Osama On The Brink Of Death?
Who knows if this has any truth to it, but I thought I’d throw it out there:
Asia Times Online has learned from an operative close to the al-Qaeda leadership that bin Laden languishes on a dialysis machine, in rapidly declining health.
“Sheikh [Osama] was in a poor condition when my father last visited,” said the operative, who uses the name “Abdullah”. Abdullah’s father, known as Sheikh Ibrahim, is number two after Tahir Yuldeshev in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IUM), a group closely allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and operating in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
Sheikh Ibrahim’s meeting with bin Laden took place “a few weeks ago”, Abdullah told Asia Times Online in an interview at the end of June in a northern Pakistani city. Abdullah had traveled there from North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal agency on the Afghanistan border, to meet this correspondent.
“He [bin Laden] asked all of us to pray for his health. For the past many months he has been on dialysis and just cannot move. My father never told me where he was when he met Osama … but he was worried about his fast-waning health.” (my emphasis)
Well, I know I’m praying…
So sad, this all this suffering,
and anguish
isn’t being televised.
Seeing OBL die is good no matter how it happens, but I would rather we catch the guy. Of course, at this rate he will die of old age before that happens.
Old Usama’s dialysis machine has been the subject of speculation in mostly Asian media for years. No one has been able to verify any kidney problems, even after talking with UBL’s doctors and associates now in prison.
Sounds like an urban legend making another circuit…
Bush sure as hell can’t catch him, maybe nature will just take its course…
Anjin, while it is true that the Bush adminstration using the services of the military have been unable to capture OBL, they surely have put a dent in his ability to move freely about, which is more than your hero, WJC did. Bush did not invent Bin Ladin, but he is the only U.S. President to have done anything about him. If that is not enough to satisfy you, where was your critique when Slick Willy failed to take up arms against our sworn enemy, or even take possession of him when offered by the Sudan? Lefties do have a problem with the truth. How is your BDS?
Wait for it, it’s coming.
Soon this will be blamed on Bush. How the US Government has denied Bin Laden access to the best medical care and provoked his suffering. Give it 24 hrs and this will be the theme coming from the left.
We don’t need to catch OBL if we can make his life so hard that poor health takes him. This isn’t a PR contest, a dead terrorist is a good terrorist. How they got that way is superfluous.
Is anyone familiar enough with the logistics of a dialysis machine (assuming only one patient) that you could keep it running (electricity, consumables, repairs, etc) by shanks mare? Assuming Bin Laden is in a remote part of the Pakistani mountains, that satellite reconnaissance would pick up any regular 20 mule team logistic trains, the only way to keep it going would be people packing the stuff in. It would seem to be a thread that could be followed if true. Just the gas to run the generator would seem to be prohibitive. All of which would point towards the urban legend idea.
This story was thoroughly discredited in Richard Miniter’s book Disinformation : 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror. He interviewed many people who have known Bin Laden, including his doctor in Sudan, and was unable to find any evidence of kidney problems.
Given Mr. Miniter’s track record, I’m hesitant to believe *anything* he writes … but the dialysis story has never seemed terribly plausible.
Still, if true, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.