Lahore, Pakistan — I am incredulous!
I’ll say one thing: this US Special Forces operation deserves a standing ovation for immaculate execution. Except that some details do get confusing.
Maybe I’m just slow, but truly, viewing the still pictures of the compound where Osama was shot to death that are being aired on local TV here, I am left spell-bound by many odd contradictions.
First, the wall that encircled the compound, which was blasted through to allow entry to the US attackers, showed a humble charpoy next to a water geyser and a few odd household items stacked right next to the opening. Not a hair out of place, so to speak. It was all a little too orderly for my lawyerly taste. Wouldn’t something have been damaged or knocked over at least?
Second, the room where the crucial “fire fight” took place causing deaths of Osama, his wife and some others (but no American), showed what were seemingly very humble lodgings. My own servant’s room is posh in comparison . There are no bullet holes, or marks of bullets ricocheting off the walls, and there’s no sign of damaged glass from the good-sized windows on one wall. The bed sheets on the two charpoys are so neat as to do a hotel maid proud. There’s just over 250 ml of blood on the floor between the two charpoys. It looks to me as though, rather than a fire fight, Osama & Co. were simply sitting ducks for a hunting party! Wait, that’s not all. The glass in the window is see-through. How odd! Anyone could have looked in and seen the world’s most wanted man once night fell, and remember, it’s an open area.
The downed helicopter, miraculously, disgorged its crew like magic. Presto! All unharmed by the crash! Yet oddly, the three neighbors of Osama who rushed to the scene to help, and who would have been witnesses to what actually happened, all have gone missing and never returned home.
And hey, where are the other dead bodies? There were some, no? And why the rush, rush, rush to dump Osama in the ocean? Why not share the evidence to put a stop of rumor mongers? At least show the corpus delicti to someone objective.
Osama's bedroom: no leaks in the waterbed after the shootout
The picture of a dead Osama circulating on the web was bad photo shop job. Truly. Kids do a better job. Why not show the body or the DNA test results to the media, or ISI?
A friend wrote to me saying, “The USA is about to withdraw from Afghanistan. What better way than after this ‘Mission accomplished’ moment? Obama is entering the re-election period. This will boost his ratings.
Pakistan’s army and the ISI are caught on the back foot because of their inability to detect Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbotabad. Pakistan is again on the defensive , after having gained the high ground on the (Raymond) Davis affair. The world once again views Pakistan as the terrorist capital of the world. Is this another step in its balkanization and an excuse for eliminating its nukes?”
But I find it just so hard to believe that this was not a mutually cooked dish.
As another friend said, ”We may be poor, we are not stupid.”
Yasmeen Ali is a Pakistani attorney who lives in Lahore. She offered this article, which ran originally in the Pakistan Observer and in her own blog, PakPotpourri2, exclusively to ThisCantBeHappening! for publication in the US