Bin Laden Unplugged: Analyzing the Latest Video

Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, released a video criticizing global warming, capitalism, campaign financing by corporations and interest-bearing loans. From hiding, the international fugitive derides the media as “a tool of colonialist empires,” yet tailors a message hinting that he follows the news. Urging that religion, as outlined in the Koran, can replace current standards in organizing the world, he even makes some overtures to Christians and Jews. His complaints suggest he desperately seeks followers among any who may share his concerns, from environmentalists to the unemployed. “The fact that bin Laden's largely (though not entirely) secularized analysis of the ills plaguing the West transitions so smoothly into his theological solution makes it more difficult for those who would like to superimpose their own ideological gripes onto him,” writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross for the Weekly Standard. The terrorist ringleader, failing to find followers for his extremist beliefs, stumbles into politics and attempts to rally support among those who strive for new policy directions in legitimate ways. Shallow agreement on a few issues does not supersede widespread agreement on political process or methods. – YaleGlobal