12:00: Studio Reporter: These events that we showed you from Abbottabad, there are many more things that we discovered about the compound where OBL was staying. There were vegetables planted there, what kind of vegetables, the person who grows the vegetables is the cousin of this person (Muhammad Bashir), whose interview we have shown. An extraordinary thing that he has said and he has sworn repeatedly on the veracity of his statement. This is from his own account and upon this account do view this. Yesterday we found out and it has been confirmed that there were two Ashfaq’s who lived there (in the compound): Mr Arshad and Mr Tariq who went shopping locally and used to buy international brands, the items they found in the house, dry dates, dried meat and things like this, this person who you saw in the interview in his house there was food from OBL’s house, he was given Kaabli Pillau (Rice) and such items were presented to him. There the view of local mosque people, what they think of OBL all these things we will present to you in an exclusive program an important newsbeat, todays time is finishing, do write to us at newsbeat@samaa.tv where you can get other information as well and you can join us at Newsbeat with Fareeha Idrees. That’s my favorite bit. Do write to us. The time is up now. By your permission to leave, take care of yourself, in Allah’s care.

13:20: Reporter: I am now at standing in front of Abdullah Bin Zubair Mosque, this is the same mosque that is within walking distance from OBL’s house. Are you saying that if people found out that OBL was living here, would they be happy?

1st man: Possibly, people could be happy.

2nd man: He wasn’t living here, but he was a Muslim, he believed in Allah.

Anyone fluent in Urdu who wishes to dispute the translation should do so.

I asked the translator if he might contact the Pakistani news organization and inquire if the reporters had further investigated Bashir’s story. He replied that he could do so, but exactly 24 hours later “for some unknown reason” the news organization started to discredit Bashir by connecting “him to his cousin, who is accused of receiving foodstuffs from the household of OBL.”

Bashir’s cousin is the person who, according to the reporter (see 12:00 time line) had a vegetable garden inside the wall of the alleged bin Laden compound. Is it likely that with a hunted and dangerous person hiding within, locals would be permitted to have vegetable gardens inside the compound?  The cousin’s vegetable garden obviously had to be redefined as “receiving foodstuffs from OBL.”

The translator offers his view on the 13:20 timeline:

The final seconds of the video clip contain random people to generate and show some kind of sympathy with OBL in the district.

It would be very difficult to find people in Pakistan who sympathize with OBL or the Taliban. The only people who do sympathize are the poor illiterate people who do not know about the religion and can easily be convinced of a distorted version of Islam.

Therefore, the closing part of the video contains out of context expressions:

1st man: Possibly, people could be happy. (Meaning it is possible that SOME people could be happy.)

2nd man: He wasn’t living here, but he was a Muslim, he believed in Allah. (Meaning he claimed to be Muslim, so he must have believed in Allah.)

Therefore, it seems that although initially, the TV station was overjoyed with this interview, they changed their tune twenty four hours later (for some unknown reason).

Readers can arrive at their own conclusions.  It seems clear that under intense pressure and serious threats from the US government, the Pakistani government fell in line with the US government’s claim that a commando raid had killed bin Laden and all had returned safely, and that the TV news organization also got the message to get in line.

It is likely that the many witnesses who observed the dead from the helicopter crash have been warned to keep quiet. However, a news organization, should one be so inclined, could certainly interview Bashir and the 200 others who saw the dead bodies. A good reporter, perhaps accompanied by trained psychologists, would be able to tell if people were lying out of fear and encourage some to speak anonymously.

I am confident that no news organization believes that it could confront such an important US national myth in this way.  The killing of bin Laden satisfies the emotional need for revenge and justice.  In the least, a news organization that challenged the government’s story would be cut off from all government sources and be denounced by politicians and a large percentage of the US population as an anti-American terrorist-serving organization.

OBL’s death will remain one of those many “truths” that rest on nothing but the government’s word.