So, a new tape is
So, a new tape is floating around purported to be from Bin Laden.
Does anyone else find it odd that all of Bin Laden's tapes have been audio-only since, oh, say, November 2001? The implication that he's dead begs the question: then who is it on the tapes, that has the CIA publicly convinced that it's his voice?
I'm going with the theory that it's his son doing the recording. I don't know about anyone else out there, but I can do a great impression of my dad, cadence, voice quality and everything. Some firm in Switzerland analyzed the last tape a few months ago and concluded that it wasn't Osama -- but everyone else says it sounds like him. Who knows?
On another interesting sidenote, I read somewhere that back in his college days, Osama was once a big fan of Isaac Asimov, sci-fi writer extraordinaire. Asimov's Foundation series tells the story of a hero who forms a resistance operation (called "Foundation") to fight a guerilla war against the fearsome space-empire. As fate would have it, the hero doesn't live to see his goals come to fruition; he is killed in battle at the hands of his enemy. But the twist is that he knew that his followers needed to believe in him, to continue the battle against the empire -- so he made arrangements for video to be spliced and played back after his death, to give the impression that he was still leading the revolution.
Interesting parallels, no?
And just in case you're curious, the word for "the Foundation" in Arabic: al Qaeda.
Posted by Matt at February 12, 2003 5:43 AM
