JEFF COOPER POINTS OUT another reason to be skeptical of the latest alleged bin Laden audiotape: someone who knows Osama pretty well says it isn’t him.

The varous “leaks” from official sources saying that the tape is probably authentic are almost enough to make me endorse the conspiracy theories floated earlier, that the U.S. government has reasons to pretend that Osama is still alive even if it knows otherwise. After all, there was no obvious reason for the Administration to go public with those, and quite a few obvious reasons not to. Yet leaks like that don’t happen by accident. Say, maybe Tom Daschle is actually part of the disinformation campaign! Poor Tom — he’s not a carping critic, but a misunderstood patriot.