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Bin Laden’s Secret Life in a Diminished, Dark World
NY Slimes ^ | 5/7/2011 | Elisabeth Bumiller

Posted on 05/07/2011 11:32:01 PM PDT by GVnana

Excerpted:

Videos seized from Bin Laden’s compound and released by the Obama administration on Saturday showed him wrapped in an old blanket watching himself on TV, like an aging actor imagining a comeback. A senior intelligence official said other videos showed him practicing and flubbing his lines in front of a camera. He was interested enough in his image, the official said, to dye his white beard black for the recordings.

His once-large entourage of Arab bodyguards was down to one trusted Pakistani courier and the courier’s brother, who also had the job of buying goats, sheep and Coca-Cola for the household.

-snip-

Abbottabad, a scenic hill cantonment for the British Raj and later home to the elite military academy that is Pakistan’s West Point, became the Bin Laden family base in late 2005. Their large compound, in a new neighborhood on the outskirts of town, is now the most photographed house in the country, with stories spilling forth from astonished neighbors. Bin Laden, who was the tall man C.I.A. officers watched pacing the courtyard from a surveillance post nearby, never went out. The neighbors knew the family as Arshad Khan and Tariq Khan, the aliases of the trusted courier and his brother. The courier also went by the name Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 72versions; abbottabad; cia; obltermination
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Bold added.

From Wikipedia: The town of Abbottabad, in British Raj, was the headquarters of the Hazara district during British rule of India. It was named after Major James Abbott who founded the town and district in January 1853 after the annexation of Punjab. He remained the first Deputy Commissioner of the Hazara district from 1849 until April 1853. Major Abbott is noted for having written a poem titled "Abbottabad", before he went back to Britain, in which he wrote of his fondness for the town and his sadness at having to leave it.

1 posted on 05/07/2011 11:32:04 PM PDT by GVnana
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To: GVnana

Osama shoulda called Obama for advice on using a teleprompter.

And Obama could have learned from Osama how enjoyable it is to watch videos of yourself.


2 posted on 05/07/2011 11:51:51 PM PDT by Aria ( "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.")
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To: GVnana
wait - osama drank coca-cola? decadence!
3 posted on 05/07/2011 11:53:22 PM PDT by CzarChasm (My opinion. No charge.)
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To: GVnana
Major Abbott is noted for having written a poem titled "Abbottabad", before he went back to Britain, in which he wrote of his fondness for the town and his sadness at having to leave it.

I would think that a lot of people would have a fondness for a town named after themselves.

4 posted on 05/07/2011 11:59:24 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: CzarChasm
wait - osama drank coca-cola? decadence!

Goes without saying. Just part of the weirdness of it all. Wake me when it's over.

5 posted on 05/08/2011 12:03:44 AM PDT by dr_lew
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To: GVnana

I wonder if Osama ever caught an episode of Jersey Shore?


6 posted on 05/08/2011 12:09:57 AM PDT by MissMack99 (BO Stinks!)
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To: GVnana

That is a rather weird name for a town and I wonder why the supposedly rabidly Islamic Pakistan kept it.


7 posted on 05/08/2011 12:19:08 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: dr_lew

I guess Pepsi-Cola doesn’t hit the spot for too many Moose.


8 posted on 05/08/2011 12:20:43 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: GVnana

bookmark


9 posted on 05/08/2011 1:13:15 AM PDT by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: GVnana

‘Videos seized from Bin Laden’s compound and released by the Obama administration on Saturday showed him wrapped in an old blanket watching himself on TV, like an aging actor imagining a comeback. A senior intelligence official said other videos showed him practicing and flubbing his lines in front of a camera. He was interested enough in his image, the official said, to dye his white beard black for the recordings.’

The first paragraph is quite interesting, if factual. Like a has-been actor, who once strutted on the world stage, bin Laden apparently wanted his glory days back.

To paraphrase Norma Desmond, “ ‘And I promise you I’ll never desert you again because after ‘September 11’ we’ll make another attack and another attack. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.’ “

Pathetic.


10 posted on 05/08/2011 1:33:19 AM PDT by AnAmericanAbroad
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To: HiTech RedNeck
>"I guess Pepsi-Cola doesn’t hit the spot for too many Moose."

Is it any wonder?


11 posted on 05/08/2011 1:56:06 AM PDT by rawcatslyentist (It is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; ~Vattel's Law of Nations)
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To: AnAmericanAbroad

Makes you wonder, with this and the pacing, whether he was getting dementia!


12 posted on 05/08/2011 2:12:45 AM PDT by GnuHere
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To: GVnana

Well,
This should show all would be moose limb terrorists that IF they terrorize America even if you are the number one terrorist you will be forced to live like one of Michael Vicks dogs for years. Afraid of your own shadow.


13 posted on 05/08/2011 3:00:14 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
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To: GVnana
His once-large entourage of Arab bodyguards was down to one trusted Pakistani courier and the courier’s brother, who also had the job of buying goats, sheep and Coca-Cola for the household.
14 posted on 05/08/2011 4:00:52 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: GVnana

It seems the NY Slimes missed the White House memo that this was a command and control center for Al Qaeda, that Bin Laden was firmly in command of the day-to-day operations and that Bin Laden was only days away from killing us all had it not been for our heroic president.


15 posted on 05/08/2011 4:03:11 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
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To: GnuHere

I’m sure he had an acute case of cabin fever if nothing else. I’m not too sure about dementia, but perhaps a slowly insidious creeping insanity (much like my Norma Desmond ‘Sunset Boulevard’ reference).

But, if this report is accurate, it shows OBL had nothing else. He was a faded jihadi, and had nothing left but the memories of his earlier days, when he could come and go at will, when he was the “talk of the town”, so to speak. If he was dying his beard as well, it points to a vain streak in the man as well. A narcissitic personality.

A forenisc psychological report on the man, based on his life on the run, would certainly be interesting reading.


16 posted on 05/08/2011 4:19:52 AM PDT by AnAmericanAbroad
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To: GVnana

Seems Bumiller hasn’t changed from the days when she said she’d give bubba a bj in exchange for keeping abortion legal.


17 posted on 05/08/2011 4:50:49 AM PDT by Carley (We will not tire. We will not falter. We will not fail. W, 9/20/01)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
I don't know, but I presume "abad" means the same thing as city, town, ville, etc. Islamabad, etc. Abbott named the town after himself, and reportedly thought the climate was perfect. (Wikipedia has its failings)

Abad sounds awfully close to abode. Indo-European in derivation? I should just get a dictionary...

18 posted on 05/08/2011 4:54:46 AM PDT by GVnana
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To: Carley

OMG, it’s the same broad isn’t it? I forgot about that.


19 posted on 05/08/2011 4:56:25 AM PDT by GVnana
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To: GVnana

She’s on O’s list..........of reliable whores.


20 posted on 05/08/2011 5:51:07 AM PDT by Carley (We will not tire. We will not falter. We will not fail. W, 9/20/01)
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