It was an 11th hour shake-up for a close presidential race — [tag]Osama bin Laden[/tag] released one of his [tag]video[/tag] speeches in late October, blasting Bush. Conservatives and the media immediately created a narrative that insisted that the video was proof that bin Laden wanted the president to lose — which in turn meant the U.S. should do the opposite and support [tag]Bush[/tag]. After all, if bin Laden wanted a Kerry victory, why should the electorate give the terrorist what he wants?
The right-wing spin never really made any sense, even at the time. The video was not only a reminder that the 9/11 mastermind was alive and mocking us, but more importantly the video suggested that bin Laden was quite pleased with the way Bush was running his foreign policy. The right had things backwards: bin Laden appeared to be worried that [tag]John Kerry[/tag] would win and execute a real war on [tag]terror[/tag].
As Kevin Drum noted, top CIA officials — those who know bin Laden best — believed the video, released to the public less than a week before voters went to the polls, was bin Laden’s admission that he preferred Bush to Kerry.
What they’d learned over nearly a decade is that bin Laden speaks only for strategic reasons — and those reasons are debated with often startling depth inside the organization’s leadership. Their assessments, at day’s end, are a distillate of the kind of secret, internal conversations that the American public, and by association the wider world community, were not sanctioned to hear: strategic analysis.
Today’s conclusion: bin Laden’s message was clearly designed to assist the [tag]President[/tag]’s reelection.
At the five o’clock meeting, once various reports on latest threats were delivered, John McLaughlin opened the issue with the consensus view: “Bin Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President.”
Around the table, there were nods….Jami Miscik talked about how bin Laden — being challenged by Zarqawi’s rise — clearly understood how his primacy as al Qaeda’s leader was supported by the continuation of his eye-to-eye struggle with Bush. “Certainly,” she offered, “he would want Bush to keep doing what he’s doing for a few more years.”
Well, of course he did. Why would terrorists like bin Laden want Bush to lose? Given Bush’s Manchurian Candidate-like tendencies, the last thing our enemies wanted was a change in U.S. leadership.
The fact that CIA officials agreed is reassuring. If only voters had realized the same thing….