Posted on 12/29/2005 11:01:58 AM PST by billorites
Bin Laden has not been heard of since a December 27, 2004 audiotape in which he anointed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man, as Al Qaeda’s leader in the war-torn country
HE has not issued any public statement all year. Speculation has grown over his influence, health and even possible death. Where is the Western world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden?
The Al Qaeda leader’s period of silence is the longest since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, offering no clues to the whereabouts or fate of a man who this year appears to have quietly slipped off the radar.
Bin Laden has not been heard of since a December 27, 2004 audiotape in which he anointed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man, as Al Qaeda’s leader in the war-torn country.
Just before, on December 16, 2004, a video surfaced where he also called on his fighters to strike Gulf oil supplies and warned Saudi leaders they risked a popular uprising.
Since then - silence. Regular interventions by Al Qaeda’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, seen as the ideological brains of the network, has only served to feed feverish speculation on what has happened to bin Laden. Zawahiri claimed in an videotape released in September that bin Laden was still alive and leading “jihad” or holy war against the West.
“Al Qaeda for holy war is still, thanks to God, a base for jihad. Its prince Osama Bin Laden, may God protect him, still leads the jihad,” said Zawahiri.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said recently he did not know whether Bin Laden was dead or alive, adding that he would not like to speculate over his fate.
The commander of US troops in Afghanistan, General Karl Eikenberry, has insisted that bin Laden was still considered alive, and that US forces continue their hunt for him. Seemingly more candid was CIA director Porter Goss, who recently told ABC news channel that Bin Laden’s hideout was known and implied that the CIA knew more than it could reveal.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, meanwhile, this week said he doubted that bin Laden was now capable of supervising the global operations of the militant organisation.
The total eclipse of bin Laden also gave rise to various speculation on Islamist websites, with some admirers of the terror chief already contemplating that he might be dead. “Bin Laden, tracked by the intelligence services who are on his heels, is hiding somewhere along the mountain frontiers between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” opined one blogger. Another claimed that “Abu Abdullah (bin Laden) has deliberately decided to stop all communications to avoid being located by gigantic US surveillance devices”. “O my beloved. I know that you are mortal. No body can oppose the will of God. But the thought of seeing you taken captive fills me with fear,” said another in a “letter of affection” addressed online to Bin Laden, following a rumour claiming that Al Qaeda chief had perished in the October 8 earthquake which ravaged Pakistan. But the editor of the Islamabad-based “Mediawatch”, Yaqoub McLintock, who is also an expert on Al Qaeda, appeared confident as to Bin Laden’s safety. “I think he is alive and well. Admittedly, Bin Laden is not in great health, but he is not at the point of death. All that we hear about his fate is nothing but media speculation. His death would certainly be announced by Al Qaeda, in conformity with Sharia (Islamic law),” he told AFP.
He also claimed that bin Laden avoids making any appearance “as a safety measure, knowing that he is being traced by intelligence services.” Abdul Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, agreed. “Bin Laden has said it all and has nothing to add,” he said.
“The man could well be preparing a large-scale operation in the United States,” added Atwan, the first Arab journalist to interview bin Laden, who has a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head. “Dead or not? This is not the question,” said Yasser Sirri, the director of the London-based Islamic Observatory. “Admittedly, Bin Laden is a strategic symbol, but Al Qaeda is now a decentralised multi-national jihadist (movement) capable of generating thousands of bin Laden,” he said.
Elvis needs to record some more hit songs too.
He's pinin'.
We'll hear from him in 2008 during the presidential elections like we did in 2004. He'll tell us to "VOTE HILLARY"
He's sulking because his pre-election video didn't put Kerry over the top.
Don't worry, though, terrorists--the New York Times is on the case and will get that info to you as soon as it can!
he assumed room temperature... and Alqaida is nnot saying it to keep the dream alive mmaybe?
"He's dead, Jim."
Could well be!
I wonder how long it is before some on the loony left accuse Bush of having him in custody so he can spring it on the public just before the 2006 elections?
:)
Oh, please, not another Brokeback Mountain thread.
(In this one, the other main character doesn't herd goats, he IS a goat.)
I heard some lib on Michael Medved's call-in show saying that we lose the war if Bin Laden isn't caught.
Did we lose WWII because Eichmann escaped (for awhile)?
He's dead, Jim.
For the fijords?
“Al Qaeda for holy war is still, thanks to God, a base for jihad. Its prince Osama Bin Laden, may God protect him, still leads the jihad.
"Really. I'm not kidding,” said Zawahiri.
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