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About the audio tapes: Very early on in the Afghan War the Pentagon announced that its experts were scouring those videotapes of Osama to detect any particular rocks or plants or whatever in his surroundings that might narrow down the search for him. Since then Al Qaeda's been a lot more cautious about providing visuals.
Second, all those guys pretty much have the same lack of fashion sense and were hit with the ugly wand, so I'd just as soon not have to look at them.
So I am not so concerned about the lack of visuals. It's not as if someone stepped out of a jet ****pit in a flight suit and claimed to have made a three-point landing on an aircraft carrier even though his pilots license was cancelled 30 years ago (ooops!).
As for the timing, it was only a few weeks ago that the Iranian PM articulated his anti-Israel theory, so the timing of this rejoinder is also plausible. Al Qaeda has enough sense not to try to make instantaneous replies; if that were their habit or goal, then any sort of delay would be a clue as to how deep in the hinterlands they were hiding, and even though they could be much more prompt, by letting weeks elapse they make it almost impossible for internet hacks to single them out among readers of Iran's original announcement, etc.
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