The Bush administration has rarely voiced his name. Kerry’s campaign has uttered it as often as possible. But Osama bin Laden spoke for himself Friday in his first videotaped comments in more than two years. “Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda,” he said to Americans. “Your security is in your own hands.” Intelligence experts were struck by Mr. bin Laden’s tone and by his appearance: No guerrilla garb, no rifle, no direct threats, or religious rhetoric of the past. Bin Laden was wearing a traditional Arab white thobe and princely, gold-trimmed outer garment. With the fall of Saddam Hussein and the marginalization of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, “part of what bin Laden is trying to do is fill the vacuum of leadership in the Muslim world,” says Bruce Hoffman, a RAND Corp. expert on terrorism. “Part of his game is to portray himself as a statesman.” Full Story
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