Osama bin Laden did not die on May 2, 2011

Claim

Osama bin Laden did not die on May 2, 2011⁰.

Background

On May 2, 2011, the American president Barack Obama announced in a speech at the White House, Washington D.C. that Osama bin Laden had been killed during an attack in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

A large part of the members of the Truth Movement deny this.

The claim exists in various forms:

Some believe that Osama bin Laden is not dead at all

”Additionally, I am not totally convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead as we are now told from all sides – we might receive more fact checks and denials concerning Osama and 9/11 one of these days”¹.

“President Trump promoted a baseless conspiracy theory on Tuesday alleging that the Obama Administration covered up a plot to stage Osama bin Laden’s death, a wild accusation that was pushed by Twitter accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory.”²
Some believe that he died in December 2001 from a lung disease and lies buried in Afghanistan

“A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa’da organization, stating that bin Laden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated to The Observer of Pakistan that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial in Tora Bora 10 days ago.”³
Some believe he is kept frozen somewhere in the United States

“I have it from high level [sources] from inside the Bush administration…that bin Laden died of natural causes and that his family has given the body to the CIA, that they’re gonna roll him out right before the election, that he’s on ice right now. They will claim they killed him right before the election.”⁴

Facts

After many months of intelligence work and planning, Osama bin Laden was traced to a secret hide-out in a villa in Pakistan and killed. The operation was carried out by the Navy Seals, controlled by the American military with president Obama as Commander in Chief⁵. A number of facts support this:

Photos from the scene has been published:

The president of the United States confirms the killing in a speech, broadcast live:

The FBI has changed the text on their wanted poster of Osama bin Laden, from ”wanted” to ”deceased”.

A video of Osama bin Laden was found on the scene⁶.

The White House has confirmed the killing in a press release⁷.

Newspapers over the world wrote unanimously about the killing⁸.

The government of the United States keeps photos of the body of Osama bin Laden which they do not want to publish⁹. This is because the photos are quite gruesome, given he was shot in the head. Also, the photos might be used for enemy propaganda against the United States. Of course, the fact that the photos have not been published is not proof in itself that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the fact that they say they have the photos and explain why they will not publish them, is a good piece of circumstantial evidence, seeing that they could have chosen to say that they don’t have them. The circumstantial evidence is corroborated by the fact that the individuals, e.g. politicians, who have seen the pictures, confirm their existence and content. In other words, the photos have been validated by testimony.

No one closely related to Osama bin Laden, e.g. his family, or even himself have denied that he died on May 2, 2011. If that happened, it would be a disclosure that would embarrass the United States tremendously, domestic and abroad.

On the contrary, al-Qaeda has officially confirmed that Osama bin Laden is dead¹⁰.

Logic

It is illogical that Osama bin Laden should not have died on May 2, 2011, if only because al-Qaeda, a sworn enemy to the United States, has confirmed his death, on that date. It is quite unthinkable that they would give the Americans the credit for his death if he was not dead, or merely dead some other way, or at a different time.

It is improbable that the death of Osama bin Laden is a cover-up. Such a scheme would require a lot of participants, including bin Laden’s family and al-Qaeda, all of whom would have to keep quiet and voluntarily support the hoax, despite the fact that they could get much more attention and political influence by revealing that the Americans were lying. Again, it is unthinkable that al-Qaeda would cooperate in such a way with the Americans.

Furthermore, the Americans have nothing to gain by claiming they killed Osama bin Laden if it were untrue. On the contrary, they risk a lot of vendettas which, given the circumstance, very well would be controlled and carried out by Osama bin Laden.

Of course, it is easy to imagine a theoretical advantage for president Barack Obama to appear like a hero and thus provide votes for his next election but in that case the timing would have been terrible, since the election in 2012 was far ahead. As it turned out, the polls only gave Barrack Obama a very short boost in popularity due to the operation. He did not even have any strong opponents. Furthermore, popular domestic political initiatives are normally a much better way to achieve votes in the United States. Thus, it would be pointless to base an election strategy upon a military action towards Osama in Laden in Pakistan.

It is obvious, when you regard the variants of the claim, that the conspiracy theorists do not agree internally about what is true and false in this matter. Some leading conspiracy theorists even agree with the official explanation¹¹. The mere lack of consensus weakens the claim colossally and emphasizes how incoherent and imaginative, they relate to the matter.

Not only is it contradictory but also unintentionally funny that some believe that Osama bin Laden is both still alive and died in 2001 and both lies buried in Afghanistan and on ice in the United States.

Conclusion

The claim is therefore:
- Undocumented
- Illogical
- Improbable
- Incoherent
- Self-contradictory
Sources
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Osama bin Laden did not die on May 2, 2011

Claim

Background

Facts

Logic

Conclusion

Sources

Q & A