The story...

The December 2001 “confession” video clearly doesn’t contain bin Ladin.

Our take...

You can read our thoughts about that elsewhere, but it’s worth noting that the tape does also claim to contain two other leading figures in Al Qaeda, if only very briefly.

Here’s the Suleiman Abu Ghaith in the tape, for example, on the left



Here he is in an Al Qaeda video:



And an image we found online:



Then there’s Ayman al-Zawahiri, first on the left in the disputed tape:



Then in an Al Qaeda video:



Neither person appears for long enough in the original tape to make a definite identification, and so their presence cannot actually prove anything. The best you can say is that the individuals in the tape do bear a strong resemblance to who they’re supposed to be, which in our view acts as a small plus point in favour of the tapes authenticity.