Because the outright destruction of those documents would have been illegal, they were all packed up and shipped off to the CIA where they are protected against Freedom of Information requests and even court orders. The legality of the transfer at all is highly questionable and was never even examined before the transfer actually took place. It seems that everyone agrees the move is highly irregular, even if not an outright crime perpetrated on the orders of the Pentagon's top Special Operations Commander.
The sanitizing of Department of Defense computers would have remained secret has it not been for a watchdog group who noted one sentence, referring to the purge of Bin Laden raid documents, in an inspector general's report. There had been an inquiry about whether President Obama may have shared sensitive material with the creators of the movie "Zero Dark Thirty." But even that sentence was purged from the final report.
The Associated Press has raised the alarm on yet another example of the government secrecy shell game in the following artcle:
Bin Laden raid files reportedly purged from Pentagon computers, sent to CIA
Here is an excerpt from that report:
The AP asked the Defense Department and CIA separately for files that included copies of the death certificate and autopsy report for bin Laden as well as the results of tests to identify the body. While the Pentagon said it could not locate the files, the CIA, with its special power to prevent the release of records, has never responded.
This unprecedented level of secrecy, bordering on criminality, begs a single question. Why?
To protect the "dignity" of the world's most sought after terrorist? Refusing to show the pictures of his remains seems hardly reason enough. The Pentagon was clearly not worried about putting American lives in danger, even as we were actively fighting a standing army, when they published images of Saddam Hussein's dead sons. Not to mention the brutal video of the deposed leader's execution.
Besides, if the Pentagon was really that fearful of reprisals from publishing pictures of a dead Bin Laden, perhaps they should have thought about that before they decided to execute the man, rather than putting him on trial and debriefing the world's most wanted terrorist for vital intelligence. The fact that they elected to kill him at all is dubious.
Just as dubious as his burial at sea, that was witnessed by no one, did not conform with Islamic tradition, and served no real purpose at all except to maintain inordinate levels of secrecy.
Some have excused secrecy surrounding the Bin Laden raid as being necessary to protect the identities of the military operators who reportedly carried out the raid. Yet some of those specialized personnel have gone on to write books and appear in "tell all" interviews. It was also reported that most of the commandos who were on the raid were part of US Navy SEAL Team 6, which was decimated in a helicopter crash in the mountains of Afghanistan a short time after the raid.
This of course, led to rampant conspiracy theories that perhaps our very own government was the real threat to those commandos, and that they were wiped out to protect the secrets of the Bin Laden raid.
But this leads us again back to the question, why? What secret is so powerful that the Pentagon would go to such great lengths to cover up not only all of their knowledge about the raid, but also to virtually disavow their involvement at all?
After years and years of the American government trumpeting how dangerous Osama Bin Laden was, and his al-Qaeda network, suddenly the Pentagon does an about face and threatens the American public to shut up about the Bin Laden raid.
So what are they really hiding? What is the truth about 9/11, al-Qaeda, the war on terror, and the death of Osama bin Laden?
Also see:
No closure for 9/11 victims' families and survivors
Citing security risks, Pentagon asks nation to 'move on' from bin Laden
Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Allegedly Wipes Out Commando Team
No Sailors Witnessed Bin Laden Burial At Sea
11 Years Later, We Still Don't Know Who Did 9/11
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