Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden 'dead'. Again.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The award for Stupidest Article by MSM Expert goes to Guardian Terror Analyst Jason Burke.

Burke is frequently rolled out for interview in "serious" documentaries as an Al Qaeda subject specialist.

Does he seriously believe that "the hardcore (Al-Qaida) leadership has always been bureaucratic, with councils and committees for almost everything"?

If this was true, a couple of drone or missile attacks - perhaps with nukes authorized by White House Hired Lawyers and rabid dogs like Cheney - would have ended the bogus "War on Terror" many years ago.

Al-Qaida statement should kill off Bin Laden conspiracy theories

Terror group's message reinforces conclusion that even without its leader, it is still capable of coherent action

Jason Burke guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 May 2011 16.45 BST

The most obvious effect of this statement from al-Qaida is to kill off some if not all of the rapidly multiplying conspiracy theories claiming Bin Laden is not dead. A poll published in Pakistan shows that 66% of people believe the man killed was not Osama bin Laden. Now, the only way to maintain that belief is to dismiss the al-Qaida statement as false.

This development does not necessarily vindicate Barack Obama for deciding not to release pictures of Bin Laden's corpse, but may mitigate the results of that decision.

Another effect is to reinforce the conclusion that even without its leader, al-Qaida is still capable of some kind of coherent action. Propaganda by deed has always been the favoured strategy of al-Qaida's leadership. Here then, is the propaganda.

The attention focused on this new statement takes us back to the days when al-Qaida under the leadership of Bin Laden had the ability to dominate the news agenda almost at will. Every video would receive front page treatment, every tape would have analysts scrambling into chairs in TV studios. Bin Laden even managed to steal the headlines in the days before the 2004 American presidential election with a judiciously timed statement.

But attention has gradually drifted away from al-Qaida. Two things could have returned the group to centre stage: a spectacular attack or the death of its leader. In the end it was the second.

Al-Qaida's communications channels are still clearly working. A statement has been prepared, vetted and disseminated relatively quickly. However fluid and dynamic the broader movement might have been, the hardcore leadership has always been bureaucratic, with councils and committees for almost everything. Clearly they are still meeting or at least talking amongst themselves enough to be able to thrash out a statement. Decapitation has not stopped the organisation functioning, at least for the moment.

Al-Qaida appears to have been able to choose its timing too. The announcement came immediately after Friday prayers in the Arab world and, crucially, in Pakistan. For it is in Pakistan that al-Qaida calls on "our Muslim people … on whose land Sheikh Osama was killed to rise up and revolt".

The appeal to Pakistan is not new. Since 2007, al-Qaida propaganda has increasingly focused on it. With a population of nearly 200 million and deep troubles, it is rare, genuinely fertile ground for the violent al-Qaida extremists' narrative and ideology.

Likewise the statement continues al-Qaida's line on Palestine, a key theme for many years and one that Bin Laden knew was guaranteed to push the right buttons with an increasingly sceptical audience.

Any personality cult takes careful maintenance and the signs are that this effort will be made: "Sheikh Osama didn't build an organisation to die and then just to take it away with him."

Al-Qaida is careful to try to broaden its functions beyond the murderous violence that has turned away so many Muslims. "The university of faith, Qur'an and jihad that was founded by Sheikh Osama bin Laden hasn't and will not close its doors."

One of Osama bin Laden's key insights was that the mission should match the message, rather than vice versa. The question posed to security services around the world is: what is the mission matching the words that were issued this afternoon? When will the deed catch up with the propaganda.