Bin Laden May by out of the loop

It looks like experts believe that Bin Laden may no longer be at the helm of al-Qaida and is in deep hiding in that North Waziristan region. This is kind of intriguing though:

Turki, a former director of the Saudi intelligence service, said he believes bin Laden is alive but there is some question about whether he still leads al-Qaida. Bin Laden has not been heard from since an audiotape released in December 2004.

He believes he's alive but hasn't released an audiotape for an entire year. I mean they seem to have tape recorders so I wonder why he doesn't release a statement of some kind. I really have a feeling that he is dead but the intelligence guys can't be sure so they are erring on the side of Bin Laden alive. They don't want to be surprised by a Bin Laden coming back from the dead like a zombie. This was interesting too:

The al-Qaida No. 2 was last heard from on a tape that surfaced Sunday, urging all Muslims to take up arms and saying a refusal to join the fight against Jews and Christians would lead to the defeat of militant Islam.

He said the global Islamic community had "no hope for victory" until all Muslims signed on to the al-Qaida-led jihad. His comments were contained in a 48-minute tape entitled "Impediments to Jihad."

These killers seem kind of demoralized here. If *all* Muslims don't rise up then they will have no hope for victory? So it looks like they could be whistling before the gallows. They have already pissed off the Jordanians with their Islamic wedding bombing. The Pakistanis want them dead because they tried to ice their leader.

Iraq seems to be slipping away with new elections and the security forces coming on line. When the "crusaders" leave who are they going to blow up? The US will leave no matter what happens as well. The political cost is way too high to keep troops in Iraq for more then a few more years at most. It is just a matter of leaving in strength with a democratic Iraq in our wake. Or sneaking out the back door while leaving a brewing civil war behind us. Either way we are out of there by the next election at least. So I guess al-Qaida can go back to blowing up wedding parties and hapless-Muslims again.