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Comments from Readers on: Osama bin Laden: He's Back |
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Opinion |
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 I would like to point out that while analyzing the OBL tape we are not constrained with just two options. The tape is not either real or fake, there are other possibilities. First, the video may be real but the voiceover could be altered/replaced. One news story (think it was AP, but not 100% sure) said that in this tape bin Laden used contemporary Arabic instead of his usual, archaic style. Second, parts of the video can be fake, for me the most disturbing is this studio like feeling. If you look older tapes, then he is holding microphone, where is it now? This is not a very high probability, but somebody could get some old bin Laden tape, modify the colours and environment, add new voice, etc. And then, of course it could be real, but why the wrong speaking style? And then it could be fake, but why bother? It could be much easier to fake some more "Zarqawi" tapes? OK, I can think of one reason to fake the tape... If someone wants to show us that even the most vile terrorists think American elections important. Well, its hard to believe that US elections are so interesting to Osama bin Laden, but the show must go on :) LL (34) Male
Ramsi Youseff was behind the notion of and implementation of the 9/11 attacks. He was stunned that his detailed plans were carried out, even though he’s in prison now and was (in prison) at the time. Parenthesis added
Tanya Hsu CC Editors Note: Unlike the American Enterprise Institute, JINSA and several other think tanks and research groups in Washington analyzing the Middle East, IRMEP is non-partisan. It is not an extension of the Israel government and refuses contributions from countries and companies. Their research proves to be unbiased and thorough. We strongly recommend this organization for persons looking to understand both the US Government and our policies in the Middle East.
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George W. Bush actually said in a press conference in 2002 that he was not really interested in OBL, that OBL - the alleged mastermind of 9/11 had become marginal. Here is the excerpt from the press conference held in Washington on March 13, 2002: |
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Most people would agree with the age-old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees when you've got your nose up against the bark." Few here would disagree that, post-9/11, we Americans are now living in a forest, of fear. But our population of million is only of all the people now living on this planet, and while they may have their own fears, they don't all necessarily share ours. So, as a brief experiment, try to step out of our American way of thinking, and into someone else's, just for a moment. That person undoubtedly was horrified at the events of September 11 -- everyone was, everywhere, and people the world over (most Muslims included) were briefly united in their support, and outright caring, for us. But most people on this ever-shrinking planet were almost equally horrified at our brutal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq. In fact, most people predicted both the looting of Iraqi munitions and an increase in terrorism. So this person whose thoughts you are now asked to, briefly, adopt, is now most likely looking rather askance at what we are doing, awaiting the election results, and hoping against hope that whoever wins will somehow stop, rather than continue, the bloodshed there and elsewhere. More to the point, that person no longer shares our fear, no longer lives in our forest. We all know that: it was America that was attacked, and it is our fear, we say almost proudly. But right now you are being asked to put aside that fear and briefly pretend you are someone else, living somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't attacked on that awful day. You have a history, probably a much longer one than we do, and it contains other hideous examples of awful deeds, wars, assassinations, and the like, perhaps even in the recent past. So you're not naive about man's ongoing inhumanity to man. But your thinking about America, about us, while colored by your own history and outlook, is not distorted by the fear we feel now, because it is our fear, not yours. And as a result, you see our forest much more clearly than we do. The better business schools -- and businesses -- challenge their executives to "think outside the box", and various seminars on increased productivity try to train senior people to look at old problems in new ways. Now, in these scariest of times, when there seem to be no real answers to the problems that plague us, perhaps it is time for us to step outside the box of fear we all live in. What would your opinions be right now if they weren't colored by the fear we all share? The purpose of terrorism is to create terror, and to that extent, Bin Laden has won: we are all afraid. But that doesn't mean that our thinking must remain distorted by our fears: we can all step outside the fear box.
NH (56) Female |
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