A statement reportedly posted on an Al Qaeda website now confirms it: terrorist CEO Osama bin Laden has been killed. The statement warns that American’s happiness will soon turn “to tears.” The news is now breaking on infooutlets everywhere. Here’s some of The Huffington Post’s report:
Al-Qaida on Friday confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden and warned of retaliation, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness.”
The confirmation came in an Internet statement posted on militant websites, signed by “the general leadership” of al-Qaida. The announcement opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahri is now the most prominent figure in the group and is a very likely contender to take his place.
The statement, dated May 3, was the first by the terror network since bin Laden was killed Monday by U.S. commandos in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The statement’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.
“We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will no go in vain,” the statement said. “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.”
“Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness,” it said, “their blood will be mingled with their tears.”
I expect the new insinuation on talk shows now will be that the statement was put out there by the Obama administration or operatives of the U.S. government. No joke. This week I drove about 19 hours and all but a small portion from Sunday night to Wednesay night was devoted to listening to nationally syndicated and local talk radio shows. You’d have to hire the same team that found Obama to find NPR, all news stations or progressive talk in many of the areas where I drove and they would not have been able to find them.
So I sent from market to market, going on long stretches where my choice was Spanish language stations, radio preachers and — again no joke — four stations offering Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. And a good sprinkling of local Rush Limbaugh wannabes. On most of these shows callers and/or hosts fanned the flames of doubt, implying that since there were no photos the event was a fake designed to help Barack Obama’s election.
PREDICTION: I suspect some day a photo of the dead bin Laden will surface. And then the new line will be that the photo is a fabrication. In the 21st century, when a reality doesn’t exist, a new one is created that can help sustain a political agenda.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.