Nasty Little Man

Something odd about bin Laden tape

Mamoun Fandy on PBS' Newshour:

Right, but this particular tape is not terribly inspiring, just looking at the language of it. This is the first tape of bin Laden that has no single verse from the Koran. It does not have the flowery language of Arabic.

It seems to me that it is written in English first, and then translated into Arabic. It is very western style of tape. It is not very characteristic of bin Laden, at least it tells me that the non-Arabic speaking within the al-Qaida network are taking over the organization

(Mamoun Fandy is the President of Fandy Associates, a Washington DC based research group and think-tank. Dr. Fandy is a senior fellow at the Baker Institute. He is also a Senior Fellow at The United States Institute of Peace. He is a former professor of Politics at Georgetown University and professor of Arab Politics at the Near-East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. His research focus is the politics of the Arab World, terrorism and radical Islamic politics, and regional security issues in the Middle East.)

When the latest bin Laden tape came out, I'll admit that the idea that it could be a fake crossed my mind but figured that was my irrational side thinking. But what Dr. Fandy is saying is very, very strange. Anyone recall when the last bin Laden tape was released? It was the weekend before the 2004 election. Now the Republicans are having trouble on multiple fronts, and conveniently the Boogeyman reappears.

I'm not saying. I'm just saying.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 11:03 PM