Bin Laden: Hero or Villian?

Osama bin Laden has been on the FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' list for the best part of a decade. He was initially added in June 1999 in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi; however, the status of his arrest warrant was updated following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers (regarding speculation that he was the mastermind). He is being hunted as a result of 'Murder Of U.S. Nationals Outside The United States, Conspiracy To Murder U.S. Nationals Outside The United States And Attack On A Federal Facility Resulting In Death'. There is a U.S. $25 million bounty on his head.

WikiLeaks has claimed that the United States Government have been complaining about the PR bin Laden has been receiving in Pakistan. "'Wanted' posters and matchboxes distributed in Pakistan were met by shops selling pro-Osama souvenir versions", an article by Declan Walsh on the The Guardian website stated. The poster below was distributed by the United States in August 1998.

The Taliban, "in sharp contrast with their ordinary execrable public relations performance", was doing better than the US, the message continued. We face a formidable foe among those churning out pro-Osama propaganda." These comments have prompted the government to reassess their approach on bin Laden based propaganda in the United States. Whilst the majority of Westerners see Osama as a threat, he is widely accepted as a hero amongst  militant groups in predominantly Islamic countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.FBI: Osama Wanted Poster

Bishoy

Osama in Iran? or Washington!

Osama hunting in Iran?!

News: Osama bin Laden “living in luxury in Iran” report by The Telegraph, saying that the most wanted man  in the world, Osama is living in a luxury residence in Iran, and hunting Falcons!

Falcon hunting is an exclusive hobby of richest man in the Middle East. The price of a bird could reach one million dollars.The documentary named ‘Feathered Cocaine’ shows that Osama have been living comfortable with his wife and children under protect.

Osama bin Laden is hiding in Washington~

Ahmadinejad told ABC News that Osama is hiding in Washington, during the interview.

“Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

What I think is none of this massages are truth as the American always try to find some excuse to create “invasion” such as Iraq and somehow American was being embarrassing that they can not find out a guy with such huge and high technology network, weapons over 9 years. Let’s look at the image Osama that post from FBI which uses internet photo of Spanish politican Gaspar Liamazares. 

What a shame! At the same time, it shows that the US Intelligence Agency may completely losing the traces of Osama…

  Ahmadinejad was playing jokes to defense his country. However, as the location of Osama becomes a secret that everyone wants to know, the media and people would not pass up any chance to find out Osama. Can you image how embarrassing and horror for the US government if Osama is living in Washington~

Did Osama still alive or dead? 
We keep searching…

 Eddy

Bin Laden reads blogs

It would be extremely reductive to define The Sheikh of Terror as a religious fanatic plotting the destruction of the US while holed up in a cave. In fact, a further analysis of his messages denotes the extent to which Bin Laden borrows from Western discussions about the Middle East and the war. He is tech-savvy, he is extremely well informed, and is no different to any other political leader in the way he promotes his political and religious agenda. 

The way in which his modus operandi differs lies in the way his propaganda works. When considering Bin Laden's post-2001 agenda, two phases are distinguishable: immediately after the 9/11 attacks he was labelling himself as a "warrior for Palestine", and religious influences were the core of his discourses -which were self-sustained-. Later on though (from 2004 onwards), the main element of his ideology became heavy criticism towards George Bush and the US war campaign: hence, he acted like a parasite feeding itself from the "fear and loathing of his enemies" (O'Neill, 2006) and from their mistakes too. During that period, he gradually abandoned religious slurs and fatwas  in favour of citations of Michael Moore documentaries, US opinion polls against the war, humanitarian reports about Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Also, he is a big antagonist of Western media's biased coverage of the war, and spoke widely about scandals like Halliburton -the oil company owned by Dick Cheney who won contracts to supply fuel to the US Army-. 

Not only his new style aimed to broaden his audience and attempt to connect with disillusioned US citizens, but also revealed the extent to which he keeps himself informed, scanning the news environment and, apparently, blogs. Yes, it is alleged that Bin Laden reads blogs (or at least the entourage briefing him) and especially likes some of the crankier left wing ones out there, of which he appears to be a regular follower. In fact, the content of his messages often coincided with the latest scandals/topics discussed by these 'dissident' Western sources, simplifying his task in two ways: sparing him a lengthy research and the construction of a solid argument, and also gaining some kind of support among enemies' ranks. 

Nonetheless, another explanation for this peculiar change in style is brought up by German intelligence sources: could it be another addition to the endless collection of wacky conspiracy theories? Maybe. But apparently, Bin Laden died 9 years ago  in Tora Bora (Afghanistan) and all the following videos are "certainly fake" according to David Ray Griffin, a former theology professor. Hence, those videos portray an impersonator of former Al Qaeda's chief, and this explains the different communication strategy.


Vieri

The most popular qusetion-----Where is Osama?

In few months, while some media claim that the leader of the “9.11” terrorizes attack, Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Iran, the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad state that Osama bin Laden is in Washington! 

“9/11” has been over 9 years, but people still searching for Osama. America keep searching, Media keep looking, but where the hell he is? Did he dead? Or alive? Seems it becomes a popular, myth secret that everyone wants to prove~

Well, the problem is no one has evidences to show that where Osama is, all of us. What we do is just try to investigate, figure out where is this Osama guy~  In next few days, I will going to discuss who peoples looking for Osama, why they are looking for Osama and through this discussions, try to find some evidence that where is he.

Eddy

Discovery of the most wanted man on the planet

You may be wondering why we chose to do our blog on Osama bin Laden...well, browsing news sites for ideas, we came across an article about him on CNN. Accompanied by a video report by CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson, the article reveals that they US Government had the opportunity to kill/capture bin Laden but failed to do so. Dr August Hanning (Germany's intelligence chief) claims that the Al-Qaeda leader was watching the bombings in Tora Bora from a nearby base.

With agents feeding the Dr Hanning Osama's movements, one would think that he should have been caught. This, however, was not the case, with the information being fed through days, weeks even months later. One thing that he can confirm for certain, is that Osama bin Laden is alive (and well) in Pakistan.


This topic is designed to create conversation...stay tuned for interviews with experts and other article and video analysis (including the documentary titled 'Where in the world is Osama bin Laden') as we follow his controversial broadcasts, what the media says about him, and his movements over the past 10 years.


Bishoy

Bin Laden, the world's most influential man on the run

After 10 years of being on the run, few public figures caused more debate and speculation than Osama Bin Laden. The man that caused a war costing the US around 700 billion $ a year, is apparently impossible to find. Vanished, disappeared. Despite that, he is very informed about the latest events happening in the world, and a regular feature in fatwa-like videos threatening terrorist acts on Western countries. The rumours about his whereabouts are countless. Ranging from somebody who saw him riding a motorcycle in Afghanistan, to people claiming he is living in Washington and is also a personal friend of George Bush. Fidel Castro believes he is an American spy. The latest, most insisting rumour depicts him as an ill man, undergoing dialysis therapy while living in a comfortable suburban house in Pakistan, protected by his close allies and by the same Pakistani intelligence agents who get 2 billion $ in help from the US. Annually. No matter what the truth is, Bin Laden is an extremely powerful and influential figure that generated an endless, costly and hopeless war as well as wacky conspiracy theories, features in a Family Guy episode, threats to the world via his feared Al-Qaeda network. This blog will cover some of the most interesting facts, updates and theories that were elaborated in the past 10 years, as well as trying to find out why nobody can find him and where the hell he is.

Vieri