Sy Hersh does.
For what little credibility Sy Hersh had as a “mainstream media personality”, now he has zero. You had us going there for a while, Sy, that you were one of the good guys.
Good article #1. The Bin Laden life story as a CIA asset. I still say the Bush Family and Bin Laden’s are “tight” with their oil connections. Just about everything we’ve been told about Bin Laden is fresh off the CIA running script. We were all duped.
A lie within a lie within a lie.
Gotta give points for consistency, if nothing else.