Bin Laden Planned al Qaeda Name Change to Combat Image Problems

Oh well. That double-tap he got left these plans permanently on hold. Rumor has it he wanted to the change the name al Qaeda to The Democratic Party, but that might have caused a lot of confusion on the left.

As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organisation get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that Al Qaeda was getting a bad reputation and needed a name change.

His group was killing too many Muslims and the West was winning the public relations fight.

Faced with this challenge, Bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a very American business strategy.

Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, Al Qaeda would start afresh under a new name.

The problem with the name Al Qaeda, he wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.

'Bin Laden Called in His Location to the CIA Because He Was Being Driven Mad Cooped Up for Five Years With So Many Wives and Children'

It sounds like he really suffered. Poor bastard couldn't even get out of the house to go have a few beers with his fellow jihadis.

The joke doing the rounds in Pakistan at the moment is that Osama bin Laden was so stir crazy in his Abbottabad compound that he actually called in the SEAL team raid himself.

As Pakistani officials find out more about day-to-day life inside the compound, they are beginning to paint a picture that looks more like a bad American sit-com than the life of a terror mastermind.

Bin Laden's final five years on Earth appear to be a dreary Groundhog Day of three bickering wives, a brood of children - including infant twins - 18ft claustrophobic walls and a life of such austerity that there was hardly enough power to run lighting.

The three wives with the al Qaeda leader at the time of the raid are now turning on each other in custody, with the two older wives viciously accusing the youngest of betraying their husband.

And they say reports of the younger wife valiantly trying to protect bin Laden, earning a bullet in the leg for her trouble, are lies.

Despite the relatively large compound, the adults and children were cooped up on top of each other - and there was little hope of the situation changing.

Rehman Malik, Pakinstan's interior minister, said: 'The joke in Pakistan is that bin Laden called in his location to the CIA because he was being driven mad cooped up for five years with so many wives and children.'

And Glenn Carle, a former CIA official, added: 'Not using cell phone or internet, that's all sound professional strategy. But living behind 18ft walls with large numbers of women and kids is not.'

The three women in bin Laden's life were Khairiah Husain Sabir, 62, Siham Abdula bin Husain, 54, and 28-year-old Amal Ahmed al-Sadah.

Khaira and Siham deeply resented the arrival of Amal and have been highly critical of her role in their husband's life, according to Pakistan officials.

The Sunday Times quotes one official as saying: 'It's a well-known fact that when you have two older wives and then this young one comes along half their age, they don't like it.'

The tension between the three wives would have been palpable in Abbottabad. CIA agents referred to bin Laden as 'The Pacer' - so named because of the figure seen walking backwards and forwards in the compound in footage from spy satellites and drone cameras.

Praying for bin Laden

The noon mass this Sunday at Holy Name of Jesus in West Palm Beach ought to be interesting. Maybe the meathead who thought this was a good idea will step forward.

The name of Osama bin Laden appears in the Holy Name of Jesus Sunday bulletin. There's a cross next to it.

A parishioner made a prayer request for the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack on America.

A church secretary took the Mass intention a week ago. She admitted she thought it was a joke at first. But few are laughing.

"I think it's totally wrong, he doesn't belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn't belong anywhere," says Lois Pizzano, a Catholic Church member. "It's unconscionable, it's sacrilegious," said Pizzano.

Father Gavin Badway admits many in his congregation are unhappy. But he says the church has never turned down a prayer request before. He says making the right decision isn't always easy.

"Their hearts are troubled because they're thinking emotionally about what he has done and he has done a lot of evil. Nevertheless, Jesus tells us, love and forgive," says Father Badway, who is the church pastor.

There are some Christians supporting Father Badway's decision to honor the request and pray for bin Laden's soul.

"I can see why they'd want to do that since the Bible does say to love your enemy and pray for those who hate you," says Aaron Wormus.

Yes, well, you can always make an exception.

H/T Tammy Bruce.

Click the image to enlarge.

NY Times Concerned Over bin Laden's Image Following Porn Discovery

The man's got an image to uphold, and recent findings inside in squalid compound have his former enablers at the New York Times fretting over his lasting legacy.

The enormous cache of computer files taken from Osama bin Laden’s compound contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, American officials said on Friday, adding a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores.

The most notorious terrorist in history is now fish food, and these schlubs still call him a militant. Good grief.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity about classified material, would not say whether there was evidence that Bin Laden or the other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material.

The discovery of the pornography, first reported by Reuters, may not be surprising in a collection of five computers, 10 hard drives and dozens of thumb drives and CDs whose age and past ownership is not known.

But the disclosure could fuel accusations of hypocrisy against the founder of Al Qaeda, who was 54 and lived with three wives at the time of his death, and will be welcomed by counterterrorism officials because it could tarnish his legacy and erode the appeal of his brand of religious extremism.

I suspect right about now bin Laden's more concerned about things other than accusations of hypocrisy.

In a 2002 “letter to the American people,” Bin Laden denounced American culture for its exploitation of women’s bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.

“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,” he wrote. “You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire.”

No worse than any televangelist who's been caught with their pants down. You suppose the Times would be worried about the image of, say, Pat Robertson if he were caught with a huge porn stash?

We doubt it. But the most evil man on the planet? Well, they're worried about accusations of hypocrisy and his lasting public image.

Priorities.

Surprise! Bin Laden Fond of Jimmy Carter and Noam Chomsky

There's a reason they're called useful idiots.

In 2007, he complained that Democratic control of Congress had not ended the war in Iraq, a fact he attributed to the pernicious influence of “big corporations.” In other messages he commented on the writings of Noam Chomsky, the leftist professor at M.I.T., and praised former President Jimmy Carter’s book supporting Palestinian rights.

You may recall bin Laden sounded ominously like a certain former Vice President.

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, blamed the United States and developed countries for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar, according to an audiotape released Friday by the broadcaster Al Jazeera.

“Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,” Mr. bin Laden was quoted as saying in a report on Al Jazeera’s English-language Web site. “All of the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis.”

Al Qaeda's Dullest Home Videos: Bin Laden Rots in Front of the TV, Channel Surfs, Gets Older

Yep, there he is all right.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh look, he changed the channel!



Cross-posted.

Bin Laden Guilty of Zoning Violations, Owed a Bundle in Property Taxes

If the Pakis were on to of things, they might have noticed Osama bin Laden violated zoning restrictions. Not only that, he was way behind on his property taxes.

Not only did the Pakistanis let a mass murderer live right under their noses -- they also looked the other way on zoning-code violations!

They didn't even go after him for unpaid property taxes.

In 2004, Osama bin Laden's couriers got permission to construct a comfy two-story, eight-bedroom and seven-bathroom home for the terror overlord in scenic Abbottabad.

Local building inspectors didn't lift a finger when the home actually wound up three stories high -- contrary to the plans they had submitted.

"There are many rules and regulations," top Abbottabad official Asif Amir Khan told a reporter.

None of the rules were enforced against the bin Laden sanctuary.

The oversights were no surprise to locals, who say Abbottabad's building inspectors never bother to check whether homes are built in line with their building permits.

If they had bothered to check, inspectors might have noticed that the 17-foot-tall, barbed wire-topped walls surrounding the home and its 38,000-square-foot grounds didn't appear in the plans.

Also missing from the plans was the extra residence out behind the main building. Americans might call that a "mother-in-law" house, but since bin Laden had several wives, he probably called it a guesthouse.

While records show the home never paid property taxes, it was unclear how much bin Laden might have owed.

Gallup: Americans Credit Military, CIA For Bin Laden's Demise; Obama, Not So Much

Looks like the President has his PR work cut out for him.

He seems to be having trouble getting what you'd think would be default credit for taking down Osama bin Laden.

A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans give the U.S. military and the CIA a “great deal” of credit for finding and killing terrorist Osama bin Laden, while slightly over one-third give a “great deal” of credit to President Barack Obama for Bin Laden’s demise.

In the USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted on May 2, the day after Osama’s death was announced, Americans were asked, “How much credit do you give each of the following for the actions that led to the U.S. finding and killing Osama bin Laden?”

For those surveyed, 89 percent gave a “great deal” of credit for finding and killing Osama bin Laden to the U.S. military, and 62 percent gave a great deal of credit to the CIA.

Only 35 percent of Americans gave a great deal of credit to President Obama while 22 percent said former President George W. Bush merited a great deal of credit.

“Americans are more reserved in giving credit to President Obama,” stated Gallup in its analysis. “Thirty-five percent say he deserves a great deal of credit and another 36% say he deserves ‘a moderate amount’ of credit. More than a quarter say he does not deserve much or any credit at all.”

Of course, no poll is complete without a handful of utter morons rounding out the sample.

Only 1 percent said the U.S. military deserved “not much” credit and also “none at all.”

I wonder if those were Media Matters staffers.

Is This the Dead Bin Laden Photo White House Won't Release?

The White House, citing sensitivities, won't release any dead Osama photos yet. This guy claims the image shown here is legit. We'll see. I'm inclined to this it may be bogus since as Harry Callahan famously said, he looks too damn good.

Al Gore Silent on Loss of Climate Change Activist Bin Laden

Lost amid all the news of the death of Osama bin Laden was the fact he was a leading peddler of the nutty "climate change" movement.

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, blamed the United States and developed countries for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar, according to an audiotape released Friday by the broadcaster Al Jazeera.

“Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,” Mr. bin Laden was quoted as saying in a report on Al Jazeera’s English-language Web site. “All of the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis.”

The late bin Laden also heaped words of praised of leftwing icon Noam Chomsky.

He called for a worldwide boycott of American goods and the dollar. He faulted the United States for failing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which sought to curb global warming by restricting greenhouse gas emissions. And he offered a word of praise for Noam Chomsky, the American linguist and liberal political activist.

“Noam Chomsky was correct when he compared the U.S. policies to those of the Mafia,” Al Jazeera quoted Mr. bin Laden as saying. “They are the true terrorists, and therefore we should refrain from dealing in the U.S. dollar and should try to get rid of this currency as early as possible.”

Just last November Gore said said so-called climate change was the new terror. It appears Gore has moved on. Sunday night, just as word was ready to break that bin Laden was dead, Gore was busy comparing skeptics of junk science with birthers.

“We just had the object lesson with the birthplace of our president,” he said to laughter. “The chuckles here are hard won because it is still an example of a question of fact being turned into a question of power.”

Tailoring his stump environmental speech to the audience, Gore said that climate change is at a fundamental level a moral issue, aligning it with other generally progressive causes.

He also identified a litany of recent natural disasters — including floods in Pakistan and Australia and widespread wildfires in Russia — as biblical curses forewarned in Deuteronomy.

We've joked before about global warming being the left's new religion. Gore just made our case.

Not a peep about the death of bin Laden at Gore's website. Maybe he'll have a word for us once the shock wears off.

Ten Years Later, Teacher Finally Gets to Shave Off His "Bin Laden Beard"

Man, this guy is a hardcore American patriot.

This puts your little Stanley Cup playoff beard to shame. Although I'm not sure I could tolerate that thing on my face for an entire decade.

It looks kinda itchy.

Ephrata Middle School teacher Gary Weddle went 3,454 days—nearly 10 years—without shaving his beard. That is until Sunday, when it was announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Forces in Pakistan. Weddle finally shaved his beard on Monday.

After watching the events of September 11, 2001 unfold on live television, Weddle vowed not to shave his beard until bin Laden had been captured or killed. At the time Weddle was a substitute teacher, who spent days watching coverage of the attacks on television.

Weddle hoped he would teach his science students a lesson about solidarity and standing in support of the United States Military and American freedoms.

Nearly 10 years later, Ephrata Middle School Principal, Jill Palmquist, honored Weddle in a school assembly Monday, for doing just that.

"Thank you for your dedication, steadfastness and determination to follow through," Palmquist said. "You are among the most dedicated, faithful and patriotic Americans we will ever have the privilege of saying that we knew."

h/t: @brittneyboop.

Cross-posted.

The Final Word: Bin Laden Recently Made Propaganda Recording

Cindy Sheehan will be impressed. Let's just say this will be the last we heard from Osama bin Laden.

U.S. intelligence officials believe Osama bin Laden made a propaganda recording shortly before his death and expect that tape to surface soon.

It's unclear whether the tape is audio or video, but a U.S. official says that intelligence indicates it's already working its way through al-Qaida's media pipeline. The official said the timing was coincidental and there's no indication he knew U.S. forces were bearing down on him.

Small comfort for the conspiracists.

A new recording from bin Laden would provide a final word from the beyond grave for a terrorist who taunted the U.S. with recorded propaganda for years. It could also provide fodder to those who insist he is still alive.

Meanwhile, we may be planning to look into Pakistan's role in helping hide bin Laden. Obama's recently been all gung-ho into ending subsidies to oil companies. How about we end subsides to Pakistan while we're at it?

Musharraf: I Would Not Have Allowed US Operation

What a sniveling little piece of shit this guy is. Hey, asshole, if we kept your countrymen in the loop the scumbag bin Laden would still be alive. Excuse my harsh language but it's people like this who prevented us from getting bin Laden all these years.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday said the United States had violated Pakistan’s sovereignty by sending in Special Forces to kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

US President Barack Obama had ordered the raid by a small team of US Special Forces, which found Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, in a home in a fortified compound in Abbottabad city, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar.

“America coming to our territory and taking action is a violation of our sovereignty. Handling and execution of the operation (by US forces) is not correct. The Pakistani government should have been kept in the loop,” Musharraf told an Indian news channel.

Yes, I'm sure if we tipped them off nobody would have said a word, right?

Info From Club Gitmo Detainees Eventually Led to bin Laden Killing

For all the caterwauling over the years about "harsh" interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, it must pain the New York Times to acknowledge that information obtained there eventually led us to Osama bin Laden.

Detainees at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had given the courier’s pseudonym to American interrogators and said that the man was a protégé of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

American intelligence officials said Sunday night that they finally learned the courier’s real name four years ago, but that it took another two years for them to learn the general region where he operated.

Still, it was not until August when they tracked him to the compound in Abbottabad, a medium-sized city about an hour’s drive north of Islamabad, the capital.

C.I.A. analysts spent the next several weeks examining satellite photos and intelligence reports to determine who might be living at the compound, and a senior administration official said that by September the C.I.A. had determined there was a “strong possibility” that Bin Laden himself was hiding there.

It was hardly the spartan cave in the mountains where many had envisioned Bin Laden to be hiding. Rather, it was a mansion on the outskirts of the town’s center, set on an imposing hilltop and ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls topped with barbed wire.

The property was valued at $1 million, but it had neither a telephone nor an Internet connection. Its residents were so concerned about security that they burned their trash rather putting it on the street for collection like their neighbors.

While the death of bin Laden came on Barack Obama's watch, let's not forget George W. Bush remained steadfast all those years while the left whined and moaned about Club Gitmo.

Daily Kos Poster Anguished Over bin Laden Death

Sometimes it's best to shut up that to expose yourself as a blithering idiot for the world to see.

I will make this brief:

I do not recall a single moment in my life when I felt it right to cheer for someone's death.

I'm not saying it's wrong to do so -- I just don't find myself able to relate to it. I can comprehend celebrating events which may involve someone's death (winning a war, conducting a raid which safely gets hostages home). I just don't connect with the idea of "we finally killed him. Let's go out and celebrate!"

And yeah, on a certain level, I get the mocking of Republicans because Bush didn't get Bin Laden and "we" did. I get the idea that people have focused all their attention on Bin Laden for nearly a decade now, so this may come as a welcome sign that things are moving in the right direction. Did he deserve to die? Probably. I don't know. I don't favor the death penalty; I never have, but that doesn't mean I don't understand why some do. I just don't feel like "deserve" means anything. Justice is not always about what people deserve.

Was it just for Bin Laden to die? Again, probably, but I can't claim to speak for justice. That's part of our law: we do not have monarchs, kings, emperors or gods to make sole decisions of justice. It is a collaborative process. Collectively, as a country, I think we do believe that, but that doesn't necessarily make it just.

But the man is dead, and not without reason, and while I think it was reasonable and expected that this day would come, there is no possible way I can find it in me to cheer about it.

Usama Bin Laden is Dead But I Don't Feel Much Like Celebrating

Bin Laden is dead. That news flashed around the world last night, and while I did a fist pump in the air you won't find me in any of the crowds that spontaneously emerged and began celebrating.

No, to thousands of men and women in uniform today will be Monday. Indistinguishable from any other day of the week, save this day may be filled with even more danger then yesterday. They will put on their ballistic armor, do pre combat checks on their weapons, load up their ammo and food rations and once again go out and hunt down the Taliban and other terrorists.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri now moves to the top of the list. He has been the most influential leader of the Al-Queda group in the last couple of years. The battle continues.

I wish to congratulate the Navy SEALS who carried out the mission, which according to some reports was more then 6 months in the making. I hope this holds a special place in the heart of Marcus Luttrell, who's SEAL team was killed by the Taliban and their Al-Queda operatives and immortalized in his book Lone Survivor.

It wouldn't be long before both political parties decide on talking points and try to figure out how to use this to their advantage. In fact last night on Twitter a certain Fox News on air personality accused me of just that sort thing. I give him the benefit of the doubt since I wasn't sharing in the all the excitement of the announcement and was unwilling to give credit to any politician but rather insisted on giving credit to the men and women in uniform for the last 10 years who have sacrificed much to get this man. I will do a little gloating at his expense. I said the action occurred in Pakistan while he claimed it was Afghanistan. I was right before it was confirmed. I also gave him another hint about who carried out the action when I included him on a Tweet saying Marcus Luttrell and SEAL team Six now had their revenge long before that was revealed.

So I won't be celebrating much. Instead I will be remembering all those who sacrificed so much to get this man and do so with the realization that much more remains to be done. The world is still a deadly place. Only the faces have changed.

Bin Laden Dead

Bye bye, dickhead.

Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, President Obama announced tonight.

The president called the killing of bin Laden the "most significant achievement to date" in the effort to defeat al Qaeda.

"Justice has been done," Obama said.

Bin Laden was located at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was monitored and when the time was determined to be right, the president said, he authorized a "targeted operation."

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation," Obama said. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

DNA testing confirmed that it was bin Laden, sources told ABC News.

Americans celebrate in New York.

This sums it up nicely.

Reuters carefully avoids calling him a terrorist.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan on Sunday, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama declared in a hastily called, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive head of the militant Islamic group behind a series of deadly bombings across the world.

Bin Laden's death is highly symbolic but it was unclear whether it would mark a turning point in the worldwide war against a highly fractured network of militants, or end any sooner the battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan

A source familiar with the U.S. operation said bin Laden was shot in the head. His death was confirmed separately by officials in Pakistan.

Jubilant, flag-waving celebrations erupted in Washington and New York. It was the biggest national security victory for Obama since he took office in early 2009 and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012.

'Nobody in al Qaeda is Living in a Cave'

So nice to see Osama bin Laden resting comfortably.

Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan, but are not together, a senior NATO official said.

"Nobody in al Qaeda is living in a cave," said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the intelligence matters involved.

Rather, al Qaeda's top leadership is believed to be living in relative comfort, protected by locals and some members of the Pakistani intelligence services, the official said.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied protecting members of the al Qaeda leadership.

The official said the general region where bin Laden is likely to have moved around in recent years ranges from the mountainous Chitral area in the far northwest near the Chinese border, to the Kurram Valley which neighbors Afghanistan's Tora Bora, one of the Taliban strongholds during the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Tora Bora is also the region from which bin Laden is believed to have escaped during a U.S. bombing raid in late 2001. U.S. officials have long said there have been no confirmed sightings of bin Laden or Zawahiri for several years.

The area that the official described covers hundreds of square miles of some of the most rugged terrain in Pakistan inhabited by fiercely independent tribes.

The official also confirmed the U.S. assessment that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, has moved between the cities of Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan over the last several months.

The official would not discuss how the coalition has come to know any of this information, but he has access to some of the most sensitive information in the NATO alliance.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Monday that similar reports of bin Laden and Mullah Omar's whereabouts have proven false in the past.

Malik denied the two men are on Pakistani soil, but said that any information to the contrary should be shared with Pakistani officials so that they can take "immediate action" to arrest the pair.

Osama Embraces His Inner Al Gore: A Kinder, Gentler Terrorist

He's moved on from mass murder to climate change. How special.

Osama bin Laden criticized relief efforts in Pakistan and called for action against climate change in what appeared to be a new audio tape from the al Qaeda leader issued on Friday in an Islamist forum.

He's also seeking more help for flood relief. Maybe he should hold a benefit concert. ABC wonders: A Kinder, Gentler Terrorist?

In several recent messages bin Laden has shifted slightly from militancy and addressed geopolitics, climate change and environmental disasters, seeking to appear as a humanitarian. His previous message, however, threatened the US with violence if 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammed is executed by the US government.

Maybe he's part of the 10:10 movement. They also enjoy blowing people up. Of course he's still into mass murder, so his environmental buddies have quite a conundrum on their hands.

"The number of victims caused by climate change is very big ... bigger than the victims of wars," said the voice, whose authenticity could not be immediately verified and made available by SITE Intelligence Group today.

Left-wing Darling Castro Starting to Sound Like Nutroots Blogger

This decrepit tool really needs to stop reading Daily Kos and Think Progress.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent.

The country's former president has said that the world's most wanted terrorist always popped up when former US President George W Bush needed to scare the world, and argued that recently published documents on the internet prove it.

Castro told state media: 'Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do.

'Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.'

Castro said documents posted on the controversial WikiLeaks website 'effectively proved he (Bin Laden) was a CIA agent.' He did not elaborate further on the claims.

The comments were published today in the Communist party's daily newspaper, Granma.

They were the latest in a series of bold and provocative statements by Castro, who has emerged from exile to warn the planet is on the brink of a nuclear war.

Bizarrely, Castro even predicted that global conflict would mean cancellation of the final rounds of the World Cup in South Africa. He later apologised.

And last week, the 84-year-old began highlighting the work of Lithuanian investigative journalist Daniel Estulin, who he was meeting with when the Bin Laden comments came to light.

During the meeting, Estulin told Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks.

He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a 'bad actor.'

Mr Estulin, is a well-known conspiracy theorist and wrote a trilogy of books highlighting the Bilderberg Club, whose prominent members meet once a year behind closed doors.