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Alive and well, Osama bin Laden held a summit of terrorists in an Afghan mountain stronghold in the wake of the Iraq war to plot al Qaeda's next move - an attack using biological weapons that "will be unbelievable," a Taliban source claims in an alarming new report.

Yawn. Rafael Patai's excellent book "The Arab Mind" goes into some depth into the Arab perception of "truth," and guess what, it's not like ours.

Arab concept of "the truth" is whatever they can make the other guy believe. IIRC one of Aesop's fables is about the people living in the middle east, and how they became liars and cheats.

Here it is!

521. HERMES AND THE ARABS

Hermes filled a cart with lies and dishonesty and all sorts of wicked tricks, and he journeyed in this cart throughout the land, going hither and thither from one tribe to another, dispensing to each nation a small portion of his wares. When he reached the land of the Arabs, so the story goes, his cart suddenly broke down along the way and was stuck there. The Arabs seized the contents of the cart as if it were a merchant's valuable cargo, stripping the cart bare and preventing Hermes from continuing on his journey, although there were still some people he had not yet visited. As a result, Arabs are liars and charlatans, as I myself have learned from experience. There is not a word of truth that springs from their lips.