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[Mary Ann Parker]

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Mary Ann Parker
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Bin Laden vs. Bush
Osama bin Laden's videotape is an attempt to intimidate Americans into voting against President Bush.
by William Kristol
11/01/2004 12:45:00 PM

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/860zmsuq.asp

WE SHOULD BE THANKFUL (to Providence, and to U.S. counter-terror efforts) that Osama bin Laden's intervention in our election took the form of a videotape, and not an attack, as in Madrid on March 11.

But it was an attempted intervention nonetheless.As Yigal Carmon of MEMRI explains, and as the mainstream media has not reported, bin Laden's tape contains a specific threat against those U.S. states that might vote for Bush--and a promised exemption from terror for Kerry-supporting states.

In other words, bin Laden is trying to scare Americans into voting against Bush. This is the same tactic al Qaeda has employed in Europe, where it has warned publics that alliance with the United States will lead to terrorist attacks, as in Spain last March.

Al Qaeda also attempted to use terrorist attacks and threats to convince Australian voters to throw out their pro-American prime minister, John Howard. In Europe, bin Laden's intimidation may be working. In Australia, it has not: Australian voters refused to be cowed and returned Howard to office by a substantial margin.

Here's the heart of the MEMRI analysis:The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush.

The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state") to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state.

This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security." The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately.

When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy.

By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn't treat all American people as if they're the same.

This letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are connected to what will come after the elections."Of course, there is no reason to believe bin Laden's claim that he would exempt from terror states that vote against Bush.

But the fact remains that Osama bin Laden is not neutral in our election. He is trying to intimidate Americans into voting against George W. Bush.

I don't believe the American people are going to honor his wishes.

William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard.

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