Mark Steyn- Dust bin: Osama bin Laden is dead

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 06/29/2002 | Mark Steyn

[daviddennis]

Just for the record, I have a professional-quality video editing setup in my home. It's a major hobby of mine, and if you wanted to reproduce what I have in your home it would still cost under $10k - Canon XL1 3-chip camcorder, Apple G4 dual processor system, Final Cut Pro. Total with brand new equipment is about $9k.

It's capable of creating video virtually undistinguishable from what goes out on network TV; in fact, CNN uses the same camera I own for newsgathering in risky countries.

Their "Osama is not dead" quotes sound almost desperate now. If they could produce the man, they would have produced him by now as a reassurance. I tend to agree with Mark that the second string of Al Queda doesn't seem as capable as the first -- but even the first lucked out because we weren't seriously looking for them.

D

[Dog Gone]

Great column. Steyn is the best.

[elcaudillo]

Adios Muck-A!

[johnny7]

The newspaper trick is an easy re-touch job.

It could be that bin Laden is more of a liability to the kings, sheiks and mullahs who live fat and sassy in decadent opulence.

It really doesn't begin and end with bin Laden, there are plenty of al-Qu'eda and their supporters left to snuff.

[NeoCaveman]

(I always read Florence King first because her column is on the inside last page od National Review)

The Misanthrope's Corner by Florence King is great.

[Constitution Day]

I know. I love her - wish it was available online!

I read sections from it out loud to my wife when we're reading in bed.

[SBprone]

"......al-Qa’eda’s operatives in Florida had been instructed to send anthrax to the American media and were boneheadedly literal enough simply to look up ‘American Media’ in the phone book, it being the name of the publishers of the National Enquirer. Similarly, instructed to attack American airlines, they attacked ‘American Airlines’. "

Are our Saudi adversaries really this stupid?

YES!

[IncPen]

Number Four, Abu Zubaydah, is in US custody;

I think it's very astute of Bush and Company to say every successful intelligence/investigatory coup is 'information gleaned from Zubaydah'.

It will certainly diminish Zubaydah and make the mullahs wonder what else the boy is saying.

Which is probably nothing, but it sure will unnerve them.

[Kay Soze]

We never found Hitler's body either!

It would be foolish to ever tell the "Islamofascists" that Osama is dead.

I beleive 6 Rangers killed him in some obscure cave and burned him to ashes.

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, muslim-nazis terrorist's on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Tacky writing style ... But very effective ideas.

I like it.

[NeoCaveman]

Nonetheless, he’s already stiff, he’s six feet under, he’s bin Laiden to rest, he’s in paradise being pleasured by those 72 virgins and wondering if they’re tittering about his shortcomings.

LOL. Steyn bump.

[Guillermo]

I agree.

What would happen if in the unlikely event we DID cause a "regime change" in Arabia? What would happen to our markets? They're (their money) so interwoven into our financial system, you gotta ponder the consequences.

[Jim Scott]

Mark Steyn could have used an editor on this overlong piece but he has a good point; Osama bin Laden is dead. I believe that the Bush administration simply can't prove it and are not going to state as a fact what they cannot know for certain. I don't believe this is the 'Weekend at Bernies' scenario that Steyn and others have claimed. I do know that sooner or later, al-Qa'eda will have to convincingly produce Osama bin Laden and if they cannot, the game is over.

[pgkdan]

He's in Iraq. Let's get him!
Oops, got away. He's in Iran. Let's get him!
Oops, got away. He's in ... (repeat as necessary)

Works for me! :-)

[Dog]

If Osama is alive, Saudi Arabia’s his most likely location. That would explain why the Americans haven’t found him in any of the places they’ve looked for him: they’re choosing not to look in Saudi.

Someone else is thinking out of the box.....he is not in Pakistan or Afghanistan ......he is in Saudi Arabia...

[Amelia]

Thanks for the ping & another great Steyn article, Pokey78!

I have to admit, I'd love to see the Tom Clancy scenario in which the president asks to give an important speech on prime time tv, begins speaking, switches to the camera shot from one of those little remote controlled airplanes just as the cruise missile hits the terrorist leader's house...

[VaBthang4]

"screed"

???

[The Wizard]

interesting point about the reassigning of body guards

[Kay Soze]

Futhermore I do agree with his "they're chosing not to look in Saudi" meaning Bush's are so VERY VERY close to the Saudi's that even if Saudi's cut up little babys at Christian day care centers it would go unpunished by Bush.