singrdave

Join Date 07/2004

Is Osama bin Laden Dead?

Truth or wishful thinking?

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Reports may be premature, but Osama bin Laden might be dead of typhoid. Pakistani intelligence is reporting this as fact, but the truth remains to be seen.

From FirstPost from the UK:

Osama bin Laden, charismatic founder of al-Qaeda, died of typhoid earlier this month in Pakistan, according to a highly classified intelligence brief given to the King of Saudi Arabia and President Chirac this week, and leaked to the French newspaper L'Est Republicain.

The chief of the terror group was known to have been suffering from acute typhoid and seeking treatment in Pakistan in mid-August. This was picked up and tracked by Saudi intelligence services. The same sources, said by the French to be very reliable, believe he later died.

The powerful Pakistani intelligence agency the ISI - at times virtually a parallel government, instrumental among other things in founding the Taliban - has not confirmed the report. "We have no information on Osama's death," a senior Pakistan Interior Ministry official said on Saturday morning.

So the Pakistanis are reporting from Saudi sources, which the French believe to be reliable. So how much credibility can we attribute to this? Or is it just wishful thinking that the Taliban and 9/11 perpetrator is finally dead?

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We can hope, can't we?

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I believe he's been done for quite a while.

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I really don't care one way or another. Bin-Laden isn't the problem, and I don't get any satisfaction knowing one guy is gone when there's a ton of others ready to step up into his place. It's the whole mindset that bothers me, and you can't kill that.

Not to mention that the whole thing just escalates everytime a Bin-Laden dies. Some new guy comes along that's gonna do it bigger than he did. Nukes is the next fear, and it's a real one. One of our cities is going to be erased before it's over and the "Glass Parking Lot Act" is put into play.

I don't really weant to see the indiscrimnate eradication of a set of people, but at this point, I'd almost rather have that than the constant dissension. Let it be them or let it be us, but it's long past time to knock the whole thing off. Forever.

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Sometimes you are really scary Ock...

But honestly guys, what difference would it make if Osama were dead?

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But honestly guys, what difference would it make if Osama were dead?

It makes a difference for a couple of reasons:
1. He is a symbol of the global insurgency. His continued survival makes the US look like chumps. Jihad continues in part because we can't get the perpetrators. All Osama has to do is put out a tape and he thumbs his nose at the Great Satan.
2. Closure for the 9/11 tragedy. If he is dead of typhoid, it's sad that we weren't able to arrest him and put him on trial for his crimes. But the families would get rough justice, realizing that the 9/11 mastermind is dead. With the hope that he'll get his eternal reward. And I don't mean virgins.

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

1. this report is nearly a year old (sept 23, 2006).

2. this isn't correct:

Pakistanis are reporting from Saudi sources, which the French believe to be reliable

3. none of yall would believe chirac tellin you the sky was blue without lookin out a window first.

4. although one might think it difficult for cheney to find another former gov't official willing to go to pakistan and check it out, luckily scooter is available. unlike wilson, he knows how to stick to a story.

5. bin laden's family should issue a fatwa against al-zawahiri for malpractice.

6. any chance--however slim--it's more than coincidental this report resurfaced within days of someone suggesting we get serious about finding bin laden?

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1. this report is nearly a year old (sept 23, 2006).

Mea culpa: I did not read through to the byline, which was posted at the end of the article. I went off the date at the top of the first page, which said 6 August 2007.

2. this isn't correct:
Pakistanis are reporting from Saudi sources, which the French believe to be reliable

Saudi intelligence reported this story. This article says that an unnamed French intelligence agency believes the Saudi source to be reliable. The Pakistanis haven't confirmed or denied the story, as of the aforementioned dateline of September of last year.

3. none of yall would believe chirac tellin you the sky was blue without lookin out a window first.

I don't know about that... while they're not an English-speaking nation (we put more stock in the Anglophones) their intelligence services are credible. And I'm not personally confirming the story -- I'm just passing it along. One of the many services I render.

6. any chance--however slim--it's more than coincidental this report resurfaced within days of someone suggesting we get serious about finding bin laden?

Yes. Quite certain.

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

Loca?

she's not loca is she? by which i mean straniera doesn't seem to me locamama nor loca.

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Watch out, Loca may start thinking that you're obsessing over her!

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This report may be a year old, but "reports" are even older.

At this point, I dont think we will ever know conclusively.

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