Well, Al-Queada released their post election tape today.  It was the usual tripe, basically boils down to “your leaders are Satan, you’re all going to die! MWA HA HA HA!”  You know, except without the drive for self improvement on the “mwa ha hahaha” that made Dr. Horrible so fearsome.  What was unusual about this tape is that it features Ayman al-Zawahiri.  He’s Al-Queada’s second in command, so that’s nothing unusual.  But what is unusual is who’s NOT on the tape.  Not even mentioned.  

This is a lot like Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn’t bark.  Osama isn’t mentioned.  Osama has no tape out.  Osama sat out the biggest election in U.S. history.  You know, that make or break moment for his biggest enemy in life?  The country he has sworn to destroy with Holy Jihad?  The only reason that readily comes to mind for the lack of a tape from Osama is that he’s gone on to Heaven to discover that instead of getting 77 virgins, he’s actually become one of the 77 virgins for someone else.  Slight translation error, don’t you know.

The other thing though, and this is the single most damning piece of evidence to the “Osama is alive” theory, is al-Zawahiri’s statement that “If we die or are detained, continue the path after us,”.  al-Zawahiri has never referred to the possibility of his own death before.  The most obvious reason to do so would be that Osama’s dead, he thinks he might be next, and he wants to make sure the little suicide jihadis keep on keepin’ on.

EDIT:  Yeah, turns out he’s still alive.  The dead thing, not so much.  My bad.

Tags: al-qaeda tape, ayman al-zawahiri, Osama bin Laden