Osama tape or Osama fake

Personally I have quite a number of doubts about the latest Bin Laden tape. If you remember there was the independent research that was carried out in 2002 on one of these 'CIA confirmed' tapes that showed it almost certainly to be a fake. Then we had the fantastically timed October 2004 fiction which gave the US President a six point lead as he headed into the election.



This latest tape is incredibly poor quality ( probably to stop the Swiss from exposing this one too) and is already being questioned by scholars and journalists (windows media file) alike.

As per usual the timing is perfect for the President and as noted in this BBC article 'the immediate political effect of the tape will probably be to boost support for President George W Bush'.

Many people including Pakistan's President Musharraf believe Bin laden died quite some time ago and a number of independent analysts date his death on or around the week of December 10, 2001. Which will of course be well known to those that went to his funeral. ( copy of Arabic newspaper article printed in al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633 announcing Bin Ladens funeral here )

If you take into account the reams of evidence available for his death in December 2001 then it makes his last interview all the more interesting . It was in the Karachi-based Pakistani daily newspaper, Ummat, and printed on September 28, 2001. Bin laden was asked about the September 11th attacks and this was his reply...

"I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle. "

An amazing contrast to his willingness to put his name to every terrorist action since his death.

Now don't get me wrong I am no fan of Bin Laden and I certainly would not want to defend him. His list of crimes even without the 'incident' on 9/11 would make almost any government put him at the top of their wanted list , but that obviously was not the view of the CIA when they last met him in July 2001. The fact that CIA trained and funded Bin Laden during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan is so well known that it is barely worth a link. ( but here is one anyway )

Osama was a nasty piece of work and the world is better off without him. I just wonder how long the Emmanuel Goldstein routine will continue to work on a significant number of the American population.

Anyway for those that believe he is still alive and well here is the full transcript of the fanatical terrorists latest rant recorded during a spare five minutes away from his constant need for kidney dialysis. Apparently helping out President Bush just in time for the warrantless domestic spying hearing this coming week.

How Ironic.