Al-Qaeda Tape is a Re-Run

A number of sources have now confirmed that the recent images of Osama Bin Laden are from footage taken in 2001. It seemed pretty clear to most casual observers that the footage was probably historic. There has now been at least a handful of sites that have matched it with video from their archives... --- [Hat Tip: HotAir ]

Update: Mystery solved, thanks to Jim. I googled around based on the screencap he found and discovered this article at CBS from May 2002. Luckily they’re exceptionally good about archiving their video so you can watch a clip from that Bin Laden tape right in the sidebar at the link. Compare a still from that one…



…with a still from the clip released today, noting the sloping mountain on the left and the leaves overhead:



Same video. Incidentally, that earlier video was obtained by something called the Al-Ansaar Islamic news agency, which is based in Britain. They claimed in May 2002 that they got it from a Pakistani intelligence officer a month earlier and that parts had been shot in an Afghan town called Spinboldak in March.

However government agencies are worried about what hidden message may be in the tape from Zawahiri. It has been suggested as a "trigger" for some large action that has been in the planning stages.

The feds are already worried about Zawahiri’s new tape containing some sort of signal to jihadis in the field. The fact that it’s followed by the first new Osama video in almost three years won’t do anything to reassure them. It’s also worth noting that the quote in the middle here is repeated three times, just like the quote at the end of the Zawahiri tape that’s got the feds nervous. It comes from Volume 4, Book 52, Number 54 of the Bukhari translation of the hadith; Zawahiri’s quote came from Mohammed’s last sermon. Whether any of that is significant in and of itself, I have no idea. -- Hot Air

Tags: politics, world news, terrorism, zz