- Even Barron's editorial page in this week found it necessary
to state that the sudden appearance of tape from Osama bin Laden was an
awfully convenient and timely stroke of good luck for the White House
and its terrorist - oops I mean anti-terrorist - campaign.
-
- In a year and two months, this is the best this evil
mastermind can do in the way of audio visual production? Pick up a phone
and rant into it for a minute or two? Isn't this the same guy who arranged
the simultaneous hijacking of four commercial airliners and the successful
evasion of the multi-billion dollar US air defense system? How the mighty
have fallen.
-
- Here's how Reuters broke the story today that the tape
is, according to unnamed experts, maybe, probably, possibly authentic.
-
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence analysis has
concluded that an audio recording broadcast last week was almost certainly
the voice of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the tape was genuine,
U.S. officials said on Monday.
-
- ---- *Almost* certainly?
-
- "Our intelligence experts do believe that the tape
is genuine. It cannot be stated with 100 percent certainty. It is clear
that the tape was made in the last several weeks," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said.
-
- ---- They *believe* but they are not certain. So this
is a matter of faith.
-
- ---- But heck, it doesn't matter, does it, because the
purpose of the tape has been accomplished. And that purpose is...
-
- "It's a reminder that we are at war on terrorism.
It's a reminder that we need to continue doing everything we can to go
after these terrorist networks and their leaders wherever they are and
we will," McClellan told reporters.
-
- ---- Who evaluated the tape?
-
- "The analysis (of the tape) consisted of comprehensive
examination by very experienced linguists and translators as well as highly
sophisticated technical reviews of the tape by experts,"
-
- ---- Not a very detailed explanation, is it? They might
as well have just said 'really, really smart people with really big brains.'
-
- ---- So *who* specifically did the analysis?
-
- "The CIA and National Security Agency, which eavesdrops
on communications worldwide, have been analyzing the broadcast of the tape,
which was of shaky quality because it apparently was recorded over the
telephone."
-
- ---- And of course we can't know the names of the people
who did the analysis or the methods they used because that would jeopardize
national security.
-
- Doesn't all this strike you as too preposterous for words?
And yet 'news items' like this are grounds for the shedding of the US Constitution.
Remarkable.
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