Posted on 09/11/2004 3:11:58 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Edited on 09/11/2004 3:19:37 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Karachi, Sept. 11 (NNN): Three years on from his outfit’s most deadly attacks as the world still hunts for the Saudi rebel, Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid has indicated that Al-Qaeda terror network kingpin Osama bin Laden may be dead.
Addressing Meet the Press at Karachi Press Club on the eve of third anniversary of September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, the minister, however, pointed out that around 200-300 foreign militants were hiding in Wana who are ‘master planners’ as they had got enough training in Afghanistan.
“We are not averse to dialogue but we would give bullet to bullet reply in Wana and Balochistan also,” Sheikh Rashid declared. “If we had not started operation in Wana, the US would have done this and think what would have happened then,” the minister asked.
He said that militants may go to other areas or cities but the forces would move there also as the government was determined to eliminate terrorism.
The minister hinted that the government was about to take ‘very important decisions’ regarding water, ties with India and terrorism.
“For bold decisions, bold man was imperative,” the minister said in an apparent reference to Gen. Pervez Musharraf, claiming that the 17th Amendment allows Gen. Pervez Musharraf to occupy the both offices of President and Chief of Army Staff simultaneously.
Widening Threat: Meanwhile, most analysts believe there is a danger in laying too much emphasis on al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden alone when the reality of growing terrorism is more complex - and perhaps more dangerous.
Undoubtedly that the core of al-Qaeda has been disrupted. It has lost its secure sanctuary and training camps in Afghanistan and is finding it harder to organise and communicate under pressure.
The core of hardened veterans has been hit hard in the past three years.
In his New York convention speech on September 2, 2004, President George Walker Bush declared that American strategy was succeeding and that "more than three-quarters of al-Qaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed".
(Excerpt) Read more at indolink.com...
Jim,
UBL MAY BE DEAD, captured, or in a hidey hole, but his evil spirit lives on via jihad.
He is, he may be, he isn't dead... Until conclusive proof that he's DEAD is shown to the world then I'll believe he's alive.
We can only hope...but what nice news that would be on this day of all days.
They are showing this high quality video of OBLs 2nd in command, but nothing of OBL in a really long time. He's been room temperature for quite a while.
(steely)
His ego is too great for him not to have made a video to both rally his supporters and stick in our eye.
I believe he's been dead for some time.
He's been dead since before Dec 13, 2001 and will remain so.
You beat me to it!
First thought "He's dead, Jlm?"
You've got that backwards. How about a little conclusive proof that he's actually alive - a picture holding a current newspaper or something?
He's been taking a dirt nap since Tora Bora.
I tend to think he is dead, too.
BUT,
BUT, I am suspicious of a muslim gov't telling me this. Such news is generally followed by a "Well with OBL dead, there's no reason for American's to hang around, so go on home..its all safe now."
Yeah right. I want proof, like DNA scraped off a cavern wall.
The consensus of opinion is that Osama bin Ladin is "probably" dead, else why in some two and half years has not one videotape that could be authenicated showing him still alive been produced? We saw literally HOURS of bin Ladin in conference with his lieutenants shortly after 9-11-01, but after about December or so, these tapes ceased to be produced. Everything made available since then seemed to be replays of old stock footage.
But by maintaining the myth that he was still alive and giving orders, the public's minds were focused on a face, an individual, to direct their concern at. This worked both for al-Qaeda, to demonstrate his seeming invincibility, and the coalition forces, to muster conscientious prosecution of the campaign to eliminate his organization.
True.
Yep. And his virgins are Madeline Albright and Helen Thomas look alikes....
Ping
Jim Robinson. Inventor of FreeRepublic.
(steely)
Was thinking on the same lines....LOL
There will not be a public announcement of any such "proof."
Sightings will continue for several more years.
The definitive test for me is that I will know Osama Bin Laden is dead when Dan Rather tells me so.
.......anyway,........his 'clones' are everywhere......
/sarcasm
Tah - dah!
LOL yeah
He is, he may be, he isn't dead... Until conclusive proof that he's DEAD is shown to the world then I'll believe he's alive.
I personally think that Bin is blowin in the wind, in bitty little fragments, having long ago taken a direct hit from a very large bomb, and that any eyewitnesses to this event are also blowin, and that you will never see conclusive proof.
We need him as the "Boogeyman", puts a face on the enemy.
Did you read the article? They point out that there may now be 200-300 'master planners' still on the loose and they're going to follow them around the country.
Sure, they don't want the U.S. involved. That's natural. But they seem to want to do the job right. That's a good thing.
And I don't trust any government, especially a muslim one.
He's not dead, he's simply taken on the form of a thickly congealed bloody mass.
He's getting better....really...
Carville, overheard at a party for ACME Documents Authorizers < /sarcasm>
Hasn't Osama released an audio tape since our invasion of Iraq, where he specifically mentioned "Iraq"? I thought I remembered he had and that it had been authenticated.
If he is dead he's died since then.
We have to assume he is still alive. We have to continue to look for him until we know for sure.
He's dead. This proud, cocky peacock would not be able to keep quiet this long if he was still breathing.
So what. Iffen he ain't dead, he's still callin' the shots. Iffen he is dead, somebody just like him is callin' the shots. Where does that leave us?
Geraldo assured me Osama escaped from Tora Bora. Since then, I have heard W, Cheney, Condi, Rummy and General Myers say the odds are he is still alive (their best guess based on the info). I believe they believe their statements.
I have leaned toward his being dead, but have left room in my thinking for his being alive.
Osama may be alive, Osama may be dead (I happen to believe the latter); what is known is he isn't doing a whole lot of leading (something he had been doing from the 1980s up 'till December 2001).
Great News! If OBL is dead I won $100.00 from my Democratic friend who believes President Bush has captured him and will show OBL in the per verbal October Surprise.
Water Cooler Bets:
Funny thing, I just made that bet yesterday and since the other office Democrats are feeling better about sKerry I doubled up on all of their action.
As far as OBL alive or dead, he's alive.
OBL's alive, he's just retired.
We have video and audio, CIA vetted, from post Tora Bora, and have captured people who've been in touch with him as late as late 2002. We have intercepted telephone calls made to Bin Laden as late as early 2003, and are aware of specific meetings with him as late as April 2003.
He stopped making videos when the Muslim world asked him to, because his sagging eyebags and green face (results of probably being wounded at Tora Bora) wasn't fitting the poster boy for terror image.
Zawahiri is a little more active, call him CEO with Bin Laden as Chairman of the Board.
Operational control has devolved to Bin Laden's son, Saad Bin Laden and his deputy, Saif al Adel, both based in Iran, who cooperate closely with Rafsanjani, VEVAK, IRGC, Qods and Hezbollah leaders, and who have staged numerous successful and failed attacks from Iran.
I've lost count how many times this cat has died. His head on a stick won't stop his followers.
Remind me of the significance of December 13, 2001.
He is consulting...for the DNC and Soros' 527's.
He's dead. If the media is downplaying his importance, either they have him or he's dead.
He's dead. If the media is downplaying his importance, either they have him or he's dead.
Hmmm, you can't help wondering if Pakistan has bin Laden's corpse in a cooler somewhere and has been dangling his whereabouts in front of the US like a carrot.
My knowledge of Latin American history is rusty. Does anyone recall how reports of Che Guevarra's death were handled? He achieved cult status--the James Dean of Marxism.
I experience revulsion everytime I see a woman on my commute to work who has the infamous chromatic Che portrait on the outside tire cover of her SUV. (Complete with a red star.) There is a message in Spanish that says something like, "What is the value of one man when the future of humanity is in jeopardy?" (My interpretation is, To make a socialist workers' paradise omelet, you've got to break a few eggs.)
What on earth are you doing up? Don't you ever sleep?
If Pakistan finds him and hands him over, or we catch him before Nov., it's a given that Muslims worldwide will foam at the mouth, along with Kerry and company. Muslims who follow Jihad aren't sane. Every move we make, every time we defend ourselves, it's an 'insult' not to be borne. The truth only goes one way, their way. Thanks to the Koran and murderous mullahs, women are cattle, human rights don't exist, individual freedom, liberty, the right to think for yourself...all of which they deny...it's why their culture is stuck in the Dark Ages.
Yeah, didn't Geraldo open the vault containing his casket? Or was that Dan Rather?...
He's been dead since before Dec 13, 2001 and will remain so.
I believe he is dead also. He died before Christmas 2001. They probably have dna results that prove it too. Why they won't admit this I don't know.
I think Che was buried under 6 inches of asphalt along a runway somewhere.
Remember how Fujimori disposed of the Shining Path terrorists who captured the Japanese Embassy in Lima? They were, of course, not taken alive. Afterwards, they were cremated and their ashes not returned to next of kin. Fujimori did not want any grave becoming a shrine to Marxism.
Osama is on the wrong side of the lawn. He is taking a dirt nap. He has ceased to be. In other words, he's dead Jim.
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