White not going to be fake anymoreFollow

He who? You do understand that Brennan's statements were made in the press briefing, presumably at the same time when the press was handed the set of photos (including the situation room photo), while the Panetta interview was at least a day later, right? Two different people at two different times. And the time period in between is when the media believed that the people in the situation room photo could see and hear the operation directly. Gee! I wonder why they thought that?




Yeah. And it's when he made that statement that people realized that this didn't jibe with what they'd been told earlier and what the media had reported. Which is exactly why there's a question about this. Do you have to work hard to be this obtuse?

Still on the correct track. Might want to try it.

Did everyone else just miss this...? Because I found it hilarious.

'nuff said.

Edited, May 19th 2011 12:12am by Eske

I'm sure that's what you think.

By the way, kudos on backpedaling twice over the course of three consecutive words.

Edited, May 18th 2011 11:31pm by bsphil

Sure, guess all you want. You probably shouldn't make "factual" statements about the legitimacy of specific photos without more evidence than a strong belief in a conspiracy theory, though.

Ok, so gbaji and varus both are claiming that the photo was staged because there was about 25 minutes where the footage wasn't broadcasting. I don't see how that matters. Varus's own quote from Panetta says that while the video was down, "there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information." Which explains why they all looked so tense... no?

gbaji's quote about "watching and listening to the firefight that killed Bin Laden" is just as silly. The video was down for 25 minutes, but that doesn't mean they didn't see the beginning of the firefight, does it...?

So call me gullible, but until someone can provide some proof that this photo was staged, some credible proof, I have no problem believing this picture is what they say it is. And if it's not, big fucking deal.

Are Obama-haters like gbaji and varus really so pathetic they have to make every single non-story into a huge conspiracy to make themselves feel better because a black man holds the highest office in the land?

Edited, May 19th 2011 10:12am by Belkira

Well, it says the video went off when they entered the compound. So I'd assume they missed the "big show", so to speak. But in a mission that included sneaking into Pakistan to a site near a military academy, losing a helicopter, praying that the compound even had bin Laden (and that he was currently there), the firefight in question, removal of evidence (and the body) from the compound, destroying the disabled helicopter and then getting the hell out of Dodge before Pakistan could respond... I'd say there were plenty of tense moments.

The short answer is that you're dealing with a complete idiot in Varus and someone who has gone off the deep end in Gbaji who has waved the banner of every embarrassingly asinine anti-Obama conspiracy theory to come down the pipe. Evidence, or even common sense, doesn't matter to them.

I've just skimmed most of this since the first page, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. The views of the posters here seem to be:

Lefties: The situation room photo wasn't taken during the operation itself, but it wasn't staged - those folks were there working.
gbaji (Varus doesn't count): It was staged, and then passed off to make people think it was happening while bin Laden was being taken out.

This is oddly one of those times I see some middle ground. Everyone I've spoken with (who isn't a conspiracy theorist) at least initially believed the photo was taken during the operation as the head honchos were anxiously awaiting news. As more facts came out in the days and weeks after, many realized that was an incorrect assumption, but many didn't (most didn't care - it was a great photo). But I haven't seen anyone saying that the entire thing was a staged photo - that the group was not actually there doing work of some kind.

So I agree that the initial impression that was given was that the photo looked "live" during the operation, but I disagree that it was a staged photo that everyone posed for (which seems to be what gbaji is saying?).

I think the photo was taken during the operation but at what point during the operation is unknown. It could have been at the beginning, during the landing, while people were waiting for noise to come from a speaker saying "Yes" or "no" on bin Laden, during the withdraw from Pakistan... who knows.

There's a deal of confirmation bias to the photo in that people say "Oh, sure... they just happened to have this iconic photo of the event" when, if the mission had failed, the photo would have still existed and just had never seen any media time because no one wants to see photos of people monitoring a failed mission.