Bin Laden tape worries experts

[applegrove]

Bin Laden tape worries experts
Mark Trevelyan
Reuters News Agency


LONDON–Abandoning his Kalashnikov and dyeing his beard from grey to black, Osama bin Laden presents a new image to the world in a video that makes no specific threats but may be a signal for new Al Qaeda attacks.

In a half-hour address released four days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, bin Laden lurched between history lesson and sermon, urging Americans to ditch capitalist democracy and embrace Islam if they want to end the war in Iraq.

Despite its lack of specific warnings, several security analysts said bin Laden's first video in nearly three years could be a signal to his followers to launch new strikes.

"Osama's call to the Americans to convert to Islam is indicative of an Al Qaeda attack on U.S. targets. Before the Prophet (Mohammad) attacked his enemies he urged his opponents to embrace Islam," Rohan Gunaratna, a leading authority on militant Islamism, told Reuters.

.........SNIP"

http://www.thestar.com/article/254615

[Demeter]

1. I'd Worry About Any "Expert" Who Thinks That Was Bin Ladin In the First Place

[liberal N proud]

2. Exactly

New look, how about a new bin Laden

[ReadTomPaine]

5. Bingo. It's a fraud. n/t

[Aviation Pro]

3. Since the tape is an elaborate forgery....

...I'm not worried.

[ClassWarrior]

4. There used to be a band in my area called "The Tense Experts."

:rofl:

Yes, "he dyed his beard." It's not an old videotape being trotted out for political purposes. Nawww...

:eyes:

NGU.

[applegrove]

6. What about the theory it was a fake beard. That bin Laden is clean shaven?

[HuffleClaw]

7. i just love how 90% of the stories about the NEW VIDEO feature a five year old photo of Usama!

and when they DO show a photo from the NEW VIDEO its a teensy one.

[Bitwit1234]

8. Fifty different "experts" and each one gives a different spin

Guess you see in the tape what you want to see. We see "fraud" "attempt to scare" "attempt to keep the war going"...anything else.

[applegrove]

9. The title didn't really reflect how all over the opinions were.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

10. Yeah, weren't many of bin Ladens prior attacks preceded by tapes like this?

Also, I'd heard that before-- the offer to convert was apparently one of the requirements prior to initiating a new attack. IIRC, Osama bin Laden was actually excoriated by many Islamic scholars following the 9/11 attacks since-- even though bin Laden claimed a political motivation (the "occupation" in his words of US troops in Saudi Arabia, the sanctions against Iraq)-- their laws required him to offer up conversion three times prior to undertaking an actual attack.

That's what really disturbs me here. AFAIK, this is the third offer, which means that this tape might be a signal.