This isn't incredibly interesting, but rather just needs to be pointed out so we're all aware.
Exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden is seen in this April 1998 picture in Afghanistan. American officials said they are looking at Bin Laden for involvement in the Friday, Aug. 7, 1998 Kenyan and Tanzanian U.S. embassy explosions. He has threatened a holy war against U.S. troops and Americans, and is suspected of backing other terrorist acts, including the 1996 attack in Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo)
{emphasis mine}
So, Osama's an "exiled Saudi dissident." He has "threatened" holy war.
And, really and truly, he's just a misunderstood, psuedo-intellectual anarchist who spends most of his time reading Marx and Engels in the college library whilst sporting a jauntily tipped beret and whispering "Vive La Revolucion!" under his breath like a deranged Tourette's sufferer.
Posted by Kathy at February 20, 2006 09:19 AM | TrackBackHe's offering a truce, and at the same time saying they won't catch him alive.
Posted by: Fausta at February 20, 2006 10:09 AMBin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1996. That doesn't make him an exile--though he did chose to leave the country, which does.
I don't think the writer was seeking sympathy for UBL, but was careless in what s/he wrote.
Posted by: John Burgess at February 20, 2006 12:02 PM