Bin Laden Tape: Text

BBC News ^ | 3/12/03 | BBC Monitoring

[Yaelle]

Surely you are not asserting that bin Laden is dead, therefore al Qaeda is no longer a threat?

No, of COURSE al Quaeda is an enormous threat, regardless of whether bin Laden is breathing or not. I just hope they really have seriously evaluated the tape in some way that can prove beyond a doubt that it's him, and not just using it politically.

[steve-b]

The modified C-130 aircraft kept carpet-bombing us at night, using modern types of bombs.

What, you expecting us to fly in prop-driven biplanes and drop old-fashioned cannonball-with-a-lit-fuse bombs?

[steve-b]

The modified C-130 aircraft kept carpet-bombing us at night, using modern types of bombs.

What, you expecting us to fly in prop-driven biplanes and drop old-fashioned cannonball-with-a-lit-fuse bombs?

[steve-b]

Aren't we going to look like morons for saying, "See the Al Quaeda connection???" when later it is proved that he was DEAD at the time??

The people running what's left of al-Qaeda are putting together audio clips of old bin Laden recordings -- but since they're the ones selecting the clips, they're the ones deciding what message is being uttered. Thus, the call to support Iraq is still the official word from the organization, even if the alleged speaker is as dead as Al Gore's Presidential ambitions.

[Catholicguy]

The regime change will be no harder to accomplish than in occupied Japan

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[steve-b]

One of the main reasons I think bin Laden died in Afgahnistan is that I think he's smart enough to think up good attack plans. After they lost him and their other top people, their effectiveness appears to have gone straight down the toilet. I find this very strange considering all the talk about it being a decentralized organization that can survive anything.

They may not have been able to attract enough educated leader-types -- most of the Saudi kleptocratic class prefers to indulge in Western vices. The schlubs they do attract from the downtrodden masses are mostly good for nothing but cannon fodder.