A new videotaped statement from Osama bin Laden, a small part of which was aired Thursday on al-Jazeera television, showed the al-Qaeda leader exhausted but defiant. Dressed in combat uniform and with a weapon at his side, Bin Laden looked thin and in bad shape, but nevertheless alive.
Bin Laden attacked the United States, and especially the American aerial bombings of Afghanistan. He also claimed that recent events proved the depth of hatred in the West towards Islam.
The Attacks on Khost
A key point in Bin Laden’s condemnation of the USA was the bombing of a mosque in Khost. Reports of the destruction of the mosque in an aerial attack were widely circulated, but subsequently hushed up.
Khost was an important center for al-Qaeda activities, and was nicknamed a "Terrorist University", and former American president Clinton called it "one of the most active terrorist bases in the world." Khost was attacked by American cruise missiles in 1998, an attack in which Bin Laden barely escaped (reportedly after being warned by a senior Pakistani intelligence official).
Khost was attacked again on November 16-18, several religious schools (madrassas) and a mosque being hit. Civilian casualties were reported, along with heavy damage. The world media played down the incident, and it was quickly removed from front pages. In his videotape, Bin Laden reminded viewers of the brutality of the aerial bombardments, unseen by the television viewers outside Afghanistan.
Is He Alive?
Over the past weeks, speculation about the fate of Bin Laden has been ripe, and various reports of the death of “the most wanted man on earth” have appeared almost daily. The videotape seems to prove beyond a doubt that Bin Laden was alive at the start of December, because he mentions it was being made three months after the September 11 attacks and two months after the start of the American attacks on Afghanistan (Which commenced in October). Also, the attacks on Khost that are mentioned took place in late November.
The fact that the al-Qaeda leader did not refer to the videotape circulated by the USA recently, in which he is supposedly admitting his responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the USA, seems to prove that the tape was made in early December, and not in the past two weeks. The videotape therefore proves that Bin Laden had escaped the American attacks until the start of December, but sheds little light on his current state of health. Any one of the recent reports of his demise in a mountain stronghold could still be true.
The only clue to the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leader may be in the background to the video, which seems to have been made in Spartan conditions, indicating Bin Laden was indeed hiding in a remote cave. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the American forces are concentrating their current activities in Afghanistan on the search for the al-Qaeda leader in these underground mountain hideaways. (www.albawaba.com)
