US Military recovered Atta tape in 2001!

[cynatnite]

On MSNBC.

:grr:

more:

The images were taken from a videotape the U.S. military recovered from an al-Qaida compound after the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15082633/

[Joanne98]

1. So why release it now?

[JohnLocke]

2. Distraction from Foley (nt).

[spotbird]

6. How could this help?

Bush was president in'01.

[derby378]

3. Karl Rove still wants an "October Surprise"

He's getting frustrated that Foley's e-mails are making his life Hell...

[Warpy]

4. Scaring the boobs, blaming Clinton, the usual reasons

All we need to do is remind them how they all dutifully jerked their knees and shrieked "WAG THE DOG!" when Clinton DID bomb the bases in Afghanistan.

They're all scrambling to justify that propaganda film they got ABC to run.

That means they know they're vulnerable to FEC problems and to libel suits.

[maddezmom]

5. Faux has Yosri Fouda on now

wouldn't answer why it hadn't been released earlier, seemed a bit nervous. Said he felt it should've been released earlier and better late than never.

~snip~
Earlier, The Times reported that it obtained a copy of the videotape that is the original source for these still photos. The videotape was recorded without any audio, and FBI and Pentagon officials tell NBC News that they used Arabic linguists to try to lip-read the tape — especially the martyrdom speeches by Atta and Jarrah. The lip-reading effort was largely fruitless, the officials say.

Until now, investigators had not known where he had been in early 2000, but the tape shows he was in Afghanistan at bin Laden's Tarnak Farm hideout, the paper said.

The Sunday Times said it had obtained the video “through a previously tested channel” but gave no further details. NBC News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the videotapes early this year, but the Pentagon has not yet turned them over.

~snip~

[NYC]

8. Lip reading is about 1/3 effective.

So I read years ago.

[Recursion]

9. For unbearded people speaking Indo-European languages

Arabic (and Semitic languages in general) uses a very different series of articulations and ablaut which is not as easy to lip-read -- in particular, there are 3 vowels, two of which have the same labial articulation. And bearded people's lips are more difficult to read. So, don't expect too much.

[cynatnite]

7. .