UC Davis researcher begins study of Osama bin Laden audio tapes

Flagg Miller, an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Davis, and the first academic researcher to study the tapes, will present his preliminary observations in a lecture at the Center of Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin on Sept. 18. The first research paper stemming from Miller's study of the tapes will appear in the October issue of the journal Language & Communication.

"Bin Laden did not start out at the top of this movement. He had to earn his way there, build his credibility," said Miller, a noted scholar of Arabic. "These cassettes help to tell us how he did that."

The collection offers "unprecedented insight into the debates going on among bin Laden's allies and critics in the five years leading up to the September 11th attacks," Miller said. "They also show his evolution from a relatively unpolished Muslim reformer, orator and jihad recruiter to his current persona, in which he attempts to position himself as an important intellectual and political voice on international affairs."

The audiocassettes, along with a number of videotapes, were first acquired by a CNN producer and Afghani translator in the weeks following the Taliban's evacuation from Qandahar on Dec. 7, 2001. After the FBI declined stewardship of the tapes, CNN turned the collection over to the Williams College Afghan Media Project, headed by anthropologist David Edwards. Edwards contacted Miller, a linguist and cultural anthropologist who studies the roles of language and poetry in contemporary Muslim reform in the Middle East. The audiocassettes are now at Yale University, where they are being cleaned, digitized and described; the process will take several years to complete.

"In trying to understand bin Laden's own intellectual formation, analysts to date have had to rely exclusively on what he has revealed in statements made to world audiences, or else on what has been reported about him by his former teachers and associates, family members, journalists and various political representatives," said Miller, who is indexing the tapes and has listened to excerpts from many of them. "No equivalent 'library' of his has yet come to light."

The tapes date from the late 1960s through 2000 and feature more than 200 speakers from more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and Africa. The speakers, identified on cassette labels, include prominent scholars as well as some of al-Qaida's most important strategic thinkers and operational leaders. The recordings include sermons, political speeches, lectures, formal interviews, exchanges between students and teachers, telephone conversations, radio broadcasts, recordings of live battles and Islamic anthems, as well as trivia contests and studio-recorded audio dramas.

Twenty of the audiocassettes contain recordings of bin Laden; 12 of these include material previously unpublished in any language, according to Miller.

Among his early observations, Miller has found that bin Laden took many years to identify a single consistent message or political platform. For example, in bin Laden's early recordings he sometimes called non-Muslims throughout the world "dogs," while on other occasions he advised his listeners to engage civilly with Western embassies and consulates by writing letters and organizing public demonstrations to protest Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

However, bin Laden consistently identified the United States, especially through its support of Israel, as his number-one enemy, even before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the massive augmentation of U.S. forces on the Arabian Peninsula, Miller said.

The audiocassettes shed light on how the fight against the Soviets in the 1980s shaped bin Laden. The recordings also confirm him as a man who regards his homeland, Saudi Arabia, as corrupt, believes that Islam has been perverted by ruling Arab leaders across the Middle East, views Muslims as victims of global persecution and sees himself as a reformer who is setting Islam on a better path.

Source: University of California - Davis

Chinese pandas ready for long-awaited trip to Taiwan
Two giant pandas will make their long-anticipated and highly-scrutinised trip from China to Taiwan this week, sealing a year of blossoming diplomatic ties between the two arch rivals.
Spinning Water Droplets Could Provide Insights into Black Holes, Atomic Nuclei
By magnetically levitating water droplets, and using a “liquid electric motor” technique to spin them, researchers can investigate how the droplets change shape. Rather than being just a curious experiment, the results could provide insights into systems that cannot be controlled in the laboratory, such as black holes and atomic nuclei.
Cold sore virus linked to Alzheimer's
(PhysOrg.com) -- The virus behind cold sores is a major cause of the insoluble protein plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease sufferers, University of Manchester researchers have revealed.
U.S. grant will help China's new buildings go green
A $518,000 grant that will be awarded to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on Wednesday could have potentially important consequences in the effort to control global warming amid the continuing political fallout from the Kyoto climate change treaty.
Scientist urges new look at government 'Web-tapping'
The technology of government surveillance has changed dramatically, and the rules governing surveillance should be changed accordingly. Chris Bronk, a fellow in technology, society and public policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, makes that argument in a paper published in First Monday, a free, openly accessible, peer–reviewed journal devoted to the Internet.
GameStop fights back on used-game sales
Buying and selling used games might not seem controversial to the average gamer, but it's becoming a huge issue in the game industry.
Cricket ball quality hit for six
(PhysOrg.com) -- A study by a University of Adelaide sports engineer shows that not all cricket balls are consistently manufactured, causing quality issues and potentially having major implications for cricket matches.
Test identifies toxic platinum and palladium without time-consuming sample pretreatment
The painstaking process of detecting toxic species of platinum and palladium mixed in with the form of platinum essential to certain pharmaceuticals could be reduced to one simple step, University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the Nov. 14 online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

UC Davis researcher begins study of Osama bin Laden audio tapes

Related stories:

News discussion: