Taqiyaa? If so, to what end?A top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region.
"The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by a satellite television network.Funeral prayers have been said for Osama bin Laden over the years with one reported by a Pakistani news organisation, and another in an Egyptian newspaper as far back as December 2001.
This report quoted an official of the Taliban saying that he had suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death.
The news has been reported that he died of heart and kidney disorders. Americans and Pakistani leaders have suggested that he was one, killed in the US bombing of Afghanistan, died of illness later, or just died.
The pro-Taliban leader who is based in Pakistan's tribal area of South Waziristan denied hosting the Saudi leader in local villages, as US intelligence officials suspect.
Mehsud also rejected claims by the government in Islamabad that he was responsible for the assassination in December of Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto. "It wasn't us who killed Bhutto," he said.He was quoted saying that the ex Prime minister was murdered because of the reason her leak to the media.
Benazir Bhutto had said Osama Bin Laden was murdered live on a British televevision interview with David Frost of the BBC on 2nd November 2007 has Benazir Bhutto mentioning that Osama Bin Laden was murdered 2 minutes into the video.
One has to be curious as to how a comment like this could not have leaked.
If it is true that Osama Bin Laden was murdered then it could completely turn U.S. Middle Eastern policy on its head.However, with Saddam Hussein out of the picture, we have only one ' dead man' left. If that 'dead man' is dead, what would be the effect on the American elections 2008?
The War on Terror would lose a lot of steam if it were presumed OBL was dead. Many Pols would call this sufficient cause to withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan. The equivalent of Hitler's death, staging the end of hostilities. But even the Talibam know that without proof the US isn't going to take their word for it, and Robert Spencer rightly notes that OBL or no OBL, the jihad will continue. There is also the possibility that losing OBL would be a major blow to Taliban recruiting, making the propaganda counterproductive.
Stay tuned.