Osama Bin Laden

American foreign policy in recent years has been based, in part, on the assumption that Osama bin Laden is still alive. George W. Bush promised as president that he would get Osama bin Laden 'dead or alive' and has been widely criticized for failing to do so. The US's present military escalation in Afghanistan is said to be necessary to 'get Osama bin Laden'. The news media regularly announce the appearance of new 'messages from bin Laden'. But what if Osama bin Laden died in December 2001 - which is the last time a message to or from him was intercepted? In this book, David Ray Griffin examines the evidence for the claim - made by everyone from former CIA agent Robert Baer to Oliver North - that bin Laden is surely no longer with us. He analyses the purported messages from bin Laden and finds that, as many have suspected, they do not provide evidence of bin Laden's existence after 2001. This leads naturally to the question: if Osama bin Laden did indeed die in 2001, how and why have dozens of 'messages from bin Laden' appeared since then? Griffin's meticulous analysis supports above all one simple and urgent conclusion: if Osama bin Laden is dead, why has so much military and political effort been expended in hunting him down. 'David Ray Griffin, one of America's most careful and judicious political analysts, specializes in subjects the mainstream media and most politicians prefer to ignore. Three cheers to him now for taking on the question of whether Osama bin Laden died some years ago and should therefore no longer be a reason for the United States to continue its war in Afghanistan. There are powerful forces both in the United States and some of its allies that undoubtedly want a clash of civilizations. Some of these forces may well have acted secretly in the past, and may still be working, to create situations, real or false, to bring about more warfare. Griffin's new book, with its evidence that 'messages from bin Laden' may have been fabricated, should encourage a complete rethinking of the mission in Afghanistan'. William Christison, former senior CIA official.