Posted on 08/18/2007 7:18:33 AM PDT by seanrobins
Has he really died of typhoid? robert fox weighs the claim and its implications
Osama bin Laden, charismatic founder of al-Qaeda, died of typhoid earlier this month in Pakistan, according to a highly classified intelligence brief given to the King of Saudi Arabia and President Chirac this week, and leaked to the French newspaper L'Est Republicain.
The chief of the terror group was known to have been suffering from acute typhoid and seeking treatment in Pakistan in mid-August. This was picked up and tracked by Saudi intelligence services. The same sources, said by the French to be very reliable, believe he later died.
The powerful Pakistani intelligence agency the ISI - at times virtually a parallel government, instrumental among other things in founding the Taliban - has not confirmed the report. "We have no information on Osama's death," a senior Pakistan Interior Ministry official said on Saturday morning.
Bin Laden last appeared on video in 2004. A few poor-quality audio tapes purporting to be of his voice surfaced earlier this year - but it was impossible to say when the original recordings were made.
The reaction of the bin Laden command cell of al-Qaeda to the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks was surprisingly muted and unfocused. It said al-Qaeda would attack "American targets" again, and that all Americans should "convert to Islam".
It is now clear that most of the talking, and broadcasting, by the old command cell has been done by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, spokesman and ideologue for bin Laden and always seen as his Number 2. The highly articulate doctor came to the surface in the security operations following the assassination of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat in October 1981. He can only exist in the shadow of the magnetism of bin Laden and is not seen as a leader or strategist in his own right.
Much the same goes for the al-Qaeda movement as a whole. Like other, admittedly smaller, terrorist groups such as Italy's Red Brigades, it has found it hard to reprise its big spectacular. It has never done anything like 9/11 since. Attacks like the Bali and Mombasa bombs, the train and transport bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in July last year may have been carried out in the name of Islamic revolution - adopting the al-Qaeda logo as it were - but they were not under bin Laden's direct command.
The attacks appear to be loosely linked homegrown efforts whose ideological and operational roots are in Pakistan and Bangladesh as much as in the bin Laden training camps in Waziristan and Kashmir.
The death of bin Laden, if it is confirmed, will be cloaked in the propaganda of martyrdom, mourning and revenge. It could also trigger a major rethink of such notions as "Global War on Terror", which is long overdue. It will be a blow to the sloganising of the neo-conservatives - and their notion of the "clash of civilisations" - and to the high-flown rhetoric of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair.
It is likely to mean not so much "back to basics" in tackling terrorism, but back to the practicalities of how to deal with terrorists in the real world.
At the end of the article, it says “first posted September 23, 2006”.
(Harry) Reid thinks Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan earthquake (2005), http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1531022/posts?page=4,
Curt Weldon: Bin Laden Is Dead (2006),
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598846/posts,
One Moment in Time (Osama Bin laden died 3 weeks ago in Iran)???? (2006),
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1554969/posts,
Pakistani News Reports Osama bin Laden Died Four Months Ago (2005),
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1508199/posts,
Wanted: Dead or Alive (Two assessments that Osama bin Laden is stone-cold dead) (2004),
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1251701/posts?page=1,
Zawahiri Speaks, is Bin Laden Dead? (2005)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1535603/posts,
Bin Laden Died From Wounds Suffered In Tora Bora Air Raid, Says Arab Expert (2003),
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/908916/posts,
He seems to be taking a long time to die.
To ask the question differently: Show me any proof he is alive.
I hope so.
Next month he can die of Cholera, then there's the plague...
There's ebola.
Allah can play with him a long long time. I hope, getting what he deserves.
“Huh? Chirac is still in office? This must be news to Sarkozy.”
Yeah, that had me scratching my bald head too.
Yes, the media rumor mill is like Hollywood treatment of “blockbuster” flicks - - they always want to leave room for multiple sequels. What is it now? “Bin Laden dead XXII” or “Bin Laden dead XXVII”? I lost count a few years ago.
I saw this same article about a year ago when Chirac was still the president. This seems like a re-run trying to be passed off as new news.
Doesn't matter if he's dead or not as long as he acts dead.
Just saying.
IMO, he has been contained for years.
He won't be carbon neutral until he's totally decomposed..
You haven’t provided any evidence that what you posted is true.
Dead? Yes. But only once.
The day he found out the daisy cutter is not a ship.
Clearly, but at least he’s not practicing the heinous habit of respiration.
Matter of fact, if I am al qeada and he dies, I would damn a river, bury ubl in the river bed and then let the damn go. We would never find him and they could try and keep his spirit alive.
The Jerusalem Post can do better than this kind of foolish babble. Not to mention the writer can't use spell check.
We would never find him and they could try and keep his spirit alive.
You may have a point.
Keeps the spirt alive and the recruitment going. Who wants to follow the second in command nitwit, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
(Judge)
But we’ve got to verify it legally
To see...
(Mayor)
To see...
(Judge)
If she...
(Mayor)
If she...
(Judge)
Is morally, ethically
(Munchkin 1)
Spiritually, physically
(Munchkin 2)
Positively, absolutely
(Munchkin Men)
Undeniably and reliably dead
(Coroner)
As Coroner , I thoroughly examined her
And she’s not only merely dead
She’s really most sincerely dead
(Mayor)
Then this is a day of independence for all the munchkins
And their descendants
Yes, let the joyous news be spread
The wicked old witch at last is dead
If he had only gotten his health care in Cuba he would be alive. (sarcasm)
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