From a comment by Sdferr which refers to this entry at the jawa report. People were talking about it a little in the comments, so I thought they might like a new place to speculate.
I’m one of those who thinks that Bin Laden has long since passed, and if this is true, someone in AQ could be looking at a promotion. Let the back-stabbing begin!
Update:
Apparently he’s only injured. Well, there’s still hope.
From Howie in the comments to this post.
update 2 [from Jeff] Sorry to interrupt, but this bit from the CBS story seems important enough — or, at least, interesting enough — to excerpt:
However, a counter-intelligence expert and other U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that the U.S. is looking into reports that al-Zawahiri is dead.
Logan reports that while there have been false death rumors regarding al-Zawahiri before, there have been no denials yet from Pakistan, the U.S. or al Qaeda Web sites.
[my emphasis. Just because]
Normally I assume Dan would’ve handled this, but he’s away for now. I’m not sure of the rules about news around here.
I hear they ran out of virgins.
Roggio’s private comments to Rusty carry great weight with me as Roggio is very careful about what he reports and he generally has a solid rationale as well as instinct to go on. Still, all that said there’s always HOPE as Baracky would remind us.
Anything goes, cranky. Even if Jeff turns off the lights and unplugs the mic.
WE’RE NOT GOING TO LEAVE UNTIL WE CALL JEFF BACK INTO SESSION TO HAMMER OUT THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!
“I hear they ran out of virgins.”
I believe they are just rationing them out. Eternal Paradise switched to a socialized virgin distribution program (SVDP) during the early ’90s. There was a big article about it in The Economist, as I recall.
I heard they have a re-virgin-ification process. Only someone who would dispute the definition of “is” woudl believe in such a thing.
Here’s to hoping that al-Zawahiri is having sex with Hilter.
As I said in the last thread this thug was the single most important target. He was the behind the scenes coalition builder and accomplished much in spreading jihadist fanatics all over thre world.
I hope he died slowly and painfully but caution that there have been reports of his death before. The audacity of hope.
BB: That was funny. I blame the speculators for the virgin shortage and suggest windfall taxes. A VIRGIN IN EVERY POT!!
A POT ON EVERY VIRGINS SUGAR DADDY!!11eleventyone!!!
“I hear they ran out of virgins.”
That’s not exactly true.. They just ran out of cute female virgins… New martyrs are getting 72 virgin D&D geeks… Chuby male ones..
It’s not the Islam I remember…
– One Senator called it the equivalent of a modern “Boston tea party”. Bush threatens to recall Congress. (Que “Happy days are here again” theme music)
– And cranky/Darlene/et al….Just keep posting and let the chickens watch.
Well, a little late for them to throw Islam off of the bus.
Islamaphobes
– Makes you wonder if Bush is waiting for an unveiling of “Bin Laden on-a-slab” as an October surprise.
Uh, bbh, that’s “kill the chicken, let the monkey watch.”
– Sdferr, you could put an infinate number of SecProgs on an infinate number of keyboards, and they’d never write anything but gibberish, so they aren’t monkeys.
– They’re definitely chickens though, because theres no personal responsibility or war they won’t run away from.
Dead terrorist people are nice. We better savor the dead terrorist people now I think because Baracky isn’t very enthusiastic about the whole dead terrorist people thing. He wanted to let them take over in Iraq, which, a big mess is what that would have been.
Isn’t the Number Two Al Qaeda job kind of like drumming for Spinal Tap? Choking on someone else’s vomit, Hellfire shot from a drone, freak gardening accident, squabble over the last piece of hummus, whatever. Good riddance and don’t let the cave walls bury you too shallowly on your way out.
Hmmm we’ve updated. CBS News reports they have a copy of an intercepted letter that indicates Zawahiri is injured badly.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/eveningnews/main4316193.shtml
Oh, and he’s in great pain as of the 29th. Good for him ;)
Great follow up Howie.
The mention of infected wounds takes my overactive imagination straight to the fuckers midsection where I hope against hope the sepsis is in his gut.
That’s neat. I like the pain part even more better than the death part. That’ll learn him to keep his stupid terrorist hands inside the ride at all times.
Yeah, hf, the death part is just the endy bits. If it turns out to be true that he was in a house hit by a missile from a Predator or one of its kin, I like the bit that we can get at him. And maybe then his buddy OBL too.
One wonders how this “…CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. …” comes about. Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t give it a second thought but the little trust I had for these ‘news’ types is gone.
That’s just tragic. Where do we send the flowers?
Your Master Israel Thanks You.
Two strikes against the probability that this is true.
1) It’s being reported by STRATFOR. I have zero confidence in them.
2) They are basing it on rumors from Pakistan. Rumors are bad enough. Rumors form Pakistan almost never pan out.
[…] we await word, we offer this Zawahiri interview, translated exclusively by TNOYF scribes earlier this […]
No, Jon. BJ’s got it right. Given a choice between taking out OBL or Zawahiri, It’s Z every time.
Bin Laden is a public face and a money man. Zawahiri is an old time dedicated hardened terrorist. He was part of the group that assassinated Sadat, he was an early member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood. OBL is a Johnny-come-lately who does well on TV and has (had) deep pockets to boot.
Of the two, Z is the dangerous one.
I am guessing by b’s comment, this news has saddened him?
Unfortunately, RTO is probably correct. He is far more in the know than I am, but it is true that rumors, especially out of Pakistan, have little chance to be accurate.
Tell Israel “you’re welcome” for us, b.
First the good news .. they ran out of virgins.
Second the bad news .. they replaced them with Virginians.
News from Lara Logan, huh? Reminds me of the time Page Hopkins told me that Saddam was about to be hanged and then flashed that wry little smile of hers.
CBS seems to have some independent confirmation, but then, they brought us Rathergate. Here’s hoping it’s true. I’m sure he’s missed Osama. They’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Baracky is looking at that one Virginian as a running mate. Like it matters.
I lived as a Virginian (and a northern one at that) for a long time. I’m not too keen on what seems to be happening to the place. Perhaps it’s similar to what is said to have happened to New Hampshire. Influx from the other place and bingo, change.
.. they replaced them with Virginians.
Hopefully some from the panhandle mountains: “YEEEHAAAWW!!!!! Squeel lakka peeg, Ab-Doool!”
Here’s Bill Roggio’s writeup at LongWarJournal on this story:
http://tinyurl.com/6o33j3
Reuters report by Zeeshan Haider from Islamabad: “Pac Taliban Spokesman says Zawahiri not dead”
here
I hope that #$% is dead. Now if we could arange for Hekmatyar Gulbuddin to join them, I’d be all smiles.