Friday, September 07, 2007

No play for Mr. Gray

Things not going well in Iraq, Petraeus Report coming out (or not), and right on schedule... heeeeeeere's Binny!

"DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. government was studying a copy of a purported new videotape of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Friday, which an Islamist Web site said it would soon show to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

U.S. officials said they were analyzing the tape, which the Islamist site said was the first such bin Laden film for nearly three years, to see whether it was new or old.

The Web site, which carries messages from al Qaeda-linked groups, published a still photograph apparently from the video, which showed bin Laden looking more worn than he has in many previously available pictures."

Worn? He looked worn in the pictures coming out of Afghanistan just after the invasion. But in the video released 3 years later, just before the 2004 presidential election, he looked pretty chipper. It's been years now since he was doing the running from cave to cave thing -- having been all but forgotten by those who promised to bring him in dead or alive, he should be pretty relaxed after kicking it at whatever resort for the last few years. In the still photo from the new video, he's looking quite swift indeed with the trimmed beard and the Just For Men™ dye job. Like Zarqawi and his New Balance™ runners, think of it as the testimonial Just For Men™ wishes they'd never gotten. And questionable authenticity of the video notwithstanding, I find it hard to get all spun out of control with fear of a guy who dyes his beard.

REEEEEEjected!