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MEMRI Translates Osama (media has widely mistranslated speech)
Powerline ^

Posted on 11/01/2004 12:18:11 AM PST by Sir Gawain

MEMRI Translates Osama


A reader alerted us to this Middle East Media Research Institute article on Osama bin Laden's videotape. MEMRI says that a significant part of Osama's threat against the U. S. has not been accurately translated:

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera 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") 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."

Interesting. If that is correct, the speech was a much more direct attempt to influence the election than has been reported.

MEMRI agrees with the interpretation of the speech as an implicit admission of failure or defeat:

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.

It is striking how little intelligent commentary on bin Laden's tape there has been in the mainstream media.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: binladen; threats
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To: MissBaby

And Powerline gets 13 million hits a day and has the power to change the discourse in the MSM?

Didn't think so.
Now go hit up Drudge with the link.


21 posted on 11/01/2004 2:13:05 AM PST by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: applpie
can he be fined for this?

Yeah - I know. Golly, what does the 'world court' have to say about it all?

That was the group to which the libs are so desperate for the US to submit. Maybe O'Connor and Ginzberg feel the same.

22 posted on 11/01/2004 3:04:10 AM PST by sevry
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To: Sir Gawain

BOOKMARK


23 posted on 11/01/2004 4:56:20 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (DEMS STILL LIE like dirty dam flea biten stinkin tick infested s*** eatin yellow dogs.)
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To: Sir Gawain
Oh my.... The fact that George Bush allowed this tape to be broadcast means he should be held responsible for possibly disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters!

TO THE COURTS, BOIES!!!

24 posted on 11/01/2004 5:17:48 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: databoss

Very clever...


25 posted on 11/01/2004 5:57:19 AM PST by milford421
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To: BillF

The more I look at this, the less I believe it is legit..Mp<

He abandons the Koran and basic Islamic forms and instead displays his memorization of Michael Moore's.


26 posted on 11/01/2004 6:01:57 AM PST by cookcounty (-Will John Kerry seek a 4th Purple Heart for fingers burnt in the Battle of Al-Qa Qaa?)
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To: Sir Gawain

I think bin Elvis got a little insulted when the media recently ran the related exchanges between Bush and Kerry: Bush insulted Elvis by saying that Osama doesn't really matter in the big picture - sure, we'll get 'im, but we've got bigger fish to fry. What a taunt! All this time Elvis was lapping up the ego-nurturing idea that he was the be-all and end-all. That's why he's come out of hiding. And the great thing is, it hasn't turned out to be that much of a campaign issue in the end. Hee-hee!


27 posted on 11/01/2004 6:04:04 AM PST by AmericanChef
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To: Sir Gawain

To sum it up. Trust Osama, vote Kerry.


28 posted on 11/01/2004 6:06:19 AM PST by Brett66 (Dan Rather, the most busted man in America.)
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To: durasell
There are oceans of blood and eons of eternity between our culture and the 'understanding' of it that Bin Laden has ...he has such a debilitating cranial rectal inversion about the West that he makes himself ridiculous every time he opens his mouth. Same for all fundamentalist Muslims.
29 posted on 11/01/2004 10:26:46 AM PST by SMARTY ('Stay together, pay the soldiers, forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus, to his sons)
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To: Sir Gawain

Mr BinLaden has never told a lie. He is a source of impeccable trustworthiness. NOT!


30 posted on 11/01/2004 1:25:26 PM PST by Darth Hillary
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To: All

The lib morons here at my work I have shown this too dismiss it as "propoganda". Um yeah right. There is no getting through to rat brain liberal asshats.


31 posted on 11/01/2004 3:55:17 PM PST by Liberalism=MentalDisorder
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