The New York Times' bizarre story on Osama bin Laden's death

[Valin]

CNN:

Peter Bergen

Oct. 19 2015

 

(CNN)* The New York Times is the greatest newspaper in the world, so when the current cover story in the Times magazine is headlined, "What Do We Really Know about Osama bin Laden's Death?," readers are surely going to pay attention.

 

The story was of particular interest because we actually know a great deal about bin Laden's death, not only from three books written by participants in the operation -- one of the U.S. Navy SEALs who was on the raid and the two top CIA officials who led the hunt for al Qaeda's leader -- but also from many news articles about the operation written by reporters working for The New York Times.

 

Anything that might add to the hundreds of thousands of words that are already on the public record about bin Laden's death would, of course, be of great interest to the American public and, indeed, to people around the world.

 

(Snip)

 

One of the only journalists who has "stood up" any element of Hersh's story is Carlotta Gall, a reporter for the Times whose 2014 book, "The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan 2001-2014," was excerpted in the Times magazine.

 

Gall wrote that she had been told by a Pakistani source that "the ISI actually ran a special desk assigned to handle bin Laden. It was operated independently, led by an officer who made his own decisions and did not report to a superior. He handled only one person: bin Laden ... the top military bosses knew about it."

 

This would be big news, if true, but strangely the aggressive reporters at the Times who cover Pakistan and also the U.S. intelligence community, including Pulitzer prize winners such as Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, have not substantiated an iota of Gall's reporting, nor any of Hersh's.

 

(Snip)

 

 

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* Now Stop Laughing!