By Joshua Holland
AlterNet
The Obama administration deftly shaped the media coverage of its prized kill by detailing a picture-perfect, morally unambiguous special forces operation, which culminated in the death of Osama bin Laden. Most of the details of that narrative have now unravelled, but the conventional wisdom that the tale established remains. As Glenn Greenwald put it, that’s par for the course: “the narrative is set forever by first-day government falsehoods uncritically amplified by establishment media outlets, which endure no matter how definitively they are disproven in subsequent days.”
In his address to the American people, and in subsequent media briefings by senior officials, we were told that a small force of as many as 25 Navy Seals stormed the compound with orders to take bin Laden alive, if possible. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that once inside the compound, they came under heavy fire and “were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.”
The SEALs killed Osama bin Laden’s son when he lunged for them on a staircase, and finally encountered their quarry in a bedroom, where, after taking a woman believed to be his wife as a human shield, bin Laden died in a vicious fire-fight. The operation, Obama said, was carried out “with extraordinary courage and capability.”
As the week wore on, all of these details were “revised,” and the administration claims that the initial, improbably clean account of what happened was merely a product of the “fog of war.” And, as Salon’sJustin Elliott notes, “despite the major misstatements by the administration on perhaps the biggest story of the year, the media has largely taken a deferential stance” to that position.
Let’s look at what has changed since that first draft of history was written by the administration.
1. No Firefight
John Brennan, White House security adviser, initially told reporters that bin Laden “was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in.” But on Wednesday, unnamed “administration officials” told NBC that only one person fired on U.S. troops from an adjacent guest house, and once they entered the main residence the “resistance” we were told they faced “never materialized.”
The compound was cleared quickly, said the officials, and rather than a 40-minute firefight, the commandoes spent most of their time there gathering computer hard drives and other potential sources of intelligence.
2. No Human Shields
A senior defense official at the Pentagon told reporters that bin Laden and other combatants “certainly did use women as shields.” Jay Carney “revised” that part of the narrative, saying, “a woman, rather, bin Laden’s wife, rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed.”
3. Kill Team?
Bin Laden’s daughter alleges that the special forces operators first captured bin Laden and then executed him, though that story hasn’t been confirmed. But (yet another) unnamed administration official told Reuters that the team “was under orders to kill the al Qaeda mastermind, not capture him.”
Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that the killing was an act of “self-defense,” but the account given by another official to NBC appears consistent with the idea that they were ordered to kill the terrorist leader.
After entering the bedroom where bin Laden was holed up and shooting a woman in the leg, “without hesitation, the same commando turned his gun on bin Laden, standing in what appeared to be pajamas, and fire two quick shots, one to the chest and one to the head.” There were reports of weapons in the bedroom, but bin Laden was “unarmed at the time he was shot.” When asked if the al Qaeda leader had said anything to the operators, CIA chief Leon Panetta told PBS’ Jim Lehrer, “To be frank, I don’t think he had a lot of time to say anything.” Reposted by 
The world trade centers were blown up by the government of the US. It was a controlled demolition! ae911truth.org Fire does not collapse steel buildings. Diesel fuel, JP 1, JP 2, are low grade Kerosine fuels and will not burn hot enough to melt steel . If you have a steel gas burning stove has it melted much after you cook for an hour on it? There are too many facts for those who care to look into it to follow the lies the government spills. Wake up world . N.W.O. KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR!
Wow the world is full of people that will follow the devil to the tree of Knowledge just to find out they are naked, stupid and blind.
1) Osama Bin Laden died in a hospital bed. No shots were fired. They put him on ice for the special perfect time to distract the world.
2) He was an employee of the C.I.A. that is why they could not find him LOL
3) Evil is Evil no matter who does it when they do it or why they do it.
4) Murdering millions of innocent Muslims, Jews and Christians in Iraq. This is the most evil act of history of world.
5) The majority of American people do not support what the cartel in Washington does.
6) The fluoridated masses will believe anything they see on TV .
7) America has been controlled by the world bankers since the civil war!
8) Soon America will be no more it will become another power that destroyed itself with corruption and greed.
9) Once upon a time there was a Republic in the united States
Now there is nothing but an executive dictatorship run by the banking cartel!
To Alvin Valeriano:
GO ON WITH YOUR EMPTY PLATITUDES. If I could then I would ship you all to Pakistan and North Korea then lets see what happens to your political correctness. Let’s see what happens to your freedom of speech. Let’s see how you will be reduced to dhimmitude.
Academics who are blinded by stupidity. Well, no use talking about this animal anymore.
Aldrine:
I like Indian food, so I might like Pakistani food. I’m not an academic. I’m an Air Quality Specialist. You’re so angry, but it’s misplaced. Check the news and find out how many innocent civilians are being killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan. I’m sure you don’t plan to attend weddings in Afghanistan—good, because wedding parties have been targets of US drone attacks lately— you know, mistaken ID’s by good ol’ American trigger happy techies. But you might not know of such things. You have the mainstream media to thank for that, as these injustices are not usually in the news. But I’m glad you found your way to Bulatlat.com. There’s hope for you.
Using “dhimmitude” and North Korea in the same breathe is puzzling? You sayin’ Kim Jong Il is a Muslim? Who you trollin’ for, Aldrine?
Yes, a lot of people dupe others, not just America…just take a look at your friend Kim jong Il who duped his countrymen into believing that his is an immortal, who does not defecate, who is the best golfer in the world. I would like to see a report here about how prosperous north korea is. JOMA is so cozy with kim jong, i heard????WTF!!
Well, Osama bin-Laden deserves what happened to him.
I am tired of Leftists spewing out political correctness which is in fact, STUPIDITY.
How do you call the cold-blooded murders he has engaged in???
This SOB does not need anybody’s tax dollars anyway. I will not give my money to take care of this SOB when he is in prison. NO WAY!
Call it execution, call it extra-judicial killing, but let me call it JUSTICE…at least for the thousands of people he killed, for the thousands whose lives he has destroyed.
I will feel really good if you were on that plane that he crashed on 9/11…then see your mangled body paraded and other people will rejoice how beautiful ‘infidels’ look when they’re dead. Or at least ALL of your family and friends have been bombed so that you will know how political correctness will work for you.
OBL has declared war on Christians, on the Americans, and anybody who believes differently. Yet, im quite amused how leftists out of their stupidity will defend this ANIMAL.
The moment he killed not one, but a lot of people he has declared himself unfit to live. He has lived by the rules of the jungle, and that’s how he will die.
To Alvin Valeriano:
GO ON WITH YOUR EMPTY PLATITUDES. If I could then I would ship you all to Pakistan and North Korea then lets see what happens to your political correctness. Let’s see what happens to your freedom of speech. Let’s see how you will be reduced to dhimmitude.
Academics who are blinded by stupidity. Well, no use talking about this animal anymore.
GO AMERICA! JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE!
Nazi war criminals were at least afforded the Nuremburg Trials after WW2, and then executed. IF (and it’s a big IF) the accounts of Osama Bin Laden’s death are true, snuffing out an unarmed OBL is just plain extra-judicial killing. And only gullible people would believe that OBL was given a decent Muslim burial by consigning his body to the sea—it merely gives a lot of currency to skeptics who doubt the whole story. Since when did it take less than 24 hours to establish indisputable DNA identification of a body?
More from Professor Noam Chomsky, who also contends it was just plain assassination:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/07-5