Osama hits the Just for Men
The pic on the left is bin Laden in 2004, when he released his last videotape. Notice the scraggly gray-streaked beard. On the right is the image of Osama released Thursday on As-Sahab ads promoting the al-Qaida pooh-bah's upcoming 9/11 anniversary message. Notice the high and tight beard, pitch-black with the best Grecian Formula. Pundits are stressing that bottle beards are a custom among Arab leaders; thinking of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, who had jet-black facial hair in his 80s, I'd believe that.
Actually, some pundits believe it's a fake beard and that he may be cleanshaven. In any case, he looks younger and is no doubt not suffering in some hole like Saddam was at the end. Frustrating that he's in some mud hut, probably with a generator, in the tribal wasteland between Pakistan and India's frontiers. But while we blame Musharref for that, in fact, even the militaries of both these countries have pretty much left those areas alone, letting their own warlords handle their issues, so it's probably not a lie that Musharref doesn't know what's going on there. And his saying his buddies in America want their help, is not going to be helpful. The best we can hope for is that one of his trained ops will turn on him. Inshallah.
You know the Hollywoodization of the world is complete when even Muslim fundamentalists want to look good on the big screen.