Has Bin

Juan Cole deconstructs the latest tape from Osama bin Laden:

I don't know if the old monster is dead, and some clever young engineers just have a program to emulate his voice, or whether he is alive and horribly disfigured (we have not seen him in an authentic video since October 2004). But I do have the severest doubts that he issued this audio message. And the interesting thing is that even if he did, almost no one in the Muslim world seems to care.

(Image: A recent piece by Banksy, discovered outside Salt Lake City.)