Osama’s death and the “Rogue State”!

(To understand the mystery and many unanswered questions connected with the death of Osama Bin Laden, it is very useful to read William Blum’s book, the “Rogue State”!)

The most wanted man by USA on whom they had put a price of $25 million is dead. As claimed by Americans he was killed in a daring operation by the elite US unit, the Navy Seals in a mansion in the cantonment city of Abbotabad deep inside Pakistan. It is ironic that the very creators of this person as a legendary figure during the Afghanistan’s resistance to Soviet Invasion had to finally kill him in such a surreptitious way! Already a number of questions are being asked about the whole operation. Many conflicting reports are being handed out about the actual details of the operation. There are also theories about the timing of the operation especially keeping in view the US elections next year and the current Arab uprisings. It was first declared that Osama was killed in a fire fight as he was armed and had resisted. Within 24 hours it was stated that he was unarmed and had no weapon on him. It straightaway amounts to extra-judicial killing of an unarmed man! There are also confusing stories about the involvement of the Pakistani establishment. According to details given there was a fire fight for about 40 minutes and still the Pakistan Army placed just 800 metres from the spot is supposed to have been informed after the operation was over! Were they simply watching the show in the Pakistan’s most prestigious cantonment city where most of its senior officers have been trained? There have been conflicting reports about Pakistan’s complicity in the whole operation. The President and the Foreign Office spokesperson have given contradictory statements. The chief of ISI and the Army Chief have preferred silence. Incidentally both have got extensions in their services most probably due to covert intervention of US administration. In brief, there is total confusion regarding this targeted killing of what has been called the most dangerous man on Earth! Confusion and deliberately created delusions are a part of the US policy. To understand the actions of the US government not only in the case of Osama killing but in general especially their bullying attitude and global interventions, it is very useful to read the book “Rogue State” written by William Blum. In fact, Osama Bin Laden in January, 2006 had issued a statement asking Muslims all over the world to read this book to fully understand the American machinations. I read the book in 2006 after reading a news item about it. The operation involving Osama’s killing fits precisely in the plan of activities conducted by the world’s only super power and described in detail by William Blum!
Because of his opposition to what the United States was doing in Vietnam, William Blum left the State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer. He then became on of the founders and editors of the Washington Free Press, the first “underground” newspaper in the US capital. Since that time he has been writing and exposing the activities CIA all over the world. The “Rogue State” is a 300 page book which surveys the US wrongdoing in the world since 1945. Many people including young children in USA after the 9/11 happenings consider their country some kind of a “bully” but if one reads the “Rogue State”, then calling America a “bully” is a drastic understatement. In the introduction of the book William Blum writes, “America cherishes her enemies. Without enemies, she is a nation without purpose and direction.” The “War on Terror” including the global manhunt for Al-Qaeda including its founder Osama Bin Laden has only been a justification and/or a smokescreen for a number of international and domestic measures. These include massive increases in military spending and a crackdown on civil liberties on the home front. Internationally, it means hard headed unilateralism wherever multilateral consensus does not gel with US preferences. Global muscle flexing has been in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now taking place in Libya.
The book has very short and concise 27 chapters touching subjects like, "Assassinations”; “War Criminals: Theirs and Ours", and "United States Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons", both abroad and at home. There are chapters on U.S. involvement in or support for torture, kidnapping, looting, eavesdropping, drug-dealing, and election-trampling. Blum turns the spotlight squarely on the U.S. domestic scene in the final chapter, "A Day in the Life of a Free Country", focusing on the atrocious conditions in the federal and state prison systems, the racial injustice that permeates anti-drug policies and sentencing procedures, rampant surveillance of dissidents (and just about anybody else). Even though it is difficult to wade through all these gross violations committed by the world’s only super power without getting a benumbing sensation, yet the book is an ideal reference to various happenings all over the world involving USA. The most relevant chapter to present happenings seems the "Concise History of United States Global Interventions, 1945 to the Present". Thus going through William Blum’s book may be very relevant to understand not only the recent killing of Osama Bin Laden but even the present uprisings in the Arab World and American reaction to these.