Is Osama bin Laden not in Pakistan or Afghanistan after all?
4:21pm
This new bin Laden video might provide vital clues at to where the al Qaeda leader is hiding. One thing that is notable about it is that his beard is black in the advanced still that has been released, rather than white-flecked as it was back in 2004. Now it is unlikely that bin Laden can get supplies of Just for Men on the run and Dick Clarke, the US’s former terrorism czar, is speculating that it might actually be a false beard. Clark thinks that this suggests bin Laden might be living somewhere where beards are unusual such as the Philippines or Indonesia. It would be a sweet irony if this video helped close the net on bin Laden.
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T
September 7th, 2007 4:49pmOr its an old video from when his beard was black. The man's dead - if he wasn't we would have heard from him.
Richard
September 7th, 2007 5:36pmI hold to my position that Bin Laden's beard is showing definite signs of grey.
Roger Thornhill
September 7th, 2007 6:49pm"Just for Men"? I bet many are hoping he is not using "Right On Target"!
Nick
September 7th, 2007 7:25pmYou have to say, you think it would take more than shaving off his beard for him to be inconspicous in South East Asia. Not least because he's about a foot taller than the average Indonesian. And anyway if they can successfully gets cameras and food to him, why can't they get hair dye. Given his main job now is propagandist in chief it makes sense for him to spend on makeup.
Eugene
September 11th, 2007 1:05pmNew Osama video seems yet another forgery. Everyone needs Osama alive: terrorists as symbolic leader and the US Administration - to avoid scaling down the war on terror. Obadiah Shoher rightly notes ( http://www.samsonblinded.org/news/osama-commemorates-911-1114 ) that new Osama talks like a leftist university professor. I like Shoher's analysis. No way a terrorist leader like Osama would use a speechwriter. Osama is famous for his rhetoric. Also, in the tape Osama both threatens America with attack (by "proving" Americans polytheists) and offers (yet another time) long-term coaching in Islam. But his dyed beard makes me cautious. Islam's mujahedeen dye their beards before battle.