New bin Laden Tape Released, Called “Ludicrous”
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden released a new audio tape which received wide news coverage. The tape blames the US for the violence in the region and threatens continued violence if America insists on supporting Israel among other things. The tape is believed to be several weeks old, which is understandable since bin Laden is believed to either be at the end of a long road that literally just ends in the mountains of Pakistan, or at the end of a long road that literally just ends in the mountains of Pakistan.
While bin Laden is just continuing the same type of rhetoric he has for years, it seems to me that his power of conversion is waning. Yes, he’s still recruiting fighters; yes, there are still battles going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, but to assume that he’s leading these battles in any meaningful way doesn’t make sense. Further, the fact that he’s sitting back in a cave complex has to be hurting his freedom fighter image that he earned leading troops against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then against the world in Sudan and later in Afghanistan again pre-9/11.
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