Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Globalterroralert.com (10/31/04):
http://www.globalterroralert.com/

The voice of an alleged American Al-Qaida terrorist operative featured in a video broadcast last week has been matched to audio taken from a previous As-Sahab video production documenting the planning behind the September 11, 2001 suicide hijackings. During the latter video from November 2001, "Azzam al-Amriki" applauds the mission of the 9/11 hijackers to "destroy the economic fortresses" of America.

http://www.globalterroralert.com/amriki911.wmv

Could this be our 'kickoff' assasination? I believe I saw that things would begin in Europe. Maybe the jihadis consider all of Russia as Europe.

They want a "big-name" victim.

Agreed, I really do not think now is the right time to be comparing logo's in photoshop.

This could shape up to be a very heavy (Understatement) week.

I have a lot of halloween candy in my room for my personal bunker,

As someone also addressed, one of my biggest pet peeves is trying to explain this to someone that there is a war and they outright dismiss it.

Stay safe guys, could be a rocky one!

skeggs

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04100141.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net

Sunday, October 31, 2004

VILLAGERS PRAY FOR NORTHERN IRELAND HOSTAGE HELD IN AFGHANISTAN AS KIDNAPPERS MAKE DEMANDS

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

NORTHERN IRELAND / KABUL (ANS) -- Prayers have been said in Northern Ireland for a United Nations worker being held hostage by militants in Afghanistan, her kidnappers have made demands, and seven suspects have been questioned by authorities, according to news organizations.

Annetta Flanigan, from County Armagh, who was seized on Thursday, was remembered in a service in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Afghan officials say they are "optimistic" after several arrests were made in the hunt for the kidnappers. However, the group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping has made their demands known.

VIDEO SHOWS UN AFGHAN HOSTAGES

Ms Flanigan and her colleagues Angelito Nayan, from the Philippines and Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo, all appeared in a video broadcast on Arabic TV on Sunday.

Messages from the captors have threatened the lives of the hostages unless Afghan prisoners are released, foreign forces withdrawn from Afghanistan, and UN operations ceased, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reports. (Pictured: The three UN hostages held in Afghanistan by a breakaway Taliban group. Credit: Reuters via The Daily Telegraph).

In the video footage shown -- in which the hostages appear unharmed -- a man off camera asks them why they have come to Afghanistan.

Ms Flanigan replies: "There are many organizations that come here and do many things for the Afghan people -- build roads, build schools, irrigate fields. And we thought that it's also useful to come here in Kabul in Afghanistan -- we didn't come to do any harm."

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, Lutfullah Mashal, said three suspects were in custody from arrests made on Friday, and that more made on Saturday had given investigators hope.

He said those detained were "mostly suspected of being in contact or to have some links with the kidnappers."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom said they were keeping in close touch with the UN and local authorities.

Ms Flanigan -- who has dual Irish-British citizenship -- was working for a joint UN and Afghan commission overseeing the presidential elections.

HOPING AND PRAYING: IRISH TOWN HOLDS IT BREATH AS HOSTAGE’S NIGHTMARE GOES ON

Stephen Breen, writing in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper said Flanigan was not far from the thoughts of the people of her home town, Richhill, in County Armagh, Ulster.

As they went about their business yesterday, their thoughts and prayers were with the devastated family of Annetta Flanigan, Breen said.

Ms. Flanigan, a 43-year-old solicitor, has worked in some of the world's most notorious hotspots, including Rwanda, Bosnia and Nigeria. She holds a degree in English and has been working for the UN in the war-torn region as an election official.

Flanigan was kidnapped by armed extremists in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

As US and British forces stepped up their search for Ms Flanigan agroup called the 'Army of Muslims,' claimed responsibility for her abduction.

Since her kidnapping, her distraught family has been comforted by friends and family, as they anxiously wait for news.

According to locals, the village was not as busy as it normally is on a crisp Saturday morning and Ms. Flanigan’s wellbeing was the only topic of conversation in the normally quiet Co Armagh village yesterday.

Gordon Lyttle, whose two daughters grew up with Annetta, said the people of Richhill had been "devastated" by the solicitor's kidnapping.

"I have known the Flanigan family for many years. I can remember Annetta playing with my children in my garden, as if it was yesterday. She is a beautiful person -- and also very clever.”

Lyttle said Flanigan has worked in a lot of trouble hotspots. The only thing she ever wanted to do was help people.

"Annetta would always visit my wife and I when she was home. I could not believe it when I was told she had been abducted by terrorists.

"She is just so timid -- I just can't believe that anyone would want to kidnap her. I just hope she is returned safely to her family.”

He said everyone in the village will no doubt be hoping that the Flanigan family's nightmare ends sooner rather than later.

The local Ulster Unionist councillor, Jim Speers, echoed the sentiment. "This is a tragic event for the Flanigans, because they are a lovely family, who are very close.

"The people of Richhill feel helpless, because they don't know what they can do to help Annetta's mother, who must be going through a nightmare at the minute," he said.

Seamus Mallon, Social and Democratic Labour Party Member of Parliament for Newry and Armagh, has spoken on the family's behalf to call for Ms Flanigan's immediate release.

The family's minister, David Coe, rector of St Matthew's Church of Ireland, said the entire community's thoughts were with the family.

"This is a terrible time for the Flanigan family and I have been doing my best to comfort them. The thoughts and prayers of the entire community are with Annetta's family at this awful time," he said.

MILITANTS THREATEN TO EXECUTE TRIO

The militant group claiming responsibility for kidnapping Annetta and the other two foreign UN workers said last night it will execute them unless Britain withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, a splinter group of the Taliban, said it had made a video of the three hostages -- but provided no evidence that it was holding the trio.

Ishaq Manzoor, a purported spokesman for the 'Army of Muslims', said via satellite phone: "If ... don't agree to our demands, we will do the same thing as the mujahedeen are doing in Iraq."

NATO troops and Afghan security forces have mounted extra patrols and roadblocks in and around Kabul since the election workers were abducted from their marked UN car.

Manzoor, who said he was speaking from near the Afghan-Pakistan border, also demanded the release of all Afghan detainees from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the search for the abductees be called off.

"We may kill them if we could not get a positive response," he said, adding the video would be released "in two or three days" to an Arab television channel.

He also provided what he said were the numbers from identity cards found on two of the hostages. Afghan and UN officials had no immediate comment on their validity.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French news agency, said the Taliban faction who kidnapped the three workers would execute the hostages by midday on Wednesday unless foreign troops and the United Nations leave Afghanistan and the US releases all Taliban prisoners.

The demands were issued Sunday shortly before Al-Jazeera broadcast the first images of British-Irish woman Annetta Flanigan, Kosovar Shqipe Habibi and Filipino Angelito Nayan in captivity, the agency reported.

The footage showed them huddled together terrified in an unidentified room.

"We can confirm the three people on the video are our colleagues," UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told AFP.

"We are relieved that they appear to be unharmed and we call for their safe and immediate release," he said.

The captors, a newly emerged Taliban splinter group called Jaishul Muslimeen (‘Army of Muslims’), said the hostages' governments would "witness the death of their nationals in three days" unless four demands are met.

"First, we want the UN to leave Afghanistan and we want them to condemn the attacks and invasion of Afghanistan by foreign forces," Jaishul spokesman Mullah Mohammad Ishaq told AFP by cellphone from an unknown area.

"Second, we want all those Afghans who have been arrested in Afghanistan and held in foreign prisons to be released immediately.

"Number three, we want Britain and Kosovo to withdraw their forces immediately from Afghanistan.

"And fourth, we want the Philippines to condemn the invasion of foreign forces in Afghanistan and to announce it as illegal."

The group gave a three-day deadline. Ishaq said it was coincidental that the expiry fell at the end of the US presidential election.

"But if (the United States) request and demand a delay in the deadline because they're busy in their own elections, we will discuss in our shura (council) whether to give a delay or not."

Britain has troops in Afghanistan but neither Serbia, of which Kosovo is a province, or the Philippines have any troops here.

The video of the three hostages was given to Al-Jazeera television and to a Pakistani-based reporter to "prove that we have the hostages and they are alive up till now," Ishaq said.

Earlier on Sunday the UN issued an emotional plea for their release, expressing confoundment at the abduction of people working to help Afghans.

"Like those of us in the UN working here in Afghanistan, Lito, Annetta and Shqipe have been warmly received by Afghans," de Almeida e Silva said at a news briefing in Kabul.

"We feel welcome here. We like to be here. This is why it is so difficult to understand these abductions (of) three innocent people who were working towards prosperity, reconstruction, and peace in the country," he said.

The three had been employed by the UN to oversee Afghanistan's first presidential election on October 9. They were kidnapped at gunpoint from their vehicle on a busy Kabul road Thursday by armed men wearing military-style jackets, just as UN election officials announced the end of the drawn-out vote count.

The landmark election fell three years after US-led forces invaded the war-torn central Asian land in October 2001 to topple the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.

A US-led 18,000-strong military coalition has been in Afghanistan for the three years since then, hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Another 9,000 multinational troops make up a UN-mandated peacekeeping force, currently led by NATO.

Afghan security forces concentrated their hunt for the hostages on the Paghman valley west of Kabul for a fourth consecutive day.

"The search is going to rescue the UN workers," Kabul police chief Baba Jan told reporters.

Three cars resembling descriptions of the kidnappers' black four wheel drive have been found, but police had been unable to verify whether any one of them was the vehicle used in the kidnapping, he said.

The abduction was the first of foreigners in the Afghan capital, and has spread fear among hundreds of expatriates in Kabul of Iraq-style kidnappings.

SEVEN QUESTIONED OVER AFGHANISTAN KIDNAPPINGS

An article by Kim Pilling and Senan Hogan, Press Association (PA) News reporters writing in The Scotsman newspaper said seven suspects were today being questioned over the kidnapping.

Officials in Kabul at that time said no demands had been received for the release of the Northern Irish woman and two foreign colleagues, who were snatched from their UN vehicle by armed men in the capital on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said three of the seven arrested in the Kabul area were armed men wearing military uniforms without belonging to any regular military or police unit.

Interrogation of the suspects had so far established no definitive link to the kidnapping, spokesman Latfullah Mashal said.

He gave no further details about the suspects, but another government official said some were suspected criminals picked up to see if they could provide any leads.

Ms Flanigan’s family members have refused to speak to the media about their ordeal, but the head of the Church of Ireland offered them his prayers.

Primate Robin Eames said: “While the privacy of their home should be respected, I want them [the Flanigan family] to know of the prayers and support of a host of people,” he said.

“I pray that they will all be strengthened and upheld by God’s love in their anxiety and time of waiting for news.”

MP Seamus Mallon called for Ms Flanigan’s immediate release.

“We can all be proud of the aid workers and election workers like Annetta who make great sacrifices help others in troubled areas of the world,” he said.

“We must hope that she will be returned safe and well to her family as soon as possible.”

Afghan and Nato forces put up roadblocks around the city yesterday, while police and troops searched houses and the American military said it was ready to help in any rescue operation.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body was hoping for an “immediate and unconditional release”.

The kidnappings, which have been claimed by a group linked to the Taliban, came a week after a suicide attack killed an American woman and an Afghan teenager in the normally secure capital, and ahead of final results due in the historic October 9 presidential poll.

About a half-dozen purported Taliban spokesmen call local and international media groups to make claims and take responsibility for attacks. Sometimes their claims prove false, and their links to the Taliban are impossible to verify.

Britain has a limited number of servicemen with the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Staff of aid agencies were told to restrict all but essential movements around Kabul, which is patrolled by thousands of Nato peacekeepers, making it usually one of the safest places in the country.

“It’s an ominous development,” said Paul Barker of the aid group CARE International, whose international director in Iraq, Margaret Hassan, is still missing.

“We’ve not seen this kind of incident in Kabul before, and I think we are still trying to figure out if it is a new trend or a one-off. Until it’s resolved, we won’t really know.”

The three were abducted about a half-mile from an election office in Kabul. Their Afghan driver, who was beaten and left behind, told investigators that about five armed men in uniform got out of a black four wheel drive vehicle that pulled in front of their UN vehicle. They forced the foreigners into their car and drove off.

Suspected Taliban rebels have kidnapped foreigners on several occasions during the past year in southern Afghanistan, but never in the capital.

In March, a Turkish engineer was shot dead and another abducted along the main Kabul-Kandahar highway. The survivor was released unharmed after three months.

About 1,000 people have died in political violence in Afghanistan this year, including more than 30 American soldiers, although it has not involved abductions or suicide attacks of the intensity seen in Iraq.

** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

OFF TOPIC:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1076057/posts

have you noticed this "scrambled numbers" problem?

Posted by Cindy to backhoe; JustPiper; MamaDearest; All On News/Activism 11/01/2004 5:02:32 AM EST · 3,767 of 3,765

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You mean the ***?
Yes.

Oh sorry, that one...

Yep, this kind of thing has been plaguing me the last two days.

Also, my posts sometimes don't show up for a couple minutes or
so, so I have to be careful not to double post.

Oh sorry, that one... Yep, this kind of thing has been plaguing me the last two days. Also, my posts sometimes don't show up for a couple minutes or so, so I have to be careful not to double post.

I've been having the same problems- assume managment is working on it.

DID I MISS THE OCTOBER SUPRISE?

"Remember though, that before the Bali bombing, he mentioned paradise in a way that it was a clue to the target of the Paradise Hotel. Something about UBL specifically pointing out the 6th Fleet stopped me in my tracks."

Very good point.

Thanks for the post.

http://www.trackingterrorism.com/Default.asp?dismode=article&artid=616

Monday, November 01, 2004

"Entire Translation of 18 Minute Bin Laden Tape
Source: QP | 7:38:56 AM EST

Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:

Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results. Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example – Sweden? And we know that freedom-haters don't possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 – may Allah have mercy on them.

No, we fight you to because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. Sp shall we lay waste to yours. No-one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again. But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred. So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider.

I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind. The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorized and displaced. I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy. The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn't respond. In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.

And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance. This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of millions as Bush Sr. did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter of children mankind has ever known, and it means the throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives at millions of children – also in Iraq – as Bush Jr. Did, in order to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages. So with these images and their like as their background, the events of September 11th came as a reply to those great wrongs,

Should a man be blamed for defending his sanctuary? Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us. This is the message which I sought to communicate to you in word and deed, repeatedly, for years before September 11th. And you can read this, is you wish, in my interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998.

You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my interviews with Robert Fisk.

The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders of freedom at The White House and the channels controlled by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may relay to the American people what he has understood from us to be the reasons for our fight against you?

If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the correct path that will lead America to the security that it was in before September 11th. This concerned the causes of the war.

As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah, positive and enormous, and have, by all standards, exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors, chief amongst them, that we have found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

Our experience with them is lengthy, and both types are replete with those who are characterized by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Sr. to the region. At a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries, all of a sudden he was affected by those monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of their remaining decades in their positions, to embezzle the public wealth of the nation without supervision or accounting.

So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretense of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two Mujahideen to the furthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the Mujahideen, bled Russia for ten years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.

All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.

That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinizes the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.

Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations – whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction – has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results. And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.

And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. (When they pointed out that) for example, al-Qaida spent $500 000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost – according to the lowest estimate – more than 500 billion dollars. Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.

As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the Mujahideen recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the blee-until-bankruptcy plan – with Allah's permission.

It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Haliburton and its kind, will be convinced. And it all shows that the real loser is...you.

It is the American people and their economy. And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within twenty minutes, before Bush and his administration notice. It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50 000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him. But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. We were given three times the period required to execute the operations – All Praise is Due to Allah.

And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told him, "All that you want for securing America and removing the weapons of mass destruction – assuming they exist – is available to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections, and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an unjustified war with an unknown outcome."

But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America. So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future. He fits the saying, "Like the naughty she-goat who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth"

So I say to you, over 15 000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10 000 injured. And Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business. Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting the powerful one get off, when he causes the killing of more than 1000 of its sons, also for money.

And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorize the women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for every action, there is a reaction.

Finally, it behooves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in despair. They are important testaments, which should be studied and researched. Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose in their gestures before the collapse, where they say, "How mistaken we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive foreign policies against the weak without supervision." It is as if they were telling you, the people of America, "Hold to account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he who learns from others' mistakes," And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry,

"Injustice chases its people,

And how unhealthy the bed of tyranny."

As has been said, "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."

And know that, "It is better to return to the truth than persist in error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.

In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida.

No.

Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security."

2) "Wilaya" refers specifically to a U.S. state; it would never refer to an independent country. The term for such a country is "Dawla."

Whether or not there is an attack in the next 48 hours, starting Wednesday, battleground states that went for Bush and red states will be the likely targets.

Media is downplaying this it seems in order not to hand UBL a victory. (Most translations say "nation" instead of "state") The President could have exploited this to reverse the trends underway in the battlegrounds for the past couple of weeks.

If things do not go his way, he'll still be a hero in my book for not letting the terrorists interfere with our basic freedom to choose our leaders - - even if it meant sacrificing his personal interest by not playing up the threat. It would have set a lethal precedent since every election from here on out the terrorists would seek to have a vote as they did in Madrid. He wouldn't let them have it.

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SA1404

November 1, 2004 No.14

Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States Not to Vote for Bush
By: Yigal Carmon*

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state")(2) to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."
The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn't treat all American people as if they're the same. This letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are connected to what will come after the elections."(3)

Another interesting aspect of the speech is the fact that while bin Laden made his specific threat to each U.S. state, he also offered an election deal to the American voters, attempting to influence the election by these means rather than influencing it through terrorist attacks.(4) This peace offer is a theme that follows up on his April speech directed to Europe, in which he offered a truce.(5) The Islamist website Al-Islah explains: "Some people ask 'what's new in this tape?' [The answer is that] this tape is the second of its kind, after the previous tape of the Sheikh [Osama bin Laden], in which he offered a truce to the Europeans a few months ago, and it is a completion of this move, and it brings together the complementary elements of politics and religion, political savvy and force, the sword and justice. The Sheikh reminds the West in this tape of the great Islamic civilization and pure Islamic religion, and of Islamic justice..."(6)

Another conspicuous aspect of the tape is the absence of common Islamist themes that are relevant to the month of Ramadan, which for fundamentalists like bin Laden is the month of Jihad and martyrdom. Noticeably absent from the Al-Jazeera tape was his usual appearance with a weapon, and more importantly the absence of references to Jihad, martyrdom, the Koran, the Hadith (Islamic tradition), Crusaders, Jews, and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad on the duty to wage Jihad against the infidels. For the followers of the Al-Qa'ida ideology, this speech sends a regressive and defeatist message of surrender, as seen in the move from solely using Jihad warfare to a mixed strategy of threats combined with truce offers and election deals.

The following are the relevant excerpts from the speech; for the full excerpts visit the MEMRI TV Project at www.memritv.org:(7)

"Oh the American people, I address these words to you regarding the optimal manner of avoiding another Manhattan, and regarding the war, its causes, and its consequences. But before this, I say to you: Security is one of the important pillars of human life, and free men do not take their security lightly, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. Let him explain why we did not attack Sweden, for example. Clearly, those who hate freedom have no pride, unlike the 19 [suicide hijackers of 9/11], may Allah have mercy on them. We have been fighting you because we are free men who do not remain silent in the face of injustice. We want to restore our [Islamic] nation's freedom. Just as you violate our security, we violate yours.

"But I am amazed at you. Although we have entered the fourth year after the events of 9/11, Bush is still practicing distortion and deception against you and he is still concealing the true cause from you. Consequently, the motives for its reoccurrence still exist...

"We had no difficulty dealing with Bush and his administration, because it resembles the regimes in our [Arab] countries, half of which are ruled by the military, and the other half are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents with whom we have had a lot of experience. Among both types, there are many who are known for their conceit, arrogance, greed, and for taking money dishonestly.

"This resemblance began with the visit of Bush Sr. to the region. While some of our people were dazzled by the U.S. and hoped that these visits would influence our countries, it was he who was influenced by these monarchic and military regimes. He envied them for remaining in their positions for decades, while embezzling the nation's public funds with no supervision whatsoever. He bequeathed tyranny and the suppression of liberties to his son and they called it the Patriot Act, under the pretext of the war on terrorism.

"Bush Sr. liked the idea of appointing [his] sons as state governors. Similarly, he did not neglect to import into Florida the expertise in falsifying [elections] from the leaders of this region in order to benefit from it in difficult moments.

"We agreed with the general commander Muhammad Atta, may Allah have mercy on him, that all operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration would become aware. We never imagined that the Commander in Chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face this great horror alone when they needed him most. It seemed to him that a girl's story about her goat and its butting was more important than dealing with planes and their 'butting' into skyscrapers. This allowed us three times the amount of time needed for the operations, Allah be praised.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qa'ida. Your security is in your own hands, and any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."

Today's readings are so fitting. The hand of God prepares us:

Reading I Rev 7:2-4, 9-14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal,
one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb."

All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed:

"Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?"

I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me,
"These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."

Responsorial Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

R Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. R Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face. Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.

R Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

R Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Reading II 1 Jn 3:1-3

Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Gospel
Mt 5:1-12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."

"Future note:
It is always best to post a LINK (URL) where the article can be located when possible."

Usually I do; I just don't seem to be thinking too clearly these days.