Portrait of the terrorist at 50

Robert Fisk of the Independent has updated his 1993 portrait of Osama bin Laden. It's worth reading, particularly for the following passage, which indicates how alive the misbegotten history of the middle east since l920 remains for him and others:

" But as the years after 11 September 2001 went by, I watched the al-Qa'ida leader's beard go grey in the videotapes. He talked about history more and more: the Balfour Declaration, the Sykes-Picot agreement, the end of the Ottoman Caliphate."

More proof that for this generation of jihadists, as for so many people, the past isn't prologue--it isn't even past!