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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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To: Pokey78

Why can't anyone catch this creep???!!!


41 posted on 10/29/2004 4:00:28 PM PDT by sonserae
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To: Alberta's Child

No, quite the opposite to my mind.

What Kerry's response to the terror threat would be, as I've pointed out, no one knows. He's claimed he will cut and run and he's claimed he'll send more soldiers (presumably draftees) to Iraq. He said he will fight the WoT as thoroughly as Bush and he's called for a kinder and gentler WoT.

That his policies would at best be the same as Bush is certain, but one can easily argue he would be as incompetent as Clinton, or frankly, perhaps even worse.

While the press would indeed give him a free hand to continue the Bush doctrine, it would also give him a free hand in following the Clintonite ostrich strategy. Any further terror attacks would be blamed on domestic rightwingers (a la the anthrax mailings) or pawned off as residual anger from Bush's policies.

Especially the former angle is worrisome. Clinton famously blamed the OKC bombing on his political opponents. One can easily see Kerry doing the same, and following up on the advice many on the Left have made to crack down on rightwing groups (pro-lifers, RKBA activists, etc).


42 posted on 10/29/2004 4:00:59 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (We've found more WMDs in Iraq than we've found disenfranchised blacks in Florida. --Ann Coulter)
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To: weegee
Both. Though having the newly converted on their side created a total breakdown in social order, as opposed to a marauding gang who the police could quickly take down. Why did the riots break out? Because the police did not have the support of the populace in putting down the situation.

We are the police. And the rest of the world is the "populace." If they hide the perps, or help the perps, or arm and feed the perps, we don't stand a chance.

43 posted on 10/29/2004 4:01:35 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: sonserae

Because he has left this mortal coil?


44 posted on 10/29/2004 4:01:38 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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I thought we were concerned about these fruit loops hitting us in an attempt to sway our election. And we've always been worried about hidden messages in terrorist recordings. Why are we playing this in our national media less than a week before our election?


45 posted on 10/29/2004 4:01:51 PM PDT by SpitfyrAce
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To: lugsoul
Left, right, doesn't make a lick of difference to religious totalitarians.

That I agree with - eg, Blair and Bush.

46 posted on 10/29/2004 4:02:36 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Alberta's Child
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.

I thought about the same thing as soon as I heard the tape. Osama wants Kerry elected and looks like he's been taking lessons from Michael Moore's movie. While Kerry and the Rats think this will help Kerry, in fact the opposite effect is taking place. We don't like to be threatened - AND we don't like to be threatened by a murdering terrorist, so this plays into GW's hands. This is the real October surprise!

47 posted on 10/29/2004 4:03:09 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul (Kerry's total disregard for the troops' safety is of no consequence to him - Vietnam, and now Iraq)
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To: lugsoul

It takes money and organization to plot the bigger attacks.

The terrorist network has been disrupted.

WMD attacks are harder for "lone nut" radicals to pull off.


48 posted on 10/29/2004 4:03:28 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: Shermy
"Moroccans? I don't see anything proving there's been more or less recruiting before or after 9/11."

Spaniards probably think otherwise.

Can you tell us where you get your data on the sign-up dates for terrorists? Is it like going to their home page on FR? You seem to know when they all joined up.

49 posted on 10/29/2004 4:03:34 PM PDT by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: Alberta's Child

"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."

First, we didn't "turn" to Roosevelt to inter the japanese he was already president. A republican would have likely done the same thing.

Yes it was Democrats that got us into and escalated Vietnam, but it was Republicans that took care of Grenada, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Kerry would do anything but equivocate and show weakness against terrorism, and give our sovereignty to the UN. Hell, all of our enemies want Kerry, Kim Jong, Arafat, Bin Laden, Fidel Castro, Zarquawi, Soros, Kofi Annan, etc.


50 posted on 10/29/2004 4:05:00 PM PDT by fizziwig (I h)
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To: Pokey78

It's really simple - show Americans he is still alive shows that Bush faild in a mission, feeding a Kerry talking point ... he is trying to defeat Bush to show he - Bin Laden - is 'the stronger horse'...

Bin laden knew that a violent attack would help Bush ... BUT HE HAS SEEN HOW WE HAVE INTERNAL ENEMIES WHO ATTACK BUSH RHETORICALLY.

his tape is a pathetic attempt to buttress those points - he make the 'pet goat' comparison for example ... jeez, it's like he watched F 9/11 and said "yeah, what he said".

And by showing his face, he proves that yes, we didnt bury him under tora bora rubble. another kerry talking point.


He is at least smart enough to know if he says Bush is the worst, Americans will vote for him. so he, like the Iranians, says it doesnt matter. but in truth he wants bush defeated - EVEN IF THE POLICY OF KERRY IS THE SAME, BIN LADEN'S SURVIVAL OF A BUSH TERM WOULD BE A 'FEATHER IN HIS CAP'.

SO VOTE BUSH!!!


51 posted on 10/29/2004 4:05:57 PM PDT by WOSG (George W Bush / Dick Cheney - Right for our Times!)
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To: SpitfyrAce

Al Jazeera is broadcasting this.

Muslim extremists do hold an ear open to AJ.

The terrorists who might act would hear it even if MSM in America supressed the report.


52 posted on 10/29/2004 4:06:40 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
Sullivan asks: But why release a tape just before the elections?

Perhaps because it's the ONLY way he can reach us???!!!

53 posted on 10/29/2004 4:10:17 PM PDT by Right_in_Virginia
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To: lugsoul

Dude, read your tagline. You can't back down from a bully. Just can't. Can't give in to blackmail. Just makes it worse. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's too bad. It's true.


54 posted on 10/29/2004 4:10:45 PM PDT by johnb838 (Give Our President A Mandate! Get Out The Vote!)
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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."

Wrong - the examples you cite are all of terrorists who were radicalized well before 9/11.
One example is Zarqawi, terrorist since early 1990s. the cleric we killed in iraq in september who was his 'spiritual guide', went Jihadist-nuts round about 1999 or so...


55 posted on 10/29/2004 4:11:01 PM PDT by WOSG (George W Bush / Dick Cheney - Right for our Times!)
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To: Pokey78

Anybody see Joe Piscopo this afternoon on Fox.

I missed it, but my husband said he thinks he was on Cavuto, and said that he was a Kerry guy, but was so sick and tired of foreigners (OBL included) trying to influence the election that this made him want to vote for Bush.

Did anybody see it?


56 posted on 10/29/2004 4:13:01 PM PDT by dawn53
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To: Pokey78

Bin Laden pulls a Chicago, rises from the dead and shills for t"he Democrats."


57 posted on 10/29/2004 4:13:32 PM PDT by Alien Gunfighter (Draw!)
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To: sonserae
Why can't anyone catch this creep???!!!

To answer this question we'd need to know how many spider holes there are in Afghanistan.

For OBL to surface from one now, he's got to be real sick and tired of hiding from President Bush.

My heart smiles.

58 posted on 10/29/2004 4:13:33 PM PDT by Right_in_Virginia
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To: Pokey78; All

Vote, and then drag a fellow Republican to vote."

If we coast we are toast, GET OUT THE VOTE!

We will not tire, we will not falter, WE WILL NOT FAIL!


No QUARTER for appeasers. It isn't enough to beat these people, they NEED to be smashed to electoral ruin.


59 posted on 10/29/2004 4:13:57 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We cannot survive a 9-10 President in a 9-11 World)
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To: Geki
I'm inclined to agree. If it isn't an artifact of translation I'd have to say that UBL has hired some deservedly unemployed college-level scriptwriters. The content of his 1998 fatwah was flowery and evocative Arabic prose; this is reconstituted Michael Moore.

How this communication was "authenticated" so quickly is a bit of a mystery to me. That is not normally a short process unless the subject has used code words that were intended to certify authenticity (as the IRA commonly did).

Those two anomalies and the fact that it is conceivably useful to both sides in the U.S. election make me quite suspicious that perhaps this "authentication" is a bit more cursory than might be desired. Time will tell.

60 posted on 10/29/2004 4:14:17 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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