Prepare?

This is coolbert:

As I have said, the latest video of Osama "addressing" the American people has stirred up a lot of interest.

NO BDU field jacket [Osama prefers the U.S. BDU??]. This time is shown wearing Arabic robes. NO AK propped up against the wall.

And the beard. The beard. Dyed black. The very much visible grey that was seen in other videos is NO longer present.

What is that? Have the "analysts" taken note of the dye job and the potential jihad significance thereof?

Here from the web site http://www.jihadwatch.org and Robert Spencer.

"Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job. The Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence forbids men and women to dye their hair black 'except when the intention is jihad...as a show of strength to unbelievers' ('Umdat al-Salik e.4.4). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, in his The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, says essentially the same thing: 'Some of the early Muslims, including some sahabah [companions of Muhammad] such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, al-Hassan, al-Hussein, Jarir, and others permitted the use of black dye. Some scholars, on the other hand, do not consider the use of black dye as permissible except during time of war, when the enemy might be impressed by the fact that all the soldiers of the Muslim army look young.'"

[those persons adhering to the Salafist movement within Islam attempt to replicate as close as they can the behavior and customs of the earliest Muslims, those original followers of Islam and the companions of Mohammad.]

"Characteristically, no one is picking up on the significance of the dye job."

This maybe is a nothing, the dye job? Is this part of a connect-the-dots type of intelligence analysis consideration? How many intelligence analysts period would have the background, the knowledge, and the cultural appreciation to understand the meaning, if indeed some sort hidden meaning is present in the beard dye job?

Within the cultural context - - the beard dye job signifies further jihad? Sort of like when American Indians would don war paint? Or when American paratroopers prior to D-Day, 1944, got their hair shorn into a "mohawk" style haircut!

coolbert.