NYT article on Osama porn CDs sparks debate among netizens

A report published in America's leading daily, The New York Times, (Pornography Is Found in Bin Laden Compound Files, U.S. Officials Say, May 13, 2011 authored by Scot Shane) has sparked an animated debate among netizens with some calling it a propaganda war and others believing in it.

Comments started pouring in after Faizur Rahman, self-acclaimed Leftist thinker, posted the NYT article on The Moderates Yahoo group, which in a few months time has turned out to be a hot spot for Muslim intellectuals. He wrote: "I am no supporter of OBL's terrorist thinking. The US did what it thought is best; that is their business. Now about "pornography found" in OBL's house: (a) Show us the proof in this simple matter at least, (b) How many US homes do not have pornography? Is it possible to be fair minded?"

Another internet user Mohammad Imran wrote: "This is psychological war similar to the initial statement that Bin Laden put his wife as a shield to save himself. They are to show that the west is superior to these jihadies who put women to shield themselves or they are sexual perverts. The audience for these stories are western ears and western media. It does not matter whether the story is correct or not. It has already served its purpose in the west that he was a pervert."

This was followed by a comment posted by Ahmed Syed, who wrote: "The US should look at the private lives of some ex-presidents of America!!!" The discovery of the pornography was first reported by Reuters, according to NYT article. However, the US authorities have made it clear that they are still working to find out whether the CDs were being used by Osama who was assassinated by the United States Navy SEALs and CIA paramilitary forces in an attack at his Abbottabad compound on May 2.

Zafrullah Rahmani wrote: "What is the true story? Reuter can answer?"

Another write-up on Osama that is doing the rounds on the Internet is his interview conducted by Ummat magazine of Pakistan whose link was shared by Raoof Mir to other Yahoo group members. Replying to that post, London-based Farooq Sulehria wrote: "Who from Ummat conducted the interview? The only interview OBL granted in the post-9/11 period was to Hamid Mir, even this interview became controversial. At Lahore Press Club, of which I used to be a member, it was lavishly termed by a majority as 'table story'. I have no authority either to deny or affirm these allegations."

He further wrote: "Ummat is a mouth piece of Jamaat Islami Pakistan and ISI. Can we really trust either of them anymore (I would not even before Abbottabad episode)?... Do we have a proof of Stalin's concentration camps and Mao's victims? Can we really prove Holocaust, genocide of East Pakistanis at the hands of Pakistan army? Or genocide of Armenians at the hands of Turks...?

"Why OBL wanted to reach the world through Ummat (an obscure Urdu-language paper, hardly read even by its staffers) when he had AlJazeera and CNN at his service those days?"

In his long post, Sulehria made some points: "OBL was not an enemy of USA. He was, first of all, an enemy of the working classes in our own region. Over 30 thousand people have been killed in Pakistan since 9/11. Did he ever condemn it? Did he ever ask Taliban not to slaughter 'US spies'? Did he ever claim to nationalize and distribute Saudi oil money? Or did he ever protest against the treatment meted out to South Asian workers in Sheikhdoms? He was another servant of the capital. Petro-dollar capital."

He summed up the post by writing: "He (OBL) was produced by them (US), killed by them. In their mutual fight, around 35,000 innocent Pakistanis have been killed. Will daily Ummat ever write about it?"

Another member of The Moderates, Zillur R Khan, wrote: "I like your thought provoking comment."

The debate over Osama and his death rages in other parts of the world also.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the blog are that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The Sunday Indian.)