Is OBL actually left-handed?

[leftysergeant]

I am curious about one of the stupid statements that Dylan makes toward the end of LC2. He purports to have proof that the tapes of bin Laden are fakes because "bin Laden is known to be left-handed?" Has this been covered in any other thread?

His statement in itself shows that he is ignorant as a brick concerning Arabs and Muslims. He points out that, in the tape, bin Laden is seen writing and eating with his right hand. I am not sure whether he is actually writing in the segment, since he is sitting at the dinner spread. He could very well be moving something around for all I could see. But the fact that he is eating with his right hand is perfectly normal, even if he writes and fires a weapon left handed.

ALL Arabs eat with their right hands. It would be a gross impropriety to eat with your left hand in the company of others. That's the hand you use to clean yourself in the latrine.

When entering a latrine, a strict Muslim steps in on his left foot, but to enter a home or a mosque, he steps in on his right foot.

You hand something to or recieve something from another person with the right hand.

So this segment is not a disproof of the authenticity of the tape, but is, rather, proof positive that Dylan is an uneducated twit.

(I still want that hour and a half of my life back.)

 

[beachnut]

Dylan is not very smart, and has no idea about the right hand and eating. I always had to remember which hand to eat with when sitting down with Arabs.

 

[JamesB]

Dylan is not very smart, and has no idea about the right hand and eating. I always had to remember which hand to eat with when sitting down with Arabs.

You would think that Korey, who has been to both Afghanistan and Iraq, would have told him. What is his contribution to these movies anyway?

 

[leftysergeant]

That was one of the first things I learned about ettiquette whe I was stationed in Libya. That and pointing with the whole hand, rather than one finger.

9You point at a dog with one finger, all of them at a man.)

Dylan's world is so small, and his available resources so limited that he has to make as big a splash as he can, I guess.

But, when he makes mistakes like this, his smallness is just more obvious.

Definite delusions of adequacy.

 

[Reheat]

The best bet is to eat with neither hand and avoid problems altogether. I say this when recalling how sick I got one time in Cairo. Please don't remind me of that again.

BTW, you are correct about Arab etiquette.

He also picked the worse, most grainy photo shot at a weird angle to compare to a "real" OBL photo. That's been debunked somewhere, but don't recall where now.

 

[Gravy]

He also picked the worse, most grainy photo shot at a weird angle to compare to a "real" OBL photo. That's been debunked somewhere, but don't recall where now.

Oh, you're never far from the debunking here. Images from the same video as the "fat" bin Laden, the golden ring that Avery says he wouldn't wear, writing right-handed.

 

[leftysergeant]

They say that a tv camera adds about ten pounds to your appearance.

The video of a hefty ObL is compressed vertically.Extend it verticlly and it is a far better match.

Also, every picture of him with a weapon that I have seen shows him holding it as though he fired right-handed. In this one, with a short modle AK, he is holding the weapon in his left hand, but with the magazine between his hand and the trigger. So to fire it, he would have to change hands. Not very practical and complicated even for an ambidexterous person. What evidence is there that he is left-handed as opposed to ambidexterous?

 

[Gravy]

He's right-handed but shoots from the left side, which I suppose is determined by the stronger eye, not the stronger hand, yes? He favors the AK-74U (5.45x39), which is the gun above and the one seen in several of his videos.

 

[CFLarsen]

You don't even need to be ambidextrous.

I'm "mixed handed": I write with my left hand, and I kick a ball with my left foot.

Everything else, I do right-handed. Everything. I hold a tennis racket with my right hand, I use a fork and knife normally, I throw with my right hand, I grab things with my right hand.

Here's the kicker: While I write on a flat horizontal plane with my left hand, I have to write on a blackboard using my right hand. I can't do it with my left hand, it becomes all cramped and crooked.

However: My right-hand writing style on a blackboard is exactly the same as my left-hand writing style on a piece of paper. And I have never learned to write with my right hand.

I can take notes while moving the computer mouse.

 

[RedIbis]

I'm not debating whether or not this is OBL in the tape, I'm more curious to find out when, how, and where this tape was obtained.

It was released about two months after the attacks, found in a house in Jalalabad, but I have not come across any specific information as to how it was obtained.

Any info is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Mr. Skinny]

He's right-handed but shoots from the left side, which I suppose is determined by the stronger eye, not the stronger hand, yes? He favors the AK-74U (5.45x39), which is the gun above and the one seen in several of his videos.

I'm right handed and normally shoot a handgun in combat situations with my right hand (though I've been trained to shoot with my "weak hand" also). However, combat shooting is more point-and-shoot where gun sights are not used.

However, with a long barreled gun where I need to use the gun sights, Imust shoot left handed as it's impossible for me to wink my left eye shut.

 

[Civilized Worm]

ALL Arabs eat with their right hands. It would be a gross impropriety to eat with your left hand in the company of others. That's the hand you use to clean yourself in the latrine.

All arabs? Not just muslims? What bizarre rules.

 

[Drudgewire]

You don't even need to be ambidextrous.

I'm "mixed handed": I write with my left hand, and I kick a ball with my left foot.

Everything else, I do right-handed. Everything. I hold a tennis racket with my right hand, I use a fork and knife normally, I throw with my right hand, I grab things with my right hand.

Here's the kicker: While I write on a flat horizontal plane with my left hand, I have to write on a blackboard using my right hand. I can't do it with my left hand, it becomes all cramped and crooked.

However: My right-hand writing style on a blackboard is exactly the same as my left-hand writing style on a piece of paper. And I have never learned to write with my right hand.

I can take notes while moving the computer mouse.

I'm real close to that, although a little stronger left-sided. I write, kick, and throw with my left hand. But when I bat or take a golf swing I do so from a right-hand stance.

Very left-eye dominant shooting though. Practice with a patch Skinny, you should have both eyes open when firing a gun.

E: Never mind, read your post wrong. Stupid mornings.

 

[leftysergeant]

I am also able to do a lot of things ambidexterously. I fire a rifle better by far right-handed, but it seems to make little difference with a pistol, aside from the fact that I have only limited range of motion in my left shoulder. I taught myself to write right handed while in college majoring in special education. (Can you picture a left-handed teacher trying to model writing for a right-handed dyslexic student?)

I have noticed that in groups of highly-educated or especially creative people, I find more south paws or switch-hitters. Guess it has something to do with using both sides of the brain, but not neccessarily for the designed purposes. I might be using the right hemisphere to process language skills. I can't do math in my head, and even have trouble doing simple arithmetic on paper.

That Dylan missed the point here just shows that he is too quick to buy any BS that people run by him, or is relying too much on his own limited experience of the world.

To Civilized Worm's comment, Arab culture and thus manners followed the spread of Islam. Unfortunately, there was feed-back of cultural oddities from other cultures into Islam that have been damaging to religious practice, such a female circumcision.

 

[~enigma~]

I'm not debating whether or not this is OBL in the tape, I'm more curious to find out when, how, and where this tape was obtained.

It was released about two months after the attacks, found in a house in Jalalabad, but I have not come across any specific information as to how it was obtained.

Any info is appreciated, thanks.

You just said how it was obtained. Would you prefer if we fabricated a story for you? How is this...it was really found by two little elves in a hollow tree

 

[A W Smith]

ALL Arabs eat with their right hands. It would be a gross impropriety to eat with your left hand in the company of others. That's the hand you use to clean yourself in the latrine.

How do they enforce that? They don't actually watch what hand butts are wiped with do they?. Whats the penalty? Reminds me of the one year I spent in catholic school, The nuns would just about follow you into the restroom. On retrospect they were probably just protecting us from the priests.

 

[boloboffin]

I have nothing but what I've heard. There's an unsubstantiated rumor that the crippled sheik that bin Laden greets was actually a spy, and the "found in a house in Jalalabad" was a cover story.

Or they could have just found it in a house in Jalalabad.

 

[Civilized Worm]

How do they enforce that? They don't actually watch what hand butts are wiped with do they?. Whats the penalty? Reminds me of the one year I spent in catholic school, The nuns would just about follow you into the restroom. On retrospect they were probably just protecting us from the priests.

I assume that if they wipe with the wrong hand they burn in hell.

 

[Alt+F4]

When entering a latrine, a strict Muslim steps in on his left foot, but to enter a home or a mosque, he steps in on his right foot.

I just finished reading the Larry Craig thread in the politics forum, now this! You men and your strange bathroom behavior....

Anyway, considering what the Taliban did to women who had the never to actually want to learn to read, I think it's a moot point as to whether OBL is left-handed, he'd use his right hand anyway.

 

[uk_dave]

I assume that if they wipe with the wrong hand they burn in hell.

Or perhaps if they eat with the wrong hand they burn in hospital....