OBL on Iraq: hold that thought...

Even though I'm extremely busy today and tomorrow, I had thought to write up something about bin Laden's latest audiotape on Iraq. There's already been quite a bit said about it, usually along the lines of bin Laden's admitting al-Qaeda's current dismal condition in Iraq.  I suspected that there was more going on, given the huge amount of discussion and commentary in the forums lately about the future of the Islamic State of Iraq, Hareth al-Dhari's recent controversial statement that al-Qaeda was not beyond the pale, and the interesting reaction to the tape by the new Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance.  But all I had was the al-Jazeera excerpts, like most everyone else.  So I went to download the full tape, at the suggestion of a friend, and found this included in the al-Sahab release:

ملاحظة / ‫ننشر هذه الكلمة كاملة بعد ما اعتراها من تزييف للحقائق و تحوير للمقاصد و تلبيس للأهداف من قناة الجزيرة الفضائية التي ضربت بعرض الحائط جميع أسس الشرف المهني الاعلامي .

Note: We are publishing the whole speech of Shiekh Osama Bin Laden After the tremendous amount of Counterfeiting of the facts and altering the purposes and objectives of the Speech by AL-Jazeerah Satellite channel which ignored all the pillars of honor professional media

(English and exciting colors in the original).  Maybe I'll listen to the whole thing before offering any commentary.

Comments

[bb]

Ho, I always suspected al Jazeerah was a CIA/Mossad front.

[Aaron R]

May I ask where you located the full as-Sahab release?

[aardvark]

It's up now at muslm.net and probably other places as well. About 33 minutes all told, and quite high quality.

[Doug]

All right. So it reads contrary to how it had been interpreted by numerous commentators as a step away from the ISI, and isn't a reconciliatory as it had been presented. So, what was Al Jazeera trying to do? Rehabilitate OBL? Moderate him? Humble him through misrepresentation (which really doesn't make any sense)? I don't quite understand their motivation in this episode.