‘Bin Laden to the rescue’

September 8, 2006

As you’ve probably heard by now, Al-Jazeera TV obtained and began broadcasting a new video yesterday afternoon with previously unseen footage of Osama bin Laden meeting with the top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks. It prompted similar responses from some of my favorite writers.

For example, The New Republic’s Michael Crowley wrote, “Given the White House’s current strategy to divert attention away from Iraq and back to Osama bin Laden and 9/11, this new al Qaeda video is bizarrely in sync with Karl Rove’s election-season game plan. It’s especially weird when you recall that bin Laden’s 11th-hour video in October 2004 may have cost John Kerry the election (something I know certain of his staffers believe). I’m not suggesting any actual coordination here, something that seems almost too obvious to say. But in a weird way, you can argue that bin Laden has become a kind of political ally for George W. Bush.”

Similarly, Josh Marshall added, “So al Qaida — or what’s left of it — releases a five-plus year old tape of bin Laden with two of the 9/11 hijackers as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the baddies just transfered to Gitmo. Right in time for the president’s big kangaroo court role out. If you didn’t know that bin Laden and Bush were the two polar opposites in the global battle between good and evil, you’d think the two were coordinating their media blitzes.”

And Ezra Klein noted, “bin Laden seems perfectly content to release a new tape moments before each election. It’s understood truth that the tighter terrorism’s grip on the national agenda, the brighter the fortunes of the Republican Party. And yet bin Laden, whom the RNC would like you to believe blanches at the mere mention of their name, routinely plays deus ex machina each time their electoral outlook dims. To believe that bin Laden, whose network is largely online and reportedly sophisticated, cannot call up the New York Times and comprehend this electoral dynamic is the height of foolishness. So, for whatever reason, he appears intent on doing his enthusiastic best to improve the Republicans’ prospects. Strange, given their belief that he fears them so.”

I have to say, it warms the heart to know that my cynicism is shared by reasonable, levelheaded writers at widely respected outlets….

Well, well, well. I don’t like conspiracy theories, but I do like to see fear-mongering autocrats getting hoisted by their own petard. I don’t even need to insinuate anything anymore around my Republican family to get them to see what’s going on here. They are finally able to make the connection.

Bush could have avoided suspicion if he didn’t open his big, dumb mouth whenever Terror(tm) reared its ugly head. The convenient linkage between his popularity and Bin Laden’s presence is pretty damn hard not to notice.

  • Let me be the first to say here that Dumbya is Osama’s candidate. Make a Terrorist happy today and vote Republican! It’s the far right thing to do!

  • Occassionally, we hear someone wonder aloud why al OBL hasn’t attacked the US since 9/11. He doesn’t have to. All he has to do is put together some old footage and our govt and the media help him accomplish his aim, which is, to terrorize America. I’m not saying these videos shouldn’t be made public, but in terms of high return on low investment, 9/11 and the subsequent al-Q videos that keep reminding us of the attacks have been incredibly effective.

  • Frak is right — this doesn’t require a tin foil hat. This is just sensible leadership by bin Laden: the more Republican’ts run around full of bluster about “Islamofacism” and do their best to be bull(shit) in the china shop of the middle east, foolishly breaking things they have no idea how to fix, the easier it is for bin Laden to recruit fresh cannon fodder and suicide bombers. Allah forbid some moderates of any party would get elected and talk in rational tones about improving the lot of middle eastern citizens, or bringing everyone to the table, or reducing the American military presence — jihadis would go back to their homes, families and jobs and OBL would be rendered irrelevant. He can’t have that! He’d better help elect Republican’ts!

  • I don’t think cynicism is the right word. If you believed that they really were coordinating their messages, then maybe. But the real point here is a serious and straighforward one: although Bush & co. tell us that a Democratically-controlled Congress (or White House) would be good for Al Qaida, it’s pretty clear that Bin Laden would prefer that the Republicans stay in power.
    Nor is there any great mystery why this should be so. Bush & co. are so fond of telling us that we should take Al Qaida’s words seriously, but they don’t want to talk about the fact that the whole purpose behind the 9/11 bombing, as bin Laden’s own words confirm, was to provoke the U.S. into attacking in Afghanistan, where it could be pinned down and slowly bled to death like the Soviets, while inflaming the entire Muslim world against us. It didn’t work out as Bin Laden had hoped in Afghanistan (at least at the time), but Bush snatched victory (for Al Qida) out of the jaws of defeat by invading Iraq, where Bin Laden’s plan is working quite well.
    No wonder Bin Laden keeps sending out this conveniently-timed messages: they’re thank you notes.

  • I’ve just found my tinfoil hat. I misplaced it awhile ago. Here goes. Is there any chance that the US found this tape sometime ago and it is responsible for its release. I know the article says that Al Qeada will announced that it would latter release the tape via the Internet, however that could be part of BushCo. psy-op.

    I feel better having gotten that bit of baseless speculation off my chest.

  • Wanna bet that Al-Jazeera TV is on the G.O.P PAYROLL?

    Of Course Rove is coordinating with Osama Bin Bush!

    .

  • “… this new al Qaeda video is bizarrely in sync with Karl Rove’s election-season game plan….”

    Bizarrely? as in “strikingly out of the ordinary” (Merriam-Webster)? Seems, rather, to be right out of the Qaeda/PNAC playbook.

  • This seems like an example of the value of a “good” enemy being more valuable than good allies in supporting a regime, a mindset or propaganda. It’s straight out of 1984. Eastasia / Eurasia or Emanuel Goldstien. Where having the outsider or the other to hate, allows you to define yourself.

    Sure makes me miss the Soviet Union / cold war. Who would have thought that things could get bad enought to make me miss the comforting stability of Mutually Assured Destruction.

  • Of course Al Qaida wants the Republicans to win. Bush has been the greatest PR agent ever for Al Qaida, doing his best to build up a handful of cave dwellers into a worldwide conspiracy more powerful than the World War II Axis powers or the Cold War Soviet Unions with its thousands of nuclear warheads. During Bush’s presidency, Al Qaida has grown hugely in membership (especially since now every tiny Islamist group has decided to call itself a chapter of Al Qaida) but even more in reputation.

  • I completely agree with beep52…Al Qaeda’s terror-vlogging keeps us on edge. I don’t think they plan to change their tactics based on who we elect president, so I don’t see why they would care whether they influence elections or not.

  • I’ve been saying it for years…
    .
    But then I am far from
    reasonable,
    levelheaded,
    or a writer for a widely respected outlet.

    Nevertheless here goes again:

    Bin Laden has STATED he wants to bleed America to death in the desert.

    And given that he has at least 30 IQ points on “B”…
    He can completely understand and swallow B’s personaility.

    In other words, Osama can predict B’s behavior.
    He knows B is an obstinate, arrogant fool: dumb as dog scat.

    Thus… Osama knows he can continue to bleed America to death with Bush at its helm.

    If I am wrong… shoot me…
    But I am not wrong.
    Not by a long shot.

  • I like Erza Klein’s take the best.

    Yes, Boy George II is ObL’s candidate and the Republican’ts can’t find him, can’t punish him, can’t stop him.

    Vote Republican’t, make a terrorist happy.

  • If you were Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd’s party was in danger of losing power in upcoming elections, what would you do?

  • This has been so obvious for so long–there is only one American who truly benefited from the attacks on 9/11: George W Bush. If it hadn’t been for such a massive disaster, he could not have won re-election, or carried out his wet dream in Iraq.

    OBL stays safe as long as Bush and his Pettingzoocongress remain in charge; he’s Turd Blossom’s Bogeyman.

  • Josh Marshall is reporting today on the revelation (via Reuters) that “at least 10” Spanish-language journalists in Florida were, it turns out, being secretly paid by the US Government to write anti-Castro screeds. Josh notes, “I doubt very much that the same bureaucrats and appointees were paying these anti-Castro guys as were paying Armstrong Williams [and] Maggie Gallagher… It doesn’t…appear to be part of one program… It’s like a culture of propaganda that has suffused the entire administration.”

    So, rege and Iraqi (and CB), the idea that someone in the Administration is involved somehow with these bin Laden tapes and a secret pipeline to Al-Jazeera isn’t really a stretch at all.

  • According to early interviews, bin Laden’s goals appear to be such things as inflaming and radicalizing the Arab world; making it impossible to be a western-leaning, moderate, Arab; persuading all infidels to leave islamic countries alone; islamicizing Iraq; and purifying Saudi Arabia.

    Terrorist attacks against a much more powerful society tend to work if they provoke retaliation and countermeasures that the “oppressor” society eventually can’t stomach, and if they polarize the moderates on both sides so that compromise posiitons become untenable.

    Bush has led us to give Bin Ladin with more than he ever could have wished for. Bush took out one of bin Laden’s enemies, radicalized Islamic moderates, trashed our constitution, our freedoms, our rights, and our reputation, and showed the world a long succession of “great Satan” acts.

    Suppose in one of the 2000 debates, Gore had claimed that in six years Bush would be holding prisoners in secret jails, without trial and without access to attorneys and wthout letting them face their accusers, all the while torturing them, and that approximately half of Americans would consider this to be a good thing. Would anyone have considered that even remotely possible?

  • When Seeing and Hearing Isn’t Believing

    Digital morphing — voice, video, and photo — has come of age, available for use in psychological operations. PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives.

    To some, PSYOPS is a backwater military discipline of leaflet dropping and radio propaganda. To a growing group of information war technologists, it is the nexus of fantasy and reality. Being able to manufacture convincing audio or video, they say, might be the difference in a successful military operation or coup.

    Allah on the Holodeck
    Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.

    The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.

  • Of course Bin Laden likes Bush and his non-government. During Clinton years, the whole apparatus was full of professionals; now it is full of bumbling cronies. And, like KCinDC says, we’re also providing them with an incubating lab and with free advertising.

  • Johnny B: Josh Marshall is reporting today on the revelation (via Reuters) that “at least 10” Spanish-language journalists in Florida were, it turns out, being secretly paid by the US Government to write anti-Castro screeds.

    can you imagine what hasn’t been exposed yet?

    Rambuncle raises some interesting issues, shit i wouldn’t put past these wankstains to keep their power.

  • Coordination that would be beyond belief. On the other hand i have little douibt that the tape came from Rove In.c to begin with (and the 11th hour one for that matter).

  • If Osama bin Laden was a rock star, you could tell he was past his prime when he starts releasing old material. The next video is sure to be a “greatest hits” package and then after that the inevitable box set.

    Releasing this video doesn’t make any sense, unless OBL wants to put his mark on the whole “Path to 9/11” disaster.

  • I don’t normally follow fashion trends but I’ll try on a tinfoil hat for size:

    The people who were arrested in the U.K. recently are the new form of terrorist martyr. Call them martyr-lites. They don’t give their lives by strapping bombs to themselves, they give their lives by blundering in front of law enforcement officials who then announce their catch and whatever the terrorists were “on the verge of” blowing up is completely bollixed up. I live in the DC suburbs. I KNOW that if a bunch of guys are caught “on the verge of” blowing up subway trains, the entire system would grind to a screeching halt and might never recover.

    That’s the trap BushBaby has joyfully leapt into: In order to keep us afraid, in order to distract us from the crap going on in this country, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in order to keep us quiet, he HAS to wave the bad guys around when they are caught (even if the US had nothing to do with catching to idiots in the UK). This means that law enforcement, TSA, etc folks HAVE to take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen. Bush can’t say “Oooh, look! We caught a bunch a terrists an’ they was just about to blow something up…. But we aren’t going to do nothin’ about it, ‘Cause it doesn’t really matter.” And yes, bin Laden KNOWS this. He doesn’t have to send out a message saying: Go blow yourselves up. He just has to send a message that says: Go get yourselves arrested. And then sit back and chuckle as the stories of international air travel shutting down roll in.

    This, to me is a bit of the irony in the recent Al-Qaida/Nazi comparisons. (It’s also how I know that Rummy & Cheney – or at least their speech writers – have never stuck their noses in the Holocaust Museum, which is SO close to the White House): The Nazis were evil, but they were also incredibly organized and smart about how they went about implementing their sick little vision for the planet.

    When the Admin. compares A-Q to the Nazis, they want you to think: Ooo, they’re evil. And stop there. Yes, this is true. But they’re also admitting that the enemy is clever. The enemy understands how to manipulate large masses of people. The enemy understands how to get good people to do bad things. Bush and his toadies haven’t figured this out yet, and I don’t think they’re going to learn any time soon.

    However, it really makes me glad the current global conflict ISN’T comprable to WWII. Can you imagine Bush, Rumsfeld etc trying to organize D-Day?

    Yeeesh.

  • It makes perfect sense that Rove or someone in the admin is making and distributing these “OBL” tapes. I put nothing past Rove and Cheney, especially.

    However, if all of the Dems would simply start saying repeatedly “Why hasn’t George W Bush caught OBL? Why has he said he isn’t concerned with him? Why did he disband the CIA unit that was looking for him?” and get the (sane) public to think about that rather than getting the sh*t scared out of them by the specter of OBL, these tapes would have little effect on the majority of Americans.

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