Any Bets That Bin Laden is Alive?

Is there anybody willing to bet money that Osama Bin Laden is alive? If so, I am beginning to think you have a good chance of losing your money - though it might take a long time to prove. Apparently Neal Krawetz, a digital image forensics expert claims the latest "Blackbeard" video of Bin Laden is a fake. Not that it isn't Bin Laden, but that the video has been spliced and diced in ways that make you wonder what motive they might have. According to a CNet story on Krawetz' findings:

More important though are the edits. At roughly a minute and a half into the video there is a splice; bin Laden shifts from looking at the camera to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second. At 13:13 there is a second, less obvious splice. In all, Krawetz says there are at least six splices in the video. Of these, there are only two live bin Laden segments, the rest of the video composed of still images. The first live section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. The two live sections appear to be from different recordings "because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section."

Then there are the audio edits. Krawetz says "the new audio has no accompanying 'live' video and consists of multiple audio recordings." References to current events are made only during the still frame sections and after splices within the audio track." And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really bin Laden is to see him talking in the video," Krawetz says.

[Bold emphasis mine].

Seems like every new tape release by Bin Laden has some strange disconnected aura to it. I think the likelihood that Bin Laden is dead is pretty high. Not very glamorous to die of some health ailment while cowering in caves hiding from the United States. Which is why his followers would want to keep juicing his name to keep up morale. Sure, I can't prove he is dead. However, would anybody that thinks he is alive put money on it? I think there is enough doubt to prevent that.