Is the breaking news about Bin Laden good or bad for Bush?

[Room101]

Does this not prove that Bush has dropped the ball, regarding the people who actually attacked us? Or will this frighten jingoistic people into submission to Bush via the politics of fear.

[Uzybone]

1. Bad

There is a reason people call him Osama Bin Forgotten. His name makes Bush pee his diapers.

[Palacsinta]

27. Doesn't Al Queda release a tape.....

and then something horrible happens? Hasn't just about everything Osama Bin Laden predicted would happen in this country come true? I'm freaking out! I always get nervous when I'm watching my grandchildren & the news is filled with death, destruction, and threats!!!

[DrWeird]

2. Well, it's bad for...

all those nincompoops that thought we got he back during the Tora Bora campaign.

[Old and In the Way]

21. Check www.cooperativeresearch.org

More likely, OBL went out with the Pakistani fighters that were given safe passege out of Afghanistan, via a secure air corridor ,before we commenced to pulverize Tora Bora.

[Cha]

3. I see no "breaking news about bin laden". What's happening?

Please..

[Champion Jack]

4. turn on CNN or MSNBC

[hlthe2b]

6. Come on Guys... Not everyone has cable access...

especially in Bush's economy! Give us a break and fill us in, won't you?

[Room101]

5. Al jazeera is airing a new tape of Bin Laden- check LBN

Damb you bush you dropped the ball! Wake up people Iraq was a distraction.

[caledesi]

22. Yes, I think this is how it will play now. This is bad for *.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. a new video

being broadcast now, warning of more of the same and worse. Though the tape could have been recorded months or years ago, and the audio only has Al Zawahiri speaking.

[Minstrel Boy]

12. sorry, misspoke:

bin Laden's voice is on the tape, too.

[LuminousX]

8. Bad

It reminds people that Osama isn't in Iraq.

[Wetzelbill]

9. Bad! Bad! Bad!

The only thing Bush has in defense of his "miserable failure" (good one Dickie G.) of a presidency is the supposed idea that he is tough on "terror." That some guy hiding out in cave in the middle of nowhere keeps popping up makes an ass out of Bush, the "Wolfpack" and all these clowns who want to give the impression that they actually do something. Every time bin Laden comes to light, it makes the PNAC boys look inept and foolish, which they, indeed, are.

[caledesi]

25. Makes these thugs look like the inept fools they are.

Here we have a guy 6' 5" with a portable dialysis machine who has been "wanted dead or alive" for 2 years now. Still giving orders, still videotaping, now calling for major jihad. Meanwhile, we invade f*cking Iraq! Makes sense, huh?

Gee, do you feel safer?

[Hanuman]

10. Good- there's still boogeymen out there...

and Boosh needs to smoke em out.

I thought the Paki's were closing in on OBL in Pakistan?

[Yupster]

14. Just read a piece in Time Magazine about the hunt

They think he's in the mountains on the Afghan - Pakistan border. They think they know the region, but the Pakistani government has no control there and the people are 100 % for OBL.

The story said a Pakistani helicopter landed with some troops and was rocketed while it was at the airport by the local tribal groups. It's a very large region with no government presence and they just don't think they have much chance of finding him there.

I thought of sniper teams maybe.

The article said whenever troops venture into the area, they can see runners moving from village to village warning the locals, and they don't see any chance of surprising the Arabs living up there.

The story said the Arabs had been there since the Russian war and had mostly married local women.

It seemed like a real mess.

It would take tens of thousands of Pakistani troops to make any attempt to establish a presence in the region, and that would cause unrest throughout the whole tribal area.

[Hanuman]

24. Interesting stuff, thanks Yupster...

.

[maxsolomon]

11. very very good for bush & company

fear is the best friend this administration has.

news flash: i ain't scurred. there's no point. he can't get us all, and he can't defeat modernity. neither can the american taliban.

[piece sine]

20. it's bad news for flesh and blood people

as if tomorrow isn't going to be tough enough, we have to have binLaden on video leering at all of us tonight, explicitly threatening more 9-11s!

Are they other humantarians out there who find this unnerving? The heavy-metal political types here are focused on how much it hurts Bush or not. We might want to gently ask...how much does this juxtaposition of bin Laden's gloating as we deal with painful 9-11 memories HURT you and I?!

[TacticalPeek]

13. link:

http://us.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/09/10/binladen.tape/index.html

on edit: Duck!

[CentristDemocrat]

15. It's horrible for Bush

On the eve of 9-11, OBL is release videos and audio calling his jihadists to arms. Bush is a FAILURE.

[catmandu57]

16. Can't be good for the smirk*

especially if there is an attack on our shores again, I believe it would make people look around and ask themselves wtf is going on.

[Wetzelbill]

19. Another attack would mean

the end of Bush, of course, but we would have to live in constabulary state. (why didn't I just say "police")

[ButterflyBlood]

17. proof that he failed

2 years after 9/11, and he still hasn't caught bin Laden.

The Dems need to rape him on this.

[Generic Other]

18. Like he's on a Sunday afternoon hike through the woods!

And he's with that Omar guy! Didn't we capture him and his sons???

Man, I gotta stop paying attention. It's driving me nuts!

[stopbush]

23. $87 billion request + OBL still alive =

ammo for Wolfowitz et al.

I question the timing - right on the anniversary of 9/11, right after the bushies went to Capitol Hill and asked for the $. "See, the main terrorist is still alive...GIVE US OUR $!!"

Also - bin Laden tells the people of Iraq to "never give up your guns." Expect the neo-cons to scream "there's the connection to Saddam. What more evidence do you need?!!

On the other hand - it points out the emptiness of the Powell/bush claims that "we have eliminated 2/3 of the al Quaeda leadership." Yet, OBL and his #2 still live. And so what - if we were to get rid of Cheney, Powell, Rice and the rest of bush's "leadership" team, they'd just be replace by a new round of neo-cons. The same is true for OBL's organization. There are certainly plenty of recruits and longtime al Qaeda operatives ready and willing to move into those vacated slots.

So, it's a miced bag. Unfortunately, we can expect the media to spout the rw propaganda angle of the story. Sad.

[Clark Can WIN]

26. I'm going to say good for Bush

Because they feed entirely on fear. They've done a miserable job of making ANYTHING safer but most people don't know that. Just witness all of the talking heads wetting their pants.

Oh, and now they've gone straight from OBL to underbrush telling us about what a terrific job the HSO is doing in keeping us warm and cozy. Well, that's perfect.

[sinkingfeeling]

28. Bad ....

Just yesterday, Wolfowitz, using an unclassified CIA report, stated, "Two years after the September 11 attacks, al Qaeda's central leadership is reeling from the impact of the counterterrorist successes of the U.S. and our allies," and "The central leadership of al Qaeda is at growing risk of breaking apart as our blows against the group create a level of disarray and confusion throughout the organization that we have not seen since the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001."

So the CIA still doesn't know anything and Bin Laden's providing evidence that the leadership is still alive and kicking.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/09/sprj.irq.wolfowitz.cia/index.html