Bin Laden's fulminations (and his Orientalism). In the past, I would read the text of Al-Qa`idah's speeches with an eye on their targeted audiences. I was always curious to know which audience the speaker is targeting. A pattern was established: Zarqawi addressed himself to Al-Qa`idah's kooky membership; Adh-Dhawahiri addressed himself to the Arab/Islamic community; while Bin Laden addressed both audiences (with the exception of the speech that talked about a truce with Europe). This speech was addressed by Bin Laden to...the American public. Shocking, but true. You have to understand the personality if the speaker. Bin Laden, like Saddam, is quite arrogant and conceited, and they seem themselves as skillful enough to know how to address Western audiences. After all, Saddam has a book (collection of speeches really) titled: How Should We Address the Western Mind). Bin Laden does the same here; he thinks that he can convince or persuade the American audience, or it could be a ploy, or a justification for future attacks after the fact, as Fisk offers. I heard the speech, and read the text. It is, from the standpoint of their propaganda or from the standpoint of what Adorno calls immanent critique (I should say that Adorno took that from Herman Dooyeweerd who first mentioned immanent critique back in 1922) , a lousy speech. I would say of all the Bin Laden's tedious speeches following Sep. 11, his first speech was the only effective one--for his own perspective--in reaching an audience, and in capturing the attention of many in the Arab/Muslim audience. He knew how to phrase it, and what buttons to push, and what chords to strike, and most importantly how to deliver it. It does not mean that those who were attentive to his speech back then necessarily agreed with Al-Qa'idah, or that they would endorse its violent deeds. But the rest of the speeches were largely ignored, and they were weak in composition and delivery. I also notice that the audio quality of the speeches of Dhawahiri and Bin Laden are not the same; Bin Laden's speeches seem to be taped and then taped and then transmitted via phone, and then taped ,etc. Does that mean that Dhawahiri feels safer his hiding place? But what was striking about the speech is the paragraph before last: he basically talks about Arabs and Muslims in the same hostile Orientalist fashion of Raphael Patai or David Pryce-Jones. I don't know which translation you read, but I am referring to the Arabic version here. He says: "we seek revenge forever, and days and nights will not pass until we take revenge..." Here, he basically reinforces the stereotypical assumptions of classical Orientalist with their focus on tribal structures and Bedouin lifestyles. But that is not surprising: many of the Islamic fundamentalist dogmas conform to classical Orientalist assumptions about Arabs/Muslims.