Osama bin Missin'

[Guest]

From Eject-Eject-Eject.

Pointed out something I'd totally forgotten about in the run-up to the invasion - Abu Nidal was living as a guest of Saddam Hussein for almost a decade, then just weeks before the main attack, one of Saddam's Bang-Bang squads shows up at Nidal's dacha outside Baghdad and puts out his lights. What's wrong with this picture ?

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Osama bin Laden has not been seen since the battle of Tora Bora in December of 2001. Remember now, this is not someone like Abu Nidal, a genuine terror mastermind described by the US State Department as having carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring almost 900 persons. Targets include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab countries. Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the City of Poros day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988

Abu Nidal was rightfully phobic about being photographed. Anonymity was camouflage to him: incredibly tight operational security, even plastic surgery. The man wanted to remain unseen. In fact he did remain unseen, retiring in his golden years to a nice apartment in Baghdad until he was assassinated by Saddam just before the war to maintain the well-established fact that Saddam had no ties to terrorism. No living ties to terrorism. Well, to that terrorist. It’s all very nuanced and sophisticated.

Contrast this behavior to that of Osama bin Laden, who did not operationally plan the 9/11 attacks (see dead underlings, above) but was rather the figurehead for an international organization of many thousands of fanatics, their numbers much thinned now.

Osama made endless videotapes. Lecturing, preaching, instructing, firing an AK-47: all the things that make young jihadis feel funny in the pants. After 9/11, he wowed ‘em in several tapes gloating and laughing over the attack and its aftermath. He was reliably heard on the radio during the final phase of Tora Bora, then…nothing.

Maybe he escaped. It’s possible.

Then came the videotape condemning the Israeli incursion into Ramallah and Jenin…only it didn’t. The US corporate scandals? Silence. Anniversary of Holy Tuesday? Cue the tumbleweeds.

The freaking invasion of a Muslim country by the Great Satan, and this new Caliph, the Leader of the Oppressed, cannot bring himself to shoot a crummy VHS in front of a white wall condemning this outrage? This glory-seeking egomaniac, the New Saladin riding the White Horse across the desert, who practically put out a 10 DVD commemorative set every time the US so much as hiccupped, is now suddenly silent, and has been for three years?

You may call that a Terror Mastermind. I call it a greasy wet spot on the wall of a cave in Afghanistan.

The man is dead. Dead, or just possibly captured. The likelihood of him having been killed at Tora Bora by US “outsourcing” was rising with his deafening silence concerning each American counterstroke and became 100% when nothing was heard from the late Osama after the US invasion of Iraq.

Does President Bush know what became of him? I would say, very likely. We know what did not become of him: he didn’t become a Martyr. He did not become the symbol of Glorious Death resisting the Great Satan. He did not become a Symbol or a Cause or an Example to Them All.

He became, if you will pardon the expression, AWOL. Bugged out. Handed in his walking papers. Fizzle…poof. Gone.

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All emphasis is mine.

The only part about this I don't get is --

If Osama's been whacked, why isn't anybody saying so? Silly-assed consipracy theories aside, don't the powers have a strong interest in reporting this?

The only reason I can see the the govt holding back is that they don't have the means to be absolutely certain.

Yet, they could say so, couldn't they? Wouldn't that encourage that ol' towel-wrapping shitbag to come out and make a new video condeming the Great Satan (and at the same time praising the head-choppers in Iraq)?

Anybody else wonder wtf is going on here?

mh

.

[sundevil777 102]

Bush should taunt him. Basically claim that indications that he must be dead are mounting. Dare him to prove he is alive.

Some say that he has been spotted in Iran.

Taunt him and let's see if he can resist.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[narcimund 0]

Emmanuel Goldstein will never be caught. He's far more valuable as a bogeyman than dead. In fact, it's not even necessary that he ever existed. That makes it easier to keep him alive forever.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[Jimbo 0]

Quote

If Osama's been whacked, why isn't anybody saying so?

To prevent him from achieving martyr status?

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[smiles 0]

An October surprise?

With the debates over, the candidates are left to their campaigns, largely targeting their own partisans. There will be speeches, interviews and a flurry of media advertising. However, only a serious gaffe by one of the candidates could change the dynamic of the campaign.

If an October surprise happens, it won't come from the campaign itself. It would have to be external – from terror alerts, to (God forbid) another incident on U.S. soil, to a new development in the Iraq war or perhaps a U.S. action against some other target in the president's "axis of evil." You can bet that efforts to find, capture or kill Osama bin Laden will reach a new fever pitch every time Bush's poll numbers fall.

Therefore, in spite of Kerry's campaign momentum and superior ratings on the economy, health care, education, foreign policy and other issues, the result of this election campaign will be uncertain until the last vote is counted late on election night.

President Bush has repeatedly shown that he will do anything to win. That makes the final weeks of this campaign an uncertain proposition for all of us.

SMiles

[Skyrad 0]

Who is Kiza Solze? Osama Bin Laden is Kiza Solze!

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Kennedy 0]

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Who is Kiza Solze? Osama Bin Laden is Kiza Solze!

Caesar. His first name is Casesar. Don't ask me to spell the last name. It's just an accent. You should unsederstand that, you're British. You have one of the worst ones out there.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[Skyrad 0]

LOL.....What ever you say Forrest!

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Quote

If Osama's been whacked, why isn't anybody saying so?

To prevent him from achieving martyr status?

-
Jim

Could be, or he just expired in some cave somewhere and his followers let him be. The idea that he is alive and untouchable by America makes him appear more powerful.

And the claim I read about Bush pulling him out in Oct to win the election? I'm sure he will do it from Area 51 from the deck of the crashed alien spaceship we have there. Do you really think he would stay in such a tight fight where he is losing face on a daily basis? Hell no, that trump card would have been played already.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[diverdriver 7]

Quote

And the claim I read about Bush pulling him out in Oct to win the election? I'm sure he will do it from Area 51 from the deck of the crashed alien spaceship we have there. Do you really think he would stay in such a tight fight where he is losing face on a daily basis? Hell no, that trump card would have been played already.

"Part of playing chicken... is knowing when to flinch."

[Jimbo 0]

Quote

Do you really think he would stay in such a tight fight where he is losing face on a daily basis? Hell no, that trump card would have been played already.

Whether or not Bush is losing face is a matter of perspective; please remember that.

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Whether or not Bush is losing face is a matter of perspective; please remember that.

But he has been losing face! And I think he has been giving all of it to Kerry.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

Quote

Whether or not Bush is losing face is a matter of perspective; please remember that.

But he has been losing face! And I think he has been giving all of it to Kerry.

No, no, we've been over this, since they are different heights and the lecturns are the same, they had to zoom in closer to the President to frame the TV screen equally. All this just because the DNC refused a perfectly reasonable suggestion to make Kerry stand in a 1 foot hole at all times while on stage. Can YOU JUST believe it? It could have been so simple, really.

Kerry having a lot of face is just extra replacement skin in case he suffers burns and needs a graft. Not a bad idea unless it starts to gather lint.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[SpeedRacer 1]

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Osama bin Laden has not been seen since the battle of Tora Bora in December of 2001.

wait a minute, didn't he put out more video/audio tapes after that? I seem to remember him referencing the invasion of Iraq at one point...something about how he didn't care if the Americans took out the socialist infidel (Saddam)...am I wrong about this?

Speed Racer
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[billvon 3,131]

>Wouldn't that encourage that ol' towel-wrapping shitbag to come out
>and make a new video condeming the Great Satan (and at the same time
>praising the head-choppers in Iraq)?

Perhaps all of his close calls have taught him caution? Perhaps he's decided he really does want to live, and keeping a low profile for the rest of his life is the best way to accomplish that.

But fear not; we're not all that concerned about him any more. We don't know where he is and we don't care. (At least that's our official line.)

[kallend 2,174]

Guess that theory's a loser.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[rmsmith 1]

Quote

wait a minute, didn't he put out more video/audio tapes after that? I seem to remember him referencing the invasion of Iraq at one point...something about how he didn't care if the Americans took out the socialist infidel (Saddam)...am I wrong about this?

You're right, another tape just surfaced today, and Osama bin Laden says that 9/11 *was* about American sponsored Israeli treatment of Muslims. I recall many newspaper articles from Pro Israeli Americans saying that 9/11 was not about Israel...never Israel's fault.

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CAIRO, Egypt — Osama bin Laden, injecting himself into the campaign four days ahead of presidential elections, said in a videotape aired today that the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.

In the segment broadcast, the al-Qaida leader refrained from directly threatening new attacks, although he said "there are still reasons to repeat what happened."

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said, referring to the president and his Democratic opponent. "Any state that does not mess with our security, has naturally guaranteed its own security."

Admitting for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden said he did so because of injustices against the Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel and the United States.

It was the first footage in more than a year of the fugitive al-Qaida leader, thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, showed bin Laden with a long gray beard, wearing traditional white robes, a turban and a golden cloak, standing behind a table with papers and in front of a plain, brown curtain.

His hands were steady as he spoke and he appeared healthy.

The Bush administration said today it believes the videotape was authentic and had been made recently. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's threat level for now.

"All Americans are united in our strength and resolve to defeat the ideology that bin Laden articulates in this tape," McClellan said. "We are doing everything we can to prevail in the war on terrorism."

Al-Jazeera said it broadcast one minute of the five-minute tape. The station's spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout, said they aired what was "newsworthy and relevant" and refused to describe the unaired portions, including whether they included any threats.

There was no way to determine when the tape was made — but it offered evidence that bin Laden was alive and actively following events. Sen. John Kerry emerged as the Democratic candidate in the spring.

In Florida, Kerry said all Americans are united against bin Laden, adding he would "stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period."

Bin Laden said he wanted to explain why he ordered the suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon so Americans would know how to avoid "another disaster."

"To the U.S. people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster," he said. "I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."

He accused President Bush of misleading Americans by saying the attack was carried out because al-Qaida "hates freedom." Bin Laden said his followers have left alone countries that do not threaten Muslims.

"We fought you because we are free .... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours," he said.

He said he was first inspired to attack the United States by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which towers and buildings in Beirut were destroyed in the siege of the capital.

"While I was looking at these destroyed towers in Lebanon, it sparked in my mind that the tyrant should be punished with the same and that we should destroy towers in America, so that it tastes what we taste and would be deterred from killing our children and women," he said.

"God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and inflexibility of the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon, this came to my mind," he said.

Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks, the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.

"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

"It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God," he said.

In planning the attacks, bin Laden said he told Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, that the strikes had to be carried out "within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration noticed."

The image of bin Laden reading a statement was dramatically different from the few other videos of the al-Qaida leader that have emerged since the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the last videotape, issued Sept. 10, 2003, bin Laden is seen walking through rocky terrain with his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, both carrying automatic rifles. In a taped message issued at the same time, bin Laden praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11 and mentions five hijackers by name.

In December 2001, the Pentagon released a videotape in which bin Laden is shown at a dinner with associates in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, saying the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his "optimistic" calculations.

But in none of his previous messages, audio or video, did bin Laden directly state that he ordered the attacks.

U.S. authorities have long said they believe bin Laden is hiding in a rugged, mountainous tribal region of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan, but there has been no firm evidence of his whereabouts for three years.

The last audiotape purportedly from bin Laden came in April. The speaker on the tape, which CIA analysts said likely was the al-Qaida leader, offered a truce to European nations if they pull troops out of Muslim countries. The tape referred to the March 22 assassination by Israel of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

Al-Zawahri, bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, has spoken on three recent audiotapes that emerged on June 11, Sept. 9 and Oct. 1 this year. In the latest, he called on young Muslims to strike the United States and its allies.