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Why Do Terrorists Love To Strike Around Elections?
Slate Magazine ^ | Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 | Daniel Benjamin

Posted on 10/22/2008 12:11:16 PM PDT by presidio9

According to the "prediction market" of Rasmussen polls, Barack Obama has an 87 percent chance of winning the presidential election. That's a pretty high number, but if there were a prediction market in which people who've worked in counterterrorism would bet on the likelihood that we'll soon be hearing from Osama Bin Laden, the number would almost certainly be even higher.

A surprise could be of the proverbial October variety, or it could come sometime after the election—perhaps within the six months that Joe Biden said would produce a major test of a President Obama. The record clearly shows that jihadists see the run-up to an election and the months just afterward as an opportune time to act.

Everyone remembers the Bin Laden video that was released days before the 2004 presidential election and the Madrid train-station bombings that occurred 72 hours before Spain's national elections in March of that year. When the conservative government of José María Aznar mistakenly attributed the attacks to Basque separatists, the public punished his party, which was felt to be pretending that its unpopular support for the war in Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. The socialists, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had been trailing in the polls, but after the government's blunder, they thumped the conservatives by a five-point margin.

Those are only the best-known jihadist interventions. Alongside them should be added the first bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993, a little more than a month after Bill Clinton took office, and the attack on the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000, three weeks before that year's Bush-Gore matchup. Last year, radicals attempted multiple car bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland, three days after Gordon Brown's June 27 installation

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: election2008; elections2008; terrorism; terrorists
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1 posted on 10/22/2008 12:11:18 PM PDT by presidio9
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To: presidio9

Because it works..............


2 posted on 10/22/2008 12:12:12 PM PDT by Red Badger (My wallet is made out of depleted you-owe-mium........)
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To: presidio9

Because that’s where the little boys are?


3 posted on 10/22/2008 12:12:52 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: presidio9
Why Do Terrorists Love To Strike Around Elections?

Ask 0bomba's friends.
4 posted on 10/22/2008 12:16:06 PM PDT by Brown Deer
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To: Red Badger

Because we only are worried about what our vice presidential nominee spent on clothes and what type of underwear our pres and ex nominee wear. Best tme to hit


5 posted on 10/22/2008 12:17:02 PM PDT by GoCards
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To: Red Badger

Except that it doesm’t work in America. If you play the DNC game, al Quaeda was trying to cow Spain and it worked. Bin Laden tried to cow us before each of the last two elections and we did exactly the opposite of what he wanted.


6 posted on 10/22/2008 12:18:15 PM PDT by presidio9 (One day this economy is going to turn itself around, and the terrorists will still be there.)
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To: presidio9

My suspicion would be that it allows them to virtually control the course of the administration. You either fight back and listen to all the pacifist girls whine, or you just take it and earn the contempt of the hawks. You can’t win when the enemy is really the media and public opinion.


7 posted on 10/22/2008 12:18:21 PM PDT by JustRight
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To: presidio9

I am waiting for the Osama endorsement, as in 2004. Trick or treat!


8 posted on 10/22/2008 12:19:13 PM PDT by Genoa
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To: presidio9

They aren’t very clever or attuned to American Politics. They would probably try it again and again. It worked in Spain, so it will eventually work here, or so they think..........


9 posted on 10/22/2008 12:21:14 PM PDT by Red Badger (My wallet is made out of depleted you-owe-mium........)
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To: presidio9

If Obama wins they will strike Israel, with a nuke if they can, and Barry will do nothing. It will “seem like the wrong thing to do”, but muslims around the world will rejoice knowing that BO has hobbled the protector of Israel. This is why Israel will likely strike Iran first, and it will be because we have left them no choice.


10 posted on 10/22/2008 12:36:38 PM PDT by Camel Joe (liberal=socialist=royalist/imperialist pawn=enemy of Freedom)
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To: Camel Joe
It's actually worse than that: If Obama wins, it forces Israel’s hand. They will know that we won't take out Iran's nukes ourselves. They will also know that we will not respond in kind, should Iran launch an attack against Israel. If Obama wins, Israel is very likely to move to attack Iran before the Inauguration.
11 posted on 10/22/2008 12:43:03 PM PDT by presidio9 (One day this economy is going to turn itself around, and the terrorists will still be there.)
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To: presidio9

Let me shorten this article...’because they are stupid’


12 posted on 10/22/2008 12:43:59 PM PDT by Fred (The Democrat Party is the Nadir of Nihilism)
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To: presidio9

***If Obama wins, Israel is very likely to move to attack Iran before the Inauguration***

There’s the real elephant in the room.

If Obama wins, there will be a MAJOR blowup in the Mideast, maybe even all out war.


13 posted on 10/22/2008 1:11:31 PM PDT by Mrs.Z ("...you're a Democrat. You're expected to complain and offer no solutions." Denny Crane)
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To: Mrs.Z

and “W” gets ALL the BLAME...Every last bit of it all, for the entire administration of O


14 posted on 10/22/2008 1:49:20 PM PDT by xhrist ("You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. " - C.S. Lewis)
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To: xhrist
/sarcasm

in case it wasn't clear..

15 posted on 10/22/2008 1:50:17 PM PDT by xhrist ("You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. " - C.S. Lewis)
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To: Camel Joe
If Obama wins they will strike Israel, with a nuke if they can, and Barry will do nothing.

You underestimate him. I think he will send Colin Powell to the UN to demand a harshly worded UN resolution. I'm sure the very thought of such a resolution will scare off Al Quaida. < / sarcasm >

16 posted on 10/22/2008 2:00:30 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or, are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: presidio9

Obama has an 87% chance of winning the election?

Slate magazine apparently hasn’t seen the latest polls showing otherwise....


17 posted on 10/22/2008 2:01:56 PM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (Katie Couric puts the BS back in CBS)
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To: Vigilanteman
I hadn't considered that, perhaps they could get Edward Woodward to give Mr. Powell some lessons on stern tongue lashings as well.
18 posted on 10/22/2008 3:04:39 PM PDT by Camel Joe (liberal=socialist=royalist/imperialist pawn=enemy of Freedom)
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To: Mrs.Z
Maybe Barry is the twelfth imam...
19 posted on 10/22/2008 3:06:31 PM PDT by Camel Joe (liberal=socialist=royalist/imperialist pawn=enemy of Freedom)
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To: Camel Joe

***Maybe Barry is the twelfth imam...***

Isn’t that what “calypso Louie” Farahkan (sp) thinks he is?


20 posted on 10/22/2008 3:14:10 PM PDT by Mrs.Z ("...you're a Democrat. You're expected to complain and offer no solutions." Denny Crane)
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