Website sorry for bin Laden dead report

Reuters | September 11, 2002

[HAL9000]

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Arabic-language Islamist website has apologised for alarming followers of Osama bin Laden by running a report suggesting the world's most wanted man was killed in Afghanistan in 2001.

"I apologise to the readers for writing this report. I would like to start by telling them that Sheikh Osama bin Laden is alive," wrote a man who identified himself as Abou Ja'far al-Kuwaiti, apparently an alias that indicates that he is a Kuwaiti follower of bin Laden.

The article appeared on website www.jehad.net with the headline: "Yes, Osama has been killed but Holy struggle will continue until doomsday."

It added: "The story of the missile that removed the trench in Tora Bora in which Osama bin Laden had been hiding."

The author, who said he was an eyewitness to a U.S. raid in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December, said the man killed then was Osama al-Adani, while bin Laden survived.

He said an Arabic satellite television had quoted the website as saying bin Laden was dead and had demanded a correction.

Washington, which blames bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the attacks, has led a military offensive in Afghanistan to seek out bin Laden and to punish his Taliban hosts for sheltering him and his militant network.

The fate of bin Laden and many of his lieutenants remains unknown.

The story was published on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the suicide attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people including 19 suspected hijackers.

The author said bin Laden had left the trench when a missile was fired by a U.S. B-52 bomber on apparent tips that the leader of al Qaeda was there.

"Even if it was Osama bin Laden who was killed, the sun of Holy struggle does not go down," he said.

[Space Wrangler]

The author, who said he was an eyewitness to a U.S. raid in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December, said the man killed then was Osama al-Adani, while bin Laden survived.

Oh did I say Osama bin Laden??? Oops, sorry, I meant Osama al-Adani!!! I'm always getting those two mixed up you know!! My fault people. Osama's fine. Really. But even if I weren't wrong and Osama bin Laden DID get ripped to shreds by a dasiy cutter, we should still continue on...yadayadayadayadayada

[steve-b]

Oh, puh-leeze. Osama's ego makes Clinton look like St. Francis of Assisi. There's no way he would have refrained from circulating a new video with proof that he's still alive if he were able to do so.

[walkingdead]

Has anyone else thought that this OBL dead junk was maybe a signal to activate some sleeper cell?

[The Great Satan]

I guess it was a trial balloon.

[Trailer Trash]

"And Osmondo al-Donni was last seen in the hills of Utah."

From a ranch in Bly, to the hills of Utah. I'd hate to be one of these guys during mule deer season.

Nowhere on earth at any time are there more sharp shooters dialed in to drive nails at 100 yards.

[Smile-n-Win]

Has anyone else thought that this OBL dead junk was maybe a signal to activate some sleeper cell?

Here's a hypothesis that seems to cover the facts we have so far: The report was a signal for a U.S.-based cell to do something with the nuclear material delivered on that Liberian-registered ship. When "the author" got word that the ship had been stopped, he issued the retraction to 1) tell the cell to forget it; 2) keep Osama's myth alive.

Of course, another fitting hypothesis is that the report was simply a glitch by an overzealous al-Qaeda content provider, who wanted to remind the world on this anniversary that they would continue their jihad, and in his excitement forgot the fact that we're not supposed to know Osama is dead.