Bin Laden tape final nail in Bushs' coffin

[cero_z]

Hi PITTM,

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we could realize that we were attacked for being assholes to the rest of the world, elect a different president and stop being assholes! lets hope its this one. and by that i mean lets hope that if kerry is elected he doesnt turn into the same thing that bush has turned into.


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It is this fear (a virtual certainty in my mind) that made it so hard for me to vote for Kerry (I posted an absentee ballot already, since I'll be out of town Tuesday). Not that he might "turn into Bush," in regard to the US's policy of global interference by whatever means necessary to further the profiteering of the corporations who own our elected officials. Kerry clearly already is that type of politician. Alas, the only real candidate who doesn't toe this party line is Nader, and obviously, he has next to no chance to win this election.

My personal decision was to attempt to break up the momentum of the current "smash and grab" administration, though I truly feel we are in dire need of a much more severe change of direction than Kerry will provide. So I voted for Kerry, and it was a gut-wrenching decision. Then I was informed that you can't write-in a candidate for president anyway in VA unless they're "certified," and Ralph didn't meet the requirements. Interesting, huh? Did you know that to vote for Nader in PA, you must write in his name, his running mate's name (Camejo), and THE NAMES OF THE 21 ELECTORS WHO REPRESENT YOU? That's really a lot of names to put into a 3"x5" space, assuming you even know them.

But, I think it's such a great policy that we should adopt it in other arenas of choice, as well:
MCDONALDS CASHIER: Yes, sir. A number 2? Sure; I'll just need you to jot down the ingredients on this index card-just to make sure you really want a cheeseburger.

[hansarnic]

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I'm voting for Kerry, and I don't see how the release of this video helps Kerry at all. If anything it helps Bush.

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I was thinking the same thing. It will certainly remind the American public of his failure to catch Bin Laden, but sadly I think the stronger effect will be to remind people that he is still out there and still planning attacks on the US which plays to Bush's message that you don't change the Commander in Chief in a time of war.

As an aside, what a truly bizarre f**ked up world we live in....

[GWB]

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I'm voting for Kerry, and I don't see how the release of this video helps Kerry at all. If anything it helps Bush.

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The question is how this affests the 3 to 4% of the population that is truly undecided. Which way do they break? Also, maybe some Kerry supporters are embarrassed enough by his attacks on the US soldiers that they stay home.

[The once and future king]

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First, they want to CLEAR all "ARAB" lands of ALL INFIDELS, and then they want to implement Shar'ia (Islamic law) across all Arab states. Next, they want to expand back to their boundaries prior to Crusades when they held a large part of Spain, with especial attention to Andalusia. Then they want to restore the CALIPHATE. Then they want to continue expanding until the entire world is either: 1) converted to Islam, 2) subjugated under Islam, or 3) killed...all just as Mohammed said they should do in the Q'uran.



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Do they send you a memo. Even if they do "officaily" want this, it dosnt mean they wont negotiate for lesser terms.

You used the example of the IRA so will I. The IRA's offical purpose was a united Ireland. Yet they have given up there arms after achieving a far less extremme outcome. This is the case with many terrorist groups. They state some extreme purpose but then negotiate a peace/disband after achieving a compromise. I dont see any reason to believe that the majority of Islamic terrorists are any different.

Apologies for large amount of typose it was my Birthday yesterday and I am badly hungover.

[The_Tracker]

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I'm voting for Kerry, and I don't see how the release of this video helps Kerry at all. If anything it helps Bush.

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I was thinking the same thing. It will certainly remind the American public of his failure to catch Bin Laden, but sadly I think the stronger effect will be to remind people that he is still out there and still planning attacks on the US which plays to Bush's message that you don't change the Commander in Chief in a time of war.

As an aside, what a truly bizarre f**ked up world we live in....

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Yea, my initial gut reaction was that this would be bad for bush but now I don't know. The undecideds are what matter here and it really is hard to say how they will view it.

Not being an undecided I don't really know. It's very difficult to put myself in someones shoes that still has not made up their mind. It's like, what the hell are you waiting on? These are the same people that are late for work because they cant decided between brown socks or black ones. Black you idiots! Black!

[MMMMMM]

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Do they send you a memo. Even if they do "officaily" want this, it dosnt mean they wont negotiate for lesser terms.

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This is what they themselves have proclaimed in various public announcements. Many in the West do not realize the goals of al-Qaeda and think they merely have a few grievances. al-Qaeda, in one statement, listed 3 conditions for the US and UK to follow in order not to be attacked. One of those conditions was to convert to Islam.

Following is a pretty good description of al-Qaeda. Note another statement referenced:"Issued statement under banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" in February 1998, saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens—civilian or military—and their allies everywhere."

That al-Qaeda believes such things, and believes that now is the time, historically, for the Third Great Jihad, may surprise many Westerners who have not studied such things. Yet it is what they themselves proclaim.


al-Qaeda: "Description:

Established by Usama Bin Ladin in the late 1980s to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Helped finance, recruit, transport, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. Current goal is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Issued statement under banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" in February 1998, saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens—civilian or military—and their allies everywhere. Merged with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Al-Jihad) in June 2001."

http://www.specialoperations.com/Ter.../al_qaeda2.htm

The War is Over; The Jihad Isn’t
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 18, 2003

A “wide range of militants,” says the New York Times, is streaming into Iraq, eager for a showdown with American troops. Mullah Mustapha Kreikar, leader of the Muslim terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, declaimed from his safe haven in Norway on the religious character of the struggle: “The resistance is not only a reaction to the American invasion, it is part of the continuous Islamic struggle since the collapse of the caliphate. All Islamic struggles since then are part of one organized effort to bring back the caliphate.”

Only one percent of the Norwegian population is Muslim — around 50,000 to 60,000 people in all. It’s safe to say that only a minority of those are working actively with Kreikar for the restoration of the caliphate. Accordingly the Norwegian authorities who granted Kreikar political asylum may be excused for their unawareness of or indifference to his ultimate goals. However, if they thought of them (as Western analysts are wont to do) as dreamy, outlandish, preposterous, or even quaint, they were dead wrong. Iraq is just one battlefield of many: Muslim militants all over the world are moved today to murder and mayhem for the sake of the caliphate.

The caliph was for Sunni Islam the successor of Muhammad as the leader of the Muslim community; the caliphate was abolished by Kemal Ataturk’s secular Turkish government in 1924. Islamic theology makes no distinction between the sacred and the secular, and for Sunni Muslims the caliph was something like a combined Generalissimo and Pope, although he never wielded anything comparable to the Pope’s spiritual authority. Michelangelo’s patron, Pope Julius II, earned the dubious honor of going down in history as the “warrior pope”; by contrast, the overwhelming majority of the successors of the Prophet were warrior caliphs.

No accident there. It is not an invention of the Wahhabi demons du jour, but a provision of classic Islamic law (the Sharia) that the Caliph has not just a right, but a responsibility to wage war. One manual of this law, Umdat al-Salik (published in English as Reliance of the Traveller) stipulates that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” The “non-Muslim poll tax” is the most conspicuous feature of a system, carefully delineated in this manual, of organized oppression and second-class (dhimmi) status for religious minorities in lands ruled by the Sharia. Umdat al-Salik carries an endorsement from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most respected and influential voice in all of Sunni Islam.

A manual from a different school of Sunni jurisprudence states that the caliph must “make jihad against those who resist Islam after having been called to it until they submit or accept to live as a protected dhimmi-community — so that Allah’s rights, may He be exalted ‘be made uppermost above all [other] religion’ (Qur’an 9:33).” Without a caliph, those who resist Islam have less to fear; Islamic radicals around the world have therefore long viewed the abolition of the caliphate as an immense tragedy, and its reestablishment as a prerequisite of a worldwide resurgence of Islam.

The intellectual father of all modern-day Muslim radicals, the Egyptian Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949), decried the end of the caliphate because it separated “the state from religion in a country which was until recently the site of the Commander of the Faithful.” Al-Banna characterized the end of the caliphate as part of a larger “Western invasion which was armed and equipped with all [the] destructive influences of money, wealth, prestige, ostentation, power and means of propaganda.” Al-Banna founded the first modern radical Muslim organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another influential radical theorist, Sayyid Abul A‘la Maududi (1903-1979), founder of the Pakistani hardline party Jamaat-e-Islami (Muslim Party), envisioned a unified Islamic state that would steadily expand throughout the subcontinent and beyond: “The Muslim Party will inevitably extend invitation to the citizens of other countries to embrace the faith which holds promise of true salvation and genuine welfare for them. Even otherwise also if the Muslim Party commands adequate resources it will eliminate un-Islamic Governments and establish the power of Islamic Government in their stead.” This was, according to Maududi, exactly what Muhammad and the first caliphs did. “It is the same policy which was executed by the Holy Prophet (peace of Allah be upon him) and his successor illustrious Caliphs (may Allah be pleased with them). Arabia, where the Muslim Party was founded, was the first country which was subjugated and brought under the rule of Islam.”

Such views have long since come to the West. In 1999, Abu Hamza al-Masri, the one- eyed, hook-handed radical who was then imam of London’s Finsbury Park mosque, spoke at a London conference dedicated to lamenting the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the caliphate. “Islam needs the sword,” he said to shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great) from the crowd of 400 Muslims. “Whoever has the sword, he will have the earth.”

Abu Hamza is a close associate of Omar Bakri and the radical British Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun. Bakri has declared his desire to see “the black flag of Islam” — that is, the battle flag of jihad — “flying over Downing Street.” Like Bakri and Al-Muhajiroun in Britain, in Germany Shaker Assem and the Islamic Liberation Party (Hizb ut-Tahrir) work to reestablish the caliphate and institute the Sharia. Declares Assem: “People who say there is a conflict between Sharia and Western democracy are right.”

Restoration of the caliphate and the global expansion of Islamic rule and Islamic law was also a goal of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. In 1996 Mullah Omar wrapped himself in the cloak of Muhammad, which lies in a shrine in Afghanistan, as the Taliban proclaimed him the “new caliph” and Emir ul-Momineen, or Commander of the Faithful. In May 2002 a U.S. official noted that their plan was to “take over the whole country” of Afghanistan, and then “expand the caliphate.”

This is the vision that moved Oregon resident Maher “Mike” Hawash to leave his wife and three children after 9/11 in order to make his way to Afghanistan and try to join with the Taliban in its fight against the United States. Hawash, who has pleaded guilty to trying “to willfully supply, directly or indirectly, services to the territory of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban or to the Taliban,” was a naturalized American citizen and, according to the Wall Street Journal, just an ordinary guy. He “had fully integrated himself into the mainstream community where he lived. In many respects he had attained the American dream. He owned his own home and was respected at microchip-maker Intel, one of the U.S.’s preeminent high-tech giants. He was exceptionally popular and known in the community for his volunteer activities.”

What happened to Mike Hawash? According to the Islamic terrorism expert Daniel Pipes, in 2000 “he became noticeably more devout. He grew a beard, wore Arab clothing, prayed five times a day, and regularly attended mosque. He also became noticeably less friendly. Further inquiry found that Hawash paid up his house mortgage (interest payments go against Islamic law) and donated over $10,000 to the Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity subsequently closed for financing terrorist groups.”

Likewise the late Ziad Jarrah, one of the September 11 terrorists. On Friday, a girlfriend of Jarrah named Aysel Sengun testified in a trial of another radical Muslim that Jarrah “was a lovely man, very nice, rather introverted. He only became really religious at the end.” She added that he was at first “very western oriented,” but as he became more religious, another side of him emerged. He began to speak often of jihad: “It was the holy war for him. It meant fighting, not using words.” Another friend of Jarrah testified: “He told me it was the greatest joy for a Muslim to wage a holy war.”

It’s intriguing that Hawash and Jarrah become serious about Islam and then started engaging in terrorism. Who taught these guys about Islam, anyway? The Christian Right? Where was Ibrahim Hooper to tell them that they were getting the Religion of Peace all wrong? Americans must face the unpleasant fact that radical Islam is taught in mosques all over the world by devout Muslims who are well-versed in the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. If it’s really a discredited fringe group, as Hooper and Co. would have us believe, or a localized phenomenon of Saudi Wahhabi oil money, well, somebody forgot to tell the radicals themselves.

How many more former ordinary guys like Hawash and Jarrah are entering Iraq now to fight the latest stage of jihad? American officials are actually hoping that any who are so inclined will make the trip. The commander of American ground forces in Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez, said on CNN’s Late Edition: “This is what I would call a terrorist magnet, where America, being present here in Iraq, creates a target of opportunity. . . . But this is exactly where we want to fight them. . . . This will prevent the American people from having to go through their attacks back in the United States.”
Nonetheless, Americans shouldn’t rest easy just yet. There is no way to tell how many Muslims in the United States and Western Europe are dedicated to jihad for the reestablishment of the caliphate and the resumption of Muslim glory, but it is certain that this particular jihad isn’t even close to being over. Muhammad Youssef of Britain’s Al-Muhajiroun reassured Westerners that “we don’t believe in armed struggle to end man-made law” — that is, all law besides the Sharia. Instead, “we believe in creating a powerful fifth column.” Mike Hawash and Ziad Jarrah (if he were still with us) could give lessons on just how to do so.Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and the author of Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (Regnery Publishing), and Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter Books).[/b]"

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles...le.asp?ID=9413

[ctv1116]

Perhaps you are part of the 38% of America who believes Kerry is better than Bush when if comes to the war on terror (USA Today poll). 55% agree Bush is better. This election is now about who will win the war on terror, and unfortunately for Kerry, this is Kerry's weakest point and Bush's strongest (don't argue over talking points, I'm just giving you the polls).

[tolbiny]

This election is about voter turnout (especially with the newly registered voters) and the undecided vote.
If there is a decent percentage of the new voters at the polls then Kerry will most likely win. If that fails Kerry has a small chance at taking enough of the undecideds wo win (maybe around 15-20%). Otherwise bush wins.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

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Several Muslim extremist leaders have mentioned that they would perfer to see Bush reelected as he is a symbol of everything that they hate about america, and using him they are able to increase their recruitment numbers.
Osama could just as well want Bush to win, If he has thought this out, or he may think that Kerry will be less Zeolous in searching for him. I dont think any one can difinitively say who he personally would want to win. Hell he may just enjoy thinking that he is disrupting/influencing the election wtihout actually caring about the outcome.

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You hit the nail on the head here.

If Bush is re-elected, Bin Laden will be able to gain more recruitments and this will lead to more power and money for him. There is very little doubt in my mind that Bin Laden wants Bush to win this election, simply because he is incompetent and gives terrorists more desire to attack America.

The video being released at this time should favor Bush, since all images and references to OBL are positives for the Bush 'anti-terror' administration, which is a joke.

[Cornbread Maxwell]

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These are the same people that are late for work because they cant decided between brown socks or black ones. Black you idiots! Black!

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Personally I prefer blue socks. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]