Seeing how Osama isn’t caught yet, how easy is it, in the technological age, to go underground successfully?
I know it could be done with a lot of allies, but what if one was friendless?
I think it would depend on where you are and how long you expect to survive. In the deserts and mountains of South-Central Asia, I imagine Osama’d be dead in a month with no help but, say, in the Western US’, I think it could be done relatively easy with the right knowledge.
Kacyznski did, after all.
Conversely, living without papers and contact with “the system” is pretty tough in the USA, the Commonwealth countries or Western Europe, but pretty easy in essentially government-less areas such as Afghanistan, backcountry Laos, Khyrghistan, Congo, etc.
There are plenty of places on Earth where there are no records of anything, and you can show up, lie low, and be ignored for the rest of your life. The downside is many of those areas are poor, ignorant places where anyone not raised in that village is treated with great suspicion, watched carefully, and killed when the opportunity arises. You may be safe from the CIA or KGB-equivalents, but you’re not safe from superstitious or paranoid locals who don’t like strangers.
It also depends on who’s looking for you and how hard they’re looking. Regardless of your opinion of how hard Bush is looking for Osama, surely there’s a lot more people who know what he looks like and have an eye out for him than, say, your average white collar criminal who fled the country.
Also, it would depend on what you want to do while underground - if you want to run a multinational terrorist organization, I’d say that might be harder to work than if you just want to live in your little hut and plant some rice.
Actually, what bugs me is that Osama has not shaved his beard.
I figure that with a trademark like that, he would be easily identifiable.
I mean, it would be so easy just to shave it, and disappear from sight, but he hasn’t done that.
Doesn’t the beard have some religious significance?
He could dye his hair blonde, you know, but I am not exactly asking about him; too famous, I mean some schlub who is not guilty of anything but wants to be unknown.
What if I (I didn’t) lived with my parents a long time, not working, not getting a SSN.
Then one day I went to a hospital, what would happen?
You figure wrong… he has his name tatooed onto his chin. The beard covers it.
BWahahahahahahahaa… ok… now I can’t stop laughing…
Volumes have been written on the subject. You could probably google it. Most of the books were written by people who are flirting with the wrong side of the law. It’s physially easy. Emotionally…that’s a different story.
I think that it is pretty easy to disappear-provide you have lots of money. For example, Boston gangster James (AKA “Whitey”) Bulger has been on the lam for 10 years! Supposedly, the FBI is looking for him (this is rather dubious, as Bulger was an accomplice of an ex-FBI agent, who is now in Federal prison).
Bulger has been spotted on London, Louisiana, Missouri, and Florida. He alsways pays for stuff with crisp 100-dollar bills (he is said to have safe deposit boxes stuffed with cash around the country).
Of course, the man is now 75, and life on the lam is probably getting harder for him.
I would imagine though, that if you were to move into a big city, rent an apartment , and only come out at night, the chances are pretty good you could avoid the law indefinitely. :eek:
I would have thought it would be pretty easy to disappear at least for a while. Assuming you had a suitcase or two full of money. One or two accomplices might help. You can get pre-paid credit cards for when you need plastic. Have a friend buy a car for you in cash. As long as you don’t get pulled over, you’re probably fine. Need to make a phone call? Buy a prepaid phone for cash and toss it at the end of the day. Send e-mails from public libraries. I’m guessing you can do stuff with proxy servers, PGP etc. that should throw the authorities off your back for long enough.
Of course, if you’ve got OBL’s face and you’re trying to hide out in one of the Dakotas, someone would no doubt spot you in about 10 minutes.
Eris Rudolph went to ground with no apparent support system and very little resources, and kept it up for five years. I think he was kinda hungry when they finally nailed him.
He just plain went to the hills, though, while I guess the OP might be thinking more of setting up a new, relatively normal, life.
I can’t remember right now - was it Bernadette Dohrn or Kathy Boudin who went undercover for almost twenty years after the Nyack, NY terrorist murders?