Is Zawahiri the "Big Kahuna" Now?

With the surfacing of a "new" Osama bin Hidin' tape, there is now even more reason to doubt that he is still alive. Apparently, the tape is genuine but appears to be 4 - 5 years old. Question: if he is still alive, why would the terrorist organization release a tape of him that is that old? He doesn't mention any of the recent attacks (or attempts, but, of course he wouldn't admit failure on al Qaida's part) and if it turns out to be true that he is dead, does that mean that Al Zawahiri is now the new head honcho?

At this point, I can only speculate on this issue. But the puzzle pieces seem to be fitting quite well.

1. If you type in "Osama bin Laden dead" in a search engine, over 2 million sites pop up. Since none of us have the time to search out that many sites, I will include a few links that I had found in my brief search.

a. Gateway Pundit

b. Kaleej Times states that:

‘According to a usually reliable source, the Saudi intelligence services are said to have acquired the information that Osama bin Laden is dead. The information gleaned by the Saudis indicates that the head of Al Qaeda was a victim of a very strong attack of thyphoid... in Pakistan on August 23, 2006.’

The document goes on to say that bin Laden’s geographical isolation rendered all medical assistance impossible.

My post has been interrupted by "mouse failure!" So, I will need to finish this later.

Meanwhile, when I borrowed my husband's computer, I noticed that LGF has a post about this same speculation that OBL is dead.

c. One last point. Doesn't it seem eerie that several muslim doctors have recently been involved with al Qaida activities? It kinda destroys the idea that those involved in Radical Islamic Jihad are only the "disenfranchised," "uneducated," "poor," "evil-minded," and "desperate." However, it seems that the leadership members never strap bombs on themselves or drive car bombs into throngs of people. They preach martyrdom for the minions (mostly young males) who have been DUPED:

Disenfranchised
Uneducated
Poor
Evil-minded
Desperate

into the cause of Radical Islamic Terrorism and Jihad.

But the cowardly "leaders" live on.

Except for those, of course, who have already been killed by our brave military personnel.

And, probably, Osama Bin Dead.

More at Hot Air

Hot Air Trackback URL:
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/07/14/new-osama-video-released/

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Perhaps Michele Malkin was correct back in 2006 when she wrote about that gathering of Taliban Leaders at a funeral.

Note: The "France" link at my "Is Bin-Laden dead?" blogpost is no longer available. Go here.

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Update:

Newsmax sent an email alert that included the following:

Osama’s ‘Army of Doctors and Engineers’

Many British citizens were shocked to learn that most of the Muslims arrested in connection with the London and Glasgow terrorist plots are medical doctors. But one former jihadist is not surprised at all.

Ed Husain, author of "The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left," said that he attended extremist Islamist meetings with dozens of medical students at the Royal London Hospital, and Islamists studied at almost every British medical school and at Britain’s most prestigious engineering schools as well.

And “yesterday’s Islamists are today’s terrorists,” he writes in an opinion piece for Newsweek.

Husain points out that many prominent figures in the world of terrorism have had technical training. Osama bin Laden ran a construction company; his al-Qaida deputy Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a pediatrician; the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a mechanical engineer; lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta was an urban planning student in Germany.

“Without exception, Islamist movements attract urbanites with a secular, technical educational background,” writes Husain, who believes he knows the reasons why: "In the Arab world, the parental and social pressures on young people to pursue medical and engineering careers only compounds the misery of creative young minds, forced to study subjects under duress.

"Thousands of undergraduates seek greater meaning in life, an experience beyond the mundane necessities of medicine, and a purpose that occupies their free time. Islamist networks neatly slot into this void.

“As a teacher at the University of Damascus in Syria, I listened to the frustrations of my students who yearned to study subjects that interested them: literature, philosophy, theology, history, or art. But becoming a doctor was the only way to please their parents, attain high social status, and in many cases, escape the Arab world and live in the West. Sadly, often that ‘escape’ radicalizes young Arabs.”

Husain asserts in Newsweek that what he calls the increasingly prevalent “do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude” of doctors and engineers to the study of Islam, without the direction of trained theologians, produces “desperate, angry suicide bombers devoid of spiritual guidance . . ."

Editor's Note:
Expert Says Nuclear '9/11' Is in the Works — Go Here.

Perhaps it is more likely Zawahiri's "army of doctors and engineers." After all, Zawahiri is a physician (or, used to be a pediatrician) so perhaps now that he's leading al Qaida, he is busy using his buddies in the Jihadist causes.

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UPDATE July 17, 2007:

This is very interesting:

Breaking Al-Qaeda Code Islamically: New OBL Video Possibly Announcement Of His Death