Posted on 02/11/2008 1:11:14 PM PST by LSUfan
U.S. intelligence agencies are beginning to suspect that Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden is dead after all, despite a recent audio tape exhorting Al Qaida terrorists in Iraq.
The Al Qaida leader who was the main force behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, was last heard on an audio tape released Dec. 30. The tape mentioned Iraqis who are opposing Al Qaida, but there has been no specific time referenced from his last two messages. An earlier message in October also exhorted Al Qaida to fight in Iraq.
Questions about Bin Laden are being raised by intelligence officials who say that without a specific time mark with a photo of Bin Laden, his presence cannot be confirmed and the most recent statements could have been put together from older audio.
Al Qaida operates a very sophisticated propaganda operations that includes the use of audio and videotape messages to rally followers and to recruit new jihadists.
The new analysis of Bin Laden follows the death of No. 3 Al Qaida leader Abu Laith Al Libi, who was killed last week in a CIA-led operation in Pakistan that involved an armed unmanned aerial vehicle attack.
Asked about U.S. military or intelligence involving in the terrorist killing, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters: “I’m not going to talk any more about the operational side of this, of how that in fact occurred.”
Mullen called al Libi a key figure in Al Qaida and said “elimination of someone like that is a very important outcome in terms of this long war.”
Mullen also said safe havens for Al Qaida in Pakistan remain a concern and to be able to conduct an operation in the area was “important.”
Gee, ya think?
We haven’t seen a live video from him in more than 5 years...only still photos with audio.
My thoughts, exactly. Get ready for the “still alive” rally. It gets personal sometimes. Very childish. We have our own opinions.
I still think he was killed at Tora Bora (sp). His followers are still trying to keep the ‘legend’ alive.
I thought this was true after last week’s congratulatory message to Republican nominee Rudy Giuliani.
Now that’s funny.
I believe December 2001 was his farewell to this earth. It is just amazing that this is coming out now. The last purported video showed him wearing the same dress he had on in 2001 and somehow I just knew he would want to change clothes more often thatn that.
Well, if this is true, this is one thing that John McCain will have to do. :-) LOL.
I've thought that all along as well. I've been flamed a few times for saying it, but I stand by it.
I think he is in Iran.
I’ve had a suspicion that these people have been using a doublespeak of sorts ... saying that he is “alive” in an attempt to convince people that he is physically alive, while really meaning that he is “alive” in the sense that his legacy lives on.
I think this intentional ambiguity is a common one throughout many writings of different religions.
It’s been long enough, he’s now going for the “retro” look. Or maybe it’s his lucky fatwa-issuing dress.
He’s either dead and buried under tons of rubble in Tora Bora, or we simply need to track down all the dialysis machines in Waziristan: he’ll be attached to one of them. Personally I believe it’s the former....
Our national intelligences is behind the times once again.
He’s dead Jim.
Time to wrap it up. The six at Gitmo are about to be dealt with so there won’t be any annoying leftovers for the next Admin. OBL has been useless since 2004, although dead since Dec 2001. Close the files.
Al Qaeda, the organization that toppled the towers has become the Mullahs who have to hide in caves and rule them with an iron fist.
I always figured that he was still alive or we’d know about it, but you give a good reason why that might not be so. It might also explain why Osama’s son is coming out now as a voice...
“um .... hold on .... um, sorry my friend, Osama can’t come to the phone ..... um, he’s busy at the moment ..... “
Uncle Sam: "Bin Laden is still dead."Bin Laden: "Ha Ha! I'm really alive!"
Hellfire Missile: "Boom"
Uncle Sam: "Bin Laden is still dead."
Would you like Mr. bin Laden’s voice mail?
Only a little more than 3 years. He appeared on video before the 2004 election and mentioned that Kerry and Bush were running.
REEEEEEE-JECTED!!!
No jihad for Mr. Graybeard
The sighting is what initiated the sending of the 4 man Seal team into the valley - with disastrous consequences...and is why we now have rapid response teams deployed in the Kunar year round ...on OBL patrol.
But I would not be surprised if he hasn't gone on to his 22 virgins, may they all be goats or gays, since 2005. At 6'7", he's a good target - hard to hide under a burka too. "He's dead, Jim."
It would be.
I’ve always said if we capture him alive, it’s going to be a testament to the supreme self-control and restraint of our troops. Personally, if he popped his head out of his cave, and I saw him, I’d empty the clip, reload, empty, then call in an air strike, just to make sure.
I hope that when the “Greatest Hits” DVD set comes out, that it includes a blooper reel.
Those are two different guys. Look at how the beard grows around the lips, between the mustache and the cheeks. The original Binny has that area filled in, the new guy is bald there.
The dye-job beard in the last video was a dead giveaway.
DUH!
I have always wondered how they explain the fact he looks younger as time goes on.
Not over. OBL and al Qaeda may be finished, but we're going to be dealing with Mugniyah and Iranian Hezbollah soon enough.
We still have a long war ahead of us. The dems most definitely are going to make it longer and more difficult.
for later
Dead since Tora Bora.
We know this week that some of his cronies were waterboarded....... surely the status of OBL was learned.
Exactly right and, furthermore, as long as Wahhabism is still around, AQ is the symptom, not the disease.
The Dems have made it harder, and will likely continue to do so. Unfortunately, we have not been effective in pointing that out.
E’s passed on! This terrorist is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e
rests in peace! ‘e’s pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the
bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-TERRORIST!!
I guess Hitlery can scratch him off the short list for veep.
“We’re sorry, Mr. bin Laden is no longer with the company...”
Wahhabism has little to do with Hezbollah or the Mullahs of Iran, it’s a different source of Islam.
What’s weird is I remember our own intelligence agencies confirming the 2004 Bin Laden and 2007 jerry-curl Bin Laden are the same. I always wondered what they were seeing that I was missing...
His beard is wierd! His stache is trash!
I agree. About December of 2003. :)
I have always thought that the name Al Qaeda (the Foundation or Base) might refer to Aasimov’s “The Foundation Series”. In it, a character (Harry Seldon) appears in holographic form hundreds of years after his own death and makes comments that are dead on for the time of the appearance. I think that may be what we are seeing.
I suspect that OBL got thinly spread over the walls of a cave in Tora Bora by one of our nice JDAMs, but his videos live on.
I believe he was in the very first house our jets flatten in the beginning of the war.
When the Mullahs manufacture their “perfect being” and the Wahhabists are united with the Twelvers, things are going to get real interesting, real fast.
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