Heidar Moslehi, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence, is joining the growing movement of “Deathers,” the conspiracy theorists who do not believe al Qaeda emir Osama bin Laden was killed by US SEALs and CIA operatives during the May 2 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Moslehi claimed bin Laden died of an undisclosed “sickness” years ago. From AKI:
“We have reliable information that Bin Laden died a while ago from a sickness,” Moslehi said on Sunday on the sidelines of a government meeting.
US president Barack Obama announced that the Al-Qaeda leader was killed during a raid on the compound where he was living 100 kilometres north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. An American Navy SEAL shot Bin Laden in the head and chest, according to the official American version of the 2 May events.
Bin Laden’s body was flown to an American aircraft carrier in the Indian ocean where it was buried at sea, according to the US government.
“If the US military and the intelligence apparatus arrested and killed Bin Laden, why didn’t they show the body? Why did they throw it in the sea?” Moslehi said, echoing the opinion of many conspiracy theorists.
The Obama administration has refused to release the photos of bin Laden’s corpse, fearing the graphic nature of the images would offend Muslim “sensibilities.” Subsequently, the Deathers have been empowered to use the lack of images of bin Laden’s body to promote their conspiracy theory. Statements like those from Moslehi will only add fuel to the Deather fire.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
7 Comments
Anybody hung up on this issue would be the ones decrying ‘American bloodlust’ had the pictures been trotted out on the Evening News last Monday.
Jihadists want the pictures released because they’d have unparalleled propaganda value. Proof the Sheikh achieved martyrdom. Jihadist groups have never been shy about showing images of their own dead, they consider it a recruitment opportunity. They even embraced the photos of Zarqawi shown by the US military.
By not releasing the photos and burying him at sea, we’ve denied to Al Qaeda the one fringe benefit of Bin Laden dying. We’ve mitigated his lasting power as a martyr. He’s on his way to being forgotten.
If someone doesn’t believe Bin Laden is dead, a photo isn’t going to change that. The Truthers think 9/11 was a hoax despite thousands of cameras capturing hundreds of thousands of hours of footage of the towers falling. And the Truther movement certainly includes many in the Iranian government.
While I’d certainly like to see the photos for my own personal satisfaction…I have no need to see them. And I’m perfectly content to have the lasting images of Bin Laden’s death be a celebration outside the White House and a quiet memorial at Ground Zero.
The families of the victims should be able to view the photos of the murderer Bin laden if they request it. I know he’s dead. The Iranians are a problem that won’t go away.
Just to check, Uday and Qusay were “insufficiently Islamic” (and much-hated) that their photos didn’t result in views of them as martyrs taking hold, right?
Deathers, birthers, truthers, whatever. Some people used to think the moon landing was a hoax too. A presumption of falsity with no evidence. Occam’s Razor is the better way. Unfortunately, the nutcases seem to rise to dangerous prominence in Iran. The Arab world also seems to be particularly known for it. Hopefully the Arab awakening will throw cold water on their conspiracy theorists, with more free press, etc.
Heidar Moslehi should spend more time figuring out how to defend Iran’s computers from israel’s cyberspace attacks. I do think we, the USA, should quit cooperating with israel’s zionists in these and other efforts against Iran. Indeed we should cut off all financial aid to israel and stop all cooperative efforts in any area until such time as israel shuts down all the settlements and removes all of the zionist squatters. Its quite obvious that the USA spins Iran’s politicos round and round because of these efforts and events and the net result is wacked out statements by people like Heidar Moslehi.
The truthers think 9/11 was not what the official version described, BECAUSE of the hours of videos, the squibbs, the FDNY men saying they heard bombs etc. (not to mention the mossad agents filming it from liberty state park, the micro thermite, and the hundreds of pilots, architects, and engineers who support this inquiry).
Where though. are the HOURS of footage from the pentagon? we got 3 frames of a blur and a fireball.
anyway that is a sidebar. OBL is dead. now onto mullah omar and AZ.
That Osama’s body was “buried at sea” alone is highly indicative of a cover-up of some kind. Every other high-level enemy that we’ve killed has been put on public display. This whole thing stinks to high heaven. They dumped him in the ocean because they _had_ to for some reason, in order to conceal something. If you can’t see that you are truly blind.