Congrats on a hot story, Aimee. It's something we all have hoped for and suspected, since he hasn't been doing the nyah nyah thing. But now they have a big time martyr to rally around. Still, all's well that ends in a well (of sorts). Posted by: Burt Egel, http://bahblogger.blogspot.com/ on September 15, 2002 09:54 AM

1) As information has leaked out over the months since 9/11, there has been reason to think that Al Qaeda cells would be fully capable of operating without any contact from bin Laden himself, contact mainly being conducted through intermediaries. If his lieutenants decided to keep bin Laden's death a secret, and tell the cell leaders that yes, the sheikh is alive and well, there would be no reason for increased "chatter" -- unless the lieutenants decided to spill the beans. 2) It's possible that since Ramzi Binalshibh's arrest this week (who may have taken over much of bin Laden's role in Al Qaeda, according to his recent interview with Al Jazeera), the remaining top Al Qaeda leadership decided that they couldn't keep up the ruse anymore. Posted by: Matt, on September 15, 2002 02:12 PM

Matt makes some excellent points. In some ways it is in the US government's best interests to pretend that OBL is still alive and in need of capture. Once the war to depose Saddam picks up, the government might give more credence to the possiblity that OBL is dead, so as not to divide the public's attention too much (government knows best, dear). Whether OBL will become the powerful martyr that many fear remains to be seen. Although martyrs are respected in Islam, smart powerful living leaders are respected even more. The weak respect nothing so much as power. By the way, is that really a photo of you at the top of the page? Gosh! Posted by: Rene Buchard, on September 15, 2002 03:57 PM

Huh? What am I missing? "I've been picking up chatter on the Net." is meaningless, not a "hot story." Also, I do not know if it is due to a Reynolds related mass of hits, but neither the Drudge Duped or Pray links worked for me. Whether OBL is history or not is a story that takes more then one line... Posted by: ev, on October 7, 2002 10:14 AM

i'll believe bin laden is dead when i see the actual body on tv with us agents around it with guns pointed at his sorry ass...it's just another plot by him and his fucked up team that's going bye bye by each day.. all they want us to think is he's dead and then make another attack on us... so when tv news has a special report saying we have his ass.. ill beleive it. Posted by: shawn, on October 24, 2002 03:45 PM

Bin Laden isnt dead its just mindless gossip which turned out into something big the truth is that with all the technology after him people still cant find 1 man living in a cave!! and the war with saddam isnt going to make things better. tell me that innocents willnot die. when that happens and the muslims see the images all over television that is going to cause terrorism to gain more power. remember the last gulf war gave us osama this one will give us some more violence is never the solution for peace. Also remember that North Korea is Admitting to possessing nuclear weapons and the U.S is doing nothing but slapping it on the wrist whereas inspectors in Iraq havent even found weapons in the country and the U.S wants to go to war with it. how does that make you feel!! What the world needs now is some good old fashioned teachings of gandhi watch the movie do somethin. "an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind" Should the U.S go to war with Iraq not only will the world feel the pinch in terms of oil rise as we already are but Why would i want to listen to the UN they were created to prevent war and if one country is more powerful than that then why does it exist I feel that if war breaks out it will start the end of the world maybe not now but years after it so pray that the U.S does not go to war with iraq Posted by: Jonathan, on March 7, 2003 09:08 AM

"the same way I knew Drudge had been duped." That's the dumbest thing ever. Anyone with half a brain and a web browser knew he had been duped, just checking any one of HUNDREDS of sites that list the latest pirated movie releases indicated that LoTR hadn't been released. Or you could have just entered any one of HUNDREDS of IRC channels and seen the info in the title. Get off your high horse. CE Posted by: Anubis, http://-=- on May 31, 2003 10:58 PM