Newsday: Tape a 'big blow' to Bush

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON -- The White House said a new audiotape shows Osama bin Laden is "on the run," but counterterrorism experts said it instead pointed up an embarrassing fact for President George W. Bush: It appears bin Laden is alive and well four years after Sept. 11.

More than that, some counterterror analysts pointed to parallels in a 2004 bin Laden tape where he offered a similar "truce" to European leaders, only to have the London subway bombings take place about a year later.

U.S. officials said yesterday that they had picked up no increased "chatter" signaling an imminent attack inside the United States, despite bin Laden's threat that a strike is in the works.

(snip)

As bin Laden has eluded capture, Bush has sought to downplay his importance, saying in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks that he wanted him "dead or alive," but later saying he was not that concerned about bin Laden. Some analysts recently questioned whether bin Laden was dead.

more…
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wowash0120,0,7513904.story?coll=ny-homepage-bigpix2005

[KingFlorez]

1. Dems should use it against him

They should say if Bush is so effective on terrorism why is Bin Laden still running around making tapes.

[Radio_Lady]

2. You're absolutely right, KingFlorez! Agree completely!

[Tiggeroshii]

4. they can even use the tapes in campaign ads

"this president is a threat to your life! See for yourself..." or something. hah.

[fishwax]

6. i agree. it can easily be used to highlight why the now unpopular iraq war

was a mistake from the beginning.

[Massacure]

9. And then when we don't nab him, they have ammo against us.

[tabasco]

60. I would expect Democrats to get the hell out of Iraq ...

and get after the real bad guys.

The Democrats should attack Bush's decision to invade Iraq for corporate profits. The Iraq war has deterred us from apprehending truly dangerous terrorists.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

21. Dems ARE using it against him.

John Kerry responds to Chris Matthews

Kerry came out swinging:

"You'd think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn't have to hear this barbarian's voice on tape. That's what we should be talking about in America." -- John Kerry


9:44:12 PM Comments (60) permalink9:44:12 PM

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/01/19.html#a6784

[against all enemies]

41. Careful, if they Dems make it too big a deal, the military might get him.

Then the pukes will brag what a big deal it is, when actually it is almost meaningless.

[Ouabache]

45. That is the short, one sentence meme to get out there !!!

Just why is Bin Laden still running around making tapes?

[Jack from Charlotte]

56. It's been 1,227 days since 9/11/01. *

*

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Say what you will about that tape, but it sounded like UBL to me.

If this is the real deal, jr is shitting his pants about it too. No matter what, if some bad thing happens, nobody is going to be rallying around the chimp like last time.

[sakabatou]

5. "I don't really care about OBL"

:eyes:

[neoblues]

7. Yeah...

He "blows", so why not tape a "big blow" to him.

[tinrobot]

8. Did someone say blow?

...as in he got a blow job?

Now we can impeach!

[hippiechick]

57. I think they meant blow as in nose candy ...

... you know, George and Osama are party buddies from waaaay back ...

:evilgrin:

[Journeyman]

10. What's all this obsession with "chatter"? . . .

In the few times in my life when I've been near people who've suddenly lashed out violently, those who were most disturbed and did the greatest damage were invariably those who were silent -- or at least composed -- up to the moment they struck. The talkers and the fidgeters usually petered out their anger or diminished their assault by ratcheting down their temper. And in every military engagement there wasn't any "chatter" because everyone was too painfully aware of the violence they would soon engage, and too mindful that an inadvertent word could ruin the mission.

So why would anyone "chatter," run the risk the event would fail? And why don't we just attack the "chattering" classes when they affect their poseur? And why do we need the NSA wiretapping citizens when the "enemy" is so accommodating as to announce its intention so well in advance?

[EuroObserver]

25. Re: "chatter" signaling an imminent attack

...Maybe for once it's worth considering today's price from the always odd Sorcha Faal: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index872.htm

Russian Security Reports today are detailing the ‘Grave Concerns’ President Putin has expressed regarding the increased intercepts of American Military Forces in the Middle East that suggest that a new and potentially catastrophic series of terrorist attacks are immanent in both the United States and Europe.

These reports further state that massive Military movements of American Combat and Support Forces from the North American Continent have also been accelerated, and with the previously planned rotation of these Forces in the Middle Eastern War Theatre the prospects for the enlarging of this war likewise appears to be set, with both the nations of Iran and Syria being the potential targets of invasion.
...
Upon President Putin warning the President of France about this impending terrorist attack, President Chirac ordered his Military Forces to be prepared to use Nuclear Weapons should his nation be targeted, and as we can read as reported by the Reuters News Service in their article titled "France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism"
...
Not being understood by the American people about this frightening new warning from the French President is that it is not directed towards any Middle Eastern nation, but against the United States who harbors and protects with its Saudi Arabia allies the terrorists who would be most responsible for an attack, and again which is no secret to the world, only to the American people themselves. /more...

[EuroObserver]

30. Consider the wording in this

original Reuters report:

"The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to northwestern France, where France's nuclear submarines are based.

ed: also this AP report (note: can anyone confirm):
President Jacques Chirac warned Thursday that France could respond with nuclear weapons to a state-sponsored terrorist attack, broadening the terms of his country’s deterrence in the face of emerging threats.

The warning came as France worked with other Western nations to ensure that Iran does not become a nuclear power. But officials and experts said Chirac’s comments were not aimed specifically at Tehran.

“Nuclear deterrence ... is not aimed at dissuading fanatic terrorists,” Chirac said...

[oblivious]

35. WHOA! That's a bit to take in. You need a separate thread for this!!!

People need to see this and think about it.

[EuroObserver]

39. You do it if you like, oblivious.

I'm not sure I'd like to give it so much prominence: Sorcha Faal is frequently very weird, so not very credible; though the thought has been worrying me all night and these are dots which could conceivably connect...

[gordianot]

11. Sounds good to me "an embarrassing fact for President George W. Bush"

I'm starting to hear comments such as, " * administration has not caught Osama" (a natural consequence of staking your pResdinetial reputation as a tough guy). It was bound to happen sometime the sheep are slowly waking from their slumber, even though Kerry clearly stated the failure in the 2004 elections.

What is almost funny is with all the times they (Bushco) have cried wolf they seem to down play this recent round of threats on the Osama Show. They might have to worry more about public reaction if there is another attack.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. The fact that they are playing it down tells me that it's probably

the real thing. And that's the most unwelcome news that they could possibly get right now.

[gordianot]

16. I've had my share of MIHOP and LIHOP theories.

But you do have to consider the sheer incompetence on many levels of these idiots.

[rodeodance]

19. no rise in the alert status either

[Fridays Child]

13. Yes, George just hates it when Americans are terrorized.

And it's such a blow to him, when Americans are reminded that he must trample on their constitutional rights for their own good.

[Erika]

14. OBL is still running loose after W said we'll get him

dead or alive and it didn't matter to him. What an absolute idiot.

W then takes after Saddam who was never even a threat to us. Yet, the bushbot still worship him.

[lovuian]

15. Everytime Osama speaks it says Na Na Na Na Bush...

and it makes a person wonder HOW HARD he has worked to capture a guy who he let his whole family fly out of the country after 9/11 during the No fly zone...

[rodeodance]

17. micheal ledeen says OBL is dead-mid Dec, of 2005

http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/ledeen200601090808.asp

January 09, 2006, 8:08 a.m.
One Moment in Time
Our age of revolution.

There's an old Chinese theory according to which the best way to understand historical events is not to reconstruct the sequence of "causes" by which the events were "produced," but rather to look at the unique characteristics of the moment in which the events occurred. I know there's an old Chinese theory for most anything, but this one has stayed with me ever since I first read about it in an essay by Carl Gustav Jung, and back in the Eighties it occurred to me that Pope John Paul II had understood its wisdom. The pope once remarked that there were times when dramatic change was impossible, and at such moments anyone who tried to achieve it was like the fool beating his head against a stone wall. But there were other times when the acts of a single individual could change the world. He knew he was living at such a time, and he saw his mission as inspiring individuals to take those actions, and change the world for the better. That was one reason why his famous call, "be not afraid," was so right for those times, and why a handful of brave individuals famously changed the world.

This historical moment is not easy to understand, since we are in transition from a relatively stable world, dominated by a handful of major powers, to something we cannot yet define, since it is up to us to shape it. It seems clear, however, that there is a greater rapidity of change, accompanied — inevitably — by the passing of the leaders of the old order. This is particularly clear in the Middle East, where seven key figures have been struck down in the past six years: King Hussein of Jordan in February, 1999. King Hassan of Morocco in July of the same year. Syrian dictator Hafez al Assad in June of 2000. Yasser Arafat of the PLO in April, 2004. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in May of last year. Ariel Sharon of Israel was incapacitated by a stroke in early January. And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.

...........
— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute

[rodeodance]

18. but cia said tape from Dec or Nov--so even if dead--seems tape made

before he died.

[northofdenali]

20. Read on the front page of our local rag

the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner www.newsminer.com that the tape was received in late December and translated by the SITE Insitute www.siteinstitute.org. On their site, they indicate a date of 12/30/05.

Who are these people and why does OBL send them info/tapes/etc. instead of the CIA or other government types?

Read this. It scared me. http://www.siteinstitute.org/mission.html

[Kolesar]

36. Nice pic in your sig line

Is that a low cloud, a lake, or both in the foreground?

[northofdenali]

66. Not a lake, just very low ground

and clouds. The Alaska Range in the background.

[wishlist]

51. Site article indicates they got tape from al jazeera, not from Bin Laden

This section of the site website talks about this latest tape:

"A new audiotape purportedly from Usama bin Laden, Emir of al-Qaeda, was released today, January 19, 2006, by the Arabic satellite channel, al-Jazeera, which also provided a transcript of the message. The voice on the tape seems to be that on bin Laden, and appears to have been recorded sometime after mid-November 2005, as he referenced the alleged intention of President George W. Bush to bomb al-Jazeera’a media office in Qatar which was broken by the British newspaper, The Mirror , on November 22. Bin Laden states that contrary to Bush’s assurance that the war against America and its allies is kept within Iraq, the attacks in the European capitals of London and Madrid prove otherwise, and “the delaying of similar operations in America was not because of getting through your security. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your country as soon as it is finished, Allah willing.”

Bin Laden speaks at length about what he considers the reality of America’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan, stating that the morale of the soldiers has reached its nadir, resulting in many suicides as a message of “soul, blood, and pain, so as to rescue what you can out of this hell. The speech contains lengthy condemnations of Bush and his “gang,” who bin Laden posits has ignored polls in favor of American withdrawal from these countries to satisfy the jingoist “war-traders” and continue the flow of money to those in power.

A truce containing “fair-conditions” and opportunity to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan is presented by bin Laden to America, though he presents “revenge as it was on September 11th” if America continues its aggression. Bin Laden states: “You occupied our land and dishonored us and you attacked our dignity, spilled our blood, stole our money, destroyed our houses, and made us homeless. You corrupted our peace and we will do the same to you.” Further, he states that he will “not be humiliated or misled” and believes that steady patience is more effective that the weaponry of the United States, for “we had patience in our fighting with the Soviet Union with the simple weapons for ten years. We exhausted their economy, so they disappeared… We will wait and have patience fighting you until one of us dies, and we will not abandon our fight till the weapons run out.”

A translation of the transcript is provided to our Intel Service members

http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications140506&Category=publications&Subcategory=0

The people of Site institute are apparently considered experts in monitoring terroris"t activities.

[DoYouEverWonder]

27. Obviously, Michael Ledeen is full of shit

I'd love to know who his Iranian friends are though. I bet they're friends with Chalabi too.

[tanyev]

44. And he should know, because he forged the death certificate.

[oasis]

22. Wanted dead or alive. If highly decorated Gen. Tommy Franks would

have pursued OBL into Tora Bora, Chimpy would be smiling right now.

[f-bush]

23. Darn Right it is!

[SKKY]

24. I got this in my e-mail the other day. Almost prophetic, dont' you think?

After numerous repetitions of "We don't know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game.

Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message: 370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA. With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI6 for help. Within a minute MI6 cabled the White House with this reply:

"Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."

[njdemocrat106]

26. LOL!

That's a good one!

On a serious note, I think the new OBL tape is going give the Bush cabal a new excuse to say that this whole wiretapping ordeal is to protect us from terrorists. I sense that Bush's speechwriters just added about 50 new instances of the word "terror" into his upcoming State of the Union address.

[Swamp Rat]

33. LOL!

370HSSV-0773H... :rofl:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

48. thanks! I really needed that this morning!

[Canuckistanian]

49. Hahaha, LOL

:rofl:

[acmavm]

28. Whatever. If he's alive then what's his game, making a video everytime

bush** needs a distraction 'cuz his criminal cabal has been caught at some new nefarious deeds?

bin Laden's timing is perfect. If your george bush**.

[EuroObserver]

29. This latest is an audio tape, repeat, audio tape n/t

[acmavm]

34. Audio, video, whatever. I don't believe either one. n/t

edit: Yesterday I saw some pictures on here showing what Ossie is supposed to look like now (from a video). So where did those pictures come from? I'm damn sure they didn't come from an audio tape.

[Stockholm]

31. Good take on the tape

Glad to see OBL works both ways.

Boogie man and Presidential failure!

K&R

[bklyncowgirl]

32. This man should have been dead a long time ago.

It is only due to Bush's complete, total and utter incompetence that he is alive to attack us.

Democrats instead of quaking in their boots must attack and attack hard or they will be destroyed by right wing talking head nattering on about how Howard Dean or Jack Murtha could have written Bin Laden's script.

[Hubert Flottz]

37. Bush might not know what Osama is up to, but give him credit...

if the Quakers decide to attack the soft unterbelly of der Vatherland, Bush will know all about it!

[shawn703]

38. Why would increased chatter mean an imminent attack?

Wouldn't the opposite more likely be true? Once they have their plans set, seems like they wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.

[sendero]

42. Logistics...

... the final stages of coordinating an attack would necessarily entail a lot of communications. The "chatter" metric has a pretty good track record - there was increased chatter before 9-11.

[Vinca]

40. Usama's the embarrassing relative you hope will forget

about Thanksgiving and he just farted at the table.

[Eurobabe]

43. HAMMER THIS HOME!!!

That was my first reaction, this bugger is STILL alive, and Bu$h doesn't really give it much thought.

[underpants]

46. Whew boy Talk radio had their talking points ready to go on this lastnight

I broke my New Year's resolution and turned on talk radio-not for this but for reasons I still don't understand. After what I heard I think I will go back to plan A for this year. :eyes:

Okay first up-the local WRVA guy. To say that this guy is uninformed is a vast understatement. I could give plenty of examples but he can be entertaining to listing to especially when this wannabe tries to discuss politics or world affairs.

Note- the WRVA schedule is Local morning guy, Glenn Beck,Rush, This guy, Hannity (on tape), Savage (on tape).

So the calls start coming in. I could summarize them in their order but instead let me just offer the following sample of phrases and words:

liberal media love bin Laden... liberal media will blame Bush.... inherited from Clinton....not his fault... united front against terrorism...so it won't happen AGAIN... liberals agree with bin Laden....hurts our troops... liberal media CNN....Fox news says....you can't support the troops and be against this war... with us or against us....

and so on. There must have been 6 different callers within 2 minutes with pretty much the same story line. The host was screaming about LIBERALS when I finally turned it off.

I had to make a run to the grocery store at about 10PM I turned on the stereo to Savage-I hadn't heard him in a while.

He basically said the same things but added that apparently "Wool" Blitzer had had on some way out liberal (really liberal) former professor and state department guy who happened to mention OBL's history with us and how "They" might just hate us for what we do rather than simply for our freedoms. This was all the proof that Mr.Weiner needed to support his assertion that liberals and Democrats love binLaden and agree with him and want to accept the truce offering.

Seriously it was as if the tape came with its own talking points memo.

[npincus]

47. Newsday leans left... it's all how you spin it

the MSM and pukes are spinning this to distract from WH-Abramoff bombshells, and ratchet up support for the Fuhrer.

[Beetwasher]

50. THANK YOU NEWSDAY!!!!!!!!

For reporting this in the absolutely correct context!!!

I can't believe I'm thrilled to see a newspaper doing it's fucking job, but I am. It's sad that there a so few left.

[ArmchairMeme]

55. U.S. Comment on tape is from Cheney

I haven't heard any mention that Bush said anything about this most recent tape. The only statement came from Cheney.

Does this mean that Bush is on vacation again and back at the "ranch" or .....

[Maven]

52. They should say, "OBL tape may backfire for Bush Admin..."

Sorry, but I don't believe the legitimacy of this tape for one second. Call me crazy, but the "coincidences" are just a tad too transparent at this point.

:tinfoilhat:

[enigma000]

54. what coincidences? n/t

[justice4all]

58. that it will help Bush

in that he desperately needs a distraction from the failure in Iraq, in Medicare, and the emerging corruption scandals.

I expect the media to ask no questions about the authenticity of the tape or the motivations of whoever sent it. I suspect that the purpose of the tape is to scare people.

Also, if an "attack" occurs in this country, the attack and tape will reinforce the need to continue an indefinite "war on terror".

[enigma000]

59. I'm not sure if this is convenient for Bush

leads to questions like: why is Osama still free?

[Maven]

61. The truth is, when people see a tape saying "We plan to attack you"

They're not asking those questions.

I suspect President Boob's poll numbers will go up in the next few days.

[tavalon]

53. There was no increased chatter before 9/11

Oh, wait, there was. But nobody was listening. At least nobody in this administration. I don't trust this administration to know what increased chatter is.

[madmark]

62. it should be embarrassing as hell; but has not been, this guy has been

able to utterly incompetent from day one and yet still won a re-election. The 50 million plus people that voted for him the second time around are fucking idiots with no excuses.

[goclark]

64. The Rebubs must not have gotten the memo

because the spin that I hear on my TV is raving about Bush and the "we don't respond to terrais'" crap.

Rove is working over time.

[zara]

63. Heard Lieberman and Nelson say this is reason to support the Pres!

Not really. But can such bootlicking be far off?

[KakistocracyHater]

65. So does this mean Bush will be staying at his ranch in TX

for most of this year, like the first half of 2001? What a coward!

[timtom]

67. Why on earth

is anyone even giving this audio tape enough credence to discuss it at this length?

If OBL REALLY wanted to make an impact on his intended audience, he'd make a video showing himself clearly holding up a 2-day-old newspaper and declare quite emphatically that he is, indeed, alive.

Anything short of that is FRAUD...plain and simple.

"He's dead, Jim." -- Dr. McCoy, Chief Medical Officer, Starship Enterprise