Skimpy outfits, Osama and conspiracy theories

Weekly wrap up:

Well it has been an eventful week.

• The Indian cricket team finally lived up to expectations and lost lamely the Lords' one-day.
• Britain is much closer to its complete retreat from Iraq (offcourse retreat is hardly a word you’ll hear them use).
• President Bush visited Iraq and the Apec summit. At the summit he displayed his usual grip on international affairs by thanking the Opec (he forgot this was the Apec) and acknowledging Austria’s (a country which had nothing to do with the US’s Iraq occupation) contribution to the war effort (Australian President John Howard took some-time to figure that one out).
  
  Hey what kind of stupid weekly wrap up is this? Where is the sex and violence??? Ok, here goes:-
  
• Osama Bin Laden’s new video surfaces.
  Now this is ironic, in the new video Osama seems to be a totally changed man. And it is not just his fitter look and dyed beard. It is his scholarly approach and reasoned discussion that I am referring to.
  He addresses primarily the US citizens, shows his awareness of international affairs and behaves like a true global leader where he mentions European leaders like Gordon Brown and Sarkozy. He speaks with unusual reason and displays his grip on both international and US affairs (speaks about the Democrats and Noam Chomsky).
  Taking a leaf out of Al Gore’s pet subject he even speaks of global warming and much like the rest of the world and many in the US, blames the US for it.
  He actually also promotes a book by an ex-CIA analyst (the same guys who first created him and are now trying to kill him) and talks of the US' current economic woes including the mortgage crisis.
  In the end offcourse like any true missionary he asks his listeners to convert to his faith.
  
  US intelligence confirmed that the video and the voice are orginal and it is Osama. Strangely enough, everyone believes the US intelligence. Strange because historically, the US intelligence mostly got its facts wrong (eg: Bay of Pigs, Castro, Vietnam, Saddam, Osama, Afghanistan, Iraq etc).

• I have a viewpoint, just for a moment forget Osama and read only his statement, ignore the parts where he talks of blood of innocents, 911 and that the US should embrace Islam. Now, reading the rest of it suddenly gives the speech a different tone. Even more than what Bin Laden says, what catches the attention is what he does not say.He does not call the Americans dirty rotten scoundrels, or asks all followers of Islam to wage Jehad against the US and the West, or make tall claims on what he can do and would do. He does not appear with an AK47 by his side and nor does he glorify his holy warriors.
  
  It sounds like the speech of a President the US of A never had. A man who is up-to speed on international affairs (can mention Sarkozy without stuttering), is concerned about global warming, aware of the problems of the average American (eg. Mortgage crisis, economic woes and hatred for Rumsfeld), gives voice to the frustration of the Americans when he regrets re-election of Bush and admonishes the Democrats for failing to reign him in and have even takes a swipe at the media for failing to play its true role.
  
  Honestly I somehow do not believe the video is of Osama at all. The parts about Islam and blood of innocents is added just for the authentic touch. This is a major US conspiracy to discredit Bush, the Democrats, increase awareness on global warming, increase sale of CIA analyst Michael Schauer's book Imperial Hubris and what not. But this is certainly no Osama Bin Laden.
  
  
  “A 23-year-old woman who boarded a Southwest Airlines plane in a short skirt for a flight to Arizona says she was led off the plane for wearing an outfit that was considered too skimpy.”
  
  Now, in Afghanistan/Iran there are regular
• reports of women getting flogged/humiliated
• for improper clothing. But US of A, how is that? I invite your attention to the pictures alongside. Is the outfit skimpy? Yes it is. Does she look sexy in it? Offcourse she does. Is that wrong? Yes, in Iran and Afghanistan, but in US…unbelievable.
  
  Is this the Osama ripple, is America now turning on a new leaf (leaf….brings to mind M/s Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden) and welcoming chastity.
  
  I remember a joke we used to here in our school days in Calcutta … A lady biker in the US was riding in the nude. She was promptly arrested, for not wearing a helmet. The times, they are a changing.