Analysts: Bin Laden wanted to be seen

The al-Qaida leader proved he was alive with the video,
terror experts said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Osama bin Laden’s latest message is a hodgepodge of anti-capitalist vitriol, impassioned Islamic evangelism and what can best be described as a twisted attempt at reconciliation: Join us, or we’ll kill you.

Analysts say the video that came out days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is more about timing than substance, an attempt by history’s most wanted fugitive to thumb his nose at the forces arrayed against him and remind the world that he hasn’t been caught.

He ridiculed President Bush on Iraq, saying events there have gotten “out of control” and comparing the American leader to “one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure.”

Despite widespread fears, al-Qaida has so far failed to launch a second attack on the scale of Sept. 11, and many believe the video message — bin Laden’s first since 2004 — was also an attempt to stay relevant.

Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who now runs the Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc, said bin Laden is well aware that his reappearance on the world stage — looking fit and with his beard dyed a youthful black — was itself a victory that went beyond anything he actually said.

No. 1 message

“The objective is obviously to show that despite everything in place against him, he has survived. That’s the No. 1 message,” she said. “The mere fact of appearing in a video is already a message.”

Louis Caprioli of the risk management firm Geos, and former head of the French intelligence agency DST’s anti-terrorism operations, said, “What’s important is that he made an appearance.”

“The question everyone was asking is, is he dead or alive?” Caprioli said. “Now we have proof that he’s alive, surprising a lot of experts who thought he was dead.”

Caprioli said bin Laden took pains in the video to present himself as a statesman, attempting to put himself on the same level as world leaders.

“He wants to change his role, to be a leader who speaks to other leaders, and to cast himself as a champion of the oppressed.”