Is bin Laden dead?

[Chilly]

Just saw this on CTV.ca.

What do you think of the validity of this?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060923/binladen_report_060923/20060923?hub=TopStories

 

[Armymedic]

Until there is a body...

 

[GAP]

CNN reporting on it...leaked document from French Intelligence

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/23/france.binladen.ap/index.html

 

[tomahawk6]

No one knows for sure. I guess we will have to wait for AQ to confirm it. ;D

 

[GAP]

It might also be a disingenious way of making him confirm his relevance. Everything coming from him in the last 6 months could have been manufactured by someone else.

 

[Lockness]

If he is dead, I wonder if AQ has a stockpile of prerecorded Bin Laden tapes to inspire the movement and garner attention from the West... maybe with a green background for photoshoping a current newspaper into the background. 

 

[rmacqueen]

It will be interesting to see if AQ responds in anyway.  I can't see them remaining silent as the death of Bin Laden is sure to have some demoralizing effect on AQ since they were viewing him as virtually invincible.  Might also make some question why, if their cause is sanctioned by God, BL was struck down not in battle but by illness.

 

[dglad]

Actually, I don't think it would really matter much one way or the other.  The only meaningful thing that could happen involving Bin Laden would be his capture or clear death at western hands.  It's otherwise little more than 'interesting', because AQ isn't a sufficiently hierarchical organization for his death to really matter that much.  I've never seen anything to suggest that AQ is a cult of personality.  If he died of typhoid, then undoubtedly some new figure will emerge to fill his role as AQ "boogeyman" and those who need to will rationalize it as God's will that he was called into the afterlife, perhaps even as a gift for all he's accomplished (crafting the info ops messaging that suits you really isn't rocket science).

 

[Infanteer]

I agree with DGlad - Al Qaeda is no longer an organization, it is a movement.  bin Laden has done what he set out to do when he started "the base"; mobilized a significant portion of the Muslim world against the West and, in particular, the United States.

 

[V]

This report causes concern.  Recently, I heard that there may be another attack in the next couple of months.  I don't think AQ will want the world to think that there leader died in his bed.  I think they would want him to die a martyr, in some horribly murderous way.  If there is any credibility to this report of an impending attack, this may be it.

  V

 

[vonGarvin]

Two of many sites where I've seen this today:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6644C310-ED4B-4FEA-B118-104E1736B356.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215301,00.html

There.  Aljazeera and Fox.  Any more divergent sites than that? 

OK, one more

http://www.ndp.ca


;D

EDIT: I did search for any other posts on this subject, but was unable to find this thread.  I both apologise to and thank the DS here for blending my thread into its appropriate spot.

 

[Cloud Cover]

He's not dead. He's the cab driver who took me to the Ottawa airport last Sunday.

 

[vonGarvin]

He's not dead. He's the cab driver who took me to the Ottawa airport last Sunday.

:rofl:

But.....the real question is this: did you see him on the hill yesterday?


;D

 

[Haggis]

He's not dead. He's the cab driver who took me to the Ottawa airport last Sunday.

Wrong.  Check your facts.

Everyone knows he runs a 7-11 in Mechanicsville.

 

[xmarcx]

Wrong.  Check your facts.

Everyone knows he runs a 7-11 in Mechanicsville.

Bingo, he's got to stay close to the hill to run the Jack Layon muppet!

 

[silentbutdeadly]

I think if he was dead, i would think AQ would use him as a martyr to inspire his follows to raise up and take revenge or something silly like that.

 

[patrick666]

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osama_dead.html

Some interesting facts and/or fictions.

Also, the "fake Bin Laden tape" - http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html

 

[Haggis]

I think if he was dead, i would think AQ would use him as a martyr to inspire his follows to raise up and take revenge or something silly like that.

If he died a martyrs' death, I'd agree with you.  But if he died from illness, then it must be God's will that he is dead.  Moderate Muslims can then state that it was God's will because of his crimes against humanity and Islam.

 

[James]

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osama_dead.html

Some interesting facts and/or fictions.

Also, the "fake Bin Laden tape" - http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html

This site claims he died back in 2001, but didn't he release a video in 2004?

I'm getting a little tired of people using the government as a scapegoat for everything...

 

[Nfld Sapper]

I think I will reserve judgement on his death until a body is produced and dna test be done on it.