The bin Laden Tapes

This chapter looks back to the time before Osama bin Laden's death and then reflects on the period after his death. In particular, it examines bin Laden's video and audio appearances after the September 11 attacks in order to scrutinize both the means by which these appearances have allowed bin Laden to continue to intervene in the War on Terror, and the terms in which they have shaped perceptions in the West of the nature of the enemy faced in this conflict. Although bin Laden functioned “as a metonym for al Qaeda and the enemy more broadly in the War on Terror,” his death did not eliminate the threats posed by al Qaeda. Indeed, the West can be said to have “exorcised” Osama bin Laden by shifting the narrative from that of hunting for the world's leading terrorist to that of “Obama got Osama.”