Truth and tape

By Fayza Hassan
CNN is plagued with many insufficiencies. Repetition, however, is not one of them; of that, the channel has an abundance. Faithful to its usual style, it transmitted the just-released Bin Laden tape around the clock for at least two days. The caring world immediately divided into two camps: those who believed the incriminating evidence to be genuine and those who claimed it was a fake, a computer fabrication, the product of American technology. "If they can clone a whole sheep," voices from the street piped, "they can make a picture of Bin Laden say whatever they want."
In all honesty, even the Americans were somewhat cagey about this lucky find, not necessarily for the reasons they offered, but perhaps because it confirmed their theories so manifestly that, to anyone with an ounce of scepticism, it seemed too good to be true. Fancy reconstructing the whole puzzle and then hearing their hypotheses certified by words straight out of the proverbial horse's mouth. Not only did Bin Laden put their doubts to rest, he acted exactly as they had imagined he would, joking and laughing about the barbaric attack. Clearly, nothing enrages the vanquished more than seeing the victor mocking his victim.
Unable to come up with a good reason why someone hunted mercilessly by the greatest powers on earth would stop long enough to shoot a home video, the authorities concluded that it was for publicity purposes, to attract new recruits. That seemed rather far-fetched. Young would-be terrorists are serious about their missions. I find it difficult to imagine them possessed with a sense of humour, no matter how macabre. They react to religious harangues and patriotic tirades; they believe in the solemnity of their calling. They would not have been partial to hearing the sacrifice of their comrades dispatched with nonchalance and sarcasm.
I spent an entire night alternately gluing my eyes and sticking my ear to the television screen every time the tape was aired. The more I watched, the less comfortable I felt. For one thing, the segment reminded me of those video recordings of engagement parties or baby showers that the proud parents of the new couple or the new infant force their friends to watch. Instead of paying for a professional to do the job properly, they rent the camera for the day and a "gifted" teenage nephew or cousin is called upon to lend his services.
As in the Bin Laden tape, the voice is usually inaudible, the images woolly. I became rather seasick at one point. To fake such a total lack of expertise and inadequacy of equipment is not easy. Does the CIA's able personnel include someone clever enough to duplicate the results normally produced by a Third World amateur shooting a home movie? Did the manufacturers of this "damning" proof get hold of an old Russian video camera to do the job? And if they did, why would they want to garble the sound on some of the most crucial passages? A little more clarity would have made for so much more credibility. On the other hand, Bin Laden was too true to the portrait that the Americans had painted of him during the past few months. Yet no one had talked to him or even seen him long enough to really know much about his behaviour.
Soon I became obsessed with the enigma. I thought about it and invariably came to the same conclusion: the tape was a caricature of a guilty Bin Laden as he lives in Western imagination --: the uncaring mirth, the name of Mohamed Atta uttered clearly and rather dismissively, the toadying, nodding, mysterious sheikh. I was not surprised that various informants had identified him differently, albeit all with equal confidence. Many people just hate answering a question with an honest "I don't know." They always know, as anyone who has had to ask for directions in Cairo can testify.
I kept thinking about the sheikh. He seemed to be a bit player. Indeed, the protagonists all looked like self-conscious amateur actors. And then it struck me. Bin Laden knows how his enemies have been portraying him. He knows about their findings, their theories and whom they have pinpointed as the ringleader of the attacks. Either Bin Laden is really the author of the satanic plot, or he is not, but knows who is. In both cases, he may figure that "proof" confirming the American version is to his advantage, since it will stop them from digging deeper for the true culprits. Besides, it would be fun to play a trick on them.
He therefore decides to stage the whole "confession," maybe writing the scenario himself and using the defective video camera with which he has the training sessions of his novices recorded. The sheikh gets to approve, praise Allah for the resounding success of the operation and announce the news of mass conversions -- a tidbit Bin Laden is sure will enrage the Americans. Planting the tape so that it had to be "found" was child's play.
It is unlikely that Bin Laden will ever admit to his real role in the World Trade Center bombing; whether he decides to die or disappear, the mystery of the tape will never be solved to everyone's satisfaction. This particular scenario, however, has the distinct merit of solving the riddle for me.
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