Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 13, 2007 11:27:29 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: After "Martyred" 9-11 Terrorist Shown in Fake "Osama
Video,' BBC INTERVIEWS HIM!
Strong Evidence Emerges That 'Osama bin Laden'
in New 9/11 Video Is an Impostor
http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com/
Al-Qaida Leader Has Not Been Seen Since Northern Pakistan Region
Where He's Suspected to Be Hiding Was Devastated By a Major
Earthquake in 2005 That Killed 75,000 People -- Raising Doubts That
the World's No. 1 Fugitive Is Still Alive
You be the judge: On the left, Osama bin Laden in an image made
from an undated video broadcast on October. 29, 2004 by the Arab TV
news network al-Jazeera. On the right, a man purported to be bin
Laden is shown in an image taken last Thursday from an Islamic
militant Web site on which al-Qaida's media arm, Al-Sahab,
frequently posts messages. (AP Photo)
(Updated 3:00 a.m. EDT Thursday, September 13, 2007)
WEDNESDAY NEWS EXTRA
By Skeeter Sanders
Two new videotaped messages purported to be from Osama bin Laden
that have appeared in the past week -- just in time for Tuesday's
sixth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the
United States -- have revived the game of questions over the
fugitive al-Qaida leader's health and whereabouts.
But the authenticity of one of the videos -- showing bin Laden with
his hair and beard trimmed and dyed black -- is being openly
challenged, with a former U.S. Army linguist saying that there are
noticeable discrepancies between the recording's audio track and
its video image.
A British journalist and a Duke University professor are also
calling the authenticity of the bin Laden video into question, with
the journalist strongly suggesting that the image of bin Laden was
electronically altered and the professor -- who believes that bin
Laden is dead -- calling it "a voice from the grave."
September 11 'Martyr' Praised in 2nd Video Is Very Much Alive
The authenticity of a second video that purportedly praises the
"martyrdom" of Waleed al-Shehri, who it said was one of the
hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into the
north tower of the World Trade Center, was quickly undermined
Wednesday when the British Broadcasting Corporation disclosed that
al-Shehri is still very much alive in Morocco -- and is vehemently
protesting his innocence.
Indeed, within hours of the BBC's disclosure, al-Shehri told
reporters at a hastily-called press conference in Casablanca that
he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington
and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both
the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.
The Saudi Arabian-born al-Shehri was one of five men that the FBI
said had deliberately crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the
north tower. The bureau released his photograph, which subsequently
appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.
Al-Shehri acknowledged that he is indeed the same man whom the FBI
named and that he attended a flight-training school at Daytona
Beach, Florida. But, he told reporters, he returned to Saudi Arabia
a year ago to become a pilot with the Saudi national airline and is
currently on a further training course in Morocco.
Even al-Jazeera Has Doubts About the New Footage
Unlike previous bin Laden videos, this one was not first obtained
by the Arab TV news network al-Jazeera. Instead, the new message
was obtained by Associated Press Television News from the
IntelCenter, a private monitoring group based in suburban Washington.
And for the first time, al-Jazeera refused to acknowledge that this
new video came from al-Qaida -- either on the air or on its Web
sites -- instead reporting that "A videotape purporting to show
[emphasis added] Osama bin Laden has been released in which the al-
Qaida leader warns [President] Bush that he is repeating the
'mistakes of the former Soviet Union.'"
The network reported on its English-language Web site that U. S.
intelligence officials "were studying the tape, which, if proved to
be genuine [emphasis added], would be the first message from bin
Laden for nearly three years."
The release of the two videos was purposefully timed to coincide
with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. But they
made a bigger-than-expected splash in the mainstream media at a
time when the 2008 campaign to elect a successor to President Bush
is in full swing -- and against the backdrop of an increasingly
bitter partisan debate in Washington over the war in Iraq, which
opinion polls show is becoming as unpopular to the American public
as the Vietnam conflict a generation ago.
Ex-Army Linguist: New bin Laden Video 'Is a Forgery'
In a blog entry posted Sunday on the Web site BoomanTribune.com,
George Maschke, a former U.S. Army linguist who specialized in
Arabic and Farsi (the official language of Iran), wrote that the
new bin Laden video "has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt" on
its authenticity.
The video image "freezes" 90 seconds after the recording begins and
does not move again until 11 minutes later, Maschke reported. "The
video image then freezes again" at the 14-minute mark and remains
frozen until the message ends.
Maschke said that the audio track's references to current events,
including the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan
in August, the election of Nicholas Sarkozy as president of France
in late July and the ascension of Gordon Brown as prime minister of
Britain in May "occur when the video is frozen."
On the other hand, the words spoken "when the video [image] is in
motion contain no references to contemporary events," Maschke
continued, "and could have been -- and likely were -- made before
the U.S. invasion of Iraq [in 2003]."
Maschke, who is also a polygraph expert, acknowledged that the
voice on the audio track "does appear to be...the voice of a single
speaker." He suspects that "an older, unreleased video was dubbed
over for this release," and said he has "no doubt" that the new
video "is a forgery."
British Journalist, Duke Professor Also Question Video's Veracity
In an interview with al-Jazeera, Adel Darwish, political editor of
the London-based Middle East magazine, said that he, too, had
"doubts" about the authenticity of the tape and believes that it
was electronically altered.
"Any kid these days with an electronic kit can alter images and
edit the way that he or she likes," he said.
Meanwhile, Bruce Lawrence, a Duke University professor of religious
studies, flatly rejected the authenticity of the new bin Laden
video. He believes that the fugitive al-Qaida leader is dead. "It
[the video] was like a voice from the grave," he said in an
interview with ABC News.
Lawrence, who noted that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins
this week, was struck by the complete absence of references to the
Qu'ran, the Muslim holy book, in the video.
"[Bin Laden is], by his own standards, a faithful Muslim," Lawrence
said. "He routinely quotes quranic scripture in defense of his
actions. There's no quotation from the Qu'ran in the excerpts we
got. No reference to [previous al-Qaida attacks]. No reference to
past atrocities."
Was bin Laden Killed in 2005 Pakistan Earthquake?
Lawrence may have good reason to believe that bin Laden is dead.
There had been no new video footage of the al-Qaida leader since al-
Jazeera last broadcast footage of him in October 2004. U.S.
officials have long believed that bin Laden is hiding in the rugged
mountains of northeastern Pakistan since he was driven out of Tora
Bora in the December 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan.
But on October 8, 2005, the region was devastated by a 7.6-
magnitude earthquake that killed nearly 75,000 people, injured
another 100,000 and left up to two million people homeless,
according to Pakistani government figures -- the world's worst
quake-related disaster since the 2004 South Asian tsunami.
The quake, which was centered in the Pakistani-controlled portion
of Kashmir, was the most powerful temblor to strike Pakistan in 70
years; a 7.7-magnitude quake leveled the city of Quetta, capital of
Pakistan's Balochistan province, in 1935, killing anywhere between
30,000 and 60,000 people.
Since the Kashmir earthquake, bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri,
has been the international public face of the al-Qaida network,
issuing numerous videos and audiotapes, leading some analysts to
believe that the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had taken a more direct
hand in the al-Qaida leadership -- perhaps even taken over as the
terror network's top leader.
The longer bin Laden remained out of sight, the greater the
speculation grew about whether he was alive or dead. The dramatic
differences in bin Laden's appearance in the new video is casting
serious doubt that he is still alive.
Taliban Commander Says bin Laden 'Alive and Well"
A top TalIban commander has said in a television interview that bin
Laden and Afghanistan's former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar
are alive and well. "I am in contact with Mullah Omar and take
directions from him," Mullah Akhtar Usmani told Pakistan's
privately-run Geo television.
There is no way of independently verifying Mullah Usmani's claims.
Mullah Usmani was a senior commander in the Taliban before its fall
in 2001. He is since considered to be the operational head of the
Taleban resistance.
The United States has offered bounties of $25 million and $10
million for the capture of the Saudi-born bin Laden and Mullah
Omar, respectively, in connection with the September 11 attacks.
The '04 and '07 Videos: Difference in Face, Beard, Hair -- And Body
Size
The differences in bin Laden's physical appearance in the three
years between his last previous video and the one released last
week are striking even to this blogger -- so striking as to call
into question whether the man in the new video is really bin Laden.
The most striking difference is in the length and color of the al-
Qaida leader's beard. Bin Laden's beard had grown longer and
progressively grayer in the many videos of him released in the
years since the September 11 attacks. But in the latest video, the
beard is black -- and trimmed.
Experts in Muslim culture say that trimming one's beard is frowned
upon -- and that dyeing it is strictly taboo.
Other noticeable differences in bin Laden's video appearance
between 2004 and now can be found in the nose (it's thinner), lower
lip (it's more curved) and left eyebrow (a higher arch). And the al-
Qaida leader's overall body appears thinner in the older video.
If bin Laden -- who, if he is still alive, is 50 years old --
really was killed in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, why would al-
Qaida keep his death a secret -- other than, perhaps, to save face
with its followers? After all, what would happen to al-Qaida's
standing among Muslim extremists if they -- and the world -- knew
that their spiritual leader was killed by an act of Allah?
# # #
Volume II, Number 46
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