Ever since I wrote More Bin Laden Bull – a short article about an audio tape allegedly released by ‘Al Qaida’ in mid-January – I’ve been scanning the web, from time to time, to read what Bin Laden purportedly said.
Bin Laden Video Game: a bloodless way to kill him, any time you like
I’d tried to find a transcript when the report of his statement first surfaced. But it didn’t seem to be available. I could find only edited highlights explaining that Bin Laden wants global Jihad and is very cross about Gaza. In the end, I decided to go ahead and publish my story, expecting to append the transcript of Bin Laden’s new statement later on.
I didn’t anticipate it would be so hard to locate a transcript nearly two weeks later…
When Bin Laden’s latest sinister message was announced, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesperson for the outgoing Bush Administration, said: “…this tape demonstrates his isolation and continued attempts to remain relevant at a time when al Qaeda’s ideology, mission, and agenda are being questioned and challenged throughout the world.” Mr Johndroe reportedly added that “it also looked like a fund-raising effort.” [my emphasis]
Bin Laden: is he "technically alive"?
That really piqued my interest. It made me even more keen to see the exact transcript. I’ve been curious for some time which bank Mr Bin Laden uses in this era of financial uncertainty. I’ve long wondered about his postal address, whether he uses PayPal – and if jihadis can send him contributions c/o Father Christmas at the North Pole?
Yet the world as a whole remains ignorant of these details. Bin Laden’s Appeal must be a big flop as a fund-raiser. In this case, he can’t even blame the BBC!
Today came a minor breakthrough. I found the website of ‘SITE Intelligence Group’. It seems to be a private initiative to help out a terrified world in these terrifying times.
There, at long last, I found what I was looking for: Bin Laden Calls for Support to Gaza, Jihad – both video and transcript. What a boon!
SITE Intelligence Group: works to keep us all terrified, wants more subscribers
Unfortunately, SITE informs readers “The video and transcript are provided to our Monitoring Service subscribers.”
How annoying! I refuse to subscribe to online information sites on principle. Why doesn’t it carry advertising instead? (After all, the Military Industrial Complex isn’t exactly broke!)
I’m beginning to wonder: is the War on Terror now ‘subscriber only’?
A ‘conspiracy theorist’ might suspect SITE is an Al Qaida front. I make no such allegation – but was curious to learn who works for SITE. Naturally, I turned to the ever-reliable Wikipedia. It’s entry for the SITE Institute says:
The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group was an organization that tracked the online activity of terrorist organizations. The SITE Institute was founded in 2002 by Rita Katz and Josh Devon, who had left the Investigative Project (a private Islamist-terrorist tracking group). In early 2008 it ceased its operations, and some its staff formed the SITE Intelligence Group, a for-profit entity, to continue some of its activities.
Rita Katz: battles terror every day, sometimes 'undercover'
Rita Katz? The name rang a bell…
Then I remembered an item I’d just noticed on What Really Happened: How does a Jewish chick named Rita Katz end up translating and releasing Al Qaeda’s ‘messages’ to the US media?
Personally, I have no idea how Rita forged her interesting career, but perhaps Adam Yehiye Gadahn helps her out a little, by providing good quality English-language transcripts? After all, according to Wikipedia, this high-ranking Al Q’aeda operative “is an American-born English-speaking senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman and media advisor for the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda.”
Adam Gadahn, Al Qaeda operative: bad boy from a nice family
Both Adam and Rita are of Jewish descent. Surely they can communicate without too much difficulty? Even though a vast ideological chasm must separate them now, they do share a lot of heritage. Who knows, they could have had the same rabbi years ago – before Adam’s shocking conversion to Radical Islamic Jihadism thrust them onto opposite sides in the Great 21st Century Terror Wars?
Rita is no mere armchair anti-terrorist. GreaterTalent.com explains:
“On numerous occasions, Katz has gone undercover to events organized by various terrorist front groups to collect information crucial to her efforts to understand and document the activities of radical Islamist activists in the U.S. She also trains and deploys others as part of her own undercover network.”
The story of Rita and Adam would make a great movie. If only there was a love-angle too, Hollywood might be interested 
POSTSCRIPT
Barak Obama still plays along with the Bin Laden game. This is what President Obama told Catie Couric last week:
Couric: How important do you think it is, Mr. President-elect, to apprehend Osama bin Laden?
Mr. Obama: I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function. My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him. But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives, then we will meet our goal of protecting America.
I’m still working out this blog’s next Opinion Poll, which will start on February 1st on conclusion of the current poll. Perhaps I’ll ask visitors if they think Bin Laden is more likely to be ‘Technically alive’ or ‘Virtually dead’?
Incidentally, if anyone turns up a free transcript of the latest output from Mr Bin Laden, feel free to tell the rest of us by commenting here. If it turns out Usama was silly enough to mention the address of his cavernous current address, I reserve the right to inform the FBI and may claim a share in the $25 million reward when they nab him at the entrance, milking a goat.
POSTSCRIPT
WakeupfromYourSlumber kindly ran this article and a commentator over there gave links to earlier articles by Greag Bacon about Rita Katz. They’re all well worth a read:
