'I will look for the terrorist.'
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.
Osama is pushing up poppies.
.......................................
poppies? How appropriate!
I took you to be saying that we weren't able to account for both Hitler's and Mussolini's whereabouts...my mistake. Sorry.
Who is that?
Looks an awful lot like Bill and Hilliary.
If he is alive we are still hunting him and cant talk about details. If he is dead and we know it, I would speculate we would not want to announce it until Iraq is more stabalized. Announcing we killed Bin Laden may create some more martyrs we dont need. Better for him to just dissapear into distant memory in the muslim world.
If Bin Laden were to die of natural causes in the mountains, assuming Al-queera made it known, The left would say we lost the War on Terror because we didn't "get" him..........
There was an ex-CIA guy on Fox the other day..that just wrote a book (of course)...
And he says that HE was the one that was in charge of the attack on Tora Bora...and that when he asked for more troops at a certain location in that area...he was turned down by the military..
And then, he was relocated to Iraq.....leaving Bin Ladin in Tora Bora...and then he escaped to Pakistan over the border.
HE said he KNEW that Bin Ladin was in Tora Bora...and that the military blew it..by not doing what he wanted..and left Bin Ladin to escape, when HE knew where he was.
He also says he KNOWS that Bin Ladin is alive and well right now.
Don't know how much stock to put in this guy...but, I was going to post about this that day...but didn't have the chance until now..
If any other freepers saw the interview, and could let me know his name, or the name of the book, I would appreciate it..I forgot.
When in Afghanistan................LOL!
I think it is more likely we know where he is and use him as a magnet/clearing house for islamic nutjobs.
The haji to bin laden, leave, we kill.
It's like knowing where a bee is in a room.
Who is that?Looks an awful lot like Bill and Hilliary.
Yeah, back when they were young and beautiful...
According to Madeline Albright, he's in captivity and will be brought out just before the 2008 election to try to help Republicans.
Hitler's (burnt up)body was never recovered.
1.) Sulking in some sympathetic goat herd's shack in Pakistan. He probably has only minimal contact with supporters and then only though one or two trusted intermediaries that are not obvious terrorist sympathizers. He never uses electronic communications. If this is the case we probably have little idea where he is and can only hope that he will break cover.
2.) Protected in a country with which we do not wish to have a public confrontation at this time. Maybe Iran. Perhaps North Korea. More ominously it could be Russia or China. He may be little more than a prisoner at this point and is being kept in cold storage until they can determine how best to use him against us. If this is the case we probably know exactly where he is.
My money is on something close to option #1: He loves attention and his ego will eventually drive him out into the open where we will kill him. I think we should be doing more to encourage him: Call him a coward. Say that we have defeated him and he is hiding like a sissy while others die in Iraq and Afghanistan. If he is at liberty we can get his dander up.
"He's dead, Jim."
Osama bin leveled
Look, matey, I know a dead bin Laden when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
It takes a long time for the hollyweird leftist makeup gurus to make a digitized version of osama with the appropriate aging and voice dubbing to "prove" he's still alive. They're hoping to have it ready by early November 2006.
He has been dead for four years.
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