Does anyone else think it's strange that Al Qaeda always surfaces...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

...when the Bushies find themselves answering tough questions about 911, or the War on Terra, or the failing economy?

I think it's odd, very odd.

:wtf:

[Sliverofhope]

1. It's remarkably odd

The most sensible theory is that maybe there's a constant amount of some level of activity, and there's more pressure to release info when there's trouble. But bin Laden and them do surface an awful lot when Bush is in trouble. But the scope of the conspiracy that is suggested by that is much larger than can be imagined.

[Maple]

3. I'd say it's much tinier

than ever imagined or hyped...but very useful for scaring people.

[billbuckhead]

5. Saudi Arabian oil is the source of power for Al Queda and the BFEE

Doesn't Charlie Wilson war brag about the CIA's ability to manipulate the Moslems to do our bidding.

[sistersofmercy]

16. But saudis just signed a deal with the russians, our AF in saudi is

done.

[RainDog]

2. and as soon as Bush's approval dropped below 50%

Tommy the Tank Engine for the culture of fear gave notice that we should all be very afraid, but he wasn't going to issue a color-coded alert because people were getting wise to...I mean, people were not responsive to the color codes for Pavlovian obediance to the bush/cheney junta, or something like that.

[Starpass]

4. They probably can't find him because he sleeps in the Lincoln

bedroom inbetween making tapes and videos. You gotta keep the boggey man happy.

[RainDog]

6. they should ask the ISI where he is

as Sy Hersh noted in a March 2003 New Yorker article, they were allowed to fly out 5000 al qaeda supporters at the border of pak/afghan. when bin Laden was supposed to be in the Tora Bora (pak/afghan border area)...and after these folks were surrounded on three sides by our troops.

again as Hersh noted, someone at the highest levels of the administration would have given the order to stand down.

but of course, that was to pacify the radical islamists in Pakistan, not to let bin Laden get away to justify an invasion of Iraq or anything.

and why did we attack one of the rare places where terrorist cells were not flourishing?

[Cat Atomic]

7. I don't know. I think images of bin Ladin are bad for Bush now.

You've got everyone up in arms about the huge bill for decimating Iraq, and people are asking themselves what was actually gained. And onto their screens pops a perfect reminder that the actual terrorist threat was nowhere near Bush's coveted oil reserves, but rather far off in the long-forgotten Land of Ignore.

If I were Bush, I'd see bin Ladin as a big neon sign with the words, "BUSH IS A FAILURE", blinking merrily on and off.

[Wwagsthedog]

8. And just where are those pesky saddam loyalists?

n/t

[davekriss]

9. It's not strange, it's become routine...

Think about it. On Sunday Bush announces he needs an additional $87,000,000,000 this year on top of the $79,000,000,000 he already spent for his illegal immoral imperial war, bringing this years total to a staggering $166,000,000,000. Today he stumps for more stringent "terrorism" laws, a further rollback of our civil liberties. Next surfaces a tape with Osama Bin Laden and (pardon my spelling) his second in command, Zahweiri, jumping around the hills of Pakistan like a couple of spunky mountain goats. I'm starting to think Al Jazerra is a CIA front, not the free press of the Muslim world it purports to be, instead it helps Bush conflate 9-11 with Iraq, elevate fear, and building the budget to bully the world while squashing any future ability to vigorously protest and dissent.

(Can't wait to see how long it takes me to get on a plane when CAPPS is implemented!)

Bush asks for his billions, scares us with the latest OBL video, and encourages us to give up more of our individual liberties for...what? So Unocal can build its pipeline? Halliburton pocket a few billion more? So that deficits rise past a half a trillion a year so that in his second stolen term he gets to announce that we'll have to rollback social security and medicare, can't afford them ya know, and the war on terra requires sacrifice, yo patriots -- salute that flag and recite those ten commandments. And while your attention is diverted Bush slips in a permanent end to the estate tax; while installing unauditable voting machines in key states around the country; while down hierarchy his gremlins try to reverse the express democratic will of the California people by pushing through the recall election and pushing puppet Ahhnuld on us instead. (Routine, of course, as they practiced when pushing forward a phony impeachment to attempt then to overturn the will of the people and replace Clinton with a puppet of thier own making.)

We are being duped, played for fools, over and over and over again. This is simply the deepest and most serious crisis our society has faced since the Civil War. December 12, 2000, "a date which will live on in infamy!"

[grasswire]

11. welcome to DU, Dave!

Good, thoughtful post and analysis. I like strategic thinkers. Welcome to DU!

[sistersofmercy]

15. Wow!!! I will tell you this al jazeera english is up and I tried to send..

a comment and for some reason my comment couldn't be sent. Also some bin laden tapes have been released through al arabyia (spelling). But I'm telling you I think bin laden is alive and well but I don't think he's in afghanistan of pakistan.

[screembloodymurder]

21. One big puppet show

I hope this is the last act.

[seventhson]

10. I think the video is a BFEE production

Bush takes to the airwaves.

The Dems are bashing Bush and his miserable failure in the war,

Bush wants Congress to give him 87 BILLION of our children's dollars (it is ALL debt and deficit spending)

The tape says that American mothers should protest to get their children home.

Bush NEEDED this tape to make any of us who support withdrawing the troops look like supporters of Al Qaeda.

It is a BFEE tape.

[phishhead]

12. Its all about fear.. and propaganda.

Its not that odd really...

Hell the state dept. probably has had this "new" video for quite some time.. Just waiting for the right time to produce the needed fear.

And since it was released the day before Sept 11th, that only makes it even stronger fear producing propaganda.

[sistersofmercy]

13. But another attack right now would seal Junior's fate...

come on he's been talkin' up security, even the sheep don't all agree we're safer. If they indeed let WTC happen, to do so again would be a huge mistake. Furthermore, tapes surfaced, then Bali right after, the toad was showboating how things are much better in afghanistan.

[Clete]

14. When future historians

start documenting these times, I bet they will uncover that a lot of these incidents, calculated to scare and then manipulate the public, were carefully staged to acheive the desired results.

[Old and In the Way]

17. Co-dependency and mutually enabling.

AQ needs Bush as much as Bush needs AQ.

Think about it....what 2 groups have truly benefited from the so-called "War on Terror"?

[paulsbc]

18. the report

i heard today say Al Jazeera has had the tape for over a week, but waited until the day before 9/11 to release it.

you make the call what that means...

[Unknown Known]

19. They even had to bring out Poppy's corpse

things have gotten so bad for la familia.

They pull out Osama Saddama to keep the peasants afraid. As long as there's an enemy out there and we get to see him on video, then more reason to give Halliburton & Carlyle the $87 billion junior asked for.

[screembloodymurder]

20. I thought the same thing tonight

Osama Bin Hiden but he must watch the news. I'm beginning to think Osama and Cheney are the same person. Like Jeckel and Hyde. That's why we don't see Dick for extended periods of time.

[papau]

22. Bush needs never ending terror war - Brit Rogers says 2 year failure

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=10580

http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefings/winningorlosing.htm


Professor Paul Rogers, September 2003 "The 'War on Terrorism': Winning or Losing?" says that Two years on, we are losing the 'War on Terror' -Since 9/11, over 350 have been killed in attacks linked to al Qaida, with close to 1,000 injured - Afghanistan remains deeply unstable -occupying troops in Iraq represent '140,000 targets' and lists out in detail the attacks, both thwarted and successful, in the past two years. He says the al-Qaida network has actually been more active than before 9/11 and is collectively showing a capability that exceeds that existing before the 9/11 attacks." - that Al Qaida has grown in strength over the last two years. And that Afghanistan is a disaster because the Military victory over the Taliban was achieved partly by "the provision of large quantities of armaments to Northern Alliance forces, with these armaments subsequently cascading through warlord militias in post-war Afghanistan, strengthening the power of individual warlords and diminishing that of the putative government of Hamid Karzai."


He then suggest Jeff Sach's - and Dennis K's - solution of just get out of Iraq - whatever bad this results in will be less bad than our getting out latter - see VietNam

and suggests:
development aid to Afghanistan
UN to take a central role in Iraq
more vigorous policies to deliver improved development assistance, debt relief and trade reform to narrow the global socio-economic divide
Take the lead in setting a pro-development agenda at the EU, G8 and appropriate UN bodies
View has to encompass the possible connections between terrorism, poverty and exclusion. The growing global socio-economic divide is leading directly to the growth of radical social movements, some of which are prepared to use violence."
"Iraqis must be enabled to develop a democratic and independent state that may well choose to distance itself from Washington."
"It should be possible to involve a wider range of states in peacekeeping, including Arab states… such progress would not be readily achieved without a much clearer and more consistent support for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process."

"It is self-deluding to believe that we can make ourselves more secure through solely military means. Security will unavoidably mean sharing out the world's resources more fairly. Groups linked to al Qaida draw support from local discontent over economic, political or social injustice - symbolised, for many, on a global scale, by the US determination to keep control of key resources - chiefly, oil."

Professor Paul Rogers'latest book is 'Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century' (Pluto 2000, 2nd Edition 2002).
Contact: James Kemp, Oxford Research Group - 01865 242 819; [e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]