PhotoDude.com

Wed. Oct 09, 2002

Elvis bin Laden's Doctor

There’s a new recording on Al Jazeera: "A voice recording of Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida’s fugitive second in command, appears to be genuine and to have been recorded in the last few weeks, a U.S. official said Wednesday."

And with that, the “Is he alive or dead” debate finally gets some evidence of substance. Zawahri, of course, claims bin Laden is alive and well. While there’s no factual evidence in that claim, the fact Zawahri is still alive would indicate there’s a good chance bin Laden survived the bombings at Tora Bora. As inseperable as they’ve been, and as bin Laden’s personal physician, I can’t imagine why they would have hunkered down in separate caves, with bin Laden’s becoming rubble, while Zawahri survived. Doesn’t seem very likely to me. Now, bin Laden could have died from injuries, disease, or natural csuses since then, but this strengthens the case that he got out of Tora Bora.

And while that topic will likely be the main one discussed, there’s some other gems in his missive: "In the recording, al-Zawahri issues a warning to U.S. allies—‘the deputies of America’—to get out of the Muslim world, specifying Germany and France. ‘The mujahid youth has already sent messages to Germany and France,’ he said. ‘However, if these doses are not enough, we are prepared with the help of Allah, to inject further doses.’ A May 8 attack on a bus in Pakistan killed 11 French engineers and an April 11 blast at a synagogue in Tunisia, a former French colony, killed 16 people, including 11 Germans. Both attacks have been linked to al-Qaida."

And he leaves us with some classic projection: " ‘America and its deputies should know that their crimes will not go unpunished,’ he said. ‘We advise them to make a hasty retreat from Palestine, the Arabian Gulf, Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim states, before they lose everything.’ "