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SO HE'S ALIVE (Andrew Sullivan's deeply saddened)
andrewsullivan.com ^ | 10/30/04 | Andrew Sullivan

Posted on 10/29/2004 3:32:45 PM PDT by Pokey78

Bummer. I'd hoped he was buried under rubble. What to make of the rant? The parroting of idiotic Michael Moore points was a little pathetic for an alleged spiritual mastermind. And the re-calibration of the rationale for 9/11 - again retroactively talking of Palestinians - was the usual vile opportunism. But why release a tape just before the elections? The obvious impact will be to help Bush. Any reminder of the 9/11 attacks will provoke a national rallying to the commander-in-chief. The deep emotional bond so many of us formed with the president back then is Bush's strongest weapon in this election, and OBL has just revived it. The real October Surprise turned out not to be OBL's capture (sorry, Teresa!) but OBL's resilience. I have a feeling that this will tip the election decisively toward the incumbent. A few hours ago, I thought Kerry was headed for victory. Now I think the opposite. I also have a sinking feeling that that was entirely bin Laden's objective.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: binladen; obltape
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Now come on.. who really believes this?? Directly quoting Michael Moore?? 'we didn't think we'd have so much time but bush was too busy reading about goats to protect you' Now get off it.. this is pure BS. I'm suprised he didn't plug Moore's new book or quote something from Bowling for Columbine...

this is a pathetic 11th hour attempt...


21 posted on 10/29/2004 3:46:26 PM PDT by Geki
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To: lugsoul

And the resistance shouldn't have risen up against Hitler's Germany because it only antagonized the Nazis?

There are things we are called to do to put down a violent order.

The more Islam radicalizes (once again, as it has historically done), the more we will push for "peaceful muslims" to reform their religion and eradicate the "false teaching" radical mosques/clerics.

Mohammed wrote a lovely bit of self-protection into the book of his blood cult. The more efforts that are made to control Islam (and suppress it), the more they call for a physical holy war (jihad), and the more pressing the need to eradicate the whole antiChristian cult (it is a religion of the antiChrist because it incorporates a rewritten version of the New Testament that denies the divinity of Christ and the resurrection; it leads the flock astray).

I am content to permit a religion called "Islam" to exist and be practiced but the blood cult that we face today cannot co-exist with other faiths. They see a social order of muslims, Christians/Jews (who are "of the book" but lesser people under Islamic law), and "everybody else" (who are even lower); this cannot be permitted in today's global society.

There are 34 conflicts currently ongoing around the world. How many involve muslims?

Reform or perish.


22 posted on 10/29/2004 3:48:27 PM PDT by weegee (George Soros has probably spent more on this election that many rock stars make in a year.)
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Maybe Bin Laden really doesn't give a crap who wins...since in his mind nothing really changes...its not like he CARES about Iraq...he cares about Bin Laden. This tape may have been more of a "hey, Zarqawi...I'm still here and boss"..it may have been a "green light" for an attack. Maybe Michael Moore cut an endorsement deal with him...the point is, the REAL reason Bin Laden does what he does probably has very little to do with what we THINK his reasons are.


23 posted on 10/29/2004 3:49:25 PM PDT by Crimson Elephant
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To: swilhelm73
I've said for a long time now that there's a good reason for Osama bin Laden to prefer Bush over Kerry.

A Democratic president would never be constrained in foreign policy the way a Republican president is. Do you think Michael Moore would ever make an anti-Kerry movie under any circumstances -- even if Kerry's approach to the "war on terror" involved large-scale attacks on Islamic nations that resulted in the death of a billion Muslims?

The dirty little secret in this country is that we turn to Democrats whenever we feel a need to pursue things that we would never allow a Republican to do -- whether it be the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, the assassination (or assassination attempts) of foreign heads of state in the early 1960s, the Vietnam War, welfare reform and "tax cuts for the rich" in the 1990s, etc.

Osama bin Laden probably knows this as well as anyone.

24 posted on 10/29/2004 3:49:31 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I made enough money to buy Miami -- but I pissed it away on the Alternative Minimum Tax.)
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To: faithincowboys

What is there to indicate that this is "new" recordings?

Perhaps OBL DID perish in the Tora Bora raid or of health complications.

What is said on the recording is still bad for Kerry/Moore.


25 posted on 10/29/2004 3:49:48 PM PDT by weegee (George Soros has probably spent more on this election that many rock stars make in a year.)
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To: lugsoul

He was counting on that in 2001, 2002 - didn't work. No one followed.

He knows his fortunes have declined. IMO Iran is propping him up due to their own geopolitical issues of the US being on their east and west borders.


26 posted on 10/29/2004 3:50:15 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: weegee

The script. I haven't seen it, I've just read a transcript. I don't know if the recording matches the video.


27 posted on 10/29/2004 3:51:52 PM PDT by faithincowboys
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To: weegee

I don't agree with the theory, I was merely articulating, in response to the question "why would anyone think UBL wants Bush to win?" I don't think they are correct, but I do think AQ wants as extreme a response from the US as they can get. The immediate effect of a terrorist attack is not the point - the response is the point.


28 posted on 10/29/2004 3:51:57 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: Crimson Elephant

I agree that Osama doesn't care about Iraq. He doesn't give a damn about muslims ANYWHERE. It is all about power and creating havoc in the Western world.

The left have armies of protestors (with a sizable anarchist contingent). I don't see our government being overthrown, but there will be some nice riots in America footage for the arab street to show the people back home. They cheered the 9/11 attacks, they will cheer any disorder in the land of Great Satan.


29 posted on 10/29/2004 3:54:01 PM PDT by weegee (George Soros has probably spent more on this election that many rock stars make in a year.)
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To: Pokey78

I didn't think Osama was this stupid. Everything he said in that tape helps Bush. I doubt he wants Bush to win because he helped put the leftist party in power in Spain and unsuccessfully tried to get John Howard's party out.


30 posted on 10/29/2004 3:54:20 PM PDT by JohnBDay
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To: Shermy

No one followed? Methinks you aren't paying attention. All those foreigners streaming into Iraq have followed. The Morroccans trying to mount attacks have followed. Idiots like Richard Reid have followed. Despite the "3/4" numbers being bandied about, I'd go dollars to doughnuts he has more adherents today than 2 years ago.


31 posted on 10/29/2004 3:54:30 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: ThinkDifferent; nunya bidness
It's quite simple. By publicly supporting Kerry, bin Laden hopes to make us think that he actually prefers Bush, because we know terrorists are liars. But he knows we know this, and is counting on us to assume that he is lying when he's actually telling the truth. Now I must leave to continue building up my immunity to iocaine powder.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is, never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is this, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
 
;^)

32 posted on 10/29/2004 3:54:54 PM PDT by AnnaZ (><> Pray for America and for George W. Bush <><)
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: ThinkDifferent
But he knows we know this, and is counting on us to assume that he is lying when he's actually telling the truth.


Uh, what did you say?
34 posted on 10/29/2004 3:55:53 PM PDT by Acrobat (Gregoire, Murray, Cantwell, Ross: sounds like the Trotsky bunch put on trial in the USSR in the '20s)
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To: JohnBDay

Left, right, doesn't make a lick of difference to religious totalitarians. More important is to split the US from allies. And playing to their natural left tendancies and our natural right tendancies is the obvious way to do that.


35 posted on 10/29/2004 3:55:56 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: ThinkDifferent
But he knows we know this, and is counting on us to assume that he is lying when he's actually telling the truth.


Uh, what did you say?
36 posted on 10/29/2004 3:56:14 PM PDT by Acrobat (Gregoire, Murray, Cantwell, Ross: sounds like the Trotsky bunch put on trial in the USSR in the '20s)
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Comment #37 Removed by Moderator

To: Pokey78

To me, this says more about al qaeda's inability to launch an attack on our soil with Spain's result. I think the tape was to be held in case an attack could not be pulled off. A sort of last minute hail mary, hoping we would fold like Spain. Suddenly I feel more secure that no attack will happen.


38 posted on 10/29/2004 3:57:52 PM PDT by small voice in the wilderness (Quick, act casual. If they sense scorn and ridicule, they'll flee..)
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To: lugsoul
Bill Clinton's strategy was to not respond to the increasingly disastrous attacks. It forced AQ to step up their game and do things that we couldn't blow off.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I haven't seen large scale attacks from AQ since 2001 on American interests. Foreign nations have been pressured by attacks (some stood firm, some ran), but not us.

I don't think the war on Al Qaeda/Taliban/Afghanistan/Iraq... has radicalized muslims (especially in America) so much as given them an excuse to act on their radicalism.

Did the Rodney King verdict cause the blind hatred in the men that beat Reginald Denny with a brick or were they already antisocial racists looking for a fight?
39 posted on 10/29/2004 3:58:26 PM PDT by weegee (George Soros has probably spent more on this election that many rock stars make in a year.)
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To: lugsoul
No one followed? Methinks you aren't paying attention. All those foreigners streaming into Iraq have followed. The Morroccans trying to mount attacks have followed. Idiots like Richard Reid have followed. Despite the "3/4" numbers being bandied about, I'd go dollars to doughnuts he has more adherents today than 2 years ago.

Mostly pre-9/11 recruits. No new ones I've seen, except to the attribution of Syria and Saudi efforts in Iraq - not Osama's call but geopolitical (Syria) and oil pricing (Saudi, Iran) strategies to upset Iraq.

Moroccans? I don't see anything proving there's been more or less recruiting before or after 9/11. Anyway, the terrs ideology is grander than what Bush does or not.

40 posted on 10/29/2004 4:00:18 PM PDT by Shermy
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