Is Osama bin Laden dead?

[Marleyb]

Sydney: The terrorism expert who claims evidence showing that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is either seriously ill or dead is refusing to divulge the identity of the former Indian intelligence officer, who provided documents suggesting that bin Laden is either seriously ill or has died of massive organ failure in Pakistan last April.

When I contacted the expert Clive Williams, visiting fellow at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in Canberra yesterday, Williams said security concerns pre vented him from revealing his colleague’s name.

Williams claims he had seen evidence that bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, was dead or severely incapacitated.
http://web.mid-day.com/news/world/2006/january/128819.htm

[WI_DEM]

1. if bin-Laden died of natural causes Bush would take credit for it

and the sheeple would kiss his feet--especially the press.

[Eurobabe]

2. Which means they've had this tape on the shelf

to git everyone skeered, and shore up Bu$h's disaster in Iraq.

[hwmnbn]

3. So maybe he's contacting us.....

from the "other side" *Twilight Zone music plays hauntingly*

By some accounts, he's been sick, on dialysis, and on the run. OBL is dead. This new tape is BS.

[helderheid]

10. yep, wag the dog.

[Bjornsdotter]

4. He's done what Houdini couldn't

...come back from the dead.

Cheers!

[MakeItSo]

5. Walter Cronkite thinks so

Remember how Booga Booga Bin Laden showed up on that videotape just a few days before the '04 election?

Cronkite had this to say to Larry King:

"I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign."

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/29/lkl.01.html

Karl Rove, LIE?????? Couldn't be....

[stevedeshazer]

6. He's dead, I'll bet

The announcement that Bush personally killed him with his bare hands, strengthened from years of hard work and clearing brush, will be made in, say, October, about a week before the election.

[Frustratedlady]

11. Maybe OBL's DNA Showed Up In The

Pakistan bombing, even though they missed Al Zawahari. (sp?)

With everything coming out of the woodwork about the Repubs' corrupt behavior, they need OBL "available" in the event they require a diversion in the media from their troubles? JAT

OBL has been good to them, to this point in time, why "lose" him, now?

[DrDebug]

7. There has been a little funeral a while ago

Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper:
al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633

News of Bin Laden's Death
and Funeral 10 days ago

Islamabad -
A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa'da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated to The Observer of Pakistan that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial in Tora Bora 10 days ago. He mentioned that 30 of al-Qa'da fighters attended the burial as well as members of his family and some friends from the Taleban. In the farewell ceremony to his final rest guns were fired in the air. The official stated that it is difficult to pinpoint the burial location of bin Laden because according to the Wahhabi tradition no mark is left by the grave. He stressed that it is unlikely that the American forces would ever uncover any traces of bin Laden.

http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/

The U.S. Government denies it of course. The Pakistani prime-minister said that OBL probably died ( http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/19/gen.musharraf.binladen.1.19/index.html), but that statement was more or less ignored.

[jobycom]

12. So an Egyptian paper cites a Pakistani paper citing an unnamed source

that UBL is buried in an unmarked grave? Sorry. It could be true, but that's not proof. It's no more reliable than these tapes of questionable authenticity proving he's alive.

The Pakistani PM's comment was an off the cuff opinion, and he made it clear he had no inside knowledge. He was just speculating. And if the comment was ignored, there wouldn't be a link to it on CNN.com. I remember him making the comment. But it wasn't taken as fact because even the PM admitted he didn't know.

There are a lot of such stories. One might even be true. But there's no proof yet.

[DrDebug]

14. There is no proof that he is alive either

And there were stories published on December 2001 in the Pakistani newspapers that he died.

The last thing Bush wants is that he suddenly died from an illness, so if he died then he mysteriously disappears unless they need him for a fake performance which is exactly what we are seeing. Also there is a huge amount of doubt whether the person in both - very low quality - video tapes is Osama because the faces are very different.

[Beelzebud]

8. No he's not.

And us sitting on our asses, isn't helping to make him dead either.

While we waste lives, time, and money in Iraq, this fucker is free to plan more attacks against us.

Fuck Bush.

[jobycom]

9. There are a dozen such stories, all different, all unsubstantiated

No one has released a single bit of evidence to prove it, and the stories all have different dates, different circumstances, and different secret sources for UBL's death.

There were dozens of stories claiming Hussein was dead, too, at the beginning of the invasion. People saw his body, they saw the official reports, they heard the chatter from his sons, yadyadayada. He's still alive.

Who knows with UBL? Maybe one of the stories floating around is true, but until someone provides evidence, they are just rumors.

[pointblank]

13. You know what

I dont give a shit if Bin laden is alive, dead or never even existed in the first place.

This new tape is disturbing...even if Shrub is behind it.

It threatens that we will be attacked, and even though my chances of being killed by lightning are probably greater than by a terror attack...I am still worried on many levels, one of which is the instituion of martial law.