Details emerging of the burial at sea

Hours after he was killed in Pakistan in a firefight with U.S. Navy SEALs, bin Laden’s corpse was flown to Afghanistan to be identified through DNA analysis, then transported to an undisclosed location in the northern Arabian sea.

There, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the body of one of the world’s most feared leaders was washed in accordance with Islamic ritual and lowered into the watery depths.

Submerging the body at sea precluded the establishment of a gravesite shrine that could become a rallying point for bin Laden’s followers. It may have circumvented unseemly arguments over custody of his body or accusations of religious disrespect. The rapid disposal of bin Laden’s body also adhered to the Muslim tradition of burial within 24 hours of death.

A senior U.S. defense official said the rites lasted for about 50 minutes. Bin Laden’s body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and then placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read “religious remarks,” which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker.

More at link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/bin-ladens-secret-sea-burial-adds-to-the-mystery-of-his-life/2011/05/02/AF4uEPZF_story.html?hpid=z3

...what?

from what I understand. Which is, in my uninformed 18 year old opinion, the best thing that they could have done.

you are wise beyond your years.

...care so much about HIS religion, why did he continue to advocate that the young, uneducated men kill themselves in suicide missions? Why did he advocate the beating, maiming and killing of women that did not follow the orders of his religion?

I find your post insincere and almost certainly naive.

Seems he had no moral compunctions slaughtering Muslims, none whatsoever.

Your sympathy is noted.

exhume the body at a later date and find out some facts that might expose things they don't want us to know, like that he died years ago.

:rofl:

Sid

have already been dead. During the Bush administration, people were all over this board saying the reason GWB couldn't get OBL was because he was already dead. Now, when someone mentions that he MIGHT have died years ago - having a well-known kidney condition - they are suddenly labeled a conspiricy theorist or tin-foil hatter.

It's not that far fetched to think that it's possible that our lying, cheating, stealing government might be pulling a fast one on us. Particularly when there is no concrete proof. Not for any of us.

who did claim during the Bush years that Osama was being kept on ice, but their numbers were few. They accounted for a shit load of posts, but there weren't that many of them.

a bit liberally - it's not crazy to have a difference of opinion, especially since you weren't there and have no concrete proof. Also, we must remember things differently during the Bush years, because as I remember it, the dominant opinion was that OBL couldn't possibly be alive due to his kidney condition and "running from cave to cave".

Or at least his whole body in a "leaked" cell phone video. Bush would have loved to get his codepiece around this one!

It flat didn't happen.

President Obama is lying to the world? There's a giant conspiracy on to suddenly "kill" Osama NOW?

Yes, that is tin foil hat conspiracy idiocy.

Seriously, Obama, himself, did not kill Bin Ladin. There is no guarantee that he knows the truth either (and don't tell me those who take orders from the Pentagon never lie). I am just saying that I have no proof that was even still alive and have so far seen no concrete evidence of his death.

So I'm not saying that I believe or disbelieve the official story, but given our government's record, it's become second nature to pretty much question everything I hear.

The live feed from the Navy Seal's helmet camera?

Seriously, to believe that events were not more or less as advertised, you have to discount an enormous amount of facts.

when I get home from work. Didn't find out about it until this morning.

unlike the Pentagon.

:)

would never lie, distort, exaggerate or embellish.

You're worse than Trump.

time bin Laden was running around in caves. He died six years ago with the best of care in the most sterile of environments where getting an infection that can kill you is really easy. So you can see why I'm skeptical that bin Laden was able to survive under the conditions he was living in.

They will use one of George Soro's boats. Anonymous will spring for gas money.

LOL

Oh dear, dear Lord... please... please... please... make it stop! My sides can't take any more!

all without the Bush Administration knowing any of this mind you, and then, just when the heat was on, they staged this killing?

he sneaked into Hawaii under the cover of darkness and inserted his long form birth certificate into State records?

That's when Obama went into a rage and took him out.

silver lining

They could have put a holdback fitting in his ass and launched him!

It is my opinion that his burial was done the best way possible.

They should be glad his corpse didn't get "Mussolinied"

"But while Muslim leaders in the U.S. were largely accepting of the way the government disposed of the body, Muslim clerics abroad have been highly critical."

I'm happy with it. AMF!!!

More like dropped like a bomb from 60 feet up.

...all of the sailors went to that side to pee following the release of the body.

eom

But just think of some poor shark who might have taken a bite of the cadaver. ;-)

Sharks would show professional courtesy.

Not a chance in hell.

Yeah, because all of that takes so long... hahahaha!

Oh, it just keeps getting better~

Why should they show respect for his religion? he didn't deserve that...sorry, the whole thing with the sea burial is weird.

One: it keeps his followers from creating a graveside shrine and Two: showing some type of respect is good for relations with moderates.

There is no need to inflame the extremists even further.

to honor a martyr. The Sea was the best place. And with the reprisals of burning a Quran, respectfully disposing of the body was the least we could do. Job Done, main point.

the Geneva Conventions or not?

If the rationale for his execution is a state of war, I assume the administration would also handle his corpse by that playbook?

:)

Article II of the 1949 Conventions authorizes burial at sea. The requirements are simply that it must be done "respectfully", individually (no mass body dumping), and that the body must be examined and well documented first to assure identity.

When I read 2, it stresses the ability to find the dead after hostilities are ended. It makes no provision for taking someone deceased on land and dumping them into the ocean because no other country will take them.

And I'm not being snarky, I literally don't see it, so if you do, I'd be grateful if you could point the passage out to me.

Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Chapter II : Wounded, sick and shipwrecked

Article 20

Parties to the conflict shall ensure that burial at sea of the dead, carried out individually as far as circumstances permit, is preceded by a careful examination, if possible by a medical examination, of the bodies, with a view to confirming death, establishing identity and enabling a report to be made. Where a double identity disc is used, one half of the disc should remain on the body.
If dead persons are landed, the provisions of the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of August 12, 1949, shall be applicable.

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/370-580024?OpenDocument


The only real murkiness lays in that last sentence. Technically, if the body was taken back to land, they would have been required to bury it. Because the body was taken to sea, they didn't have to. It's certainly a loophole, but what they did is entirely legal under international law.

It doesn't say that those who died on land may be taken out to sea for the purposes of obscuring their resting place.

And given the Article 17 emphasis on identifying the resting place, it looks like a stretch to me to say that what was done to bin Laden's carcass is entirely legal.

Thanks for the passage.

Am I reading in the wrong place?

Article 17

Parties to the conflict shall ensure that burial or cremation of the dead, carried out individually as far as circumstances permit, is preceded by a careful examination, if possible by a medical examination, of the bodies, with a view to confirming death, establishing identity and enabling a report to be made. One half of the double identity disc, or the identity disc itself if it is a single disc, should remain on the body.

Bodies shall not be cremated except for imperative reasons of hygiene or for motives based on the religion of the deceased. In case of cremation, the circumstances and reasons for cremation shall be stated in detail in the death certificate or on the authenticated list of the dead.

They shall further ensure that the dead are honourably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged, that their graves are respected, grouped if possible according to the nationality of the deceased, properly maintained and marked so that they may always be found. For this purpose, they shall organize at the commencement of hostilities an Official Graves Registration Service, to allow subsequent exhumations and to ensure the identification of bodies, whatever the site of the graves, and the possible transportation to the home country. These provisions shall likewise apply to the ashes, which shall be kept by the Graves Registration Service until proper disposal thereof in accordance with the wishes of the home country.

As soon as circumstances permit, and at latest at the end of hostilities, these Services shall exchange, through the Information Bureau mentioned in the second paragraph of Article 16, lists showing the exact location and markings of the graves, together with particulars of the dead interred therein.

If not, it really doesn't apply to him (unless there is a Power in which we are in conflict of which he is a part and which also accepts and applies the provisions of the Convention).

this has nothing to do with my opinion.

Generalissamo Francisco Franco is still dead.

Trust but verify. It is the Native American in me-I trust no government except tribal elders maybe.

on this board are taking this at face value without any other proof than the trustful :puke: word of our sacred government.

I didn't believe the bull shit about Iraq and Saddem Hussain being Al Quida, I didn't believe them killing babies in Quwait, I am skeptical about the new government in Egypt being truly of the people and not unduly influenced by US plants, I don't think Bradley Manning stole those secrets and the list goes on and on.

My great great grandfather always was fond of saying "Do not believe anything you hear and half of what you see." The older I get, the more I think he was one of the wisest men around.

Osama's body being "washed" may mean they took a hose to it. There. Done. He's washed.

"Wrapped in a white sheet"? Clean or dirty I ask.

"weighted bag"? Oh man, I'd love to know what they put in that bag with that body.

"Religious remarks"? Probably means they said "Jayzus fucking Christ, he's dead, praise gawd. Now kick this shithead out the door."



But then again, I have a twisted mind.... They probably did do a respectful job. Anyone in the military on DU ever "capture or kill" a high level target that had perpetrated so much evil? It's hard to imagine those soldiers being that respectful. Possible, but hard to imagine.

...this never would have been accepted without question as it has here back in the Bush era....not for a second.

:evilgrin:

that he was already dead during the Bush Administration and that Obama was a traitor to the Democratic Party are now infused with a new undying loyalty to the government.

:hi:

They should have dumped him in the Gulf of Texaco

bullshit.

I remember a line from a John Wayne movie where Wayne's character promised the bad guy "a fair trial, and decent hangin' and a respectful burial". In the end Wayne shot the crap out of him then buried him.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I prefer the phrase "fed to the fishes".