Is Osama bin Laden dead?



Has he really died of typhoid? robert fox weighs the claim and its
implications

Osama bin Laden, charismatic founder of al-Qaeda, died of typhoid
earlier this month in Pakistan, according to a highly classified
intelligence brief given to the King of Saudi Arabia and President
Chirac this week, and leaked to the French newspaper L'Est Republicain.

The chief of the terror group was known to have been suffering from
acute typhoid and seeking treatment in Pakistan in mid-August. This was
picked up and tracked by Saudi intelligence services. The same sources,
said by the French to be very reliable, believe he later died.

The powerful Pakistani intelligence agency the ISI - at times virtually
a parallel government, instrumental among other things in founding the
Taliban - has not confirmed the report. "We have no information on
Osama's death," a senior Pakistan Interior Ministry official said on
Saturday morning.

Bin Laden last appeared on video in 2004. A few poor-quality audio tapes
purporting to be of his voice surfaced earlier this year - but it was
impossible to say when the original recordings were made.

The reaction of the bin Laden command cell of al-Qaeda to the fifth
anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks was surprisingly muted and
unfocused. It said al-Qaeda would attack "American targets" again, and
that all Americans should "convert to Islam".

It is now clear that most of the talking, and broadcasting, by the old
command cell has been done by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, spokesman and
ideologue for bin Laden and always seen as his Number 2. The highly
articulate doctor came to the surface in the security operations
following the assassination of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat in October
1981. He can only exist in the shadow of the magnetism of bin Laden and
is not seen as a leader or strategist in his own right.

Much the same goes for the al-Qaeda movement as a whole. Like other,
admittedly smaller, terrorist groups such as Italy's Red Brigades, it
has found it hard to reprise its big spectacular. It has never done
anything like 9/11 since. Attacks like the Bali and Mombasa bombs, the
train and transport bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in July last
year may have been carried out in the name of Islamic revolution -
adopting the al-Qaeda logo as it were - but they were not under bin
Laden's direct command.

The attacks appear to be loosely linked homegrown efforts whose
ideological and operational roots are in Pakistan and Bangladesh as much
as in the bin Laden training camps in Waziristan and Kashmir.

The death of bin Laden, if it is confirmed, will be cloaked in the
propaganda of martyrdom, mourning and revenge. It could also trigger a
major rethink of such notions as "Global War on Terror", which is long
overdue. It will be a blow to the sloganising of the neo-conservatives -
and their notion of the "clash of civilisations" - and to the high-flown
rhetoric of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair.

It is likely to mean not so much "back to basics" in tackling terrorism,
but back to the practicalities of how to deal with terrorists in the
real world.

Considering that news would have instantly spread without stop on the
news in every country that's even HEARD of 9/11.... probably not. Or if
he is dead, he's probably not been found.


Although if he has been found, and is dead, I could see why some might
hush that up. How about if we wait until the rest of the international
community verifies the stuff.



And if he did die, I doubt it was typhoid. I mean, yes, it's a
potentially fatal disease- but it's not common anywhere in the
middle-east. In fact, it just doesn't like dry climates. So if he got
typhoid- it was germ warfare. Which, while, I wouldn't put past the
Sudanese, I'd think they'd rather just shoot him and claim the glory
(and billion dollar reward for him, or his body, offered by the USA).
They could still get the money- no matter how he died- but not so much
the glory.


Plus, he was always around his "advisors" and whatnot. If he died, his
survivors would have burned the body until not even ash remained.

he is alive and well and we will be in a war on terror for over 100
years.

we have to kill others over there because they will kill us here.

but just because the bourders are open and these terrorists with
box-cutters have more box-cutters, they do know how to build really nice
row-boats, and that is why Homeland Security has the color codes so we
can all know when its really, really scarrey.

Im sorry to bring everyone bad news, but these guys mean buisness, so
the best you should do is sacrifice your kids and hid in a bunker.


ohhhh yeah, welcome the illegals, cuzz they have food stamps, and know
how to use them.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=942&p=2


but, one problems they can't tell the peole that Osama bin laden dead
caude then this whole war would be over and bush would lose power simply
cause now our brothers who died in 9/11 had been avenged by the death of
osama bin laden.. Beside if saaddam is dead who else is there in iraq or
the middle east can we blame in order for the world on terrorism to
continue. Everyone knows that all you do is take out the
commander-in-charge and the war is yours cause now the underlings become
confused with no direction... So, they would have to cover-up the fact
that osama bin laden might be dead.

Don't see how finding Bin Laden has anything to do with anything. We're
in Afghanistan due to 9/11- but we also stated we were going to rebuild
after winning.


And Iraq NEVER had anything to do with 9/11. And our reasons for being
over there (except a few people too stupid to realize there was a
difference) was never about 9/11, either.

He is smoking a big fatty on top of a mountain smiling away.

That's also VERY possible.


The thing is- Bin Laden is fairly old. In his 60s, if I recall
correctly. He's not in the best of health. And his (current) lifestyle
isn't going help him much. He'll die soon enough, if not already. Just-
will we find his body? That's far, far less likely.

Osama could be dead for all we know...he
has become a non entity dont you think?...
little to do with what is going on in the
world...
he was a good cartoon character for a while..

Point taken. Dead or alive, he really doesn't amount for much anymore.
Some things out live their creators. And out perform any expectations.

to PA

he meant allot to liars.

Bush used him to the hilt.

so your wrong.

to PA

and hundreds of thousands lose their lives.


and you shrug this boogieman off.

Not really. He was, at least in part, responsible for 9/11. He is/was
the leader of the Taliban, which has committed enough attacks against
America to warrent what we did even WITHOUT 9/11.

The point is- from this moment on- Bin Laden can't do much in the
world. He's as good as dead, if not already.

naahh--he ain't dead--we just couldn't find him yet--

Yes, I forgot that he has an army of kids with box-cutters that did
overpower our whole country.


silly me....


****, we should close the borders down cuzz they might use row boats to
kill us more...

but ill let chertoff the chief of homeland securtiy take care of it.



just buy more duct tape...LOL




PS

since we really cant defend this country from some kids with
box-cutters, how about we undo the Patriot Act, give more freedom,
un-militerize the local police, give all the middle class a tax break
and give the homeless (allot are vets) a place to live and give GREAT
HEATH CARE to those victims that went over in Iraq in this insane war.


nawwww....lets just keep up the big lie.

Oh. We could have defended from the "kids with box cutters"- if we'd
known we had to. An 8yo can take out an adult if he's not paying too
much attention and the kid hits him hard enough in the nuts.

And stop dragging other threads into this one. Or at least acknowlege
that your point has already been addressed with accuracy, effectiveness,
and you've yet to beat the counterpoint.

ok PA lets just grovel and hope this government will protect us, cuzz we
all know they will eventually.


lol

hey I got to go, thanks for your thoughts.

Will you cut the crap. Seriously. It's getting old.

Greetings, everyone,

It is highly unlikely that Usama bin Laden is dead. He lives quite
normally, and not in some unhealthy cave.

Ayman al-Thawahiri (usually misspelled al-Zawahiri) is indeed the
al-Qaida strategist and a pretty astute one at that. He also organized
the merger bewteen al-Qaida and the Islamic Jihad--Egypt groups.

Of the two, I find al-Thawahiri to be the more interesting man.

Neither he nor bin Laden were ever 'head of the Taleban.' During the
anti-Soviet days, bin Laden and several Afghania groups were allied. The
Taleban was the group that came to power in Afgahnistan. They had
nothing to do with September 11, but Bush and the neocons found it
useful to 'do something' and in the absence of any better thinking
attacked Afghanistan, under the guise of going after bin Laden and
al-Qaida. The problem was that the Taleban government was on the verge
of turning bin Laden over to us -- literally within days, when we
invaded instead. Stupid Bushies...we could have had bin Laden behind
bars, and instead we built him up into a mythic figure of resistence to
the US.

Just one more of the sad ironies associated with Bush and the
neocons....

Oceans

Better "neocon" than "secular progressive", but that's another issue
entirely.


The Taliban was far too closely blended to really make a distinction.
And they were active in the attack against America. They helped with the
execution of the plan (such as getting the attackers into the states).
No one's even questioned that connection. And they showed no intent of
handing him over. They had months- they kept essentially putting it off
until tomorrow. We got sick of waiting. In fact, we waited too long, and
that's part of the reason we can't find the S.O.B.

And I feel really dumb for saying Taliban. Thanks for catching my
mistake on that one. It was a mistake.