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thedrifter
01-15-09, 07:00 AM
Good Morning, Mr. Bin Laden [Steve Schippert]

This morning, the West awoke to Osama bin Laden urging yet more Holy War, this time over Israeli actions against Hamas in Gaza.

Well, there's certainly been no shortage of analysis available in the hours since the message was released. One such bit of analysis comes from Peter Bergen, a widely recognized expert on al-Qaeda and bin Laden. Bergen posits that the tape shows that Gaza and the Palestinian cause are important to bin Laden because he is "not going to say much unless it's sort of a big deal. And the Israeli attacks on Gaza would certainly be a big deal for bin Laden."

No it's not. No more than it ever was in the past.

Bin Laden's support for the Palestinian cause is less direct and more tangential. The bin Laden Gaza message is primarily a large dose of PR, if you will. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains the greatest single unifying issue on the much-coveted 'Arab street.' And al-Qaeda's disgraceful loss in Iraq — and utter rejection by Iraqi Arabs — has done much to damage its street-image and self-image. Bin Laden speaking on Gaza is an opportunity to piggy-back on Arab public sentiment towards a conflict his organization is not engaged in, a battle his organization has not waged (despite much rhetoric) in an area where his organization has failed to successfully establish itself. If there's any "big deal," that's it.

Bergen makes good points about security concerns and chains of custody for bin Laden messages, among other things. But to describe the Gaza conflict as a big deal without the proper context of its popular Arab and/or broader Muslim appeal misses the mark.

Personally, I think that unless we have determined from the tape that bin Laden is audibly missing body parts (teeth, tongue, etc.) or that the voice is not in fact his own, or determined his location through analysis of ambient noise or audio formatting, then it's really affording much hullabaloo to that which does not warrant it.

James Robbins agrees. Allow me to quote here James's take, which he originally published at The Corner:

So Osama bin Laden weighs in on Gaza, calling for jihad, criticizing Arab states for playing footsie with Israel, and so forth. And of course it is "news" because this is bin Laden, who hasn't done much recently but who is still the embodiment of evil, and who occasionally demonstrates he is still alive. It is pathetic that the only way he can show the world he exists is by releasing occasional taped statements on events he is really not involved with and cannot influence. He is like a color commentator who has long since left the game and only states the obvious when on screen, but whose previous track record and personality keeps him bankable; and who knows, maybe someday he'll do something memorable again. Meanwhile it's jihad this, ummah that, [and] Al Aqsa the other thing — it's a shame we haven't been able to terminate his contract.

Agreed.


01/14 03:51 PM


Ellie