Let's Go (Again) To The Videotape

By Joel Stein

The obscure art of Arabic translating got a workout last week as two news organizations released new versions of the Osama bin Laden tape. The State Department translation was a collaboration among several experts that left a lot of holes as "unintelligible." But experts hired by ABC and CNN have since reviewed the text. Among the revelations from the new passages: bin Laden names nine of the hijackers; he told followers to listen to the radio for a news bulletin hours before the attacks; and the sheik being honored at the dinner that night was sneaked into Afghanistan by a member of the Saudi Arabian religious police. Bin Laden says of the hijackers, "They made the whole world listen to them whether Arab or non-Arab or slaves or Chinese. Better than millions of books, tapes or booklets." Slaves is an Arabic slur for "blacks."

--By Joel Stein