# Anyone think bin Laden might already be dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2001, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871 "2001-10-11T19:59:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/1 "2001-10-11T19:59:42Z")
I don’t _think_ he is, but what makes me wonder is why tthat “spokesman for al Qaeda” guy made the announcements on that tape from two days ago. When has bin Laden ever not appeared on a tape from al Qaeda before? For other evidence which rises to the level of “allowable in the court of conspiracy theory,” I offer: Everyday the Taliban announces he’s alive. Why? If the U.S. did kill him, and knew it, they might try to keep it secret for as long as they could, because of the terrorist strikes which would follow. The longer it’s kept under wraps, the more time they have to apprehend/control al Qaeda cells. ---
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/2 "2001-10-11T20:26:48Z")
On that note, where the hell is Dick Cheney? Is he really in such danger that they can’t even allow a camera or microphone in his special VP atomic bunker, and they can’t even let him send out a written report? I wouldn’t be surprised if he was killed and the U.S. was just covering up… ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/3 "2001-10-11T20:44:15Z")
And where’s Jimmy Hoffa??? ---
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/4 "2001-10-11T20:46:12Z")
Well, if you must know, I’ve been keeping him in my basement. But now I have to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/5 "2001-10-11T20:53:13Z")
More fuel for the conspiratorial fire: [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011011/ts/attacks\_high\_alert\_3.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011011/ts/attacks_high_alert_3.html) ---
**Author:** ![audient](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@audient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audient)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/6 "2001-10-11T22:06:08Z")
according to [debka](http://www.debka.com): > [@](#): > > On Sunday, October 7, exactly 1 hour and 50 minutes before the first US air bombardment, two light planes took off from Kahandar airport, without lights. They appeared on the radar screens of US attacking bombers for five minutes before vanishing, never to be traced until now. > According to the intelligence coming in from Kandahar to US intelligence, those small, shadowy aircraft carried Bin Laden, the Taliban leader Mullah Mustafa Omar and their top lieutenants to a secret destination ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/7 "2001-10-11T22:35:07Z")
Check other threads here. That [debka.com](http://debka.com) is not reliable. ---
**Author:** ![TheThill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/8 "2001-10-11T22:39:15Z")
It’s just as likely that he is in Somalia or North Korea by now. We have no way of knowing. Let’s just hope that those in charge of the anti-terrorism campaign have more of an inkling of what exactly is going on there on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![audient](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@audient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audient)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/9 "2001-10-11T22:44:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Violet \* > \*\*Check other threads here. That [debka.com](http://debka.com) is not reliable. \*\* i meant to add a comment about taking debka w/ a grain of salt & forgot. as it is, i pass on their quote without comment. I’m aware that they’re often proven wrong. I make no claims as to its truth. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/10 "2001-10-11T23:49:01Z")
> [@](#): > > If the U.S. did kill him, and knew it, they might try to keep it secret for as long as they could, because of the terrorist strikes which would follow. The longer it’s kept under wraps, the more time they have to apprehend/control al Qaeda cells. I must disagree because there is more than one person being apprehended. Looks like 22 on the list now: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40575-2001Oct10.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40575-2001Oct10.html) Even if Osama is dead, the show goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/11 "2001-10-12T03:42:31Z")
I agree, that bin Laden might be dead. However, I would say it is more likely that he is no longer in Afghanastan. He is probably stil alive, and in another country (Iraq?). ---
**Author:** ![Doc\_Nickel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@Doc\_Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doc_Nickel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/12 "2001-10-12T05:56:06Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that Al-Jarzzea (or however it’s spelled) TV studio somewhere _in_ Afghanistan, and that bin Laden’s tapes are hand-delivered by flunkies? I mean, the tapes aren’t mailed in, 'ol Bin don’t stop in and record 'em hisself in the studio, and they won’t exactly be “timely” if he tapes 'em somewhere in Uzbekistan and some guy has to smuggle them five hundred miles and across a border currently in heavy dispute. No, what’s going to happen is we’re going to keep a close eye on events and OBL’s propaganda tapes… as soon as there’s verifiable congruence (say, we bomb a certain building, then the next OBL tape says something like “America will pay for bombing that building”) we calculate the time difference and travel radius and come up with a target area. If the tape is delivered by, say, jeep or truck, we know that limits things to roaded areas, and if it gets broadcast within, say, four hours, we have a radius of four hours’ travel from the TV studio, and we start up the KeyHole reconsats, ground-search radars, and load up the 500-pounders into a wings’ worth of B-52s. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![audient](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@audient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audient)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-bin-laden-might-already-be-dead/86871/13 "2001-10-12T06:10:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doc Nickel \* > **Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that Al-Jarzzea (or however it’s spelled) TV studio somewhere _in_ Afghanistan** Al-Jazeera is in Qatar