WASHINGTON (AFP) - Osama Bin Laden plans to emerge from the shadows to taunt the United States again in a video message marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, US-based monitoring services said on Thursday. The video from the world's most wanted man would be the first such appearance by the Saudi extremist since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks against the United States just days before a US election. "The SITE Intelligence Group has learned that a new video message is forthcoming from the head of Al-Qaeda" on the 9/11 anniversary, said the group, which monitors extremist websites and publications. The Al-Qaeda network's media arm, al-Sahab, announced the video in a notice posted on jihadist forums at about 5:15 pm (2115 GMT), according to SITE. "Soon, God willing, a videotape from the lion sheik Osama bin Laden, God preserve him," the notice read. The video of the soft-spoken Al-Qaeda leader who has claimed credit for the 9/11 attacks will be examined intently with every word and visual detail dissected by intelligence agencies in Washington and around the world. Bin Laden has avoided capture since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people and jolted American society. He has since inspired an eruption of anti-Western terrorism while his Al-Qaeda network has repeatedly threatened to attack US targets again. The United States said any video message would be followed closely and said the capture of Bin Laden remained a top priority. "Obviously, it's a huge priority for us to capture and kill Bin Laden and bring he and the rest of the leadership to justice," said Frances Townsend, the US president's homeland security adviser. Townsend told CNN television the video and previous Al-Qaeda statements were designed as propaganda to spread fear among Americans. "We're being manipulated every time that they issue a statement, because they're trying to use the media as a way to terrorize us," she said. Asked about the US failure to capture Bin Laden, Townsend said: "Well, it's not for a lack of resources devoted against that task." While other senior figures had been tracked down, "there is no greater target on our Al-Qaeda list than Bin Laden," Townsend said. If the video message appears, "we will look at things like, what is his appearance, what does he reference?". She said that while public statements from Al-Qaeda were monitored, authorities were most concerned about disruping terrorist conspiracies. "His public statements aren't really horribly important to me. We take them seriously, we run them down, we look at them for threats," Townsend said. "What I take far more seriously are the plots," she said, citing recent arrests in Germany and Denmark involving alleged terrorist threats. "Those are the real indications that we have an enemy that continues to plot and plan against us and our allies around the world," Townsend said. President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror" after 9/11 and said he wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive" but the Al-Qaeda chief disappeared after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to topple Al-Qaeda's Taliban allies. He has since popped up on videos and audio messages to rail against the US and its allies, a regular reminder that he has escaped capture. Widely believed to have slipped away during a December 2001 battle in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains, he is now suspected of hiding somewhere in the remote tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The US Congress recently increased the reward for his capture to 50 million dollars but Bush rarely talks of nabbing Bin Laden. Thursday's online notice included a photo of him in which his black beard did not have the usual streaks of gray. He was also not wearing a camouflage jacket as in previous appearances. Another US-based monitor of extremist or jihadist websites, IntelCenter, said it expected the video to be released within the next 72 hours. Separate from the notice promoting Bin Laden's latest video message, monitors said an extremist forum included a reference to a "gift" coming on the 9/11 anniversary. An analyst at the SITE Intelligence Group said the "gift" was most likely referring to the Bin Laden video or another online propaganda item and not an imminent attack on US soil. Born in Jeddah, Bin Laden fought against the Soviet occupation and embraced the idea of Muslims uniting against the West. In Afghanistan, he commanded and financed his own brigade of militants that evolved into Al-Qaeda.
The still photo seems 'off' to a lot of people. Not only is the beard not grey, it's shorter then the last reported video. Most devout Muslims don't cut their beards. Hardliners like Bin Laden actually punish and kill barbers who cut, trim or shave beards. So why would Bin Laden have a shorter, younger looking beard?
Magical shrinking beard? Magical shrinking Bin Laden? Bin Laden having died and regenerated because he's a time lord? (Why does everything unfailingly come back to Doctor Who?)
(I personally do not agree with this article completely.) By the way, good Muslims trim their beards. It is the order of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) as tidiness. Yes, extremist Muslims who have a wrong concept of Islam, like this supposed Osama Bin Laden, might never cut their beards. So your point is probably valid.
Thanks for the correction. Extremest Muslims don't trim their beards. In Afghanistan under the Taliban barbers were executed if they did anything to the beard. It was actually a law.
It's a product endorsement to help fund Al Qaeda. He's using Just For Madmen Color for Mustache and Beard.
Something else to consider. Two body guards of Bin Laden were captured in Tora Bora. According to them Bin Laden died fairly early in the fighting there, and they buried him near the cave he was using as a command centre. At some point during the fighting the cave was targeted and effectively destroyed burying the grave under several tons of rubble. This hasn't been confirmed, and videos of Bin Laden came out afterwards, but its possible the later videos were using body doubles. Even if he didn't die then, it's been over a year since his last video, and he was suffering from several health problems. Considering how he used to put out several videos a year, it's most likely he is now dead, or so incapacitated they can't video tape him.
Or perhaps he just ran out of video. Do they have video shops in the mountains? I don't think it matters all that much if he's still alive or not. Al Qaeda is still going whether he's dead or not, and as long as he might be alive he's serving as a personification of America's enemy in the War on Terror. Though in my mind Bin Laden is taking something of a backseat to Putin's new agressive streak. At least Bin Laden doesn't have nukes. I think he's just worried he's been out of the news too long, and is staging a sudden PR campaign. (And incidently, lack of news coverage is what motivated Bob Geldof to hold Live 8 )
It is hard to believe that bin laden died and was burried then convienently tons of rubble burried his grave. Especially since it came from his two body guards. It is possible he is dead though.
Like I said it hasn't been confirmed, which is why people are still looking for him. But its a possibility. And I still stand by what I said, if he was alive he would be making more videos. If Al Qaeda had been able to make a bigger push at the beginning of last year, there was a possibility they could have pushed Iraq over the edge. Bin Laden should have been telling everyone to head there, he didn't. Why? The best answer I can think of is he's dead. Either in Tora Bora or in some other out of the way place where he couldn't fix his kidney problems.
Not me. But, I think as someone already said, whether or not Bin Laden is alive or dead doesn't really matter. It's quite irrelevant. The crazy terrorists aren't going to stop terrorising because one old bloke with a magically shortening beard has kicked the bucket. No sir. He dies, someone else takes his place. Chances are if he is alive and he is captured and killed as Sadam Hussain, there'd be massive retalliation attacks arround the globe. Bin Laden is small worry really. What is of more concern is the possible madmen, in power with nukes.
Heres an interesting blog article. Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 58 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The audio track does appear to be in the voice of a single speaker. What I suspect was done is that an older, unreleased video was dubbed over for this release, with the video frozen when the audio track departed from that of the original video. I haven't been able to watch the video. My internet is super slow right now, but if its accurate I like it. Bin Laden might be a small fish again compared with Iran, Russia, and Pakistan. But as a figure head he was still bringing people into Al Qaeda. With Al Qaeda losing it's best spokesman for the last three years only to reappear like this, they probably haven't been getting as many recruits as they would like. Remember they've been expending thousands of recruits in Iraq, with no gain whatsoever. So a lot of the youths who might support them are seeing Al Qaeda as weak. Which is a death sentence for terrorist groups. A lot of people looking at Al Qaeda see that they have not been able to hurt the US since 9/11, have had only three successful attacks on US allies in 6 years (they were bad, but Extremists had promised a lot more), they have been unable to hold Afghanistan or Iraq, and their head honcho disappeared. Not very encouraging. We also have to remember something. Al Qaeda can bring in all the raw recruits it wants. If it loses its leaders, its tacticians, and its bomb makers, those recruits are far more likely to kill themselves ineffectively, get caught, or kill other Muslim civilians which ultimately hurts them a lot more then it hurts the US. Al Qaeda is on the rocks in Iraq right now because they kept killing civilians, the various tribes in Anbar said enough, and pushed Al Qaeda out of their lands, right into the US arms. Previously the tribes in Anbar hated the US. But Al Qaeda's forces in Iraq lost several key leaders in the last two years, and decided to attack civilians even more then US soldiers. As civilians are easier targets. Big mistake. That's one reason why Osama being dead is a good thing. Cut off the head and the snake isn't nearly as threatening. Now if only they'd do the same in Iran.
Of all of your words, this is the only thing I disagree with. The difference between Afhganistan and Iraq and then Iran, is we all knew that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Afghanistan was invaded for the Taliban; but to invade Iran would be a bit heavy handed and to be honest, really quite stupid.
This whole video thing is ridiculous. I don't believe this video is new and I am highly suspicious as to why it was released now. It seems a little obvious that our government is messing with us once more and Bush is just trying to get us all freaked out so we back him to send more troops. The media can't be trusted, and I think its all bull**** the way our politicians manipulate us.
I agree Rachel. That's why I'm completely open about my plans to take over the world and form my utopian Terran Empire But on a serious note, I think you could be disturbingly correct.
The video was released through channels the US government has no control over, and it is quite visible (and verifiable) internationally. Just to keep things in perspective...