Bin Laden’s ‘videotape’ — a misnomer
Lt. Colonel Rick Francona
June 30, 2006 | 3:20 p.m. ET
After the al-Qaida “tease” — a media term hinting at a big story to come — that a new videotape from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was about to be released, the group’s propaganda arm finally posted it on an Islamist Internet site.
It’s almost fraud.
Yes, the voice is bin Laden’s. Yes, what was released is, in fact, a videotape. In reality, however, the “videotape” is merely a voice recording showing an old still image of the bin Laden in a split screen with video footage of the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Hardly what we expected when we heard the word “videotape."
We analysts who study al-Qaida and bin Laden were understandably excited when we heard the videotape tease. We were not excited about hearing bin Laden’s voice but about the opportunity to see new video footage of the world’s most wanted fugitive.
While there have been at numerous audiotapes from bin Laden since that time (this one makes four this year alone), there has not been any available footage of bin Laden since October 2004. Most analysts regard the audiotapes as mere propaganda and proof of life. That’s all we have here — the usual rhetoric and proof that bin Laden was still alive on June 7, the date al-Zarqawi was killed.
The videotape — or more accurately, an audiotape with an old graphic — lionizes the late terrorist al-Zarqawi. After al-Zarqawi’s death, there seems to be a concentrated effort on the part of the larger al-Qaida leadership to project the image of a united front, when it is apparent that there was a serious rift between the larger al-Qaida organization and al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq. In mid-2005, bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, chastised al-Zarqawi for his efforts to start a civil war in Iraq between the Sunni and Shia communities — an effort that continues to this day.
Bin Laden’s failure to release video always causes speculation about possible medical conditions, wounds, etc. Descriptions of his voice as weak and fatigued fuel that speculation. Some analysts are of the opinion that bin Laden cannot make a videotape, that he is in hiding and on the run, moving from hideout to hideout in the desolate Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. Possibly, but that has not prevented al-Zawahiri from making and releasing three videotapes this year. When there is only audio from bin Laden and video from al-Zawahiri, there is speculation as to bin Laden’s physical condition.
If al-Zawahiri can make a videotape under those conditions, bin Laden can make a videotape. Why hasn’t he?
