Ghost of Osama bin Laden Sending Tapes
By Diana Lee
(February 1, 2006)
Osama bin Laden
Since December 22, 2001, U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai became the head of
Afghanistan (first as the "interim" leader and later as the
President), Osama bin Laden's videos and audiotapes have mysteriously
surfaced from time to time, sending the world reeling in fear and
confusion. Headline news stories have continuously hyped the CIA's
claims that these recorded bin Laden appearances and voices were indeed
from the most-wanted-man in the world, despite the odds against their
authenticity.
Death of Osama bin Laden in 2001
Although the corpse of bin Laden would never be found, various sources
alluded to the circumstances that led to his death in the Middle East.
According to United Press International (Oct. 31, 2001), bin Laden
underwent clandestine kidney treatment by Dr. Terry Calloway (Canadian
urologist) for 11 days in July at the American Hospital in Dubai.
During his hospital stay, bin Laden met with a U.S. CIA agent,
according to French daily Le Figaro and Radio France International. The
day before the infamous September 11 terrorist attacks, bin Laden
entered a military hospital for further kidney dialysis treatment in
Raqalpindi, Pakistan, reported by CBS (Jan. 28, 2002).
In an interview with CNN (Jan. 19, 2002), Pakistan's President Pervez
Musharraf hinted, "He (bin Laden) is dead for the reason he is a
..=2E.kidney patient." Musharraf also mentioned that bin Laden took two
dialysis machines with him into Afghanistan.
A few days later, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN (Jan. 21, 2002) gave his
professional assessment of bin Laden's medical condition based on the
videotape broadcasted by al Jazeera on December 27, 2001. He explained
that bin Laden's ghastly appearance - "grayness of beard,
paleness of skin, very gaunt sort of features" - is often
associated with chronic kidney failure or renal failure. He also noted
that bin Laden couldn't move his left arm probably due to a stroke
because people suffering from kidney failures have a higher risk for
stroke. Dr. Gupta pointed out that dialysis machines require
electricity, clean water and a sterile environment to function
properly. Without an operational machine, a patient could only survive
for less than a week.
During December 2001, the U.S. Air Force, after cornering the Taliban
combatants in the mountainous Tora Bora, relentlessly blasted the area
for days, unleashing an estimated 1.8 million kg of explosives,
including the deadly bunker-busting bombs to implode caves. According
to the Pentagon, radio transmissions of bin Laden's voice were detected
regularly until December 14, 2001.
An Egyptian paper posted on December 26, 2001, ran an obituary on Osama
bin Laden whose death resulted from lack of proper medical care for
"serious lung complications." A Taliban official told the Pakistan
Observer that he saw bin Laden's face before the burial in Tora Bora
where some members of bin Laden's family, friends and al Qaeda
fighters gathered for his funeral. Asked whether he could pinpoint the
spot where bin Laden was buried, he answered, "I am sure that like
other places in Tora Bora that particular place too must have
vanished," implying that it was obliterated by U.S. aerial bombing.
According to Washington Post (Oct. 28.2002), the Arabic-language
al-Majallah obtained bin Laden's will from a "very reliable"
source in Afghanistan. The will - typed, signed by bin Laden and
dated December 14, 2001- includes verses of Koran and the words of a
man "who appeared desperate and on the verge of death."
Tapes - Authentic vs. Fake
It is certain that all videos of bin Laden released in 2001 were
authentic, except the one found by anti-Taliban forces, which was an
obvious fake. It was difficult to determine the exact time the real
videos were made but they were all filmed outdoors. More importantly,
the sequential release of videos was showing bin Laden's health
deteriorating before our eyes. Bruce Lawrence, a Duke professor, who
authored Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden
(Verso, 2005) based on 20 complete speeches and interviews of bin
Laden, pointed out that authentic tapes contain several key elements:
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verses quoted from the Koran because bin Laden was a devout
Muslim;
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references to past Western atrocities against Muslims;
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lengthy taped messages (shortest one was 18 minutes).
The fake one, released by Pentagon on December 13, 2001, was
conveniently left in a deserted house in Jalalabad. The poor-quality
video not only showed a well-fed man posing as bin Laden, resembling
nothing like the al Qaeda chief, but also writing with his right hand
(bin Laden was left-handed). At a small gathering, the imposter was
laughing and joking about how he had carried out the September 11
atrocities, except he got the names wrong on two hijackers.
Another fraudulent video of bin Laden aired by al Jazeera on October
29, 2004, occurred just four days before the U.S. presidential
election. Besides missing key elements, this particular tape (shot
indoors) depicted a blurry image of supposedly bin Laden (contrast to
his previous sharp images), standing behind a podium against a brown
canvas backdrop. In a new twist, the speaker (fully recovered from poor
health) claimed direct responsibility for the 2001 attacks against the
United States. (Although bin Laden praised the September 11 hijackers,
he never took credit for their attacks in any of his 2001 videos.) Even
Walter Cronkite, the well-known retired news reporter, suggested that
the whole scenario was a concoction by Karl Rove to secure the
re-election for George W. Bush.
As for audiotapes, they started to appear in 2002 almost on a regular
and politically-timed basis, some of which claimed to be voices of al
Qaeda members, while others were attributed to al Zawahiri or bin
Laden. Strangely, the fact that al Qaeda adopted new tactics for
relaying messages has never raised any public suspicion. More
troubling, al Qaeda has a history of secrecy and deception - never
giving warnings or claiming responsibility for any attacks; yet, the
emergence of numerous taped messages suggests that al Qaeda has broken
away from its usual practice of silence by claiming responsibility for
various global terrorist attacks.
One audiotape purported to be from bin Laden (released on November 12,
2002) was confirmed by U.S. intelligence to be genuine after completing
a technical and linguistic analysis. However, IDIAP, the world's
foremost voice identification experts in Switzerland, reached a
contrary conclusion - the voice on the tape didn't belong to bin
Laden but to someone whose voice patterns resembled bin Laden. Swiss
researchers declared their scientific voice analysis to be 95 per cent
accurate, with risk of error just five per cent. This audiotape was the
only one analyzed by an independent group of experts.
Behind Fake Tapes
Obviously, to release a "terrorist" video or an audiotape would
have an explosive impact on society. There is no rational explanation
for al Qaeda to release fake tapes. Some argue that it has been done to
keep the myth that bin Laden is still alive. If so, there would be no
need to have taped messages of other al Qaeda members speak for bin
Laden if he really were alive. Furthermore, there would be no reason
for al Qaeda to make a fake tape when they could make a real one to
draw attention to its future and past terrorist acts or even call forth
a coordinated attack.
The fact that the fake tapes do exist implies only one possibility -
the party responsible for releasing such tapes wanted to incite public
fear and confusion, instill blame on the targeted enemies, and justify
the fight against terrorism anywhere in the world. As clearly
demonstrated in the recent appearance of bin Laden audiotape (Jan. 19,
2006), President Bush told reporters: "When he says he's going to
hurt the American people again, or try to, he means it." Homeland
Security spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich pitched in: "we recognize
that al-Qaida remains committed to striking the homeland." Vice
President Cheney stated: "I think you have to destroy them
(terrorists). It's the only way to deal with them."
The next time a bin Laden tape surfaces, it must be from the ghost of
Osama bin Laden.
Copyright =A9 2006 UniOrb
*Note: You may copy this article without permission. The only
requirement is to include the byline and the URL like this:
=20
By Diana Lee
UniOrb - Reality Check (http://uniorb.com)
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