Now, along with a clearly faked OBL video from late '01, we have a probable bogus audio tape from late '02, an apparent fake that the U.S. authorities were quick to certify as "almost certainly" valid, according to this < a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2526309.stm">report from the BBC.

"A team from the Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence, Idiap, said it was 95% certain the tape does not feature the voice of the al-Qaeda leader.

"US intelligence officials have said they believe the recording - broadcast on the Arabic al-Jazeera television channel earlier this month - was almost certainly that of Osama Bin Laden."

My take on this report is that the analytical consensus of the Swiss technicians is that the tape in question was narrated by an imposter, rather than being a digital cut 'n' paste job. The former is relatively easy to produce, the latter exceedingly tedious, time-consuming, and demanding no small measure of technical expertise.

Consider the possibilities:

1. OBL is dead
2. OBL is alive, innocent, and in hiding.
3. OBL, is alive, guilty, and in hiding.

In the case of no. 3, we would expect that he might attempt to rally his alleged al Qaeda cells worldwide for further attacks on America. Since this has not happened, somebody had decided to make it happen, along with a continuing series of suspect "terrorist" incidents, like the Bali nightclub bombing.

Coincidentally, of course, the Bali nightclub was the known haunt of Aussies, while a disco down the road frequented by Americans was left untouched.

Knowing that the U.S. was courting the Aussies to participate more fully in the "War on Terror," would any terrorists actually be dumb enough to provide the Australian government with a valid reason to join in, and at the same time pass up on an easy chance to target Americans?

Hardly.

The questions are: who is making the fake tapes, and why, and who is making the "terrorist" attacks?

Again, I direct your attention to those with a history of blowing up buildings and trying to blame it on Arabs.

sp