Monday, May 02, 2011

Dead Again?: U.S. Announces Another Death of Osama bin Laden

PANW Note: This is not the first time that the death of Osama bin Laden has been announced. He reportedly died of natural causes as early as Dec. 2001.

Later the slain Pakistan presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto said Bin Laden was killed in 2007. Others have said he died of kidney failure many years ago.

Will this end the Afghan and Pakistan war? Not even the Obama administration and its Pentagon backers would advance such a notion.

In fact there is more propaganda by the imperialists against the Taliban than al-Qaeda today. Of course this will be used to promote the notion of U.S. military superiority in light of the failures in Central Asia, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, etc.

The article below perhaps reveals the real bottom line, and that is an effort to boost the capitalist economy which has been facing the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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Bin Laden death could boost markets short-term

By Adam Shell, USA TODAY
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The killing of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks that hit at the heart of the U.S. financial district, killed thousands and shut down the New York Stock Exchange for four days, is likely to provide a short-term psychological boost to financial markets and a Wall Street community still mourning over the losses suffered that day.

The terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, included strikes at the World Trade Center in downtown New York — the financial capital of the world and a symbol of U.S. capitalism and power.

The terrorists' goals was to foment fear, erode consumer and investor confidence, and disrupt the U.S. economy.

The nation's stock exchanges closed for four days, and when the market opened for business on Monday, Sept. 17, 2001, the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index plunged nearly 5%. The market bottomed out five trading days later on Sept. 21, with a total loss of 11.6% in that short span.

Today, the S&P 500 is 24.8% higher than it was the day before the worst terrorist strike on U.S. soil.

Wall Street was Ground Zero on 9/11, and the memories are still fresh in the minds of those that were in New York City that day, when two of the World Trade Center towers, home to many in the financial business world, imploded and collapsed.

"I vividly remember walking out of the Marriott hotel onto Liberty Street and seeing the first tower on fire," says David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. "I saw the second explosion from across West Street. The image of jumpers is embedded in my memory. The takeaway for me is clear: There is a certain sense of justice now that the mastermind of 9/11 is dead and was killed by a planned and implemented U.S. forces action."

Wall Street, however, understands that fresh strikes against U.S. interests are possible in coming days and could upset markets if they are successful.

"The risk, of course, is that there is now likely to be a retaliatory attack and fear will rise on that score in the next few weeks," Paulsen adds. "I don't think this terror network is over or dead. But killing their leader significantly weakens their efforts and it also comes at a time when the Middle East is rejecting dictators in general. We will still fear terror but I think we are headed toward a more confident feeling in this country."

Paulsen says the U.S. killing of bin Laden nearly 10 years after 9/11 may also renew confidence in the USA, which could prompt a rally in the U.S. dollar, which has been falling steadily versus other currencies in recent months as the nation's debt load has mushroomed to more than $1.5 trillion.

"It may even add to a feeling of turning a corner and finally turning the page on the financial crisis and recession the world has been though," Paulsen adds.

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