On Wednesday Sept. 5^th, German police stopped a major terrorist attack. The planned bomb consisted of 730 kilogramms of hydrogen peroxide to be mixed with other chemicals. The explosive power would have been equivalent to 550 kilogramms of TNT. The IHT reports the possible targets were the Ramstein US Air Force Air Base and Frankfurt International Airport. The suspects had been under observation for 10 months, the chemicals had been clandestinely rendered harmless by German authorities. What caused the final arrest? Two things: 1) they had just recieved a call from north Pakistan urgently ordering them to follow through within 14 days. 2) a local village policeman blew the surveillance cover by literally telling them at a routine road stop that they were on a watch-list. German intelligence immediately knew the policeman had blown their cover. How? They had bugged the car [Spiegel, rough translation].
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

Transcript of the most recent Osama bin Laden tape. [pdf]
posted on Sep 7, 2007 - View this thread

It Isn’t Easy Being the Sexy Bin Laden : “the face is alluring (big dark eyes, long lashes, plump lips, caramel skin)”. Satin sheets, a feather boa and not much else. And who could resist alluring bin Laden quotes like this?

“At the end of the day, I believe that the American people understand things and they have compassion and they see what’s fair,” [bin Laden] says. "They’re very fair, and that’s why I love America, and that’s why my mom loves America.”

Or this quote:

“Come on, where’s the American spirit? Accept me. I want to be embraced, because my values are like yours. And I’m here. I’m not hiding.”

posted on Dec 24, 2005 - View this thread

Osama bin Laden, littérateur and new-media star. A thought-provoking analysis of bin Laden's adept use of Koranic language and the Internet by Bruce B. Lawrence, an Islamic scholar at Duke who edited a new anthology of bin Laden's public statements called Messages to the World. The Western media -- says the millionaire mass-murderer formerly trained as a useful ally by the CIA via Pakistan's ISI -- "implants fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States. It means that what the enemies of the United States cannot do, its media are doing!" Know thy enemy. [via Arts and Letters Daily.]
posted on Nov 3, 2005 - View this thread

Taking Stock of the Forever War. "A terrorist leader four years ago, Osama bin Laden is now an ideology as well — and a viral movement. Terrorist attacks worldwide are on the rise. Iraq could well end up a 'failed' state. Maybe it's time to stop fighting on their terms." Also, Osama bin Laden: Lost at Tora Bora. (bugmenot)
posted on Sep 10, 2005 - View this thread

Bin Laden in Sweden Check out his HIP posse
posted on Nov 28, 2004 - View this thread

what the news in america isn't telling us. Here is the Full transcript of Bin Ladin's speech
posted on Nov 1, 2004 - View this thread

This is a message to our neighbours north of the Mediterranean, containing a reconciliation initiative as a response to their positive reactions. Osama bin Laden's latest message to the world. (more inside)
posted on Apr 15, 2004 - View this thread

Osama vs Gandhi. Alas not Celebrity Deathmatch but an interesting discussion of worldviews from the latest Prospect.
posted on Mar 26, 2004 - View this thread

Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities The question for the 9/11 commission: If the CIA was able to get that close to bin Laden before 9/11, why wasn’t he captured or killed? The videotape has remained secret until now.
posted on Mar 16, 2004 - View this thread

'The Search For Osama'. A long, well-researched article in the 'New Yorker' about the ongoing global manhunt for the leader of al Qaeda and the architect of the September 11 attacks.
posted on Jul 30, 2003 - View this thread

Bin Laden's eldest son 'takes over al-Qaeda' Does this add to the speculation that Osama is dead, or could it be just another ruse?
posted on Jul 30, 2002 - View this thread

The diary of Iseema bin Laden, the secret account of Osama's half brother. This link via muslimpundit, which along with the occasional hilarity, includes excellent critiques of Islamism, including one about the fundamentalist disdain for democracy.
posted on Mar 7, 2002 - View this thread

Bin laden tape released. I'm watching it on CNN now....
posted on Dec 13, 2001 - View this thread

Where-o-where can bin Laden be? The general belief among U.S. officials appears to be that al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, probably is still somewhere in Afghanistan... But, conceded a defense official, the United States has very little solid information on the whereabouts of bin Laden. "If we had a real clue, we would have already got him," he said.
posted on Dec 11, 2001 - View this thread

From a piece in the NYTimes today, Home Front Is Minefield for President: "The lesson we're learning," one administration official said today, "is that you can bomb the wrong place in Afghanistan and not take much heat for it. But don't mess up at the post office."

Leave it to the White House to come away with exactly the wrong interpretation. But the facts are there, too -- most Americans are more concerned about the (relatively slight) risk of getting Anthrax than the rather significant risk that, if we screw up in Afghanistan, we might lose the current coalition against terrorism, Bin Laden, and any hope for "homeland security" for a long time to come....
posted on Oct 25, 2001 - View this thread

"To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization." a comment by Daniel Pipes If Muslim fundamentalists are this bad I wonder what his views are of the other religious fundamentalists
posted on Oct 22, 2001 - View this thread

Wasn't us, we swear! All Americans can breathe easy and trust the good ole CIA again. They didn't create this Frankenstein at all! Really!
posted on Oct 10, 2001 - View this thread

BBC translation of Bin Laden's warning much better than the spotty CNN version. One sentence struck me as very odd: "Hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, were killed [by the US] in the farthest point on earth in Japan." Why does Bin Laden mention Japan, of all places?
posted on Oct 7, 2001 - View this thread

Osama Binladin's Brother, Abdullah Mohammed Binladin, condems him in this Boston Globe article.
posted on Oct 7, 2001 - View this thread

US to give detailed evidence of Bin Laden's Involvement. Apparently the US government does have enough evidence to hang Osama, but they're not telling just anyone ... you have to be part of NATO or the Pakistan government to get in on the info.
posted on Oct 3, 2001 - View this thread

"Umm, hi, Mum, I'm not going to be able to make lunch today..."
More evidence that Bin Laden is indeed the guilty party. (NYT link)
posted on Oct 2, 2001 - View this thread

A lot of people have been asking for "proof." Here is your proof. And it makes for chilling reading.
posted on Oct 1, 2001 - View this thread

Little Osama Check out the Brady Family photo of young Osama Bin Laden and his 22 brothers and sisters, published in The Sun... Full story here.
posted on Sep 24, 2001 - View this thread

Did Osama leave Afghanistan? Is he in Somalia? Does anyone really know?
posted on Sep 22, 2001 - View this thread

Text of Osama's Fatwah: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilian and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam..."
posted on Sep 21, 2001 - View this thread

Just think of what could be if Bin Laden gets his hands on this stuff. Makes you wonder what he has in the tool shed.
posted on Sep 20, 2001 - View this thread

Taliban clerics meet to discuss bin Laden and then they kindly ask him to leave.
posted on Sep 20, 2001 - View this thread

Discovery Channel's Show on Terror Anyone see this show? I thought it was informative but rather over dramatic....
posted on Sep 20, 2001 - View this thread

How To Launder Money If the "terrorism can't be overpowered, it can only be undermined" train of thought holds true, then the money funding terrorist activities needs to be cutoff, especially considering they may directly profit from it (and theoretically at least, it's easier to choke off funds than grass roots ideology). From what I've read Osama bin Laden's money comes from wealthy fundamentalist sympathizers, "rogue" governments and the heroin racket. Governments create, maintain and oversee the money apparatus, but if money laundering can't be stopped I don’t see how terrorism can either, um short of eradicating poverty, "the petri-dish for the culture of suicide bombing."
posted on Sep 19, 2001 - View this thread

Not trying to be alarmist or anything but this article frightens me. It was from July and they explicitly name Bin Laden as trying to aquire nuclear materials. It is possibly nothing, but made me wonder.
posted on Sep 17, 2001 - View this thread

bin Laden has a mentor?
posted on Sep 14, 2001 - View this thread

Cancer, and Carcinogens "This event is not an isolated instance of violence. This is not an 'act of war.' It is one symptom of a cancer that threatens to metastasize."
posted on Sep 13, 2001 - View this thread

Remote Yemen May Be Key to Terrorist's Past and Future -- an old NYTimes article with some insight into Osama bin Laden, his homeland and culture. Also, Yemenis' traditions under fire.
posted on Sep 11, 2001 - View this thread

Osama Bin-Laden confederate due to be sentenced tomorrow. Saudi citizen Mohammed al'Owhali, convicted for arranging the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa, is due to be sentenced on September 12, 2001. From indications, that would be at the US Courthouse in Foley Square, which is about a mile from the World Trade Center. A possible reason for the timing?
posted on Sep 11, 2001 - View this thread