saint_monkey

those familiar with the internet at all, know that the vastness of the medium has provided a forum for some pretty strange characters that might never have seen the light of day otherwise. (like for example, jeffco white,) many times, these colorful individuals with their innocent webpages turn out to be nothing more than hoaxes, like that of Jeffk, "Leet Haxor." But one of my all time favorites is one of the very first, and as far as i've ever been able to divine, entirely truthful and original. For a number of years now, i have been watching the site of mahir cagri a teacher from turkey, whose simple and rather overly self-promoting web site became instantly famous for it's joyous exuberance and pidgeon english. Most importantly, i love mahir for his embrace of a very simple (if sometimes smarmy) concept, mainly that people all over the world can be friends, and close friends, as long as we remember to love each other.

Which makes this all the more saddening to me. I have looked and looked at leaflets dropped in afghanistan and one of them, mainly leaflet TF11RP03, featuring a younger business-suited Osama Ben Laden, (or "OBL") smiling cockeyed at a camera, has always struck me as a bit familiar. And then the other evening, on the news, they showed it again, and i knew where i had seen it. It seems to be overly referential of one of Mahir's pictures. Psywar, (in http://psywar.psyborg.co.uk/afghanistan.shtml) says that they are uncertain if this is a doctored photo or an earlier photo of OBL, but they doubt that it is current, and is most likely a result of our propaganda machine. If it's earlier, then this is a very odd coincidence, and i should shut up now, but if it is doctored, the sly smile, the shy head cock, and even the silk suit, all smack of an odd "mahir-ism" and are a slight upon a human being whose whole raison de etre is entierly different from that of OBL, and we should be ashamed of ourselves for treating him so.

the pics:

First, mahir	and OBL as pictured in leaflet TF11RP03 dropped (Beginning January 4th or so) in afghanistan.