U.S. confirms bin Laden audiotape

UPI ^ | February 11, 2003

[glock rocks]

If they don't cover it, the slight forces OBL (if alive) to come out in person to say "Hey, I'm alive."

or his minions... if it's bs, it's quality bs. hmmmm.
my guess is the ruskies are simpering with the french because they don't want to
inflame the chechen / mooslimb situation much further... and they've become
full fledged euroweenies. otoh, it's likely covered under the table... and that
leads to the question...

should we keep this dead man alive?

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

Irving? Is that you? For god's sake Irving, put down that vibrator and tell us---IS IT PLAYING IN PEORIA?

[Caesar Soze]

They ought to have. They also ought to have hectored Saddam from power, developed a system of real-time milimeter-resolution color surveillance satellites, and found homes for all the lost puppies in the world. These are things that they ought to have done; unfortunately, real-world constraints prevent them from doing everything they ought to do.

[Moosefart]

Wonder why its just an audio and not a vidio....arabs are idiots

[HairOfTheDog]

has this tape been heard? - I have been away from the news today.... Is it online somewhere?

[Argus]

The tape is the first broadcast to the world from bin Laden since an audiotape of what U.S. officials believe to be his voice was released in November in which he claims credit for the bombing of a hotel resort in Bali and an attack on a movie theater in Moscow.

On the new tape, bin Laden also claims credit for "Joe Millionaire".

[bobi]

Here's my buy-your-tin-foil-by-the-gross alert theory.

OBL is not in custody in Diego Garcia. We need a final nail for Saddam. We arrange for OBL to make a tape implicating Iraq. Powell knows about tape and its contents prior to it being broadcast or even being offically acknowledged.

Screwy theory? Yes.
Likely? Hardly.
It's been a slow afternoon and the mind is idle? Certainly.
He's not dead? More likely than the above theory.

[Indy Pendance]

They played it earlier today. I haven't found transcripts yet.

[Cultural Jihad]

Wonder why its just an audio and not a vidio....arabs are idiots

Irony defined: Calling people 'idiots' without running a spell-checker first.

[DoctorMichael]

.....taped earlier, before he was fried ......

THE most reasonable and logical alternative. The absence of any communication from this clown HAS been glaring: #1, since he loved to pontificate and #2, all those conferences he held were taped.

[ingodwetrust]

For what it is worth, I believe he IS in Baghdad and has been all along.

[Rightone]

I still dont believe Bin Laden is alive, why isnt he on video? Perhaps, because he has had plastic surgery and has had his looks radically altered. Seems to me that would have been a logical thing for him to do with the worldwide manhunt going on for him. He could be living out in the open with his new appearance. He's not about to give that away.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

OK, I almost never post far-out theories, but what the heck. I'm not saying this is my personal belief, but I throw it out there for thought (and probably ridicule, which it probably deserves).

What if it turns out bin Laden is not only alive, but we know exactly where he is? And that we are waiting until we have the upper hand in Iraq, and until we are confident that any Al Qaeda retaliation is over (or will not happen). Then, we swoop in, capture bin Laden, and parade him before the world, complete with mountaints of smoking-gun-style evidence of Iraq/Al Qaeda/Sept. 11 links.

Maybe a slightly less far-fetched notion is that we may know bin Laden's whereabouts, and we have been tracking his conversations for months now (which may explain the lack of attacks in the U.S. since 9/11, notwithstanding the 7/4 LAX shooting). What of that theory? Maybe it would be too hard to keep a secret.

Personally, I now think bin Laden is alive, but very ill and/or visibly wounded in a way that would demoralize the troops were he to appear in a video. Perhaps he lost an eye, or is severely burned. It seems to me that it would be too hard for the U.S. to squelch dissenting analysis of the authenticity of the audio tape (though I am aware that the previous one was adjudged a fraud by some independent expert group).

[Indy Pendance]

It's been theorized that bin laden is alive, and if there was solid confirmation he was killed, there were direct orders for al qaeda to implement terror in the US. And with all the muslims here, how far fetched is that? I don't know how accurate that is, just something I read.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

mountaints = mountains

[Constitutions Grandchild]

Yes, I heard it which isn't very useful, since I couldn't tell if it was OBL or Maudie Fricker. No screen writer in history could have brought this tape in on cue any better. I doubt anyone on this thread could tell the difference between voices, or can figure out why "terrorists" would take out a three-page ad making the case for invading Iraq.

[jwalsh07]

Personally, I think it's Scott Ritter doing his impression of OBL for a "small" consideration.

Of course they have done W and Powell a favor by throwing the secularist/jihadist mutually exclusive theory out the window.

Thanks Scottie boy.

[IoCaster]

"OBL is in custody in Diego Garcia. We need a final nail for Saddam. We arrange for OBL to make a tape implicating Iraq."

This explanation would comfort me. This is the kind of activity I'd prefer my tax dollars to be supporting.

*As I sit here scribbling my signature on another check to the f$%#ing IRS*

[B-bone]

f$%#ing IRS

I see you make your checks out to the same people I do.