John Hawkins has an exclusive

John Hawkins has an exclusive interview with Mark Steyn on his website. Needless to say, it's worth reading, especially his comments about Osama bin Laden, and why the Americans have an interest in pretending he's still alive:

First, an audio recording is the easiest form of evidence to fake - easier than paper, easier than video. I got my first job in radio from faking an aircheck in my bedroom when I was 17. So if the only recorded evidence of your identity in the last 14 months is an audio tape, that suggests either you're dead or in too poor condition even for the most artfully edited video appearance.

Secondly, the US Government said they were "almost certain" it was bin Laden. That Swiss institute said they were "almost certain" it wasn't. In this instance, the Swiss are the disinterested party. With everything that's come out since 9/11, I have no great confidence in the alleged expertise of Federal agencies. It's also clear that the Bush Administration is in no great hurry to pronounce bin Laden dead: true, the Dems keep teasing them about the fact that he's still running around out there, but that's less of a problem than declaring him deceased and having Chirac, Schroder and the rest of the gang saying, "Congratulations, you got your man. War's over. Everybody go home."

Thirdly, pace those Dems, he isn't actually "running around". Since 9/11, al-Qaeda have been unable to pull off any kind of follow-up in a western country: their only successes have been in more loosely policed environments, such as Tunisia and Bali. That suggests the US was able to accomplish a serious degradation of their infrastructure during the Afghan campaign, and border vigilance is doing a lot of the rest. The way to respond to that would be for al-Qaeda to encourage a few more freelance operations by western Muslims, like the LAX guy and the shoebomber. After all, the ideological supporters of bin Ladenism vastly outnumber the formal card-carriers. But even the shoebomber types have fallen silent. If ever there was a time for a video call to jihad, these last eight or nine months have been it. OBL hasn't done it because he can't. Audio cassettes aren't going to cut it: even al-Jazeera wants better visuals.

Posted by damian at February 12, 2003 09:41 AM