The Obama "To Make Important Statement" MEGATHREAD

[Syt]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

[Viking]

Customized Blackhawk.  Many more blades in the rotors, so the blades can be shorter and the tips can turn more slowly and thus be more quiet (less blade tip roar).  Radar-absorbing paint, plus rounded corners and the like, to make it hard to detect by radar.  Much better heat dispersion and deeper engines, so IR sensors are less effective.  I have no idea how much they cost, except that the answer starts with "more than..."

Interesting. Any idea how effective those modífications are?

apparently quite effective at not getting shot down by pakistani aa, but not very effective in not crashing

[Berkut]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

I am trying to imagine how taking him alive could be a good thing for anyone other than Osama. And maybe not even him.

[KRonn]

Customized Blackhawk.  Many more blades in the rotors, so the blades can be shorter and the tips can turn more slowly and thus be more quiet (less blade tip roar).  Radar-absorbing paint, plus rounded corners and the like, to make it hard to detect by radar.  Much better heat dispersion and deeper engines, so IR sensors are less effective.  I have no idea how much they cost, except that the answer starts with "more than..."

Interesting. Any idea how effective those modífications are?

apparently quite effective at not getting shot down by pakistani aa, but not very effective in not crashing

One story says that the helo was hit by ground fire, and rpg or something. No idea if that's the official story; too much info coming out by too many people, some of whom don't seem to have been in the know but offering their stories and probably hearsay.

[Syt]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

I am trying to imagine how taking him alive could be a good thing for anyone other than Osama. And maybe not even him.

No idea.

[Malthus]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

I am trying to imagine how taking him alive could be a good thing for anyone other than Osama. And maybe not even him.

I can think of a good reason.

For one - he may know a lot about contemplated terrorist plots. If he's alive, he can be questioned. Dead, not so much.

[Berkut]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

I am trying to imagine how taking him alive could be a good thing for anyone other than Osama. And maybe not even him.

I can think of a good reason.

For one - he may know a lot about contemplated terrorist plots. If he's alive, he can be questioned. Dead, not so much.

Yeah, I thought of that, but most of what I have heard lately is that his chunk of AQ is mostly just a figurehead, and I am guessing most of the useful intelligence take is going to be based on organization, rather than actual operations. And all that data is

1. Likely on those computers, and
2. Not details that bin Laden would likely give two shits about anyway, and hence probably doesn't actually know.

And besides, since we aren't allowed to waterboard him anyway, how could we find anything out?

[Barrister]

Customized Blackhawk.  Many more blades in the rotors, so the blades can be shorter and the tips can turn more slowly and thus be more quiet (less blade tip roar).  Radar-absorbing paint, plus rounded corners and the like, to make it hard to detect by radar.  Much better heat dispersion and deeper engines, so IR sensors are less effective.  I have no idea how much they cost, except that the answer starts with "more than..."

Interesting. Any idea how effective those modífications are?

apparently quite effective at not getting shot down by pakistani aa, but not very effective in not crashing

One story says that the helo was hit by ground fire, and rpg or something. No idea if that's the official story; too much info coming out by too many people, some of whom don't seem to have been in the know but offering their stories and probably hearsay.

I thought I read that the rotors hit the compound wall.

[Malthus]

To be fair, though, the general feeling here in Austria seems to be, "Yeah, would have been nice if they had taken him alive, but kililng him isn't a big loss, either", even though the media latch onto every supposed inconsistency in the official story.

I am trying to imagine how taking him alive could be a good thing for anyone other than Osama. And maybe not even him.

I can think of a good reason.

For one - he may know a lot about contemplated terrorist plots. If he's alive, he can be questioned. Dead, not so much.

Yeah, I thought of that, but most of what I have heard lately is that his chunk of AQ is mostly just a figurehead, and I am guessing most of the useful intelligence take is going to be based on organization, rather than actual operations. And all that data is

1. Likely on those computers, and
2. Not details that bin Laden would likely give two shits about anyway, and hence probably doesn't actually know.

And besides, since we aren't allowed to waterboard him anyway, how could we find anything out?

Sure, it is possible he knew nothing of importance - he was I have heard a sick man when he died.

But I think it likely he would know something useful. For one, he'd know how it was he was able to gain shelter in Pakistan.

As for effectiveness of questioning him, without getting all medieval on his ass ... I dunno.

[The Brain]

He knew things of value (but likely not much ticking bomb stuff), and he would have been tortured till Labor Day to make sure they got it all out of him. But if you take him alive you have to keep it double extra secret (like they did if he is in fact alive, which I do not believe) or else suffer through talk about his treatment, a trial, yada yada yada...

If I were POTUS I'd have wanted him dead. Alive would be too high risk in many ways.

As for misguided morons in Ewrope... I have already spoken plainly on them in this thread.

[Ed Anger]

He knew things of value (but likely not much ticking bomb stuff), and he would have been tortured till Labor Day to make sure they got it all out of him. But if you take him alive you have to keep it double extra secret (like they did if he is in fact alive, which I do not believe) or else suffer through talk about his treatment, a trial, yada yada yada...

If I were POTUS I'd have wanted him dead. Alive would be too high risk in many ways.

As for misguided morons in Ewrope... I have already spoken plainly on them in this thread.

You are the best Swede since Charles XII.

[The Brain]

As for effectiveness of questioning him, without getting all medieval on his ass ... I dunno.

The situation would never come up.

[The Brain]

He knew things of value (but likely not much ticking bomb stuff), and he would have been tortured till Labor Day to make sure they got it all out of him. But if you take him alive you have to keep it double extra secret (like they did if he is in fact alive, which I do not believe) or else suffer through talk about his treatment, a trial, yada yada yada...

If I were POTUS I'd have wanted him dead. Alive would be too high risk in many ways.

As for misguided morons in Ewrope... I have already spoken plainly on them in this thread.

You are the best Swede since Charles XII.

 

[DGuller]

I thought I read that the rotors hit the compound wall.

Yikes, that happens to me all the time in GTA.

[grumbler]

apparently quite effective at not getting shot down by pakistani aa, but not very effective in not crashing

Insofar as we know, not one of these every crashed.
One got rotor damage from hitting its rotor against a wall while taxiing in a dust cloud, but that's nothing to do with the type of helo this was and everything to do with it being any type of helo on that mission. Had this not been bad-guy territory, the damaged helo would easily have been recovered.