Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

A Rhetorical Question re: Bin Laden's Statement

CorvusB

15:28 / 08.10.01

Why is that I can get 20 articles saying that Bin Laden stated that he was responsible for the 9/11 attack, and 20 articles saying he stated he wasn't, and yet nobody seems to have the actual text of what he said? Why am I not allowed access to the information necessary to decide for myself which side of this war I should be on?

Ronald Thomas Clontle

17:11 / 08.10.01

quote:Originally posted by CorvusB:
Why am I not allowed access to the information necessary to decide for myself which side of this war I should be on?

Listen man, I absolutely loathe bin Ladin myself, but I think that part of your question answers itself...

Jack Fear

17:11 / 08.10.01

I don't know where you've been looking, but transcripts and video of Bin Laden's speech have been available at all the usual media outlets--CNN, the major papers. Here's a fairly elegant translation, courtesy of the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/07/attacks_binladen_text.htm

Certainly a better rendering than the quickie translation that CNN had up yest'y: it read like William Burroughs doing cut-ups in a fortune-cookie factory.

[ 08-10-2001: Message edited by: Jack Fear ]

CorvusB

17:30 / 08.10.01

Flux:
That's why I called it a rhetorical question.

Jack:
I did eventually find it in the London Times, and my fears were confirmed: Unless, my reading comprehension has gone to shit since grade school, he is not saying what the mainstream press is saying he's saying.

Something that really confuses me about this whole mess, is that the propaganda machine isn't covering it's tracks as well as it usually does. What does that mean?

Ronald Thomas Clontle

17:46 / 08.10.01

Jack, thanks for the link...that is clearly the best/fairest translation I've seen thus far. And CorvusB, you are correct: the newspeople are simplifying what he said into something that bears no resemblence to what he apparently said at all.

Still, I notice that much of his statement hinged on an (admittedly accurate) assessment of the US/western world as being hypocrites, though he makes no explanation of why he is acting in an extremely hypocritical way... Can he think of no reason why his methods differ from Bush's, other than that he is a 'believer' and we are 'infidels'?

He is deluded fool, and he's going to destroy his own dream.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

18:04 / 08.10.01

Let's just clarify something. The man's a fucker. He does not love us. The US action may be wrong. It may be stupid. But no one should live under the illusion that Osama Bin Laden is not a violent sod who hates much of the world and would love to see it burn, and is prepared to set the flames by training covert operatives and funding them. He does not deny this (although he puts it rather differently). He has not accepted responsibility for this attack, but he's very happy about it, and he's content that there should be more.

Now he may have reasons for this and there are many reasons we could choose why he may have a right to bear a grudge. But let's not imagine that he cannot be our enemy simply because he is oppressed and hated by forces we mistrust.

I don't know what I think about all this. But I'm not yet prepared to condemn what's being done, though I despise violence beyond most anything.

betty woo

23:21 / 08.10.01

It's also useful to remember that, while the Taleban have asked for evidence, they have been presented previously with evidence of bin Laden's resposibility for the attack on the USS Cole, among others. They refused to extradite bin Ladin then, and in fact claimed that he had left the country December 2000. The Taleban have a clearly established habit of sheltering bin Ladin and it's hard to image what kind of evidence the US would have to cough up before they would be willing to extradite bin Ladin.

Here's a Muslim media translationof bin Ladin's comments, for comparison.

Add Your Reply