George Orwell had nothing on today’s mainstream media, who now routinely refer to Osama bin Laden as a “Saudi dissident.”

Here are two examples:

Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden in an undisclosed place inside Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslim fighters to go to Sudan to wage war against “crusader thieves,” according to a new audiotape attributed to him which served as a vexing reminder of the US failure to track down the terror mastermind. (AFP/File)

This is an undated photo of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan, wanted by the United States government on account of the 1998 bombing of two U. S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden is hiding out in Afghanistan as guest of its Islamic rulers, the Taliban. Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban rulers condemned the devastating terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 and rejected suggestions that Osama bin Laden could be behind them. (AP Photo)