The One That Got Away

This video, on the other hand, is scary as hell :

Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast a videotape apparently featuring Osama Bin Laden, in which he threatens new attacks on the US.
In his opening remarks, the al-Qaeda leader accused President George W Bush of deceiving Americans in the years since the 11 September 2001 attacks.

He compared the Bush administration to what he termed corrupt Arab regimes.

The development comes as US voters prepare to go to the polls on Tuesday in the presidential election.

Bin Laden said he first thought of attacking the US after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

He said the attacks on the US would have been less severe if President Bush had been more alert.

But he added that the security of the American people depended neither on Mr Bush nor on his challenger, John Kerry, but on US policy.

Jeez, there sure are a lot of religious people declining to endorse anybody this year, huh?

Seriously though, this is a pretty clear example of Bush’s failed leadership in the war on terror. He let Bin Laden slip away, diverted attention to Iraq, and has done nothing to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world. For this reason, Bin Laden’s standing among Arab extremists and moderates has grown considerably in the three years since 9/11. If Bush didn’t have such a boner for a war with Iraq, this asshole would be dead right now instead of threatening us from afar like he’s Cobra Commander or something.

UPDATE : More quotes from the tape are emerging :

Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks, the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.

“It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone,” he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

“It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl’s talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God,” he said.

In planning the attacks, bin Laden said he told Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, that the strikes had to be carried out “within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration noticed.”

It looks like Giuliani wasn’t the only person thanking god that Bush was President on 9/11.


posted by greg on October 29, 2004 @ 1:40 pm

4 comments

  1. Osama bin Laden Declines to Endorse a Candidate for U.S. President

    The Talent Show says: The Talent Show: The One That Got Away: This video, on the other hand, is scary as hell: Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast a videotape apparently featuring Osama Bin Laden, in which he threatens new attacks on the US. In …

    Trackback by Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog — October 29, 2004 @ 1:48 pm

  2. Remarkably, it looks like both Kerry and Bush took the high road in their immediate responses to the video.

    I wasn’t looking forward to how deep in the mud they could get with this.

    Comment by Hamilton Lovecraft — October 29, 2004 @ 4:48 pm

  3. Osama on the Air

    This Lower Manhattanite, for one, isn’t any more scared of Bin Laden than he was before the guy popped up again, making me skeptical of this being an effective “October Surprise.”

    Trackback by The Bonassus — October 29, 2004 @ 4:48 pm

  4. Osama wants some attention. I am reminded of the re-emergence of the Unibomber after the bombing in Oaklahoma. After lengthy inactivity he struck because he wanted to remind law enforcement that he was still around. He felt ignored because of the attention the Oaklahoma bombing was receiving.

    I think this latest Bin Ladin video is in the same vien. The man just can’t stand that he is being overshadowed by the war in Iraq. That the jihadist are winning in Iraq after losing in Afganistan probably really gets under his skin.

    We call this a war on terrorism, but the view that terrorism is a criminal activity should not be completely ignored. I’m certain that, along with cult-like attributes, the leaders of these jihadist also could be profiled like serial murders and rapist.

    Comment by kamachanda — October 30, 2004 @ 10:01 am

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