Obama vs. bin Laden: A battle for Muslim hearts - by Carlyle Murphy
Audiotapes attributed to Al Qaeda's two top leaders have sought to discredit President Obama on the eve of his much-heralded speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, declaring that he is no different from his predecessor and follows the same anti-Muslim policies.Some analysts believe the tapes suggest Al Qaeda is on its back foot – both because of Obama's overtures to the Muslim world, and because of the rise of Islamist militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Thomas Hegghammer, the moderator of jihadica.com, a blog that monitors jihadi Internet activity, also says that the fact that bin Laden's tape didn't mention the Cairo speech and was delivered straight to Al Jazeera instead of released online may suggest greater restriction of movement and access.
"The most interesting thing about it was that it was not released on the Internet. It was handed directly to Al Jazeera," he says. "It may mean that bin Laden is not in a situation to record and post his statements on the Internet, which has been the case the last few years."
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