Bin Laden Conspiracy Theories: Real or Not

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Bin Laden is Alive/ Already Dead

The Argument

The lack of photos or video evidence, plus inconsistencies in accounts of the raid, suggests everything was made up. It is also highly suspicious that bin Laden was immediately buried at sea.

Since 9/11 there have been many reports of Bin Laden’s death.

In 2005 senator Harry Reid suggested bin Laden was killed in a Pakistan earthquake. In 2007 Benazir Bhutto said he was killed by Omar Sheikh, a Pakistani militant.

The argument goes that bin Laden’s death was staged possibly as pretext for a war in Pakistan. It has also been argued that it was simply done to boost Obamas poll ratings.

J’s View

It is very odd that no pictures or evidence of any kind have been released. The US claims that releasing any pictures would provoke an anti US reaction and increase the likelihood of reprisal terrorist attacks. I am uncomfortably willing to go along with this for the moment, whilst failing to be totally convinced.

The US also argued there was no point in releasing pictures because conspiracy theorists would just claim they had been doctored. What a ridiculous argument.

‘Well we would release the evidence your honor but we fear the defence might argue against it’.

The suggestion that evidence is not needed because it might be rejected is a very worrying trend.

The US also claim that bin Laden’s body was hurriedly buried at sea to prevent his grave becoming a shrine. I go along with this argument. In my mind it makes sense. A bin Laden shrine would only have encouraged extremism. However it is convenient.

Suggestions that bin Laden was already dead, have never been conclusively proved to any extent.

Personally at the moment I believe he is dead and was killed in this attack, although I am by no means certain. I remain wholly unconvinced by arguments that this has been staged to boost Obamas poll ratings or as pre-text for a war in Pakistan.

Bin Laden was Executed. He was Never Going to Stand Trial

Argument

Bin Laden had strong links with the CIA in the 1980s. It is argued he coordinated with them during the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Had bin Laden been tried these details would have emerged and embarrassed the US so he was killed to prevent this.

J’s View

This in my view is probably the strongest of all the arguments. That said whilst I’m suspicious I am by no means convinced. In 1979 after leaving college bin Laden went to join the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and fight the Soviet Union. During the war the US provided financial aid and weapons to Mujahedeen leaders. However this aid was provided through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence not directly by the US. There were of course CIA members on the ground.

The CIA has denied having direct contact with Bin Laden. However a number of authorities say that the CIA brought both Afghans and Arabs to the US for military training. Was bin Laden one of them?
I’m certainly willing to consider the possibility he was killed to stop a trial.

Pakistan Already New

Argument

People argue there was no way Pakistan could not have known about Bin Laden, particularly when he was living next to the Pakistan Military Academy in a large compound. Bin Laden also had strong links with the Pakistani Intelligence Authorities going back to the war in Afghanistan.

J’s View

I don’t believe that Pakistani intelligence new of bin Laden’s existence. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to harbor him.

Pakistan wants an end to the war in Afghanistan and get rid of the US. One of the best ways to do that would be to find bin Laden. So why hide him? Moreover keeping the information secret would have been virtually impossible, particularly with the $25 million bounty on bin Laden’s head.

Capturing bin Laden would have given great prestige to Pakistan. As it is Pakistan has been left deeply embarrassed.

Whatever we conclude I don’t believe we can say we’re certain of anything. Keep doubting and the truth will reveal itself.

AV and Election Result: Liberal Democrats Hammered and UK Say's 'NO' to AV

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The Liberal Democrats have been hammered in the British local elections. They lost over 650 councillors and 9 councils as the British public punished the liberal democrats for broken electoral promises.

In a further blow to the Lib Dems, the public decisively voted against the Alternative voting system (68% to 32%). The Lib Dems had insisted on a referendum on AV as part of their coalition agreement with the Conservatives.

Embattled leader Nick Clegg said that they ‘had taken a real knock’. The Lib Dems and Clegg have come in for criticism over broken promises, particularly over issues such as tuition fees.

The Lib Dem wipe out was made all the more painful by the surprising resilience of the conservative vote. Their coalition partners had been expected to lose up to around 900 councillors but actually gained 78 new ones.

The Labour party did not have quite as good a night as was expected. They did however gain almost 800 councillors and 25 councils. They were also very successful in Wales where they won 30 of the 60 seats falling just 1 seat short of a majority. It is not clear whether they will seek to form a coalition or govern alone. The best story for Labour was their large increase in their share of the national vote which rose to 37% (10 points higher than the previous election)

However, there was a disaster for Labour in Scotland (their traditional stronghold) where their support collapsed, as it did in fact for all three main parties. The Scottish National Party (SNP) pulled out a stunning victory and perhaps the story of the night. A few weeks prior to the campaign the SNP had been 10 points behind Labour in the polls but they were able to pull off a remarkable turnaround.

The SNP gained a majority of the Scottish parliamentary seats, this despite a voting system which makes majority’s difficult to obtain. The question is when will they now seek a referendum on independence? Despite the SNPs own popularity, polling suggest only around 30% of Scots actually support independence itself. Prime minister David Cameron has said he will vigorously oppose any break up in the union.

The vote against AV was also much higher than expected. The YES campaign was defeated by more than 2 to 1. The NO campaign successfully overturned polls which had them behind six months earlier. The Labour party had been split over the issue with its members arguing both for and against. A BBC commentator said that, ‘Ed Milliband had been weakened’ by his association with the AV campaign.

The question now is will Clegg be able to hang on as Lib Dem leader? And will the coalition be able to survive? If not we all might be voting again quite soon.

PSN Update 3: Sony Blames Anonymous

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Sony has blamed the online group anonymous for the crash in its network. Anonymous has famously been responsible for defending free speech across the internet. They most recently ran campaigns against companies for withdrawing support from the site Wikileaks.

Sony reported that it had found a file on one of it servers. They claim the file was named anonymous and read, ‘we are legion’.

The group Anonymous had denied any involvement in the data theft. It is thought Anonymous sympathised with three hackers whom Sony sued, this was supposedly the motivation for the attack. The hackers were sued after they successfully found a way to play pirated software on the ps3.

Sony argues that a denial of service attack (which overloads the targets servers with traffic) was undertaken by Anonymous. They claim this caused a distraction allowing the hack.

The explanation is unlikely to impress the millions of gamers who are still unable to play on the PSN network, or the many more millions on Sony Online Entertainment (Which was also taken offline 2 days ago).

Anonymous have strongly denied any involvement in the attack. They argue they would have nothing to gain from attacking a network used by many of their sympathisers.

Experts had previously suggested it was unlikely Anonymous were involved. The majority opinion remains that this action was by major criminals. Sony said today themselves that this was a, ‘highly sophisticated and very professional attack’.

Is blaming Anonymous almost two weeks after the attack (with the network still offline) an increasingly desperate action? Even if Anonymous’ s attack was a distraction it is no excuse for the lack of proper security. Regulators say customer data should have been encrypted. Sony now faces a major fine from the UK information commissioner’s office for failing to secure customer information.

Now the New York attorney general has subpoenaed Sony. The states top law official wants to know more about how hackers were able to access people’s data.

Sony is offering 30 days of PlayStation plus (the paid version of the PlayStation network) to customers as a means of compensation. Users can try out demos, get the latest game upgrades and betas. There will also be a forced Firmware upgrade. This will help patch up the hack and offer increased protection when the network goes back online.

Original Article

First Update

Second Update

How To Know When It's Time To Leave Your Job

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You know it’s time to leave when…

1. The Christmas office party does not extend beyond £25 per head and a memo goes out beforehand on ‘company standards’
2. The HR Manager knows your name, really well
3. The logo is blue and boring or the company has ‘solutions’ in the name
4. You get issued with an employee badge and an employee number
5. The internal meeting is more important than a customer meeting
6. The execs have their own car parking spaces
7. A company-wide email comes round asking “whoever parked in the MD’s parking space to please move their car straight away”
8. The loo roll is as thin as the office walls
9. The company has a fish tank, a flag or even worse an animal mascot
10. The company has a restricted use of the internet and social media sites during office hours
11. Flexible working means some nights you can knock off at six
12. The company has no women on the board or in senior management positions
13 .The annual kick get relocated from Dubai to Derby
14. Your company downgrades its biscuits to Rich Tea
15. The CEO complains that it’s easy not being the CEO
16. Part of your promotion means you get a comfier chair
17. You get passed over for promotion because your skirt is not short enough
18. The company ‘invests’ in plastic plants
19. Questions are asked whether you have contributed to the tea and coffee fund
20. The execs drive cars worth more than your house and wear watches worth more than your car
21. The boss thinks it’s cool to start up a company band………..as long as he is in it
22. A senior exec has to leave the company suddenly because of an ‘expenses irregularity’
23. You spend half your wages on restaurant/coffee machine
24. The CEO takes a special interest in interviewing female graduate trainees
25. The receptionist doesn’t learn your name and never will
26. The company share scheme is worth 1/10 of the boss’s monthly pension scheme but is less likely to pay out
27.The company party moves from a London venue to the company meeting room
28. The ageing CEO starts wearing tight black t-shirts and jeans to the office
29.The HR director has a seat at the management meetings
30. Your boss doesn’t know who your clients are
31.Your company announces a 24/7, 365 days a week policy and insists you adhere to it
32.Your office socials are 3-line-whips, but you still have to buy your own beer
33.You have a retirement date calculator as a screen saver
34.Your HR department is more listened to than customers
35.You are passed over for promotion in favour of the boss’s secretary who has decided to re-train
36.You walk past the HR manager’s office and you see your name’s on the board
37.You get stuck in the revolving door at head office and need to be released by the fire brigade
38.The boss says, why do we need a Social Media strategy?
39.The receptionist is replaced by meeters and greeters
40.Your boss has a special obsession with dogs wearing glasses and other ropey Powerpoint clip-art
41.Your boss keeps telling you there’s a tough reception outside and there’s no way you could get another job
42.You’ve heard your boss’s “why I set up the company” first hand 200+ times and there doesn’t seem to be an edited version
43.You take your clients out for lunch and your boss pays with a Pizza Express ‘buy-one-get-one free’ voucher
44.The CEO says we must do the right thing by the customer, but you know you will be asked to do unnatural things to make the numbers at the end of the quarter
45.You get a new set of business cards with a 25-year career logo on
46.The organisation chart goes up and your name’s not on it
47.Your new boss says I won’t be making any changes – just yet
48.Your boss knows your partner’s name at the Christmas party but forgets yours
49.Your boss is married to the HR manager and you’re unaware of it
50.The company mascot has its own web site and blog

So that is the Frost / Clevertouch definitive list of 50 ways (reasons) to leave your company. If you can tick more than 5 we suggest you should start clearing your in-tray immediately and perhaps contacting us at info@clever-touch.com.

We would love to get to a top 100, if you can contribute more please visit our joined-up-marketing blog (www.clever-touch/blog) and add your top reasons to leave in the comments box below or in Frost’s comment box below.

Simon Cowell Joins Sunday Times Rich List. Who's Up and Down This Year.

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SIMON COWELL JOINS RICH LIST
MUSIC TOP 10 WITH £200m FORTUNE

KATHERINE JENKINS WITH £13m FORTUNE PIPS CHERYL COLE, WITH £12m, TO HEAD YOUNG MUSIC MILLIONAIRES TOP 20

ADELE AT £6m, FLORENCE WELCH £5m, TAIO CRUZ £5m, ARE NEW ENTRIES IN YOUNG TOP 20

U2 HEAD IRISH MUSIC CHART WITH £455m

X-Factor judge Simon Cowell has amassed a personal fortune of £200m to place him at number six in the annual Music Millionaires Top 50, published in The Sunday Times Rich List 2011 this weekend.

The 23rdannual Sunday Times Rich List – the definitive guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland – is published as an extra 104-page magazine, free with the paper on Sunday.

The Music Millionaires Top 50 is headed by Clive Calder, with a £1,300m fortune made from the sale of Zomba Records in 2002. New entries include AC/DC’s lead singer Brian Johnson, born in Gateshead, who is worth £50m, and Moya Doherty and John McColgan, worth £70m, who own the Irish dance show Riverdance.

Katherine Jenkins, worth £13m – up £2m on 2010, tops the young music millionaires chart of people aged 30 and under ahead of Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis and Katie Melua, who all have £12m fortunes. The top new entry in the young music millionaires chart is Adele at ninth equal with a £6m fortune. Two more new entries are Taio Cruz and Florence Welch, each worth £5m.

U2 with a combined fortune of £455m, up by £26m from last year – see table below, head the list of Irish music millionaires who appear among Ireland’s Richest 250 in The Sunday Times Rich List 2011.

THE SUNDAY TIMES RICH LIST 2011
TOP 50 MUSIC MILLIONAIRES

Music rank 2011

Music rank 2010

Name

2011 wealth

2010 wealth

Difference
(+/-)

Clive Calder

£1,300m

£1,300m

No change

Lord Lloyd-Webber

£680m

£700m

-£20m

Sir Cameron Mackintosh

£675m

£635m

+ £40m

Sir Paul McCartney

£495m

£475m

+ £20m

Simon Fuller

£375m

£350m

+ £25m

Simon Cowell

£200m

£165m

+ £35m

Sir Elton John

£195m

£185m

+ £10m

Sir Mick Jagger

£190m

£190m

No change

Sting

£180m

£180m

No change

Keith Richards

£175m

£175m

No change

Olivia and Dhani Harrison

£170m

£160m

+ £10m

David and Victoria Beckham

£165m

£145m

+ £20m
13=

Jamie Palumbo

£150m

£150m

No change
13=

15=

Ringo Starr

£150m

£140m

+ £10m
15

15=

Sir Tim Rice

£143m

£140m

+ £3m

Sir Tom Jones

£140m

£135m

+ £5m

Eric Clapton

£125m

£125m

No change

Roger Ames

£120m

£120m

No change
19=

Phil Colins

£115m

£108m

+ £7m
19=

Rod Stewart

£115m

£105m

+ £10m

Barry and Robin Gibb

£110m

£110m

No change

26=

Roger Waters

£105m

£85m

+ £20m

David Bowie

£100m

£100m

No change

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

£95m

£95m

No change
25=

George Michael

£90m

£90m

No change
25=

26=

Robbie Williams

£90m

£85m

+ £5m
27=

David Gilmour

£85m

£78m

+ £7m
27=

33=

Brian May

£85m

£75m

+ £10m
27=

26=

Charlie Watts

£85m

£85m

No change
30=

29=

Chris Blackwell

£80m

£80m

No change
30=

29=

Robert Plant

£80m

£80m

No change
30=

Roger Taylor

£80m

£70m

+£10m

33=

Jimmy Page

£75m

£75m

No change
34=

–

Moya Doherty and John McGolgan

£70m

_

_
34=

36

Chris Wright

£70m

£64m

+ £6m

38=

John Deacon

£65m

£60m

+ £5m

Noel and Liam Gallagher

£63m

£55m

+ £8m
38=

29=

Judy Craymer

£62m

£80m

– £18m
38=

Mark Knopfler

£62m

£62m

No change

38=

Engelbert Humperdinck

£60m

£60m

No change

41=

Nick Mason

£50m

£50m

No change
42=

–

Brian Johnson

£50m

–

–
42=

41=

Van Morrison

£50m

£50m

No change
42=

41=

Sir Cliff Richard

£50m

£50m

No change

44=

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow

£48m

£45m

+ £3m

44=

John Paul Jones

£45m

£45m

No change
47=

50=

Mick Hucknall

£40m

£35m

+ £5m
47=

50=

Kylie Minogue

£40m

£35m

+ £5m
47=

46=

Bernie Taupin

£40m

£40m

No change
47=

46=

Pete Townshend

£40m

£40m

No change

THE SUNDAY TIMES RICH LIST 2011
TOP 20 YOUNG MUSIC MILLIONAIRES (aged 30 and under)

Young
Music rank
2011

YoungMusic
rank
2010

Name

2011 wealth

2010 wealth

Difference
(+/-)

1=

Katherine Jenkins

£13m

£11m

+£2m

Cheryl Cole

£12m

£10m

+£2m
2=

1=

Leona Lewis

£12m

£11m

+£1m
2=

4=

Katie Melua

£12m

£10m

+£2m

Joss Stone

£9m

£9m

No change
6=

1=

Charlotte Church

£8m

£11m

-£3m
6=

Craig David

£8m

£8m

No change

9=

Paolo Nutini

£7m

£5m

+£2m
9=

New entry

Adele

£6m

_
9=

9=

Lily Allen

£6m

£5m

+£1m
9=

Natasha Bedingfield

£6m

£6m

No change
9=

9=

Duffy

£6m

£5m

+£1m
9=

9=

Amy Winehouse

£6m

£5m

+£1m
14=

9=

Nadine Coyle

£5m

£5m

No change
14=

New entry

Taio Cruz

£5m

_
14=

9=

Sarah Harding

£5m

£5m

No change
14=

9=

James Morrison

£5m

£5m

No change
14=

9=

Nicola Roberts

£5m

£5m

No change
14=

9=

Kimberley Walsh

£5m

£5m

No change
14=

New entry

Florence Welch

£5m

THE SUNDAY TIMES RICH LIST 2011
THE MUSIC MILLIONAIRES IN IRELAND’S RICHEST 250

Irish
Music rank
2011

Irish
Music
rank
2010

Name

2011 wealth

2010 wealth

Difference
(+/-)

U2

£455m

£429m

+£26m

Michael Flatley

£214m

£241m

-£27m

Denis and Caroline Desmond

£185m

£186m

-£1m

Enya

£85m

£85m

No change

Moya Doherty and John McColgan (Riverdance)

£70m

£72m

-£2m

Van Morrison

£350m

£50m

No change
7=

7=

Chris de Burgh

£32m

£31m

£1m
7=

New entry

Bob Geldof

£32m

_
7=

7=

Westlife

£32m

£31m

+£1

The 23rd annual Sunday Times Rich List – the definitive guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland – is published in a special 104-page supplement, which profiles the 1,000 richest people and families in the UK and the 250 richest across Ireland. The list is based on identifiable wealth (land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies), and excludes bank accounts (to which the paper has no access).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2011 is compiled by Philip Beresford, the leading authority on British wealth, and edited by Ian Coxon. Ireland’s richest 250 is compiled by Colm Murphy.

Lest We Forget – Last WWI Veteran Dies

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With the passing of the last World War One veteran, 110-year-old Claude Stanley Choules, on May 5th, the terrible battles of the Great War also pass out of living memory.

When we look at pensioners on the street, it’s difficult to imagine that they were once young and in many cases performed heroics in global conflicts that we, with our largely cosseted lives, can only guess at.

So, for once, I am going to break one of my cardinal rules and use Frost for an unashamed plug, because it’s a book that everyone should read – and remember.

Ebury Press’ ‘Forgotten Voices of The Great War’ by Max Arthur captures the first-hand accounts of the men and women involved in the bitterest of wars that cost the lives of some 37 million people.

Gunner Leonard Ounsworth: “In the evening, we went up to Trones Wood. There were no trees left intact, just stumps and treetops and barbed wire mixed together, and bodies all over the place. Jerries and ours.

Robbins pulled up some undergrowth and as we fished our way through there was this dead Jerry, his whole hip shot away and all his guts out and flies all over it. Robbins stepped back and then this leg that was up a tree became dislodged and fell on his head. He vomited on the spot.”

Private Charles Taylor: “I started crawling towards our lines and I had never seen so many dead men clumped together. That was all I could see and I thought to myself, ‘All the world’s dead.’”

Private Harry Patch: “ All over the battlefield the wounded were lying down, English and German asking for help. We weren’t like the Good Samaritan in the Bible, we were the robbers who passed by and left them. You couldn’t help them. I came across a Cornishmen, ripped from shoulder to waist with shrapnel, his stomach on the ground beside him in a pool of blood. As I got to him, he said. ‘Shoot me.’ He was beyond all human aid. Before we could even draw a revolver he had died. He just said, ‘Mother.’ I will never forget it.

Lest we forget too.

Bin Laden Executed, Says Daughter; US in row with Pakistan over Bin Laden's Wife

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The Al-Arabiya television station today reported, that Osama bin Laden’s 12 year old daughter claimed that he was captured and then shot by US forces. Senior Pakistani intelligence officials told the television station this is what the girl has told them.

The claims have been given more credence because of a number of embarrassing corrections by the US administration.

The White House now admits that bin Laden did not use his wife as a human shield as was previously suggested. They have also now said that bin Laden was unarmed when he died.

Commentators have speculated that the US may have wanted Bin Laden dead as opposed to alive. It is thought that during any trial embarrassing links may have emerged regarding bin Laden’s links with the US in the 1980s (when the CIA supported Afghan resistance fighters against the then Russian occupation) Believers in this theory are likely to jump upon this latest claim as proof.

The US has also admitted that bin Laden’s wife is not dead. She is currently in a military hospital being treated for a shot to the leg.

US forces had intended to take Ahmed al-Sadah , the youngest of bin Laden’s five wives, with them. However because one of their helicopters crashed during the operation they did not have space for her.

The US believes she could provide vital information about links to bin Laden. Information which could be used to break up terrorist cells and prevent any reprisal attacks. However in a surprising twist Pakistan has now indicated it will refuse to hand her over to the US, potentially escalating the row between the two countries. Pakistan has come in for significant criticism for being unable to identify bin Laden’s hiding place sooner, this despite the fact he was living a huge complex just yards away from the Pakistan military academy.

Pakistan has indicated that all those currently being held will eventually be sent back to their countries of origin.

{Spotted} Christian Bale

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Batman actor Christian Bale returned to London last night, where he enjoyed a quiet evening with his family for a change. The movie star was spotted in iconic restaurant The Red Fort on Dean Street in Soho, dining on the venue’s trademark Indian Mughal Court cooking. This civilised occasion was in a stark contrast to Bale’s previous family engagements in the capital.