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11-05-2004, 20:10

Stratfor-Terror is posting a bunch of rumours about yet another tape delivered to Al Jazeera Nov. 3.

"... Sources close to the Pentagon have told Stratfor that Al Jazeera does, in fact, have a tape that has not been aired. The sources say it is likely the same message aired Oct. 29, but much longer. Therefore, Al Jazeera most likely is planning to air portions of the tape not previously broadcast...."

An article in MIT Technology (Jan 2004) suggested that the voice on the OBL tapes might actually be Saad bin Osama bin Laden - OBL's son. (OBL killed in Tora Bora)

"Saad bin Osama bin Laden is the third of Osama's 23 to 50 children; he is known to be in his early twenties. He has been active in al Qaeda since his pre-teen years, and was probably being groomed for eventual leadership. He is reported to be fluent in English and the use of computers. The Washington Post reported that Saad was a key organizer of the May 12, 2003, al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There have been reports that he is hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; others say that he is in Iran close to the Afghanistan border, in a region not controlled by the Iranian government. The Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat says that Saad is now one of the principal leaders of al Qaeda, but I'm skeptical of that. Al Qaeda is too sophisticated to let such a young and inexperienced person take over. But he likely has an extremely useful talent: sounding like his dad.
....
Parents and children tend to sound alike, and that effect is exaggerated when bandwidth is poor, such as in a telephone call or on a cassette recording. In fact, commercial speech recognition software that is "trained" to respond to a particular person's voice often will have a hard time distinguishing the voice of a family member. The more sophisticated systems that intelligence agencies presumably use may of course be less prone to such confusion-but I suspect that this vulnerability to child and sibling spoofing remains. And I doubt that the U.S. government has a recording of Saad to use for comparison..."

Thoughts?

11-05-2004, 20:10	#19
ghuinness Guest Posts: n/a	Stratfor-Terror is posting a bunch of rumours about yet another tape delivered to Al Jazeera Nov. 3. "... Sources close to the Pentagon have told Stratfor that Al Jazeera does, in fact, have a tape that has not been aired. The sources say it is likely the same message aired Oct. 29, but much longer. Therefore, Al Jazeera most likely is planning to air portions of the tape not previously broadcast...." An article in MIT Technology (Jan 2004) suggested that the voice on the OBL tapes might actually be Saad bin Osama bin Laden - OBL's son. (OBL killed in Tora Bora) "Saad bin Osama bin Laden is the third of Osama's 23 to 50 children; he is known to be in his early twenties. He has been active in al Qaeda since his pre-teen years, and was probably being groomed for eventual leadership. He is reported to be fluent in English and the use of computers. The Washington Post reported that Saad was a key organizer of the May 12, 2003, al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There have been reports that he is hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; others say that he is in Iran close to the Afghanistan border, in a region not controlled by the Iranian government. The Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat says that Saad is now one of the principal leaders of al Qaeda, but I'm skeptical of that. Al Qaeda is too sophisticated to let such a young and inexperienced person take over. But he likely has an extremely useful talent: sounding like his dad. .... Parents and children tend to sound alike, and that effect is exaggerated when bandwidth is poor, such as in a telephone call or on a cassette recording. In fact, commercial speech recognition software that is "trained" to respond to a particular person's voice often will have a hard time distinguishing the voice of a family member. The more sophisticated systems that intelligence agencies presumably use may of course be less prone to such confusion-but I suspect that this vulnerability to child and sibling spoofing remains. And I doubt that the U.S. government has a recording of Saad to use for comparison..." Thoughts? Last edited by ghuinness; 11-05-2004 at 20:20.