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Osama's intriguing silence
B RamanSince the terrorist strikes of September 11, 2001, in the US, at least 10 taped messages attributed to Osama bin Laden have been telecast by the Al-Jazeera television channel. These were disseminated on November 3 and December 28, 2001; September 10, October 6, and November 12, 2002; February 11, September 10, and October 18, 2003 and January 4 and April 15 this year. Thus, there were two messages in 2001, three each in 2002 and 2003 and two so far this year. In 2002 as well as 2003, there were two messages disseminated on September 10, coinciding with the first and second anniversaries of the terrorist strikes in the US. In the message attributed to him to mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes, he said: 'When you talk about the New York and Washington raids, you talk about those men who changed the course of history and cleansed the chapters of the nation from the filth of the treasonous rulers.' In the message to mark the second anniversary, he said: 'The confusion caused to the enemy was sufficient to make people wake up from their slumber and rise for jihad for the sake of God. I had the honour of knowing these men. One is honoured by knowing such men.' Keeping in view his practice of issuing a message on the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes and remembering the terrorists who had participated in the attacks, one expected him to issue a message on September 10 this year too. I kept awake the whole of that night waiting for the expected message, but intriguingly, no such message has come till the time of the writing of this article. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-09-16 |
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