Bush Defends Strategy Against Al Qaeda As Bin Laden Tape Dominates Campaign's Homestretch
Osama bin Laden's videotaped "October Surprise" message took center stage in the presidential race over the weekend. The video did have an immediate impact by replacing the missing Al Qaqaa explosives as the top story in the closing days of the campaign. However, it was not immediately clear if bin Laden's intrusion into the race would sway voters to President Bush, whose strongest issue is the war on terror, or John Kerry, who has previously used the US failure to capture or kill bin Laden at the conclusion of the Afghan war in Tora Bora as an example of Bush's failed leadership.
Both campaigns treated the issue gingerly, with President Bush defending his handling of the war on terror in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw, and Kerry downplaying the impact of the tape on the race, but reiterating his critique of the President's handling of terrorism. In the NBC interview, a portion of which aired on NBC Nightly News, Brokaw asked Bush how bin Laden's survival can "be seen anything other than a failure of your Administration." Bush replied, "He's not going to intimidate or decide this election. Secondly, we're systematically destroying al Qaeda. . . . We'll eventually get Osama bin Laden. But we're destroying his network." On CNN's Late Edition, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card the White House does not believe bin Laden's message was a threat of imminent terrorist act, adding, "We think that it was more a rhetorical threat, and there should be no expectation that our democracy will be interrupted as the people show up to vote on Election Day." In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes said Kerry was "engaging in shameful politics, claiming that we missed a chance to get" bin Laden.
However, in his interview with ABC World News Tonight, Kerry told Peter Jennings, "I think it is unfortunate that anybody puts Osama bin Laden into any political context in the United States' election. I'm outraged, that he has appeared." When Jennings said it "was some of your surrogates who made it as much a political issue," Kerry said, "Well, I don't want them doing that. I think that's wrong. . . . I'm going to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists, and I believe that I will wage a far-more effective war on terror than George Bush has."
Analysts Say Bin Laden Threatened Individual States Who Vote For Bush.
The New York Post reports bin Laden "warned in his October Surprise video that he will be closely monitoring the state-by-state election returns in tomorrow's presidential race – and will spare any state that votes against President Bush from being attacked, according to a new analysis of his statement." The "respected Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and translates Arabic media and Internet sites, said initial translations of a key portion of bin Laden's video. . .missed an ostentatious bid by" bin Laden "to divide American voters and tilt the election towards" John Kerry. MEMRI "said radical Islamist commentators monitored over the Internet this past weekend also interpreted the key passage of bin Laden's diatribe to mean that any U.S. state that votes to elect Bush on Tuesday will be considered an 'enemy' and any state that votes for Kerry has 'chosen to make peace with us.' The statement in question is when bin Laden said on the tape: 'Your security is up to you, and any state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security.'" Yigal Carmon, "president of MEMRI, said bin Laden used the Arabic term 'ay-wilaya' to refer to a 'state' in that sentence. That term 'specifically refers to an American state, like Tennessee,' Carmon said, adding that if bin Laden were referring to a 'country' he would have used the Arabic word 'dawla.'" MEMRI "also translated an analysis of bin Laden's statement from the Islamist Web site al-Qal'a. . .which agreed that bin Laden's use of the word 'ay-wilaya' was meant as a 'warning to every U.S state separately.' 'It means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president, it means that it chose to fight us and we will consider it an enemy to us, and any state that will vote against Bush, it means that it chose to make peace with us and we will not characterize it as an enemy,' the Web site said, according to MEMRI's translation."
Franks, DeLong Says Kerry Wrong In Criticizing Bush On Tora Bora.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, ret. Gen. Tommy Franks says, "With the release of the latest Osama bin Laden tape, Sen. Kerry has once again attempted to capitalize on Americans' most urgent security concerns. The notion that we 'outsourced' our mission at Tora Bora is completely wrong. The Afghan forces at Tora Bora were working in concert with the best fighting forces America has to offer." And in another Wall Street Journal op-ed, ret. Gen. Michael DeLong, who was second in command at Central Command, "sets the record straight" on Tora Bora, saying, "If anyone should be accountable, it should be us. And we are more than satisfied with the way we handled the Afghan war – including Tora Bora. If we had to do it again, we'd do it exactly the same way."
