He wasn't. He died of kidney failure back in 2001, hence the lookalikes and archive-like videos. This was a farce to keep the scarecrow alive and give credits to Renegade. Anyway, Tim Osman (his CIA name, when working in Afghanistan against Russia, in the 70's) was a diversion from Israel, Qatar, the CIA, Mossad's and SA's involvement. The SEAL team who got killed was another way of getting rid of traces to hide the false narrative of his «execution», hence the «release of his body into the ocean».