Monday, Nov 01, 2004
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By Jason Burke
LONDON, OCT. 31. You may not like what he is saying. You may abhor everything he stands for. But you are listening, aren't you? You have heard what he has to say. You have listened to his arguments. You are, you have to admit, somewhat rattled by the fact that he is able to say it at all. The truth is that Osama bin Laden is very good at what he does. He is one of the great propagandists — up there with Himmler, Lenin, Napoleon and Louis XIV. He has an awesome understanding of the holy triumvirate of political communication: the power of the image, the message and the deed. And he understands how they work together.
Aimed at publicity
The Al-Qaeda leader's video address, broadcast late on Friday night, is not directed at influencing the American elections, as most analysts have supposed. If that had been his primary purpose, he would have been more explicit. Osama and his aides have a relatively sophisticated understanding of U.S. politics — as was shown on the tape by their reference to the workings of the American electoral college system — and he could have easily made statements that would have boosted Mr. George Bush or Mr. John Kerry in the polls. Calling on the American people to vote for one or the other would have been enough. As it was, Osama's statements were equivocal. Instead, Osama's primary aim, as well as to point out in spectacular fashion that he is alive and well, is to get as many people as possible to listen to him. He and his aides have always recognised that few share their views, in the Islamic world and outside it, and have sought to overcome the practical difficulties imposed by their physical location (currently up a mountain on the Afghan-Pakistani border) and be heard. Osama's timing is meticulous. He knows that breaking his silence now — he has issued no similar statement on video since the September 11 attacks — will receive massive attention.
Two audiences
His message is directed at two audiences: the West, particularly America, and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. Osama believes he is engaged in a last-ditch struggle to protect his religion, culture and society from a belligerent West that has never abandoned the project, started with the Crusades, of humiliating, subordinating and dividing Islam. He is explaining this to the people of America. Wake up, he says, and see where your leaders are taking you. But he is also talking to the vast majority of those in the Islamic world who have rejected his extremist message and violent path. Wake up, he is saying, and join us. Wake up and fight. Osama, after three years of near absence from our screens, is also reminding us that he is the top of the terrorist tree. In recent months, the younger militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has received the most publicity. Now Osama is back at the top of the world's news bulletins. His expensive robes, white turban, measured delivery, lectern and plain backdrop, as well as the absence of the customary combat jacket, cave and AK47 rifle, are an attempt to establish him, in stark contrast to the thuggish Zarqawi, as more than just a man of violence, but as a statesman, scholar, prince and, though he would never admit it, a kind of prophet too. But, whether it be propaganda by deed or straight propaganda, we have to admit that he is good at it. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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