10-Month bin Laden Mystery: Dead or Alive?

The New York Times ^ | 09/30/2002 | JOHN F. BURNS

[Higgymonster]

About a week ago on Rush Limbaugh, Rush said that they CIA had a satellite photo of Bin Laden on a horse at the exact spot a daisy cutter went off about ten minutes later. Anybody know anything about that.

[robomatik]

exactly...

[pfflier]

Plausible. I disagree though that his M.O. is to slowly fade away from everyone's consciousness

He needs visibility to keep his stature as leader of the Al Queda. Not to that group's leadership but to the millions of muslim illiterates that cannot read and must see his image periodically to be faithful to their cause, killing Amerucan civilians.

[Rocksalt]

Nobody really knows for sure,but it seems he is a real media hound and you think he would have released a video lately to prove he was alive,and keep his troop morale high.

[WOSG]

actually the myth of survival is convenient for BOTH sides, for Al Quaeda to admit he's dead harms their cause and makes our task seem less urgent.

[Calvin Locke]

Heard some Brit hawking a book a month or so ago. Supposedly an intel expert.

His bottom line: "Show me the body!" Otherwise, UBL "lives" a mythical life.

The guy's other altenatives are that UBL's too sick,
and/or changed his appearance enough such that he wouldn't jeopardize it by making a new tape.

[CharacterCounts]

Bin Laden is almost certainly dead.

I think and hope he is dead. Otherwise, I wouldn't put it past this animal to show up one day and claim he was resurrected.

[Angelus Errare]

My question is what the reaction would be if he did show up alive in the aftermath of say ... an Iraqi-sponsored WMD terrorist attack on the continental US.

[swarthyguy]

Mahdi!

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" But the New York Times is perfectly capable of exploiting his death OR his escape in their vicious campaign to undermine the war."

The Democrats have decided that since Bush is "politicizing" the war, then they will, too. This week's Newsweek has a hit piece about a conflict between the 82nd Airborne and the Special Forces in Afghanistan. Naturally, Newsweek is right and the military is wrong. McDermott's claims that Bush is lying to the American people on Iraq is another facet. The strategy of undermining Bush as a war president and belittling the military's capabilities-is the Democrat's election season Hail Mary pass. Nothing is too sleazy or too contemptible the Democrats-absolutely nothing.

[GallopingGhost]

C'mon we got Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Certainly they know if he is alive or dead. If they know, I guarantee that we (as in U.S. Intelligence) now know. One thing that is clearly apparent about President Bush, he doesn't show his cards before they are needed. I would suggest that this one will be played just a little closer to the election. He is dead and it will be confirmed right around the end of October. Has anyone heard anything credible as far as a sighting goes in the past nine months? Even the Paki's would be patting themselves on the back if they were the ones to confirm it. With so many eyes and ears all over the world, someone's intelligence certainly has come up with the answer.

[Cindy]

Has-Been Laden was like Bill Clinton still is --- always wanting to be in the media spotlight. Has-Been Laden is most likely in multiple pieces in the Middle East high on a hilltop in a cave that was demolished by the bunker bombs. His spirit of hate and non-tolerance, and threats of violence and terrorism lives on, however.

[struwwelpeter]

How about The Reverend Doctor Osama Bin Laden, Jr.?

[wingnuts'nbolts]

I just can't read stuff printed in the NYT in it's entirety.

[MeekOneGOP]

Bump for later read.....

[Angelus Errare]

There've been reports, mainly from Afghans, saying that he's alive. Of course, these are the same people who tried to scam the US out of $25,000,000 after claiming that they had decapitated Ayman al-Zawahiri (a DNA test revealed that the head in question belonged to someone else).

The Arabic media outlets, from al-Quds al-Arabi to al-Jazeera, all say that he is alive. So does his spokesman, Suleiman Abu Ghaith. We simply can't find any hard evidence in terms of a new tape (though I'm still waiting for a transcript of his 9/11/02 tribute to the 19 hijackers to judge for myself whether or not it contained new material) to verify such claims. In any case, until we can come up with hard evidence that bin Laden is dead (and if we have any, I personally think it would have been leaked to the press from Congress at this point) the US is acting on the assumption that he's alive. Sometimes it's better to ignore an opportunity to take success than risk looking really stupid if we say he's dead and another videotape comes out with him gloating that America couldn't stop him.