Osama Tapes : The Great Propaganda War

Osama Bin Laden has allegedly come out with an audio tape where he claims to be winning aginst the coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was last heard in October 2004 and since then many analysts say that Osama might be dead or holed up in a tight situation. With this tape ( if it is actually him) will make the US sit up and take notice of the fact that the mastermind of 9/11 is very much alive and leading the global jihad.

The tapes are also an indication that Al-Qaeda realises the importance of propaganda and use of modern technology to further their cause. This first war of the 21st centuary has been fought much on the airwaves and the Internet as on the battleground. The horrific videos showing beheadings of Westerners helped spread terror to the World and made people relaise the rue barbaric nature of those leading the “holy war”. Also, with the appearance of Osama and Zawahiri on television screens have helped Al-Qaeda recruit many youths who then carry our outrage after outrage in places like New Delhi, London, Madrid, Bali etc. The US on the other hand has been poor in winning the hearts and minds of not only the Iraqis but also of their own citizens. Most newspapers and news channels have been critical of the war without sounding unpatriotic. A hand ful of media channels like Fox News have been actively pursiung Bush's Neo-Con agenda are trying to influence their citizens much like bin Laden has done in the wider Muslim World.

While it is debatable whther it is right for Al-Jazeera to be propagating the message of a mass murderer, it is only but right that all of us know whether the most wanted modern day criminal on the planet is alive or not. This tape actually does prove that he is alive as he does mention a timeline and deplores the US' plans to bomb the Al-Jazeera office, which tells us that the tape was made around November 2005. Instead of complaining about airing propaganda the US must actually wake up and step up its operations to catch or kill the terrorist. However, with “allies” like Pakistan actively providing shelter to the remanants of Al-qaeda and the Taliban it does seem like a uphill task. Till then the propaganda wars go on. And Bush has no clue how to shock and awe this one!