Osama's October Surprise
Political pundits have been speculating for months that the October Surprise would be the sudden capture of Osama Bin Laden.
Turns out Osama had his own October Surprise in mind.
In a videotaped speech that could have been written by Michael Moore, Bin Laden sent a message to the American people saying:
---The idea to attack America first came to him in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon with U.S. help
---The 9/11 attack would have been less severe if the Bush Administration had been more "alert"
---Bush can't protect you (to be fair, he said Kerry can't protect you either)
---The security of America is in the American people's hands and who they choose to lead them
---"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is
still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore
the reasons are still there to repeat what happened,"
---"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the
country (Bush) would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to
face those horrors alone ... because he thought listening to a
child discussing her goats was more important"
That last line is straight out of Fahrenheit 9/11.
State Department says this tape is real and recent.
So does this affect anybody's opinions about the Bush Administration and its ability to "make America safer"? Does this tape make the stakes of the election even higher and make you "afraid" of voting for Kerry? Does it have any affect on your vote at all?
I'm sure die-hard Republicans and die-hard Democrats will have diametrically opposite takes on this tape, but try and look it at with a non-partisan view and see what you think.
Turns out Osama had his own October Surprise in mind.
In a videotaped speech that could have been written by Michael Moore, Bin Laden sent a message to the American people saying:
---The idea to attack America first came to him in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon with U.S. help
---The 9/11 attack would have been less severe if the Bush Administration had been more "alert"
---Bush can't protect you (to be fair, he said Kerry can't protect you either)
---The security of America is in the American people's hands and who they choose to lead them
---"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is
still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore
the reasons are still there to repeat what happened,"
---"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the
country (Bush) would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to
face those horrors alone ... because he thought listening to a
child discussing her goats was more important"
That last line is straight out of Fahrenheit 9/11.
State Department says this tape is real and recent.
So does this affect anybody's opinions about the Bush Administration and its ability to "make America safer"? Does this tape make the stakes of the election even higher and make you "afraid" of voting for Kerry? Does it have any affect on your vote at all?
I'm sure die-hard Republicans and die-hard Democrats will have diametrically opposite takes on this tape, but try and look it at with a non-partisan view and see what you think.
posted by cvo @ 1:29 PM
2 Comments:
At 7:25 AM,
R said…
I would have to say my reaction is "what was he thinking?" The message I got is "don't vote for Bush, but even if you do vote for Kerry I still want to kill you." I read something in the Post speculating that this tape is more than anything else an attempt by OBL to re-assert leadership of the America haters in the middle-east. This seems possible to me.
One thing that struck me, and has struck me before about some of these tapes, is that they contain minor illogical statements. In this one he says something like "God knows it never entered our minds to attack the towers." Then, later, he says "I thought of attacking the towers." I wonder if there is some tense or context information lost in translation, such as "until such and such, it never entered our minds," or if he is just crazy.
At 10:37 AM,
cvo said…
There are lots of subtle differences between this speech and others he has released on videotape.
For the first time, he's not wearing his camouflage outfit and he doesn't have a Kalishnikov rifle next to him.
He didn't refer to any specific threat of an upcoming attack - it was more of a general warning about U.S. policy and how it could determine whether there would ever be another attack.
I agree with the assessment of appealing to the Arab world, because he was fairly understated (for Osama) and seemed to be making a case for himself and the reasons for the 9/11 attack before the Court of World Opinion.
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