“The ‘coolest museum you’ll never see’ has a new piece de resistance,” nbcnews.com reports, “the gun found next to the body of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan when Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid.” Yada yada yada CIA museum so secret we’re inventing a drug to wipe the memory of anyone who sees it on national TV or in a gun blog. “This is the rifle that was recovered from the third floor of the Abbottabad compound by the assault team,” curator Toni Hiley (of 43 Peachtree Lane, Connecticut) told the peacock network. “Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his.” I wonder how much that guy gets paid. I also wonder how much the former guest of Pakistani military intelligence paid for his AK. ‘Cause . . .
“It’s a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings.” Hang on. What does that even mean? It’s a Russian Kalashnikov cleverly disguised as a Chinese AK? Why? Thank God we’ve got two firearms-savvy journos on the case. Or looking at the case.
The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as ‘Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,’ shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.
Quite why the CIA decided to share this artifact with the world now, when the American public has learned of domestic spying by the NSA, is a question NBC’s News Investigation team neglected to investigate.
It’s a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings? So it was given to Bin Laden by the CIA in the first place?
Does the ATF maintain an office in Pakistan?
“Does the ATF maintain an office in Pakistan?”
Uhhm we provided between 400,000 to 600,000 small arms mainly through Peshwar Pakistan to the Mujaheddin during the Russian occupation. Many were Russian with Chinese markings. I know I was working there at the time (with a development outfit)
that’s interesting, but if you believed your theory about the CIA giving him the rifle, well we were becoming reasonably friendly with china in that time period, so in reality had we given him a rifle it would be more likely to be chinese build with fake russian markings…. besides how do you tell if the markings are fake anyway? any halfway decent operation can copy an engraving…
more likely, the reciever is built in Russia, and it’s had parts replaced by Khyber pass gunsmiths copying a chinese master rifle.
My thinking as well.
Chinese armories never adopted the AKM design or blueprinting/tooling. I assume they could make one, but the AK as pictured is not a typical Chinese AK. It’s an AKMS and has the telltale die-cast gas block that is indicative of early 70s Russian manufacture just leading up to the adoption of the AK-74.
Could always be a parts bin gun.. In that part of the world you just never know. But none of those parts are Chinese AK parts.
Since Osama died in 2001, there would have been no rifle. It’s a prop. The raid was real, but they killed some villager and pretended it was Osama.
and William comes out of left field with another conspiracy theory…
makes more sense than taking over 10 years to find a guy getting kidney dialysis, in a cave, in the middle of no-where, without attracting notice.
Thanks, I needed a good laugh for the day.
William’s theory is more interesting than a bunch of OCD obsessing about where the parts of this AK came from. Mind-numbing.
The only thing that would prove to me that that was owned by Bin Laden is if his fingerprints were on it. Otherwise that weapon could be from anywhere and have belonged to anyone. Interesting how there is NO ONE alive that saw the body and can verify Bin Laden was the one killed; and there is no physical evidence. Show me ONE photo.
Good golly old boy, quit using your brain.
The propaganda machine has told you what to believe, so if you don’t, you’re a conspiracy nut.
I thought everything about that operation was transferred to CIA and christened “classified”
How the “showpiece” if it’s all classified?
More double standards at work with this administration, or phony trophies for PR.
Well, I’m sure they wanted a totem to memorialize his killing, and taking an ear was probably way too non-PC.
Matt in FL –
They still have the ear, it’s in a top secret bunker in Area 51. I’m sure one of our esteemed colleagues knows which room or maybe has even written a blog about it…………
or not…………..just sayin’
You’re right, RF.
Another pat yourself on the back distraction by this White House.
“Does this violate 922r restrictions?” He said, all sarcastic-like.
I’m sorry, did you wanna hear what I think,
or just what you wanna hear?
OBL clearly knew d1ck about home security. Sure, he had a wall-leaner, but he didn’t home carry, had no electronic security system, no camera surveillance, no dogs to bark an early warning and not a single “Come Back With a Warrant” door mat. Judging by the way they shot, OBL’s “bodyguards” must have been recruited from the NYPD, and OBL never got off a round himself.
Let’s face it, OBL was a pansy and all things considered, the world’s most wanted man had less security protecting his home than most of us have protecting our garages.
Pretty much…
And it took us 11 years or so to catch him. Shows how good our military and intelligence networks are.
Bin Laden was found by following his courier, who would upload his communications via an internet cafe.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/manhunt-the-ten-year-search-for-bin-laden-from-911-to-abbottabad-by-peter-l-bergen/2012/05/04/gIQAyCYV1T_story.html
You know we had every computer in that place monitored in short order. Duh.
The obvious conclusion – the connect-the-dots no one discusses – is that Bush knew where bin Laden was for some time, but considered him too useful as an intel asset to bump off. Obama found the math to add up differently, at an extremely politically-opportune time.
A conspiracy theory? On TTAG? Alert the media!
If it had been up to the military he’d would have been dead in 1994. Just imagine how that would have changed the time-line!
Or he thought that living in a Pakistani military garrison town under their implicit protection was security enough. And it was…right up until the night that it wasn’t.
Well, to be fair, OBL’s assumption was a useful one while Bush was in the White House.
Remember the presidential campaign of 2008, when Obama and McCain got into a big debate about pursuing terrorists into Pakistan and violating their sovereign territory? McCain said he wouldn’t violate Pak’s borders, and previously Bush sought to count on our “allies” in Pakistan, which is why OBL escaped from Tora Bora. These were supposed to be the “hawks” on foreign policy, and they were perfectly happy to allow the Pak’s and ISI to lie like cheap rugs to us.
OBL’s mistake was in not listening to Obama’s answer in that exchange, which caused a small ripple during the campaign with the anti-war crowd. The other failure on OBL’s part was in not realizing the danger Obama posed upon being given the Nobel Peace Prize mere days into his presidency. Since Obama had already won the Nobel Peace Prize, so he had no incentive to observe such diplomatic issues as violations of sovereign airspace or territory of Pakistan. Would the Nobel committee take back the prize? Of course not.
Whoa! Careful there. You’re actually saying something about Obama that’s not completely negative, wrapped in conspiracy-theory nonsense, and laced with “Barry Hussein O-Bummer” yokel-esque insults. That kind of objectivity will get you shot around here.
While the Pak ISI and military both have and continue to pursue their own interests, it is unlikely, in fact inconceivable, Bin Laden would have trusted them.
Couldn’t have been NYPD.
They hit what they were aiming at.
99% of rounds fired hit something.
False. 100% of rounds fired hit something.
“Target” is defined differently than ” something”…
Obama is reminding you he has balls, now if his brains were that big you`d be onto something.
Hardly. Obama is a eunuch
There’s a fine line between being ballsy and being a flat-out idiot.
These guys have a long memory. They’re no fans of the Russians. Maybe they would refuse to purchase Russian weapons, and whoever was selling them arms made them appear Chinese instead. …just a wild theory…
If I was the captain of the Navy ship I would have risked my whole career and put OBL’s head in a glass jar of formaldehyde. You can be sure as hell that the upper brass would never risk a court martial if they found out.
Here’s hoping that we in fact do have his head in a jar in some nice display cabinet.
Shhh… Lt., turn off the Predator drones and security cameras while I get my machete and jar…
I hope they have the propper paper work and tax stamps to posses that thing.
My thoughts exactly. Confiscate it.
man, wish we knew earlier, we could have sent him one of the AMD65Tech’s underfolder stock adapter for better cheek weld. too late.
in many of the photo ops and videos, isn’t Osama seen with an AK-74 complete with 1970’s burnt orange bakelite magazine?? Why would he have an AK-47 when that doesn’t seem to be his preferred gun? I mean, he was the boss, you’d figure he could pick the gun he wanted.
BTW I lean towards the ‘died of kidney failure” in the early part of the last decade theory and the raid was a propaganda piece theory myself
I imagine that there were guns staged all over the house. he was the boss after all and he probably didn’t want to lug a gun all over the house with him. Unlike us Americans, these guys seem to think that pistols are not a very important tool in their toolbox.
He has been seen with many AKs over the years. The most common one was an AKS-74u Krink.
I smell a fish. A very dead fish. The most famous picture of OBL with a gun he was seated firing a Krinkov AK-74S (which most newspapers identified as a -47) and I’ve read that one of the major sources of discord between the Talliban and Al-Q was that the rich Arabs flaunted much newer, cooler 5.45 guns to taunt their Afghan “brethren.” Of course, it could be a -47 that he borrowed from our Paki allies. Or maybe it’s just a warehouse queen that the CIA pulled out of storage and put a plaque on for fun one slow afternoon.
I also heard they found skeletal remains of Humpty Dumpty.
Warehouse queen
I’m betting that the AK 74-s whom Obama,,,err Osama pimped all over Astan was supposedly taken off a dead Russian Major (que Red Dawn clip) by Osbama. My guess is that bin laden dumped it when he crossed into Peestan
So I guess that the ak-74 that Bin Late is shooting in the infamous picture,of him squatting down and firing was not his weapon?I think this is just another public relations jab by the administration,it was supposed to be a secret display that got “leaked ” out,BS this is just another way for the prez to pat himself on the back,one thing he is good at.Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.
“So I guess that the ak-74 that Bin Late is shooting in the infamous picture,of him squatting down and firing was not his weapon?”
It’s not unlikely that the whole thing was a propaganda shot. Remember the video of Al-Zarqawi with the SAW, where he boogers it up? While wearing Nikes? I doubt that what we saw was shown on the jihadi recruiting websites.
I always thought the pics of OBL with the AKS-74 was a PR move by OBL and his media team.
The AKS-74 says to the part of the world that carries mostly AK-47’s: “I’m so much cooler than you…”
Ummm, wouldn’t fingerprints tell the story? Not to presuppose other motives, but surely the CIA would use normal investigative techniques? Any DNA on the trigger guard or magazine? Gunpowder residue under the fingernails? Lack of information here.
BFD. It’s a 5.45X39, and I wouldn’t deign to hunt pigs with it. I guess the wimp couldn’t stand anything with stronger recoil.
Other than its historical interest it’s a POS.
Charlie
Sorta like 5.56, a popgun child’s round, only truly suited for hunting squirrels. A joke cartridge for hunting anything that weighs more than 50 pounds at more than 50 feet.
I was shooting .303 Brit as a 10 year old, and being called a wimp by my compadres. Because I didn’t shoot a .460 Weatherby like them…
I skuttlebutt was that Osama bin Laden was killed or died from natural causes back in December of 2001. I remember reading that intelligence departments lost track of him about then. Bush could not confirm if he was dead or not. Rumor was that Omar Sheikh killed bin Laden but that couldn’t be confirmed. I don’t believe bin Laden was killed by the SEALS. The SEALS may have believed it was bin Laden but I’m thinking they were told he was by the intelligence department. The question is did the intelligence department make a mistake or did they know it wasn’t bin Laden? It was strange that a whole bunch of college students showed up with signs almost instantly congratulating 0bama.
Yeah, and all those propaganda videos that Bin Laden continued to put out after 2001 were all staged at the same studio where they faked the moon landing.
With regard to “a whole bunch of college students showed up with signs almost instantly congratulating 0bama”, news had been leaked hours before the President officially announced that Bin Laden had been killed. Remember that night when the news stations all started breaking in on regularly scheduled programming to tell us that the president was supposed to brief the nation and that they thought it had something to do with capturing/killing Bin Laden. Is selective memory a general trait among Obama-haters?
The news of the raid on OBL was out on Twitter a couple of hours before the news media got their act in gear. College kids, being more hooked into Twitter and the like, were way ahead of the curve.
Che Guevara was killed and put on display to show the world that he was dead. (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/burial-lessons-from-che-to-bin-laden.html) I want to see OBL’s dead body to quell any doubt, is that so wrong? This AK is a feeble attempt at a victory cry for the CIA.
Well, remember that it was Bolivia, not the US, made the display of Che’s corpse public. The CIA was merely “consulting” on that deal.
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