Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Debunking Bin Laden Myths

By John Ballard


The Guardian runs down a list of misinformation about OBL in a convenient set of ten.



  1.  He did not receive any direct funding or training from the US during the 1980s. Nor did his followers.

  2. He did not have a huge personal fortune.

  3. He was not responsible for 1993 bombing of World Trade Center.

  4. No evidence that he got money from drug running 

  5. Contrary to another myth, he did expose himself to danger ...numerous witnesses report that he was in the thick of fighting in Jaji in 1987 and again at the battle of Jalalabad in 1989.

  6. He did not spent a lot of time in caves. 

  7. There is no evidence that he was a tearaway teenager who partied in Beirut before becoming religious.

  8. There are some reports � not least in the Guant�mo files � of renal problems but certainly not serious enough to kill him. It is more likely he had back problems caused by his height (around 6ft 5in) and relatively sedentary lifestyle.

  9. That he hid in Kashmir, was the leader of Chechen groups, was responsible for violence in the Philippines and in Indonesia, organized the Madrid 2004 attack and had an extensive network in Paraguay, sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa -- all these claims, made by various governments or intelligence services over the last decade have proved totally without foundation. 

  10. Bin Laden was not an Arsenal fan (a London club).


Details at the link if anyone is interested.
I'm with Steve. The obsession with Bin Laden is tiresome.


I'm also in agreement with Ron that he died a winner, having successfully prompted Americans to voluntarily torpedo some of our most cherished values. And even now, despite the unbelievable changes occurring in MENA, our leadership is spinning like a top to keep the level of fear and suspicion at maximum impact. I can't decide which is more disgusting, prating about retaliation by his followers or how efficacious torture was in catching him. Every time I hear one or the other all I can do is shake my head and say -- mostly to myself -- give it a rest.


 



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1 comment:

  1. andersonMay 5, 2011 at 2:01 AM

    " He did not receive any direct funding or training from the US during the 1980s. Nor did his followers."
    Yeah, I saw this "debunking." And indeed, I figured it might be a serious effort. Boy, was I wrong. And that #1 statement above was as far as one needed to go to see that it was not a serious effort; perhaps one of the most facile statements made. It is simple, though, which is how the media, and apparently Jason Burke, like it.
    A disappointing joke.

    ReplyDelete

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