# Bin Laden audio vs. video

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 19, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267 "2003-10-19T00:07:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267/1 "2003-10-19T00:07:09Z")

</div>

What logic does Bin Laden use when he releases an audio tape instead of a video tape?  
With his money, couldn’t he spring for a video camera?  
Is there a military/ strategic/logical reason to release only audio?  
It seems there is never any SOLID proof that he even exists, even.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcdaniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tcdaniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tcdaniel)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267/2 "2003-10-19T02:19:46Z")

</div>

I seriously doubt he can just stroll down to the local WalMart and pick up a fine video camera no matter how much money he has.  
I’d also guess that the cassette is readily available and easily concealed- kind of benign looking even if the delivery man is frisked by the police.  
Also, he may have changed his appearance and doesn’t want others to see him -

We listen to people on radio and never see images, so how important is the image if the voice will do.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267/3 "2003-10-19T06:14:05Z")

</div>

My guess is that bin Laden is currently lining the inside of a bombed out cave in Afganistan, and therefore unable to make a video appearance.

But, luckily for al-qaeda, Fredmed down in the typing pool can do a pretty good “Osama” impersonation.

Or, there’s always the possibility that Osama _is_ making the audiotapes…but that he’s not “photogenic” enough anymore for video—like if he got his limbs blown off in an air attack. Or he’s developed cataracts from kidney failure. Or if the fall of the Taliban was so traumatic that he’s been driven into gibbering senility, only able to spout a few lines of rhetoric.

Or maybe al-qaeda saw “Enemy of the State” too many times, and they’re afraid that the CIA’d be able to analyze the picture of the wallpaper pattern in his safehouse (or something), and use that to send a few hundred cruise missiles his way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267/4 "2003-10-19T09:56:17Z")

</div>

Plus if it isn’t him, it keeps they myth alive. If is easier to disguse an audio tape then a video tape.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bin-laden-audio-vs-video/208267/5 "2003-10-19T10:23:06Z")

</div>

The truth of the matter is that he wanted J-Lo for the video, but she declined, so he’s sulking.