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FWIW, after TS and I discussed this here some time back, I did some digging into the often conflicting reports and the analysis of the tapes, audio and video, of "UBL" that have been released. My take is that the videotapes are most likely genuine, but the audio tapes are fakes. The videos were examined by various experts and the consensus was pretty nearly unanimous that it was actually UBL, when they were recorded and his health at that time were subject to debate.
The audio tapes were a different matter. Various governments as well as audio institutes in Switzerland and Japan offered opinions on whether the tapes were genuine, but there wasn't much of a consensus. There were apparently striking similarites in both manner of speech and pronounciation as well as some differences.
It appears that while it is very difficult to impersonate a stranger well enough to fool modern audio analysis imitating a family member is easier (I imagine most of us have had occasions when we realized that we were speaking either in tone or idiom in a way that mimicked our parents), and that may be what occurred.
Trying to assess the veracity/ validity of various open source reports is difficult and, of course, ultimately inconclusive, but I've come to believe that UBL is most likely dead and that the audio tapes are of his son pretending to be UBL.
I just hope the SOB died a miserable fucking death.
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