NationStates Jolt Archive

Osama Bin Laden 'alive and well'

A top Taleban commander has said in a television interview that Osama Bin Laden and Afghanistan's former Taleban leader Mullah Omar are alive and well.
"I am in contact with Mullah Omar and take directions from him," Mullah Akhtar Usmani told Pakistan's privately-run Geo television.

There is no way of independently verifying Mullah Usmani's claims.

The BBC's Rahimullah Yusufzai says that Mullah Usmani was a senior commander in the Taleban before its fall in 2001.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4094992.stm

It's been nearly 4 years since 9-11, and we've yet to get any real proof that he's still alive (un-dateable audio and videos not withstanding...)

So... where is he, then?

In all probablility he's still alive, given our collective tendancy as a nation to fail at just about everything we try to do outside our borders. American foreign policy is erratic and inept at best: I could have told you on September 12th that we weren't going to catch bin Laden.

The real shame about all of this is our Administration obviously has little or no interest in finding him, since with all of our resources mobilized for 4 years we could most definately find the man. What happened was a few months passed and Bush lost interest, deciding instead to focus on Saddam as somehow being the greater threat.

I find it a damning endictment of the American psyche to see that so many of us swallowed his bullshit hook, line, and sinker. Anyone with more than a dozen working neurons could tell that the Administration was trying to divert attention from bin Laden: because if there's one thing our government can't do under any circumstances, it's "admit a failure."

Even if we did catch him, I don't see it as very likely that we'd even been told; it is in fact possible that he's already been killed. If, for instance, we were to capture him and announce it, we'd have all sorts of crazyass terrorists blowing themselves up in order to secure his release. I would imagine any armed forces personnel have orders to shoot him on sight.

Well I kind of think he is splattered all over a cave in Khandahar(sp?).

Bin Laden liked the camera too much and all I have seen are still shots with somebody talking. Hmmm how many sons sound like their father?

It's to the shrubs advantage he remains alive. It's to Al-Q's advantage he remains alive. A martyr will get you some recruits but a guy still fighting the US will get you more.

My arm-chair-Intel-analyst review of the day! :p

Being the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, I could pinpoint the location to a few dozen centimeters...but it'd be pointless. Bin Laden himself is just a pawn of a higher power. He thinks he has power, and in a way he's succeeded -- he's created an army of fanatic terrorists that can keep functioning without him. But it is truly led by an immortal power, one disguised perhaps as one of his loyal men...thus preventing the organization from falling apart now that Bin Laden is in flight. I recommended that the USA give up the search now, before it's too late. They agreed.

In the meantime my minions are searching for Osama, mine having telepathic and mind-altering powers of course, as well as being immortal. ;)

~Czardas, Supreme Ruler of the Universe

Being the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, I could pinpoint the location to a few dozen centimeters...but it'd be pointless. Bin Laden himself is just a pawn of a higher power. He thinks he has power, and in a way he's succeeded -- he's created an army of fanatic terrorists that can keep functioning without him. But it is truly led by an immortal power, one disguised perhaps as one of his loyal men...thus preventing the organization from falling apart now that Bin Laden is in flight. I recommended that the USA give up the search now, before it's too late. They agreed.

In the meantime my minions are searching for Osama, mine having telepathic and mind-altering powers of course, as well as being immortal. ;)

~Czardas, Supreme Ruler of the Universe

Well, that makes at least as much sense than anything that's been on CNN, Fox or MSNBC in the past 4 years... ;)

Trust me, forcing the once billionair to live in a cave and/or dress as a women is as good as dead to me. The fact is that he no longer has any real control over his failing organization, and he will be forced for the rest of his pathetic life (assuming that he is still alive, which i already highly doubt) to be the goose and a wile goose chase.

Osama bin Laden is a bit like God, in that there is no way to prove or disprove his existence. :p [/crossover]

Seriously though, I don't think we will ever know. Some high-ranking Nazi disappeared with the fall of Berlin, and there was all sorts of speculation he fled to South America, until his bones were found next to an ancient railway line on the outskirts of the city a few years ago. Shame I forgot the name.

But if those bones had never been found? Or had been bulldozed away in the late 1940s/1950s reconstruction, as just another set of remains? Then it would have remained a mystery.

So I think we will never know how and when he met or will meet his end.

I forgot in the poll: yes, Indonesia is an Arabic nation, but I'm counting it as "somewhere else", since it's not one he can drive to (read: it's not in the immediate region).

Well, that makes at least as much sense than anything that's been on CNN, Fox or MSNBC in the past 4 years... ;)It makes a little less sense than that. I don't make much sense to people who don't know me.

Also try imagining multiple consciousness: try to 'be' two people at the same time. Three people. Four. Can you do it? I didn't think so. I, on the other hand, 'am' over 100 different beings.

And if you're wondering why the US government isn't searching for Osama anymore, there's a very simple reason. I recommended that they stop. And when the Supreme Ruler of the Universe recommends something, you usually follow the recommendation. (Except for the Supreme Rulers of other Universes.)

~Czardas, Supreme Ruler of the Universe

It has occurred to me that it could have easily been the same with Saddam Hussein. He could have easily died an anonymous unseen death somewhere, and we would still be puzzled today.

As for al-Qaeda...Bin Laden is not important to international terrorism any more, not in the physical sense. al-Qaeda ceased to function as a coherent organisation some time ago, now it is fragmented, and with every passing year looks more and more like a franchise. Doesn't matter who or where you are, you can plan your own independent thing and carry it out under that banner. It's like a brand of terrorism, rather than an organisation. And that is more difficult to destroy, because it has a life of its own, independent of its founders.

al-Zarqawi is a good example of an independent operator who has bought into the brand to gain even greater notoriety. He and his associates can be killed over the years, but some other guy with his own ideas, nothing at all to do with the old al-Qaeda, will just pick up the name again. Only time can kill the label.

And like that [pfft], he's gone. Underground. Nobody's ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that Arabs tell their kids at night. "Rat on your pop and Bin Laden will get ya." And no one ever really believes.

Nobody ever knew him or saw anybody that ever worked directly for him. But to hear my friend tell it, anybody could have worked for bin Laden. You never knew; that was his power. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Being the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, I could pinpoint the location to a few dozen centimeters...but it'd be pointless. Bin Laden himself is just a pawn of a higher power. He thinks he has power, and in a way he's succeeded -- he's created an army of fanatic terrorists that can keep functioning without him. But it is truly led by an immortal power, one disguised perhaps as one of his loyal men...thus preventing the organization from falling apart now that Bin Laden is in flight. I recommended that the USA give up the search now, before it's too late. They agreed.

In the meantime my minions are searching for Osama, mine having telepathic and mind-altering powers of course, as well as being immortal. ;)

~Czardas, Supreme Ruler of the Universe

How clever!

Hypocrite

How clever!w00t! First time anyone's ever said that to me!


Oh wait, it was sarcastic. :(

~Czardas, Supreme Ruler of the Universe

The first thing is not to believe anything at all.
He is very crafty and is a master of the shell game. He also has access to tons of cash and has rich friends in high places that hate us too.

We'll find him. We have deep pockets and a long memory. He'll turn up. sadaam did-I bet most people didnt think he'd be taken-alive at least.

He's probably applying for asylum in the UK and having cigars on Brighton Beach! :p


Blimey, I sound like Michael Howard... :eek:

It has occurred to me that it could have easily been the same with Saddam Hussein. He could have easily died an anonymous unseen death somewhere, and we would still be puzzled today.

As for al-Qaeda...Bin Laden is not important to international terrorism any more, not in the physical sense. al-Qaeda ceased to function as a coherent organisation some time ago, now it is fragmented, and with every passing year looks more and more like a franchise. Doesn't matter who or where you are, you can plan your own independent thing and carry it out under that banner. It's like a brand of terrorism, rather than an organisation. And that is more difficult to destroy, because it has a life of its own, independent of its founders.

al-Zarqawi is a good example of an independent operator who has bought into the brand to gain even greater notoriety. He and his associates can be killed over the years, but some other guy with his own ideas, nothing at all to do with the old al-Qaeda, will just pick up the name again. Only time can kill the label.

Very True.

even if OBL is captured dead or alive, the pan-islamist movement will go on since it has attained a momentum of its own.

I think he is holed up somewhere in FATA (the tribal areas of pakistani north-west) and certainly some higher ups in the paki intelligence knows where he is. There is a great deal of support to him in the intelligence apparatus, the ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul was sort of mentor to OBL.

Where's Bin Laden?

In the kitchen doing the dishes right now.

I kicked his ass playing Texas hold-em last night and now he has to do all the chores around the house for a week.

Idiot went all-in on a pair of jacks.......

He's on my MSN Contact List.

Somewhere in the border regions of Chechnya, you know that lawless valley. Or in Iraq. Is there a better and safer place for an Islamic militant to be right now?

He's in a fake cave inside an Al-Jazeera studio with a fake AK-47. Why else do they get all of his "videos"?! ;)

IIRC he had dialysis or something. He may well be dead but no-one can tell. It's easy enough to make non-specific messages and have them broadcast undated.

He's in western canda planning a coup against paul martin where he would setup a fake government and invade the U.S. from the north... The longest unprotected border in history......

The US was actually going to invade Canada in 1935:

http://www.glasnost.de/hist/usa/1935invasion.html
:confused: :confused: :confused:
What the Fuck? Why?

:confused: :confused: :confused:
What the Fuck? Why?
They code-named it Crimson, so I'm assuming they were afraid it might turn communist. But in 1935? Weird.

maybe he got sucked into a wormhole

Personally, I believe Myrth has him locked up in his basement until such time as he gets around to brainwashing him into doing all the housework.

The US was actually going to invade Canada in 1935:

http://www.glasnost.de/hist/usa/1935invasion.html

Absolutely true. :rolleyes: This was from a *war game*. Sheesh!
You know that the US army in 1935 was about smaller than *Denmark's* right?!?

Militaries do this sort of thing all the time, even if there is ZERO chance of it ever occurring...

For example:
German invasion plan for America, 1917: Attack Providence, Rhode Island and march down route 44 to New York.

Wasn't he supposed to be on dialasis several years ago?

For example:
German invasion plan for America, 1917: Attack Providence, Rhode Island and march down route 44 to New York.
Although in 1917 it certainly would have been handy. We were working hard on a deal with the Mexicans to join our side and march into the US, and if we could have finished off France and Britain (which was perfectly possible in 1918) we would've had to invade you...

In my trunk. I knew I shouldn't have let my buddy borrow my car last weekend! Now it'll stink for days!

Although in 1917 it certainly would have been handy. We were working hard on a deal with the Mexicans to join our side and march into the US, and if we could have finished off France and Britain (which was perfectly possible in 1918) we would've had to invade you...

Ah, the Zimmerman Telegram. The thing that (with the U-Boat campaign) broke the camel's back...

Yes, a German victory in 1918 was only narrowly missed. Those 60 divisions from the east could have made victory in the west had Russia left the war 6 months earlier. Or if Germany had had more U-Boats. Or any number of variants had come to pass.

Still, the point was that the Kaiser specifically requested the war plan, even though Germany was still fighting Belgium, France, UK and Russia at the time...