The Bin Laden Tape – Fact Or Fiction

Al Jazeera magazine (not affiliated with Al Jazeera television) raises the
question of the authenticity of the latest Osama tape.

The audiotapes of OSAMA BIN LADEN have become an important medium between
AL-QAEDA network and the outside world. If authentic, these tapes could
enable BIN LADEN to convey his opinions to his enemies and followers, issue
threats and even claim responsibility for terror attacks carried out by his
group. It is obvious that the usefulness of such tapes cannot be questioned,
but how can people be sure of their origin and authenticity? Little time is
dedicated to such examinations. But an analysis can really influence the way
we judge similar evidence in the future.

There is no reason whatsoever to believe that these audiotapes are
authentic. While they are always followed by reports of scientific voice
analyses, these studies have been invariably done by CIA experts. In fact,
only one occasion was an independent analysis done. And while American
officials were certain of the tape’s authenticity, Swedish scientists were
convinced that it was fake.

Consider yesterday’s audiotape, in which BIN LADEN warned that AL-QAEDA
is planning new attacks against the United States, but offered a conditional
“long-term truce”, which the White House rejected. Hours after the tape’s
release, CIA officials said it is a “genuine message” from BIN LADEN.
“Following a technical analysis, the voice on the tape is believed to be
that of OSAMA BIN LADEN,” said a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official.
On the other hand, several experts doubted the tape’s authenticity. “It was
like a voice from the grave“, said Bruce Lawrence, a Duke professor, who
analyzed more than 20 complete speeches and interviews of the AL-QAEDA chief
for his recent book “Messages to the World: The Statements of OSAMA BIN
LADEN.”

Article continues

here.

I thought the same thing as soon as I heard the latest tape. It struck me as
odd how Osama was quoting our polls. What was even funnier was the timing. The
day after the tape was when Karl Rove started his speech campaign talking about
Democrats now being able to deal with terrorists.

I feel the most damming evidence that proves the tape is not authentic was
the CIA saying it was. Within a matter of only a couple hours the CIA had
authenticated the tape. Any other time Osama has released a tape it generally
took two or three days for the CIA to authenticate it. How come they could do it
so quickly this time? Even more important is how they could do it so quickly on
an audio tape. Those are a lot harder to authenticate than a video tape.

On the day that tape was released I immediately went to Al Jazzera’s (the
controversial one) website. The reports I had heard said that they had released
the new tape so I figured I would see what their site had to say about it.
Interesting enough the site actually said “Breaking
News: Osama releases new tape”.
That was it . It wasn’t until about two hours later that the site had an actual
story up of the tape yet our news already had transcripts out. So how did the
transcripts get to our country and our reporters wrote stories about it before
the actual source did? That is an interesting fact to look into.

Back to the timing of the tape. It came out at a time when the President is
facing the biggest controversies of his career. Remember back to the 2004
election how every time we turned around the terror level was going up? Since
the election we have not seen it raised with the exception of a raise on transit
in some major metropolitan areas following the London bombings. Bin Laden also
released a tape just a couple days before the election of 2004 threatening
America.

It is obvious that Bush likes to lead by fear – a form of Mccarthyism if
there ever was one. Fear was his biggest selling point for Iraq and since then
we have learned that the fear he was selling was a fabrication of a group,
unknown at the time, called the White House Iraq Group. They used reporters like
Judith Miller to sell America their fear messages. “The smoking gun will be in
the form of a mushroom cloud” was the biggest message. They leaked information
to Miller who ran a story in the New York Times then everyone from Bush to
Cheney on down the line used that article as a source to sell America on
invading Iraq. Now they are trying to sell America on something else –
warrantless wiretaps.

The fact of the matter is I don’t believe the tape to be true at all. It
appears to be another plan devised by Bush and his cronies. Actually, it seems
like something Karl Rove would do and that’s who I believe is behind the latest
tape. He has used such tactics as this in the past to alter public opinion so
why should it be any different now. If you think the tape is authentic then ask
yourself why the terror level hasn’t been raised. I wouldn’t be shocked if it
gets raised as we near the November elections.