It looks like the people from the "short bus" have caught up with the rest of us.

When al-Qaida’s media arm released its first Osama Bin Laden video in nearly three years, most of the media attention was focused on Bin Laden's beard. It appeared either dyed — or perhaps even pasted on. He was ridiculed and a variety of theories were offered to explain it.

But now, there is a running debate among video analysts about whether al-Qaida faked the video altogether —that rather than being new, the September 7 message may have been something recorded at the same time as his last video in October 2004 (and then released with new audio).

The point of departure for the debate is something not noted at the time: that of the 25 minutes of video tape, only three and a half minutes, were moving video. The rest was covered by a still image or a frozen still.

Moreover, the still covered the only time references on the 25 minute of tape— references to political developments in Iraq, Britain and France. This lead to the suspicion that the video is not new, but disguised to appear as new.

I did a lot of searching around the Internet when this thing came out. The consensus by almost everybody was that it was fake. Now these people were not necessarily experts, but they had been subjected to the manipulations and lies for quite some time.

In other words, we are all experts on bullshit. And that tape was bullshit!

Now speaking just for myself, I doubt that most of what we have seen of Bin Laden is real. I think we have been getting manipulated since the very beginning. And I am not alone.

You can see for yourself at this site, or here, and if you really want to visit the dark side then go here.