Special Comment on Osama Bin Laden Assassination & Pakistan from KGS NightWatch 20110509 #ITM

So kids, it's your Uncle Drunky again. I found this gem in the early morning, from one of my favorite GOV/Mil/Infosec lists, KGS NIGHTWATCH. If you want REAL NEWS ala Cryptogon, Public Intelligence, or Wikileaks you NEED to be on this list!

Any apologies to KForce Gov or the NIGHTWATCH admin for length of passages.. but the kids need to be introduced to your list, as they will be assuming the debt/running the place in the next few years. Information is power and all that.

Now to the special comment about Osama bin Laden, the guy we've been dealing with, sometimes as a friend, since early Afghanistan-Russia days:

"Special comment: In American jurisprudence, the best evidence rule requires attorneys to provide direct evidence of the commission of an act, civil or criminal. This rule requires, for example, a properly executed deed as the best evidence of real estate ownership. Ownership of an automobile is established by the title. Best evidence of a dead man is always his corpse.

Unidentified US officials chose to sacrifice the best evidence for the sake of honoring Islamic 'burial' practices. That choice put the US in a difficult position because the US has produced no 'proof' of bin Laden's death - just words, also known as testimony. Moreover, since 1 May US officials have stated no less than five variations of the story of bin Laden's death. Pakistanis have issued three versons; Saudi news media have issued an entirely separate version of the death and al Qaida's general command has issued still another.

Without the corpse, it is entirely reasonable to believe that bin Laden could be still alive and in US custody. All of the evidence of his death is testimonial, not demonstrative. Even the acknowledgement by the al Qaida general command is suspect because of the al Watan version of the story that bin Laden was betrayed by his own people in a leadership split. Bin Laden's successors have a motive for declaring him dead quickly, much more quickly than the Pakistani Taliban acknowledged the death of Baitullah Mehsud, for example.

Testimonial evidence - words - is always weaker than demonstrative evidence. No amount of testimony about a person's death can equal the probative value of a dead body. Photos of a corpse, especially digital photos, always are weaker than the corpse itself, in proving death. That is why the best evidence rule exists in US law.

Thus the US has disadvantaged itself by its own choices. Administration luminaries have insisted the US did everything it could to ensure that the world would believe that bin Laden was dead. Nevertheless, they failed. They did everything except honor the best evidence rule which every lawyer in training learns in Evidence class.

(Via NightWatch 20110509 - KGS.)

Long story short: Gee, the 'People who can think for themselves & this kinda sounds like BULLSHIT to me'-ers, uh, 'deathers' may have a point. Why throw jurisprudence out the window? And, WHY should even the American people trust the word of a government that over the course of three presidential terms & two administrations has committed questionable acts, taken away our rights, and put restrictions on our travel? Bueller? Bueller?

But hey, this is how the Boomsters roll. Don't worry your pretty little head about the details. (hat tip to DSquare Digest, who also picked up on this 'deathers' thing).

Now on to the REAL and juicy (hi)story of Pakistan:

As for Pakistan, the US must decide about its relationship. The latest alliance with Pakistan, in a long and often broken line since World War II, is only eleven years old. It is based on coercion of a resisting General Musharraf to work with the inconstant Americans in late 2001, in the Pakistani view.

 

Pakistani memories are long and mostly unfavorable. For example, older Readers will remember that Pakistan was an alliance partner in CENTO, between 1955 and 1979. Membership in CENTO, also known as The Baghdad Pact, did not benefit Pakistan during the 1965 war with India.

Close ties to the US did not prevent Pakistan's loss of East Pakistan and defeat by the Indian Army in 1971 or in the Kargil war in 1999. A virtual alliance with the US seems to have encouraged the US in making a surprise commando raid against bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad this month.

The US relationship with Pakistan has shallow roots for another reason. An entire generation of Pakistani military officers have received no training in US military schools and courses because International Military Education and Training (IMET) was cut off in 1990. Chinese military authorities know more about the next generation of Pakistani military leaders than the US.

Long after the US withdraws soldiers from Afghanistan, Pakistan will be important to the US because it has nuclear weapons that can be used against India and proliferated to Arab states. Secondly, it has close security relations with China that are not congruent with US interests in South Asia and the Middle East."

(Via NightWatch 20110509 - KGS.)

And this, kids, is why your Uncle Drunky just doesn't buy all the 'Pakistan divorce' crazy talk by that Foreign Policy douchebag Tom Ricks. At all. This is also why I value lower-profile under-the-radar mailing lists over peacock-strutty pro-war buh-logs like Foreign Policy.

The drums of war are beating again. Will you heed the call by the former peacniks in our government? AGAIN?? Fool me twice.....

Drunky out.