# New Usama Tape: real, important, he's alive?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 11, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423 "2003-02-11T20:50:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/101 "2003-02-13T18:42:45Z")
And the notion that he’s dogmeat provides considerable comfort, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![GOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@GOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GOM)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/102 "2003-02-13T21:38:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rsa \* > \*\*For your consideration, there is another purported Bin Laden tape. I am very suspicious of a tape purchased over the internet, so make of it what you will. > \*\* Oh my! :eek: I wonder who is going to “authenticate” this one??? ::::whispers:::: Pssst… Hey you… Over here… Wanna buy one of my secret Bin Laden tapes? 😃 Barnum was right. ---
**Author:** ![GOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@GOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GOM)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/103 "2003-02-13T21:48:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > \*\*1. Why the attempts (no names, you know who you are and the rest can read) to find reasons to believe the tapes are faked and that Osama is really dead? > > 1. You’d also have to come up with some plausible motivation for someone else to try it, and none has been established or even suggested by any of the armchair diplomats here. > > 2. Could it be wishful thinking, perhaps? > > 3. If you can convince yourself that Public Enemy Number One is really dead, then you don’t have to face the uncomfortable issue of why the prime target now is someone else with no plausible connection. \*\* 1. Unrelated topics. Don’t tie the two together. The tapes would be easy to fake. That is my concern. I don’t care whether OBL is dead or not. I just don’t blindly swallow the story that these tapes are authentic. HTH 2. There are many plausible motivations. Think about who would benefit from the US taking out Saddam. 3. No. Just being realistic about the possibility of faked tapes. For some reason it seems to me everyone is jumping on the “authentic” bandwagon before a full evaluation has been made. 4. I have no proof that OBL is dead. I have no proof that he is alive. This tape provides no proof that he is alive, contrary to what Big Media seems to want us to believe. ---
**Author:** ![GOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@GOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GOM)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/104 "2003-02-13T21:50:40Z")
Btw, does anyone here know the chain of custody for this allegedly authentic OBL tape? I haven’t heard that point addressed by the media. I probably just missed it… Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/105 "2003-02-14T04:58:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GOM \* > There are many plausible motivations. Think about who would benefit from the US taking out Saddam. 'Splain please. The tapes call on Iraqis to resist the US, not for the US to take out Saddam. Unless you’re making the argument that the tapes would be used to support the US attacking Saddam, no matter what they said - but that’s happening anyway. **Steve MB** , that suggested motivation (on the part of the remaining Al-Qaeda leadership) would work in the real world, agreed. But then why do such a crappy job of it? And, if true, why would it not be a confirmation of Al-Qaeda’s continued essential intactness and continued threat? Or maybe they’re just misreading the situation - that also would be plausible. But the razor says the tapes are more likely real than not. ---
**Author:** ![GOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@GOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GOM)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/106 "2003-02-14T16:23:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve MB \* > \*\* > > Thus, we get comments about US attacks on Iraq and the failings of other Islamic heads of state, but no gibes about fraying trans-Atlantic alliances or the loss of the space shuttle. (IMO, the last is particularly telling – there’s no way on God’s green earth that Osama bin Laden could have resisted gloating about the deaths of a bunch of Americans, a Hindu, and a Jew.) \*\* hmmm That’s an excellent, perhaps even a clinching, point… If OBL was still alive he surely would have commented on Columbia being struck down by his god. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/107 "2003-02-14T16:58:53Z")
Depends on the actual recording date. The Columbia disaster was less than 2 weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![GOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f9b8f/32.png) [@GOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GOM)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423/108 "2003-02-14T17:09:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > \*\*Depends on the actual recording date. The Columbia disaster was less than 2 weeks ago. \*\* When did the tape first show up? And what is the chain of custody? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-usama-tape-real-important-hes-alive/154423.md?page=5)