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2003-11-22 Terror Networks

AL-QAEDA: new organization, old violence

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-11-22 00:25|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Bin Laden is believed to have escaped a dragnet in Afghanistan and remains free and in charge

Damn we were close in Tora Bora. Sometimes I think going into Afghanistan was a mistake. Maybe the better tactic would have been to sit and wait and watch, and then pull an Iranian Airbus incident on OBL's private jet on his commute between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Posted by Rafael 2003-11-22 8:15:23 AM|| 2003-11-22 8:15:23 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 During the war in Afghanistan OBLadin prepared scores of casettes that were played in mosques throughout Saudi Arabia. When that war was finished he returned for a time to Saudi Arabia where he preached in mosques, before heading to Yemen to assist in the civil war in that country. After he moved to Sudan in 1991 he gave numerous lectures to his AQ followers, was constantly on the radio and then the cellphone with allies throughout the world. After leaving Sudan in 1996 he appeared on numerous tapes, continued his daily contact with friends, etc. Then following Tora Bora, nothing. Scratchy tapes that a Swiss outfit claims are not the voice of OBL. He is seen here and there by con-man Mansoor Ijaz's personal intelligence service, but... no tapes, even though they would be easy to make. No calls. No pictures, although an idiot can run a camcorder. The CIA wants you to believe that OBL is alive. Why? Why would Woolsey join Ijaz and the Pakistani bser's Crescent Investment Management LLC?

Posted by Tancred 2003-11-22 9:39:48 AM|| 2003-11-22 9:39:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 The CIA wants you to believe that OBL is alive. Why?

Uh, yeah. It's the CIA that says he's alive.

Maybe, outside of conspiracy theories, the CIA just can't say for sure that he's dead? After all, without a body, and with even the pathetic tapes being produced now, the press would be going apeshit if the government claimed bin Laden was dead.

Not to mention that you'd probably be asking why, in the face of all those tapes, the CIA insists he's dead.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2003-11-22 11:09:24 AM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2003-11-22 11:09:24 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Tancred wrote:
The CIA wants you to believe that OBL is alive. Why?

Assuming Binny is dead, the only possible use he is to al-Qaeda is as a martyr. I'm inclined to believe Binny is indeed dead and the CIA knows it. When al-Qaeda tried to save face by insisting Binny didn't die at Tora Bora, they gave the Americans the opportunity to prevent Binny from being made a great inspirational martyr figure. All the U.S. had to do was to say nothing. Now Binny is viewed as a guy on the run who is too scared to show his face - even on video tape.

Posted by Biff Wellington 2003-11-22 11:33:14 AM|| 2003-11-22 11:33:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Now Binny is viewed as a guy on the run who is too scared to show his face - even on video tape.

Now Binny is viewed (same as Saddam) as the guy who's constantly managing to avoid US efforts to capture him, even as he manages to strike back at western (or secular Muslim) targets.

If CIA knows he's dead, for god's sake, *reveal* it. Martyr-cliches aside, the only thing worse than a dead martyr is an alive hero.

Why do you think that the former would inspire any more than the latter?

Now the *best* possible scenario would be a captured Osama Bin Laden, revealing himself a coward pleading for his life to the Americans by asking his former comrades to stop the fight. Most of the civil war with PKK in Turkey ended when captured Ocalan proved himself a wimp.

But if we can't have that, then a dead (and known-dead) Osama Bin Laden is the second-best choice.

Posted by Aris Katsaris 2003-11-22 1:13:08 PM|| 2003-11-22 1:13:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 the guy who's constantly managing to avoid US efforts to capture him

Aris and I are in agreement (or, has hell frozen over? :))

Posted by Rafael 2003-11-22 2:08:23 PM|| 2003-11-22 2:08:23 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 and then pull an Iranian Airbus incident on OBL's private jet on his commute between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Or book his flights with Air Ukraine and wait a month or two...

Posted by Raj 2003-11-22 4:00:47 PM|| [http://angrycyclist.blogspot.com] 2003-11-22 4:00:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Martyr-cliches aside, the only thing worse than a dead martyr is an alive hero.

Not in the absence of any certainty one way or another. But the fact that bin Laden is no longer appearing in person to make his rants and deliver his condemnations as before indicates that something is obviously different. Nobody seems to know what the deal is, but more importantly, nobody seems to really care.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2003-11-22 10:37:11 PM|| 2003-11-22 10:37:11 PM|| Front Page Top

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