Twelfth of Never
Headline: "U.S. has copy of purported bin Laden video Bush administration says it is examining tape for authenticity". One of the more interesting lines of speculation I've read is that Osama Bin Laden's mysterious neither-live-nor-dead condition is consciously intended to play to the belief in the Hidden 12th Imam. I can't link to Times Select, but here's a good introductory blurb to the Hidden Imam idea from the Thomas Barnett site. (Hat Tip: IC). Nothing follows.
posted by wretchardthecat at 9/07/2007 08:24:00 AM
8 Comments:
Seems doubtful. Do Sunnis believe in the Imam Mahdi? I think this is just a Shia thing.
Somehow, I doubt the sight of OBL painting his beard will help sales of Just For Men hair coloring...
Rick,
The Mahdi does have some Sunni adherents, mainly in the Maghreb. Check out this excellent website for
informed commentary on all aspects of Mahdism.
http://www.mahdiwatch.org/
Alexis,
"Somehow, I doubt the sight of OBL painting his beard will help sales of Just For Men hair coloring..."
Osama had been rumored to be on Kidney Dialysis...if he got a kidney transplant...he would have to be on immuno-suppressants for an extended period...all his hair would probably fall out.
The beard looks fake to me.
Why don't we get the Osama bin Laden look-alike down in Australia to admit that he also made the video?
Now that I think of it, that's a wonderful idea: flood the market with scores of phoney Osama videos with contradictory messages and have the CIA "confirm" that each of them is authentic.
That might even flush the real maniac out of his hole (assuming he's not dead already).
Why can't the USA conduct a decent disinformation campaign anymore?
Rockman,
Yes, some Sunnis do believe in the Mahdi, but it's not quite the same belief that the Shi'a have. The Mahdi is still mainly a Shi'a issue. Considering that Shi'a are often viewed as heretics by Sunnis, OBL would probably lose a lot of supporters if he declared himself the Mahdi.
I believe Osama is in what physicists call a superposition, many things to many people, until his actual location is discovered in GPS coordinates. Then he'll be dead.
I have a theory that he is either dead already or is being controlled by Zawahiri, his personal physician remember, as a figurehead. I can't believe bin Laden would be untroubled by the number of Muslims being murdered by al-Qaeda, but Zawahiri wouldn't think twice.
I also wonder how hard it could be to insert a new soundtrack to an old video made up of lines cribbed from The Daily Kos translated and lip-synced in Arabic. Hey, if Kos gets so much attention from the Democrats, what could it hurt to parrot their line in his little "Death to America" videos?
ast;
Yes, maybe we should start calling him "Schroedinger's Calif"; he both has and has not died of shrapnel, skipped dialyses, or Causes Unknown. Now, if we can just find the lid to the box so we can peek inside ...
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