You know, I had thought about doing a poll on how quickly after Bhutto's assassination we might see an OBL tape. Then I thought it too cynical a thing to pen. I guess I was wrong, because the timing appears to be roughly 48 hours for OBL to be able to put a montage of sorts together, despite all of the chaos in Pakistan.

"Most of the 56-minute tape dealt with Iraq, apparently al-Qaeda's latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military claims to have al-Qaeda's Iraq branch on the run.

The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, though Pakistan's government has blamed al-Qaeda and the Taliban for her death on Thursday.

That suggested the tape was made before the assassination.

   Bin Laden's comments offered an unusually direct attack on Israel, stepping up al-Qaeda's attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters."

So, what to make of this? I have not a clue. The audio was posted to a Web site (ah, just have to love that everyone is spied on for suspected terror chatting, while al Qaeda apparently has a Web site from which to issue threats and can do so freely... how modern for them).

The authenticity of the the tape cannot be confirmed by government officials, by the way. Yet despite the delivery mechanism and the inability to confirm, this story runs as news anyway. That is at best negligent journalism. But I digress - as I often do.

I get this distinct feeling that although likely made in advance (hence no mention of Bhutto), the posting of the tape online was done in advance to run after the assassination and after the public swallowed the whole al Qaeda behind the assassination cover story (which was debunked by US intelligence, thankfully).

Of course it is also possible that this was released by the ISI minus any mention of Bhutto in order to distract from the growing suspicion of their unraveling cover story. If anything, this reconfirms my belief that the ISI or rather, factions of the ISI were behind the assassination. 

On a side note, we apparently now have stills of the gunman. H/T to Malaise

Consider how much this guy does not resemble a Muslim extremist in attire, beard or lack there of, and hair style. Remember, we are not in the US where obvious religious dress and beard length might be seen with suspicion.

We are watching this take place in Pakistan, where men are sporting beards and a certain type of dress, a crowd surely a religious zealot might find themselves comfortable in. Yet this gunman is actually dressed in a suit (which appears far too big in my view... look at the neck area in the first photo and the fit of the shirt collar), has their hair neatly trimmed military style, and has no visible beard. That, my friends, is not a member of al Qaeda. That is a member of a military mechanism. Also, is it me, or does that person even appears a bit feminine, as though perhaps actually a woman?