is it, or isn't it, real or not?

www.smh.com.au...

Swiss institute brands latest bin Laden tape a fake

November 29 2002


Paris: The latest audiotape statement attributed to Osama bin Laden is not authentic, according to a Swiss research institute.

The Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence, IDIAP, said it was 95 per cent certain the tape does not feature bin Laden's voice.

The review of the tape was commissioned by France-2 television and its findings were presented by the institute's director, Professor Herve Bourlard, in a TV report.

Bourlard said the institute compared the voice on the tape, first aired two weeks ago on Al-Jazeera, an Arabic television network, with some 20 earlier recordings attributed to bin Laden.

Bourlard, a voice recognition expert, has worked extensively with the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley, California. He has also worked as co-editor-in-chief of the Speech Communication journal with ICSI director Nelson Morgan, and as an adviser to the European Commission. He is the author or co-author of 150 research papers and two books.

On its Internet site, the IDIAP describes itself as a semiprivate research institute affiliated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a highly respected organisation, and the University of Geneva. It carries out research in the fields of speech and speaker recognition, computer vision and machine learning.

Officials at the institute could not be reached for comment late today.

US experts have maintained the tape will likely never be fully authenticated because its poor quality defies complete analysis by even the most sophisticated voice print technology.

But US experts who have heard it generally support the conclusion by US law enforcement officials that it probably is bin Laden speaking.

In the tape, the speaker refers to recent terrorist strikes US officials believe are connected to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. If fully verified, it would provide the first evidence in a year that bin Laden survived US bombing in Afghanistan.

In my latest Private Eye there is a small piece on Al Jazeera.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan the veteran Saudi Ambassador to Washington who had previously denounced Al Jazeera as a "dangerous outlet"peddling"poisonous views"has bought a 20% stake in the channel.
Rumours abound that Rupert Murdoch who already broadcast Al Jazeera via BskyB may be similally interested.
Apologies no link but the imfo is from Israeli online news service Debka

I've been running a mini-war against al-Jaziira for six months or more, J-B: a stooge organisation in the Emirates always ready with a well-times "probable" piece of "evidence".
I suspect that bin Ladin -if he is still among the living - could advertise his presence more authentically.

Originally posted by Estragon
I've been running a mini-war against al-Jaziira for six months or more, J-B: a stooge organisation in the Emirates always ready with a well-times "probable" piece of "evidence".
I suspect that bin Ladin -if he is still among the living - could advertise his presence more authentically.

This just in: the translation was wrong, 'al-Jaziira' actually means Fox News in Arabic!
Estragon, just swap 'Emirates' with Bush White House and you'll see the connection. We actually have a in-every-market-and-every-format-media-outlet run by a person who went from campaign manager to News Chief in a NY minute ( Roger Ailes & Bush campaign, naturally)

that the U.S. Government doesn't have the technology to analyse the tape properly because of poor quality. What have you guys been spending your tax money on!!
If you can hear tonal differences, recognize it as a language and know it is a human speaking, then, believe me, they have the tech to determine its authenticity. Cripes...They can put a man on the moon.....! See how much B.S. your Government feeds you!

wise words on the Eastern baranch of Fox.
As for the point on is it? Isn't it? It does take a bit of believing -we're a long way along from Forrest Gump.

I agree wtih MB, this is puzzling ...

Q.. Surely the americans of all people would have a fair idea of the accuracy of the data.

A.. Of course they do, they know its a fake...

Q.. then why say its true? Surely they know it will inflame the extreme elements into action?

A.. Maybe its safer to assume its a fake and work from there...

A.. Maybe they want to flush out the remaining elements by forcing them to act.

A.. Maybe they want to stir up support for the Iraqi war, and risk the consequences..

A.. maybe they felt the arabs wouldn't believe them anyway that it was false... so are on a hiding to nothing whatever they do

A.. its good publicity at a crucial time for Bush, both militarily and politically...

So many questions, so many answers..

Since we have the basket packed and are just waiting to lay down the picnic blanket, ships-troops-and the future Military Governor of the Middle East, Oops Iraq, Tommy Franks, is already there, I'm inclined to think it's false and declared true in order to cash in later, kind of a buy-9-pizzas-get-the-10th-free type of deal.
Think about it: pushing the War on Terror marketing campaign to the Iraq theater has a finite shelf life - a set place with a set number of opposition can only be killed once & the cities can only be destroyed once. It, the designation of Iraq as a clear & present danger, was only done as a dividing strategy for the US midterm elections, not because of any real threat - to think otherwise is laughable. So it's served it's purpose, but the need for a boogey man to deflect attention from the domestic economic meltdown and steady march towards an oligarchy is an absolute must....soooo hereeeee's ....Osama!
For non-US residents: you'll see more in your media regarding the US economic situation than we do here in the states. The only one screaming loud and consistently is Paul Krugman, Dr. of Economics, who writes a regular editorial for the NY Times, which can be subscribed to for free, in daily email delivery. I highly recommend him as a source on EVERYTHING dealing with the US economic misdealings. For the overall picture, none are better than Joe Conason, but Gene Lyons is pretty damn close. Also, found free online.

hey, Fox is 'fair and balanced' BT!

(the NY Times is more left than Fox is conservative)

With William Safire on board, NOTHING can ever be considered 'Left'!
You forget the NY Times going after Clinton on the Lewinsky affair!?!?
But seriously, look up Krugman, he should have a job in this and all future Administrations.

Would that Americans were more aware of their economic reality, B-T!
However, on this topic I'll thrown in a suspicion of my own which is that these tapes are deliberately meant to become ridiculous.
I say this on the same gounds that I believed that the "Plane that never hit the Pentagon" stuff was deliberate, calculated disinfo. It discredits everything.
No matter how many tapes are faked there are real ones. But the more fake dollars one sees, the less likely one is to accept a genuine one- or perhaps even to believe that there are such things as genuine dollars.
This is, I believe, a deliberate attempt to inculcate a view akin to "the camera always lies" among the masses -just in case anyone really has some footage of, say, 9-11 or something else that would potentially be very embarrassing.

Go to
www.myemptycave.com...
You are sure to get some answers there.

[Edited on 3-12-2002 by troylawson]