| Friday, October 29, 2004 |
13:49 - Oh, what now?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137095,00.html
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Oh, for Pete's sake:
WASHINGTON—The Arab television station Al-Jazeera is broadcasting a new tape from Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden.
Multiple sources told FOX News that the 18-minute videotape is authentic and said its release was timed to coincide with Tuesday’s presidential elections. Bin Laden makes reference to recent conflicts in Iraq and addresses the American people directly, sources said.
U.S. officials saidthe tapeappears to have been made recently. Bin Laden is speaking from a lectern and he talks about threats to the United States and he says that President Bush will not protect the American people.
So after nearly three years of complete video silence and the release of only a few unconfirmable audio tapes, bin Laden heaves himself up out of the nether reaches of our collective memory to issue a brand-new, authentic video on Halloween?
A video where he argues in the same vocabulary as Michael Moore, Democratic Underground, and John Kerry against reelecting Bush?
What, so finding out that the UN was taking bribes from Saddam and the Russians smuggled WMDs into Syria, Kerry accusing our military of incompetence based on flabby non-evidence, Kerry's "honorable discharge" from the Navy getting called into doubt, and all the rest of this crap swirling up out of the bowl in the last three days wasn't enough? What the hell kind of election is this?
Got any more "October Surprises" for us? C'mon, out with it. Let's just get it over with.
UPDATE: Is it just me, or has the atmosphere suddenly been kicked back to the "supervillain holding the world hostage" theme of the post-9/11 days? Here we have bin Laden (for all we know until we have an impartial translator analyze his actual words—it's entirely possible that this is a hoax using an old tape and a new "translation") speaking directly to America, proudly claiming responsibility for 9/11 and yet telling us that Bush "deceived America" and that "If he'd been more clever, he could have stopped me... mwa ha ha haaah!" —or words to that effect. It's almost like he's honestly trying to give us helpful advice on fighting terrorism, while at the same time taking credit for being exactly what we're fighting. This is just way too surreal.
A case can be made for this being a hoax perpetrated by Kerry supporters or by Bush supporters. I know I don't know who ends up looking better for it.
UPDATE: Wretchard's analysis is that Osama's video is a plea for surrender.
If so, then our answer is, "What? Did someone say something?"
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Brian Tiemann
