Abbottabad, Pakistan – Last night at about 11:30pm Bloomington time, President Barack Obama stepped up to the podium and stated that a special military strike force had taken off from Afghanistan and ventured deep into Pakistan sovereign territory to nab 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The quick strike force was very effective and successful in not only killing bin Laden and recovering his remains but also in doing so with no causalities on the American’s side. Though remarkable enough on its own merits what makes this story even more remarkable is who was potentially involved.
I would like to pre-face the rest of this article with some facts that not many people probably know. Tijan Jobe, IU basketball crowd favorite, still resides in the town that loves him so. I do believe he lives somewhere near myself, as I see him out running several times a week. He also spends a lot of time with the basketball team. So between myself, and the ball team we can account for his whereabouts a majority of the time. As former teammate Bobby Capobianco pointed out last night via Twitter, "Tijan hasn't been seen this weekend and now #osamaisdead ... is this a coincidence?" The last I had seen him was late Thursday evening and none over the weekend. Now this is purely speculation but I believe our own Tijan Jobe is the American hero that was able to finally capture and kill Osama bin Laden.
Now this is an unfounded argument but some observations show that the Hoosier hero is a perfect fit for the task he was asked to accomplish. Obviously Obama needed to tap someone who could be trusted completely and as any scouting report you would ever read on Tijan points out his high character is one of his best attributes. He was also known for his incredible defensive awareness in the paint. The US had zero casualties in this assault of a custom built compound to defend against this sort of attack. Is it a coincidence that such a dangerous condition wound up with no friendly casualties? Hardly, the team obviously had a defensive specialist in the unit.
Tijan was also very effective at knowing his role on the team. As of late, I had noticed he was growing a pretty sizeable beard. This leads me to believe that he had been prepped of the mission at hand and was working on his disguise to blend into his environment. As effective as he was at finding a role and sticking with it, it would only make sense that the US Government and CIA would send Jobe in ahead of the strike force to work under cover and grab intel.
Lastly, it is quite a stressful environment to put our troops in and the mere presence of Jobe would be effective in limiting any Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome that the strike force might face. Standing side by side with such an emotionally unshakeable man such as Tijan could only bolster morale and urge the men to fight harder.
These are just a few reasons of many that Tijan Jobe would have been the obvious choice for such a secretive and sensitive mission. In the Obama press conference last night he announced that Navy SEALs were responsible for the military operations. He never stated in exact terms that Tijan Jobe was involved but he did not say he was not involved either. The truth will likely never come out but I think both you and I know that the one man who was perfect for the job was Jobe.