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Terrorist’s Benefit Performance
// Osama bin Laden is to release a new video
An Egyptian Islamist website announced on Friday that Osama bin Laden recorded a new video-address to the American nation, timed for the upcoming sixth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is unknown yet what the terrorist number one will say. However, it is not as important as the fact that bin Laden is back on TV after several years of absence. Moreover, he will present his new style to the public: bin Laden’s gray beard was dyed black, specially for the occasion. Kommersant’s reporter Mikhail Zygar looks forward to seeing the pop-star’s new video.
International public was stirred up on Friday by the news that Osama bin Laden is to release a new video soon. There is hardly another pop-star in the world whose appearance on TV would cause so much flutter. Meanwhile, bin Laden had to publish just one shot of his video to get into all international news programs. The shot displayed the terrorist number one in his new style: with black beard, apparently dyed.
Videos have always been of primary importance in Osama bin Laden’s career. No one has seen that character alive at least since 1998, when he was accused of blowing up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and proclaimed as terrorist number one. Ever since, bin Laden has lived only on video. His first oeuvres were quite modest. Thus, in all videos made between 1998 and 2001, bin Laden denied pointblank any involvement of his in the terrorist attacks, but praised their organizers.
After the September 11 attacks, bin Laden’s creative activities entered a new stage. He became a mega-star, but remained loyal to his principles. “I insist that I did not carry out that action. Apparently, it was organized by some individuals who had their own motives,” bin Laden said in his video as of September 16, 2001, praising the terrorists though.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan discovered a new video of bin Laden in November 2001. It was shown on American TV in December. It was bin Laden’s conversation with a colleague. They were allegedly discussing a plan of preparation for the September 11 attacks. Further linguistic expertise showed that the translation made by the Pentagon’s experts was incorrect, and the terrorists did not say anything seditious. Another video appeared a week later. Just like the previous one, it was recorded nobody-knows-when and where. It was mere verbiage again.
Osama bin Laden’s most thrilling video was the one released on September 10, 2003. It showed the terrorist number one and his deputy, terrorist number two Ayman al-Zawahri, walking along a mountain path and praising, as always, those who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks.
U.S. presidential election of 2004 became a landmark in bin Laden’s creative career. Four days before the event, the terrorist reappeared on TV in his new video, after a long period of silence. The video lasted 18 minutes. Bin Laden once again refrained from taking credit for organizing the September 11 attacks. However, he said the idea to blow up buildings in New York crossed his mind back in 1982, when he saw on TV how the Israeli air force bombs houses in Beirut. The video was extremely popular on international TV channels, and raised U.S. President George Bush’s rating by 6 percent in just 2 days. “Evidently, bin Laden did a good turn to the president,” said Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin about the video. It might have been these 6 percent that helped Bush win the election: Bush bested John Kerry just by 2 percent.
There were no bin Laden’s new videos since November 2004. A video, apparently an old one, made before the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, was discovered in September 2006. Meanwhile, audiotapes appeared from time to time. Every time, U.S. special services confirmed their authenticity. On one of those audiotapes, bin Laden was telling that he and Saddam Hussein were getting ready to repel the U.S. attack on Iraq. On the audiotapes, Bin Laden often sounded as well-informed on the political situation in the world, mentioning the events in the U.S., Darfur, Lebanon, and Palestine. On the contrary, bin Laden never expressed such quality in his videos.
Osama bin Laden’s new video will be just the sixth in six years that passed since the September 11 attacks. Mainly, it is an attempt to prove that bin Laden is still alive. Meanwhile, the last message about his death appeared a year ago. Back then, French special services assured that he died of typhus in Pakistan on August 23, 2006.
The video will also show the terrorist in a new style. U.S. observers believe he had dyed his beard black, so as to look healthier. Apparently, Saddam Hussein had the same purpose when dyeing his hair black before he was captured in December 2003 in a cave near Tikrit. Hussein then had freshly dyed black hair, but absolutely gray beard.
The White House said on Friday that they have already received the new video’s pre-release demo-version, which they are now analyzing.
Mikhail Zygar
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