Al Qaeda terrorist chief Osama bin Laden is “back” — resurfacing on the world scene via a new video.

Or IS the video new or that new? Some wonder…but also note that even if it’s not really new, it could be dangerous.

Bin Laden doesn’t look in the pink of health in the 40-minute video, but that’s not what’s worrisome to terrorism experts. Was there a “signal” in there?

Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader.

Note the “hedges” in this news report. MORE:

…..The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN, was intercepted before it was to appear on several Islamist Web sites known for carrying statements from al Qaeda and other radical groups.

The videotape, titled “A Special Surprise from As-Sahab. Heaven’s Breeze Part I,” was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old, said Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor for Arab affairs. There is no indication of where it was shot, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity.

“We’re aware of the tape,” a government official, who didn’t want to be identified, told CNN. The official agreed that the tape’s content is not necessarily new.

“There has not been, over time, a one-to-one correlation between release of a tape and any significant operation or attack afterward,” the official added.

….[Bin Laden]says that the Prophet Mohammed wanted to be a martyr, and that is a worthy goal for every Muslim.

“So be alert, be wise and think. What is this status that the best of mankind wished for himself? He wished to be a martyr. He himself said, ‘By him in whose hands my life is! I would love to attack and be martyred, then attack again and be martyred, then attack again and be martyred.’

The tape is being released at time where there is a growing controversy over President George Bush’s constant linkage of Al Qaeda to the Iraq war. This line of argument seemingly receded after criticism some months ago but would occasionally resurface. But now, Bush is consistently attributing insurgency outrages in Iraq to the handiwork of the people who attacked the U.S. on 911. That’s not true.

Re-read our post HERE on New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt who looks extensively at this issue (and offers some extensive reporting of his own, as well as criticism of his own newspaper for accepting officials’ statements).

Criticism is mounting over a) Bush’s blaming violence in Iraq on the same group of people who took down the World Trade Center and b) the continued focus on Iraq while bin Laden has reportedly reconstituted his group and is essentially living in remote areas of Pakistan — hidden and, in essence, protected. In this sense, the U.S. victory in Afghanistan now has emerged as more of a forced relocation than a decimation.

Les Payne writes in Newsday:

Does the specter of a live and plotting Osama bin Laden keep President George W. Bush awake nights? Probably not. Yet, it might reassure the country if it had a president who could accept the reality that Bush has become so adept at finessing.

It was bin Laden and al-Qaida, stupid.

This president seems to have been given a pass on the turbaned terrorist who collapsed the Twin Towers….

….initially, Bush swore revenge. It has been 2,130 days, however, since the president declared on Sept. 13, 2001, that “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him.” Our well-rested president has not found bin Laden. U.S. intelligence officials informed us last week that the chief executive of a stronger- than-ever al-Qaida is plotting global attacks from his mountain redoubt in Pakistan.

This resurgence mocks U.S. efforts to smash the al-Qaida threat. Bush is as immune to mockery as Bill Clinton is to shame. It was the 43rd president, after all, who shortly after 9/11 deputized himself as U.S. marshal duty-bound to hunt down bin Laden.

And then he says something many critics have said — but he says it better:

Read the rest of this entry »

Pajamas Media reports that Iraqi authorities said that “the leader of al-Qaeda’s political front organization the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, was killed in the Ghazaliya district in western Baghdad this morning.”

The US army declined to comment thusfar, but U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver did say that ‘a news conference would be held later on Thursday to announce the “success” of an operation against al Qaeda. He stressed that the topic would not be Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.”’

Read more here