Tag Archives: abbottabad

Sep 7 2012

What Is He Up To?

No Easy Day, the supposed tell-all book by “Mark Owen” the pseudonym for a retired Navy SEAL apparently has certain things wrong.  Admiral William McRaven, the commander of the Special Forces Command, and a SEAL himself, undertook and extraordinary review of the events surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden and concludes that Owen’s version is wrong.  You can read Admiral McRaven’s findings here.

Can No East Day be a sophisticated “Swift Boating” of President Obama’s role in authorizing the hunt for Osama bin Laden?

Aug 17 2012

The Swift Boating Of Obama

is more like an empty barge.  Peter Bergen, who is perhaps one of the more prominent analyst of worldwide terrorism and especially the hunt for Osama bin Laden, takes to task the recent efforts by alleged former military men (especially former SEALs) who charge that President Obama has used the killing of bin Laden for political purposes.  The main claim is that Obama is taking credit for something that he had little to do with: the hunt for and subsequent killing of bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2010.

Bergen goes point to point in disproving the attempt to discredit Obama’s involvement in this action. 

Although his detailed explanation is not going to change zealots who intensely hate the president, hopefully rational people will see that the swift boat attack on President Obama is full of holes.

Jul 26 2012

On Getting Bin Laden

This is a great interview by Wolf Blizter of CNN with Admiral William McRaven, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. What makes this great is that the Admiral is not a stiff apparatchik as you might see in many countries, but an engaging and candid person. Notice that Wolf tries hard to pull classified material from McRaven. The punch line is McRaven’s final remark on this video.

The Interview apparently does not like to be embedded. You can find it here.

Apr 28 2012

Written Over Twenty Years Ago, Falling Star Still Tells It Like It Is

According to an article in the Washington Post today, terror expert Peter Bergen used the following characterization to describe Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan:

“It was as if the compound’s inhabitants were living at a makeshift but long-term campsite.”

Readers of my novel, Falling Star, may find this description eerily similar to how one of my characters described the living accommodations of a terrorist:

“Mildred went through the few possessions of Julie Davenport. She was amazed at the lack of personality in the room. It was almost as if Davenport had been camping out.

Maybe, thought Mildred, that is exactly what Julie Davenport was doing.”

But Falling Star was written in 1990-1991 and released in 2010.

Sometimes I scare myself by the prescience that Falling Star contains, such as the Russian spy ring discovered in 2010 (and the reason that I finally decided to self-publish) and the huge mysterious object that was found on the floor of the Baltic Sea by Swedish explorers in 2011.

If you haven’t read Falling Star, you might want to if only to see what else is coming down the pike for us in real life.  You can check it out as part of A Triple Thriller Fest, a box set with co-authors Michael Wallace and Gordon Ryan at http://amzn.to/ATripleThrillerFest or on its own at http://amzn.to/Falling-Star

 The Washington Post story can be found at http://wapo.st/IaPvzN.