Bin Laden’s New Video

UPDATE: This article is worth a read.

ORIGINAL POST: Osama Bin Laden has come out with his latest single on video—with references to global warming, high taxes, the US mortgage market meltdown, and interest rates! OBL used to make fired speeches calling for Jihad in Kashmir and Palestine—why is he adopted the language of US leftist protesters?

Turns out that Adam Gadahn (“Azzam The American”), the head of al-Qaeda’s English language media operations, probably authored large sections of the broadcast. The 28-year-old loner used to write reviews of heavy metal bands in magazines before moving to Pakistan and converting to Islam. In previous videos he also has condemned globalization and made similar American cultural references.

And the appearance of OBL in the video makes him appear curiously image conscious. When placing his profile side-by-side with previous videos, he has clearly trimmed his beard and dyed it black, perhaps in an attempt to appear younger. According to one expert:

Bin Laden dyeing his hair and beard, whilst hiding out somewhere in Pakistan, is really bizarre because it makes him, a man who claims he wants to be a martyr, look vain and ridiculous as he seems to have the time and priority to do a major makeover before appearing on camera. It does not fit with the image he has so carefully nurtured, the masquerade of his being a holy warrior devoid of normal human traits.

So where is OBL? After a 1998 missile strike failed to kill him, analysts believed he never stayed put more than a few days, but after the Tora Bora attack in late 2001, experts say Bin Laden likely has stayed put in a new hideout with a tiny band of die-hard bodyguards. Some speculate that he isn’t hiding in a cave but living in a cozy compound in Pakistan guarded by a few loyal fanatics. (The “cave myth” was long perpetuated by the Bush administration to support their claims the terror mastermind had been neutralized.)