Hmm in order for this to have any credibility, obie needs to have a picture of him holding a current newspaper... He would make a good weight loss photo montage...
Posted on 12/26/2001 4:17:21 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Bin Laden Videotape Sets Off Renewed Search
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The hunt for Osama bin Laden, which seemed to have gone cold two weeks ago, came alive on Wednesday when al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape of the world's most wanted man made possibly this month.
In the broadcast by al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based satellite television station that has shown previous bin Laden tapes, the Saudi-born fugitive indicates the tape was recorded in early to mid December.
Bin Laden said the tape was being issued to mark about three months since the Sept. 11 suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington which killed more than 3,000 people and two months since the United States began bombing of Afghan targets.
There was little doubt al-Jazeera's broadcast of the tape was unexpected by U.S. officials.
The Defense Department said it was not sure what to make of the videotape by the leader of the al Qaeda network.
"I don't know if it's real, if it's new, if it's old," said Richard McGraw, a senior Pentagon spokesman.
But, asked if he were surprised by the existence of the tape, he replied, "Nothing that Osama bin Laden does surprises me."
Looking tired but calm, bin Laden was dressed in a clean, camouflage-patterned combat jacket. There was no indication where he was when he recorded the video.
"Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stop its support for Israel, which is killing our children," bin Laden said.
The White House dismissed the videotape as propaganda.
"This is nothing more than the same kind of terrorist propaganda we have heard before," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas where President Bush is on vacation.
Only hours before the tape was shown, U.S. officials had stressed there was no let-up in the hunt for bin Laden even though for days there had been no reports of his sighting and speculation had grown that he might have been killed already or escaped from Afghanistan.
'ALWAYS LOOKING FOR BIN LADEN'
"We're always looking for bin Laden," said a senior U.S. defense official, who asked not to be named.
He said U.S. forces were ready at a moment's notice to sweep the Tora Bora caves, 30 miles south of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, to check for bin Laden and al Qaeda survivors of fierce U.S. airstrikes.
Until two weeks ago there had been widespread reports that bin Laden and his followers might be holed up in the caves for a last stand.
But intelligence reports of his whereabouts, including radio intercepts, since then have dried up, coinciding with massive U.S. bombing of the area.
In Kabul, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah warned pockets of al Qaeda die-hards still threatened violence.
"In some of the southern parts of Afghanistan, in Paktia province, we believe there are still pockets of al Qaeda," Abdullah told a news conference, adding that some al Qaeda forces were active around the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
American troops would leave "when the mission of eradicating terrorists and all Taliban bases is accomplished," he said.
U.S. military sources said while 500 Marines on standby for a week to go into the caves might still be used, a search would first be carried out by U.S. special forces and Afghan allies.
The presence of al-Qaeda fighters on the run -- and bandits taking advantage of the chaos -- posed threats to growing numbers of refugees heading homes in Afghanistan both from neighboring Pakistan and Iran as well as areas of their homeland once controlled by the strictly Islamic Taliban.
There are some 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 2.5 million in Iran. Around 1.5 million are displaced within the country.
REFUGEES RETURNING HOME
Some 10,000 refugees had returned to southern Afghanistan through the Pakistani border town of Chaman since Sunday alone, said U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker. A Pakistani official said 800 families crossed on Tuesday.
Increasing numbers were also returning to Afghanistan from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said Bunker.
"People seem to be going back largely to urban areas," she said. "People are going back in search of work and economic opportunities they hope to be able to find now."
A World Food Program spokesman said in Islamabad that armed militias were holding up aid trucks carrying food into southern Afghanistan from Pakistan, demanding a toll of $100 per truck before allowing them across the border.
The United Nations also planned to start returning 4,000 refugee families in northern Afghanistan to their homes on the Shomali plain this week, its first relocation project in the country, U.N. officials said on Wednesday. About 200,000 had fled from the Shomali Plain since the Taliban took power.
As more details emerged about a British man suspected of trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner on Saturday with explosives in his shoes, there were stronger suggestions he may have been part of a wider, possibly Islamist, plot.
The leader of a south London mosque said Richard Reid was a "gullible" young Londoner who converted to Islam in prison. U.S. officials told a newspaper the bomb's design suggested he had an accomplice.
U.S. investigators were still checking whether Reid, who is being held in Boston, had links to al Qaeda or other groups. He was overpowered by cabin crew and fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami when he was spotted trying to set fire to his shoes.
The head of London's Brixton mosque said Reid, 28, was a member of his congregation and "very, very impressionable."
"I definitely believe there are individuals behind him," Abdul Haqq Baker told the BBC.
Baker said it was possible Reid knew fellow Brixton Muslim Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman facing conspiracy charges in the United States over the Sept. 11 suicide hijack attacks.
I suspect he is still alive and in another country.
But they claim this tape is is 2 weeks old. They also claim it came unannounced in a package sent from Pakistan. If that be the case how do they know it is two weeks old. Perhaps a document was enclosed saying that it was 2 weeks old.
It had to be made weeks after his earlier tapes, for he has lost much weight and has aged a lot. People who are really convinced they are going to prevail do not lose huge amounts of weight and age as rapidly as bin Laden has aged. Long hours and lack of sleep do not do that. Only extreme stress does that to a human. I suspect that Osama really believed that Allah was going to give him victory over the United States. When Allah has failed to give Osama a victory that has to cause him a lot of tension.
Osama looks extremely stressed and extremely unstable. The next few days will be very enlightening. If he is not already dead, he likely soon will be.
Osama bin Laden could very well be deceased and buried somewhere, but without even a shred of a corpus delecti it remains a tough case to close. Even a video tape of the funeral, if something similar exists, does not constitute proof positive.
Praise be to Allah.
Osama is shocked that Allah didn't come to his aid. I think the fool actually believed that God would reward him for deliberately killing innocents.
Infidel is a term used by members of Islam to describe those of non-Islamic faith. Are you saying that OBL is not a Muslim?
Allah alone knows who is a true Muslim and who isn't. However, his having cheered on (if not outright directed) the mass murder of 9-11 provides a hint that he is an infidel, since true Muslims do not support the murder of civilians.
Hmm in order for this to have any credibility, obie needs to have a picture of him holding a current newspaper... He would make a good weight loss photo montage...
I like your words.
Actually, "infidel" derives from a middle french word, "infidele," which derives from the latin "fidelis" which means "faithful." Term was originally applied to one who was not Christian or opposed Christianity.
Actually, "infidel" derives from a middle french word, "infidele," which derives from the latin "fidelis" which means "faithful." Term was originally applied to one who was not Christian or opposed Christianity.
Thanks for the correction Arleigh. So I suppose the term applies both ways... ie. infidel means non-believer I stand corrected.
Yeah a copy of the Washington Post would be convincing.
I find the tape as convincing as the statue of Elvis in LV.
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