Ok, since 9/11/01 I have been a skeptic when I hear that Osama bin Laden is dead. If Osama were to fake his death, he could still plot terror and remain unknown. So why did he release a new tape recently, revealing he is still alive?
Maybe it's just some sort of inferiority complex. He has to have this sense of power in order to feel confident. He is just like any other terrorist and should not be viewed as "more of a threat" than others. Terrorism is extremely threatening to innocent people - that's why it's called terrorism.
bin Laden is insulting our intelligence. His only reason for releasing that video is to frighten us more and more (however, I do not deny that his threats should not be taken too lightly). He shows his insecurity by revealing that he is alive, because he is afraid he will be forgotten.
Americans can not let the release of a tape by bin Laden stir them into fear. Rather, we should remember that his words are the words of a coward.
Osama Bin Laden used to work for the CIA. He was supposed to get the US a lot of oil from Afghanistan, but turned on the US. I can’t provide the links right now, but I will.
If indeed it is Bin Laden’s voice on that tape. While I believe the US intelligence authorities have verified the authenticity of the tape, it puzzles me that a full video (with pics ) was not released.
I feel that is not only in the Taliban’s interest to perpetuate the belief that he is still alive and kicking. Would it not also advantage the West to have people believe that he is still a threat? At least symbolically, while Osama is still alive the “War on Terror” can continue at full strength and unchecked. The US and the rest of the western world needs him alive so that people have a clear picture of the ‘enemy’. And his continued presence justifies whatever measures the west chooses to implement to destroy terrorists and terrorism.
It is my gut feeling that Bin Laden is well and truly dead.
You know it’s possible that these videos might not just be targeted at Americans. The muslims of the world realize that the US is looking very hard for this Osama bin Laden, that he is able to pop up periodically and spew his ideology with seeming impunity is something of a propaganda victory for him.
That’s what those videos are after all, propaganda. That they might also be used to send out signals to his network must be considered as well.
Does anyone else find it compelling that, despite previous releases, “confirmation” (by the us) of him being alive came only after the elections?
I can’t imagine why the Taliban would care so much. Perhaps I will be informed.
It would be in the interest of Al Quaeda to have it be known he was dead, because they then could coalesce behind a new and effective leader. This is why the whole bin Laden is dead thing was always wishful thinking. There would be a new bin Laden by now.
As for having him alive being something which would “advantage the West,” the West is too diverse to say this. Indeed, kambuckta is apparently a westerner who wishes bin Laden dead, albeit for rather different reasons than the average, say, Republican voter.
I believe that bin Laden being alive is a small advantage to Iraq’s Baathist regime, and that they know this. The reasoning is that if bin Laden is alive, some Westerners would deem it more important to go after him than Iraq.* For this reason, if the recent audio tape is a very good fake (which I doubt), Iraqi scientists may well have created the fake.
Perhaps these Westerners hail from the same race of strategic giants who wanted to make the big push against Japan first because of Pearl Harbor. Of course, the U.S. instead took the smart strategy of going hardest against our strongest opponent, Germany, first. We Americans may pay dearly yet for the Afghanistan first strategy.
Ummm, that’s what I said Duckster. What ‘puzzled’ me was, if ObL really wanted to prove he WAS alive why he didn’t do a full audio-visual vid rather than just an audio. Hajario offered a possible reason for that…but I’m still not convinced!
Beg to differ, Steve. The nature of the organization is such that it cannot coalesce, nor does it want or need to. OBL, however, is a major figure, known worldwide. I suspect that his death would serve to further fractionalize the organization, rather than unify it.
Even if he only shaved his beard to change his appearance, that would be enough to cause him to refrain from making a video. It would be seen as a sign of weakness for him to be seen without his religious chin whiskers. He would look like any other Arab cabby without it though thus making his escape from Afghanistan easier. I bet than when enough time has passed for him to have grown it back, we will be shown some more clips of this dick on Al Jazeera
He didn’t really want to prove it. Better to keep your adversaries guessing.
Bin Laden has been laying low out of humilation from failure to quickly follow up 9/11 and, above all, from humiliation over the Afghan fiasco. The Bali success, and a few smaller recent operations, were enough for him to be willing to make an audio statement, but it will take something bigger (with luck, something bigger than will ever again happen) for him to willingly show his face.
Number 2 above sounds extravagant, but I feel it is most likely. Probably, bin Laden’s aids keep on urging him to make tapes, and he keeps refusing.
Interestingly, a report in this morning’s paper carries a translation of a letter purporting to be from one of ObL’s representatives. The letter explicitly states that his organisation had no connection with the Bali bombings.
Part of the article can be found here. Unfortunately, the translation which is in the hard copy edition of the paper doesn’t seem to be available online.