Bin Laden Has A New Tape Out And He ... Zzzzzzz

By James Gordon Meek

Is there any reason to get excited about a new Osama Bin Laden tape anymore? The Al Qaeda kingpin issued an audio speech to jihadi Internet forums today and the Western world responded with a collective yawn. News organizations have been reporting it today - but not with the breathless tone and play once given to the most wanted terrorist in the world.

In his third audio speech released this year, the Saudi fugitive ridiculed Israel's 60th anniversary. Al Qaeda's founder claimed this year's celebration by Western leaders such as President Bush of the Jewish State's diamond jubilee prove that "Palestine is our land, and that the Israelis are invading occupiers that have to be fought."

"He clearly is creating expectations among Muslims that Al Qaeda will soon hit Israel," ex-CIA Bin Laden hunter Michael Scheuer told me. "He usually does not raise expectations just because he can."

But there was little, if anything, particularly new in Bin Laden's latest rant from an undisclosed location - most likely Pakistan's tribal belt. He has long claimed that the plight of Palestinians motivates his followers, something one counterterrorism official described as a "well-worn theme."

"But that doesn't mean U.S. intelligence is dismissive of it," the official hastened to add.

Recall that in 2002, the late Palestinian radical-turned-pol Yasser Arafat told Britain's Sunday Times that Bin Laden was hiding behind the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause.

"He hasn't helped us," Arafat said.

Bin Laden today also said the 19 hijackers who used four jetliners to attack New York City and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, acted out of revenge for U.S. policies toward the Palestinian people. Killing 2,973 people that day gave the killers a "great feeling" as they unleashed the carnage, he boasted.

Old news. The beast has told us that before.

I really got to thinking about this today after reading ABC News consultant and ex-FBI agent Brad Garrett's take: "It's a case of measured irrelevance. We used to do back flips when one of his tapes would arrive but no longer."

Officially, intelligence agencies view the Bin Laden tapes as mere propaganda.

They're also proof he's still breathing. When he released a tape on January 19, 2006, after a quiet 14-month stretch, it put to rest rumors of his death.

But Scheuer argues that Bin Laden is capitalizing on the ill will President Bush has engendered throughout the Muslim world with his wars in Afghanistan and particularly the "long war" still bleeding America in Iraq.

"Osama's just icing the cake Bush made and which my kids and yours are going to fight and die for," Scheuer said in his usual blunt tone.

TrackBack