They also stressed a few points about the video:
1. The tone: how Bin Laden avoids military symbols and violent threats and takes a calm, persuasive tone.
2. The suggestion that the battle between Al Qaeda and the West, rather than an inherent and eternal conflict, is a policy-driven one, and can be eneded, resolved, if certain conditions are met.
3. The specific references to US political developments (he references the Florida recount,the Patriot Act), and his critique of President Bush to the American people.
The LA Times has an interesting piece (via www.talkingpointsmemo.com) that ties these observations together and suggests that bin Laden is trying to transform himself from international terrorist to Muslim statesman.
This kind of analysis is worth pursuing; there are a lot of questions about what bin Laden was hoping to accomplish with this message… Personally, I find it fascinating and surreal that he is basically debating President Bush across the world this way, even incorporating some of Bush’s favorite terms (“freedom”) into his own statement.
Re: Osama’s taking responsibility getting rid of the Mossad/CIA theories: one can always posit (easily) that the tape is a fake. Or that just that line is a fake. (Faked, of course, by the Mossad on behalf of the CIA, who then pressured the Qatari government to lean on Al Jazeera to broadcast the tape and cover up the forgery. Or whatever. I miss Freemasons. We need more Freemasons in our conspiracies.)
Bill Maher compared the OBL tape to the Unabomber manifesto – in other words, something that is clearly the work of a nut but contains occasional statements you can’t help agreeing with. If I hadn’t known, for instance, that the statements about the Patriot Act were coming from OBL, I would have been nodding my head.
It’s quite incredible how conciliatory towards Americans — in his own bizarre way — OBL was the other night. He was basically making an offer: leave us alone, we’ll leave you alone.
It is not a particularly convincing offer in the light of all the supposed Al Qaeda attacks that have taken place since 9/11, although if you believe that OBL personally had little to do with the operational details of these operations (and perhaps 9/11 itself) then it would make sense. (This is the point a new BBC documentary, tries to make. More about it in a regular post tomorrow.)
http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=312“>Here is the MERIP transcript of the OBL tape by the way. http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2004/11/memris_disgusti.html#comments“>Abu Aardvark took it apart because they claimed Osama may have been threatening states that voted for Bush, and started a huge debate with none other than Martin Kramer in the comments, complete with idiots who don’t know what Hans Wehr is repeated odes to Bernard Lewis by Kramer. Fun.
By the way I agree with Abu Aardvark — I don’t think the word “wilaya” necessarily means state (as in province), even if it is commonly used as such today.
In the meantime, here is the latest full English http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm“>transcript, from Al Jazeera.