Translations of Osama tape by an Arabic speaker

[Th1onein]

I talked with a friend of mine, tonight, from Oregon. And, no, he's not an Arab; he's a born and bred American. He has just learned to speak Arabic and Aramaic, and he is able to translate the language.

I am frightened by his information. Why? Because it tells me that our governement is willing to lie to us on a very basic level. Because our government assumes that we are ignorant (which we are), and they assume that we do not have the capability, or the impetus (which I hope and pray that they are wrong), to question them.

The subject of this communication, you see, goes to the very heart of this conflict: the idea that Osama Bin Laden is the perpetrator of the 911 attack upon the American people.

My friend speaks Arabic and Aramaic. And he has the ability, as do many other peoples in our country (who we have not bothered to listen to), to understand the tapes that our government has aired regarding Osama Bin Laden.

My friend tells me that the Bush interpretation of the first tape, which purports to be between Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, says something different from what the Bush version and the BBC version (which, incidentally, was "translated" by the same person) says that it says.

In other words, my fellow Americans, your ignorance has been taken advantage of. You have been duped. The tape from Osama Bin Laden didn't say what the Bush administration said it said. In fact, it said something entirely different.

Let me give you the comparision translations. You judge for yourself:

Bush version:

Osama: "I heard about our success of the attacks. They say ____died. Victory is ours; the pure Muslims have struck a blow against the infidel."

The REAL translation: Osama Bind Laden: "I had a weird dream the night before the attacks in New York. I dreamt I was playing a football game with President Bush, and I was really kicking his ass, because Allah had given me a pair of magic shoes."

Bush version: Mullah Mohammad Omar: "Praise Allah, you've done well. And it's unfortunate that we could not get the Pentagon as well; that one failed.

The REAL translation: "Praise Allah, someone has to beat Bush at something, even if it is in their dreams."

Something is deadly wrong with this. Get an Arabic to English dictionary, printed before 1990, for yourself, if you don't believe me. This is how it translates, and there is no mistaking the differences in these translations. Someone is lying to us, and someone is lying to us assuming our ignorance. BANKING on our ignorance, in fact.

I am sad. I am unutterably sad, knowing that our government would lie to us like this. I am more sad, though, when I know that the American people have the means at their disposal to have known the truth.

[Old and In the Way]

1. That's fascinating, but

don't you think that translation would have been published far and wide?

Somehow, I have a problem with "wierd" and "kicking his ass"....it doesn't seem like something OBL would say.

[MinnFats]

2. ummmm, don;cha think....

....this was done with just the very tip of the tongue in cheek?
just a thought.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I have to state I have ALWAYS doubted what I was hearing from Bush's folks

on what was being said in ANY of the tapes could be believed.

I would love to hear unimpeachable experts were allowed to examine the tapes, as they did in the Nixon White House tapes when they discovered the 18 missing minutes, and learned that space had actually been recorded over to produce the blankness.

Then I'd love to hear them explain to us what ALL the tapes really said.

How could anyone ever trust anything this administration tries to pass off?

On edit:

Do you think they would have told us if anyone on the tapes had said something like, "I think George Bush is about the biggest sack of #### in the world, and it's a miracle someone hasn't called him a fool to his face?"

What kind of leaders would ACTUALLY be taped discussing their involvement in killing thousands of people, and plotting against the U.S.? Who could be stupid enough to buy that? If they WERE that dumb, there's no way they'd do it after hearing about Nixon's tapes and the trouble they caused him.