Laughing bin Laden Appears for Wedding
L O N D O N, Jan. 10 -- The CIA can't find him, the FBI can't either, but for the second time in five months Qatar TV has found Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, and put him on international television.
This time he was caught on tape smiling, shaking hands and playing the role of proud father, at his son's wedding in Afghanistan.
According to Qatar's al-Jazeera television, which broadcast exclusive footage of the ceremony, bin Laden was celebrating the marriage of his son Mohammad to the daughter of one of his aides.
The footage shows a beaming bin Laden sitting on a carpeted floor in a tent with his son and other unidentified men.
Man on the Move
Al-Jazeera says the Muslim ceremony took place on Tuesday in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar. The information might have been valuable to the CIA, FBI and Interpol 24 hours ago, but seems unlikely to be worth much today.
Bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi dissident, has been accused by the United States of masterminding 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa.
He is also a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole at the port of Aden in Yemen, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. A senior Yemeni security official said on Tuesday that a suspect arrested recently had confessed that bin Laden was linked to the apparent suicide bombing last October.
Making these smiling television appearances seems to be bin Laden's way of mocking U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Not the First Time
Last September, bin Laden gave an interview to Qatar TV from an unidentified location.
On that occasion he called for a "holy war" to free an Egyptian cleric serving a prison term in the USA in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York which killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
Bin Laden is believed to be living in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, accused of sheltering bin Laden, have said there was no proof the Saudi-born national was engaged in terrorist activities.
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