Osama Tape: Mystery of the missing minutes

[cal04]

By most accounts, Osama bin Laden's election-eve videotape bombshell is 18 minutes long. But TV networks, including Qatar-based Al Jazeera, have broadcast only a few minutes of it and released only excerpts from it. Why not the full tape and transcript?

The answer might lie in the multiple swipes bin Laden takes against the United States, the Bush family, their dubious – in his eyes – commitment to freedom and their corruption. Even in the portions released, the Al Qaeda fugitive ridicules the Florida fiasco and rails about the depredations of American corporations.

He accuses Bush of negligence on 9/11, questions his legitimacy and the family legacy, and accuses them of being in cahoots with corrupt Muslim rulers to plunder Arab oil wealth. He also mentions the Patriot Act and Halliburton, showing he's on top of issues. In other words, he hits Bush where it hurts most, touching areas John Kerry would be hesitant to go.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/905831.cms

[Heyo]

1. I don't know about ya'll...

... but I WANT THE FULL TAPE!

We deserve and have a right to know the full contents of the tape. "Messages to sleeper cells" my ass.

Heyo

[Nicholas_J]

2. I believe that in the places where Bin Laden

states that BUsh has lied to the American Public about September 11th among other things, that Bin Laden provided information as to how Bush has been lying about these events. I beleive that his statements about Bush waiting rather than do something to prevent the attacks while he was reading o the children in FLorida was a lead in to something more. It is just speculation but it is possible that Al Qaeda gave warning about the attack in order to give the administration time to keep people out of the building, in oorder to destroy the buildings, but to empty it. This would not be consistant with other Al Qaeda attacks, but not beyond the realm off possibility.

[knowbody0]

3. im a tree hugging volvo driving peace activist

i read and re read his statements
i hear a plea for cease fire
i hear him admit to killing 3,000 innocent people
i hear him threatening to fight back when his people are attacked
i hear him condemming liars and thieves
i hear him warning we the people that our leaders do these things in
our name

i know we have killed over 100,000 iraqis and untold afghanistans
i do not believe we will ever win the hearts and minds in this way

i see three year old mentalities- - he hit me so i hit him back

oh, the humanity!

he may be a barbarian, but we behave barbariously as well. cluster bombs = civilized vs beheadings=barbarian? no logic

bottom line.....killing begets killers

[Utmost Certainty]

5. I'm sorry, but lying down and taking it is not the answer.

He's hardly pleading for a ceasefire. You must have missed the part about how he views each and every American - no matter who they are or what they've done - as an enemy. Osama Bin Laden, his followers, and others like him will stop at nothing until this country, and the entire Western World is pulverized into dust.

I'm all for treating everyone in the world with liberty and humanity - but don't expect the same in kind from people who consider it their God-given purpose to slaughter you. There's hardly anyway to come to a peaceful resolution with mentalities like that.

Guns and bombs aren't going to win this thing in the long term. In the end, it will be the war of ideas and information that does - both sides will have to come to an understanding that they're actually very similar to one another: We both go to work, we raise families, we have dreams, we want to be loved, etc. But guns and bombs will be necessary for the interim.

[bemildred]

7. So, a little barbarism now and then is, like, a good thing? nt

[Utmost Certainty]

8. Hell no it's not a good thing!

Where did you get that from my statement?

[bemildred]

9. Quote: "But guns and bombs will be necessary for the interim"

I guess that makes guns an bombs not barbaric or else perhaps
pushing "necessary" to "good thing" was a bit much. It would seem
you consider them the right answer for OBL, so that isn't that far
from conventional usage for "good thing" or "right thing". But
I don't want to put words in your mouth, so sorry if I did.

I think guns and bombs are a really stupid solution to OBL, as
witnessed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Lots of dead bystanders and
OBL still sending us tapes.

Edit: spelling

[Utmost Certainty]

10. Thanks

I think we'd all like to see a day where we can transcend the urge to rend violence upon one another in order to solve our problems. But we haven't yet. The fact remains that there are brutally violent people out there who relish in killing Americans and anyone else who doesn't follow their beliefs. And the point I was making is that we have to be prepared to defend ourselves against these people... and that the only way to do is to employ the same means they use against us. There just isn't any other way. They are fanatics that you simply cannot reason with.

[bemildred]

11. You are welcome.

I can (mostly) transcend the urge to rend violence right now.
I do understand the need to defend oneself, but as I pointed out
in the preceeding post, the present approach doesn't seem to have
been effective. OBL is still there, and his minions are still
attacking us. In fact, some assert that there are more people
who want to rend violence on us now than before we started fixing
the problem with bombs and guns. Usually when you see that what
you are doing in making a problem worse, you stop and reconsider.

[Merlin]

12. Confused?

Maybe you could identify precisely that part of OBL's speech where he talks "about how he views each and every American - no matter who they are or what they've done - as an enemy." I didn't hear that at all.

He'll "stop at nothing until" we're "pulverized"? I didn't hear that either. Instead, what I heard was that he will exact from us what he feels we are exacting from his people.

"Guns and bombs aren't going to win this thing..." True enough. But doesn't that mean you have to "understand" the other side's grievances and possibly--just possibly--make some adjustments?

[olddem43]

4. OBL is right about all of this -

but he is still a mass murderer and Kerry will capture or kill him, as Bush could not. Bin Laden is merely stating the obvious.

[PATRICK]

6. Editing only makes him less boring

Really, an extra long rant would have put people to sleep but also provided more revealing details about his character.

It seems out of character for the rest of the tape, but calling more directly to his minions to attack might have caused some edits?

Another RW windbag, Islamicist variety.