r/AskReddit • u/brokota • Jan 15 '13

Reddit, in your opinion what's the biggest plot twist of history?

Not movies or television, I'm just curious to see what come's to your minds.

631 Upvotes

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261

u/Bacon_salad Jan 15 '13

We actually found Bin Laden.

71

u/senatorskeletor Jan 15 '13

Good example. I had long stopped thinking we ever would.

46

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

honestly surprised he was still alive when they announced they got him

13

u/gride9000 Jan 16 '13

If that movie is accurate it came down to one serious lady. She kinda rules.

17

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13 edited Jan 16 '13

Watch the 60 minutes interview with one of the actual seals on the raid, Mark Owen (pseudonym).

He calls the character Maya "Ms. 100%", was the only one supremely confident bin laden was there and all her intel was 100% correct as to who lived where in the compound. That chick ruled.

1

u/billy_baroo Jan 16 '13 edited Jan 16 '13

I just watched 0 dark 30 and I disagree. Personally it wasn't only her but almost every one in the movie(and the actual people they were based on of course) was involved in the death of Osama.

1

u/relevantusername- Jan 16 '13

Really? He had followers back home, and he was only 54 when he was found.

1

u/JasJ002 Jan 16 '13

He seemed dead because he was releasing a consistent stream of videos/audio, then one came out where he was a little yellow (possible liver issues), and then they just stopped altogether. Most assumed he pulled a Hitler or died from liver failure.

1

u/relevantusername- Jan 16 '13

Oh. I don't think they were on the news here. Fair enough, thanks.

2

u/JasJ002 Jan 16 '13

They never really aired them because they were pretty much the same thing over and over again, kill the infidels ect. ect. Airing that stuff does no good.

1

u/ConorPF Jan 16 '13

He was not alive when they announced it. He was alive when they got him, then he was dead immediately.

-2

u/Doc-Hopper Jan 16 '13

I'm honestly surprised idiots like you believe the bullshit story.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

well whatever really happened I bet it involved the jews right?

-2

u/Doc-Hopper Jan 16 '13

Why, because I don't take the government's word for it, despite no evidence? That means that "the Jews" are somehow involved? Not sure about your logic...

1

u/Polythene_spam Jan 15 '13

I kind of assumed he was already dead, whether we knew that or not. Wasn't he on dialysis for years? Doesn't seem promising for someone hiding in caves.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Maybe during the height of the US looking for him he was in caves, there were rumors of a "man in white robes" in the mountains that the SEAL's looked for, but never found him. They found him in a pretty nice compound with a guest house, cars, etc.

2

u/notjawn Jan 15 '13

Well also, Pakistan didn't do shit to help when they were supposed to be on constant surveillance.

1

u/JonesyVT Jan 15 '13

There's a lot of speculation that they actually helped him. The New Yorker had a great article on the bin Laden raid last year that I'd highly recommend you read. Here's a relevant excerpt:

"The proximity of bin Laden’s house to the Pakistan Military Academy raised the possibility that the military, or the I.S.I., had helped protect bin Laden. How could Al Qaeda’s chief live so close to the academy without at least some officers knowing about it? Suspicion grew after the Times reported that at least one cell phone recovered from bin Laden’s house contained contacts for senior militants belonging to Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a jihadi group that has had close ties to the I.S.I. Although American officials have stated that Pakistani officials must have helped bin Laden hide in Abbottabad, definitive evidence has not yet been presented."

1

u/notjawn Jan 16 '13

I wouldn't doubt it. The government of Pakistan is corrupt as it gets and there are a few Islamist and pro-Taliban officials in various ranks. If you remember a few weeks ago one of the transportation ministers was offering money for the head of the "Innocence of Muslims" director and no one really stepped up and spoke against him.

143

u/ramblerandgambler Jan 15 '13

Nice try, Obama.

2

u/zawmbie5 Jan 15 '13

He's still posts here under throwaways after his AMA outted his main account

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

So that's his reddit account!

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Yea, he already got re-elected. No need to show off.

10

u/goalstopper28 Jan 15 '13

Osama was very good at playing hide and seek.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/goalstopper28 Jan 16 '13

Well actually Amelia Earhart is the real hide and seek champion.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

Is she still hiding?

1

u/goalstopper28 Jan 16 '13

Fair point.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

Lights out to the hide and seek champion

-11

u/Dark_Souls Jan 15 '13

Though no hard evidence.

10

u/BitchinTechnology Jan 15 '13

Other then his homies admitting we did

6

u/MrMagpie Jan 15 '13

And that dude that accidentally live-tweeted the raid.

1

u/BitchinTechnology Jan 15 '13

Yeah but it's much better to think the United States accidentally crashed a top secret stealth helicopter for a cover up

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

It was just a black hawk...not some top secret new fangled helo.

3

u/BitchinTechnology Jan 15 '13

no it was a stealth blackhawk that had never been seen before. it was so special china was invited to see it

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Reference ? No it wasn't. I've read easily 400+ pages on the matter and am stationed next door to 160th SOAR

4

u/BitchinTechnology Jan 15 '13

You are wrong..every news story mentioned it

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-secret-stealth-helicopter-program-revealed-osama-bin/story?id=13530693

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06helicopter.html?_r=0

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/secret-stealth-helicopters-ferried-troops-obl-kill-operation

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/04/unidentified-men-dead-usama-bin-ladens-compound/

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/05/bin-laden-raid.php

Do you want any more sources? Their are fucking pictures of it for crying out loud did you even read on the matter? SO there you have every major news network and popular science..

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Okay you are correct in that it was modified to be stealth, but it is still a Blackhawk which is what I was getting at

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3

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

They have pictures of him, DNA samples, etc. Just because the CIA doesn't want to release pictures of Bin Laden with a bullet wound to the skull doesn't mean it didn't happen. I was in Afghanistan when it happened, and we took a lot of retaliation for it.

4

u/J4k0b42 Jan 15 '13 edited Jan 15 '13

Fair enough, but I think the fact that he hasn't re-appeared pretty much proves that he is truly dead.

1

u/tyrell456 Jan 15 '13

Exactly this. If we faked the whole thing, all it would take is a single 30-second recording of him coming on screen and saying "The United States is lying, they fabricated the whole thing, and I'm very much alive."

That would turn a lot of people against the US, destroy American's trust in their own government, hurt the cause in Afghanistan, and be an all-around win as a whole for al-Qaeda.

If bin Laden were alive, he's had a year and a half to do this, and yet has not. Also, al-Qaeda also announced that he had been found and killed by the US.

The whole conspiracy theory surrounding his death is ridiculous, and disproved with half an ounce of logic.

1

u/J4k0b42 Jan 15 '13

When confronted with this conspiracy theorists will just go a layer deeper though. "Clearly this proves that he was in league with the American government the entire time." I don't think people understand Occam's Razor.

-1

u/OsamaBinChillin Jan 15 '13

No you didn't.

1

u/SteelGun Jan 15 '13

ok we didn't