Shoot_The_Kids
02-19-2003, 02:40 PM
Interpreting the bin Laden Tape
The Bush Administration has seized on the Osama bin Laden tape to buttress its weak case that Al Qaeda and Saddam have been in league together.
But you call this proof?
Colin Powell said the tape demonstrates that Al Qaeda "is in partnership with Iraq," adding, "This nexus . . . can no longer be looked away from or ignored."
Ari Fleischer said, "If that is not an unholy partnership, I have not heard of one."
George Tenet said, "What he says on the tape is unprecedented in terms of the way he expresses solidarity with Baghdad."
Well, let's look at the tape.
If you read a transcript of it, you'll find that bin Laden repeatedly condemns Saddam and his Baath Party as "socialists" and "infidels."
Bin Laden explicitly rejects the idea that he is fighting for Saddam Hussein. "The fight has to be only for the sake of God, not to make nationalities win and not to support the archaic systems that pervade all over the Arab states, including Iraq."
He is careful to talk about "Muslims in Iraq" or "our Muslim brothers in Iraq," differentiating the people of Iraq from its government. "This crusade war, first and foremost, has to do with the people of Islam, regardless of the survival or the destruction of the socialist party or Saddam."
Bin Laden says that "the interests of Muslims contradict the interest of the socialists." But he does say that, "in the fight against the crusaders," this contradiction "does not hurt." That is the closest he comes to allying with Saddam.
If anything, the tape proves what George Tenet and the CIA were predicting back in October: that only an imminent U.S. war against Iraq would bring Saddam and bin Laden closer together. If it's a shotgun marriage, George Bush is holding the shotgun.
Some members of the media seemed surprised that bin Laden would condemn Saddam as an "infidel," since that is one of the slurs bin Laden hurls at the United States. But bin Laden has been characterizing Saddam and his cronies in this way for years. They are old enemies: Bin Laden offered to raise an army for Saudi Arabia to expel Iraq from Kuwait back in 1990. And bin Laden has not had a kind word to say about him since.
Such inconvenient facts don't fit within the Bush-Powell propaganda mill, so we're not supposed to focus on them, but there they are.
Bin Laden's tape makes perfect sense from his warped theological and political point of view. Pretending he is the pious defender of Allah, he has long wanted to expel the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. As he says in his letter, "the crusaders" are trying to "occupy the capital of Islam in the past and to usurp the wealth of Muslims and to put up a puppet government to control you."
The U.S. invasion of Iraq thus allows Saddam another rallying cry.
Bin Laden also sees Bush's Iraq war as an opportunity to try to topple "oppressive and infidel" regimes throughout the Muslim world. And, ironically, the war may have that effect.
In this sense, bin Laden and Bush are helping each other out. The United States appears to be acting to type, bullying its way into Muslim lands, or so bin Laden can easily argue. And bin Laden, by calling for a defense of Iraq, invites Bush to make the case, however specious, that Al Qaeda and Saddam have been hand-in-glove for quite a while now. It bears repeating that there is absolutely no proof whatsoever that Saddam had anything to do with September 11, and not a single Iraqi was among the hijackers.
Those of us who have opposed Bush's Iraq war have long warned that it would be a recruiting call for Al Qaeda and a green light for increased terrorism against the United States.
Bin Laden's tape promises both. And that's nothing for Powell or Fleischer or Tenet to crow about.
The Bush Administration has seized on the Osama bin Laden tape to buttress its weak case that Al Qaeda and Saddam have been in league together.
But you call this proof?
Colin Powell said the tape demonstrates that Al Qaeda "is in partnership with Iraq," adding, "This nexus . . . can no longer be looked away from or ignored."
Ari Fleischer said, "If that is not an unholy partnership, I have not heard of one."
George Tenet said, "What he says on the tape is unprecedented in terms of the way he expresses solidarity with Baghdad."
Well, let's look at the tape.
If you read a transcript of it, you'll find that bin Laden repeatedly condemns Saddam and his Baath Party as "socialists" and "infidels."
Bin Laden explicitly rejects the idea that he is fighting for Saddam Hussein. "The fight has to be only for the sake of God, not to make nationalities win and not to support the archaic systems that pervade all over the Arab states, including Iraq."
He is careful to talk about "Muslims in Iraq" or "our Muslim brothers in Iraq," differentiating the people of Iraq from its government. "This crusade war, first and foremost, has to do with the people of Islam, regardless of the survival or the destruction of the socialist party or Saddam."
Bin Laden says that "the interests of Muslims contradict the interest of the socialists." But he does say that, "in the fight against the crusaders," this contradiction "does not hurt." That is the closest he comes to allying with Saddam.
If anything, the tape proves what George Tenet and the CIA were predicting back in October: that only an imminent U.S. war against Iraq would bring Saddam and bin Laden closer together. If it's a shotgun marriage, George Bush is holding the shotgun.
Some members of the media seemed surprised that bin Laden would condemn Saddam as an "infidel," since that is one of the slurs bin Laden hurls at the United States. But bin Laden has been characterizing Saddam and his cronies in this way for years. They are old enemies: Bin Laden offered to raise an army for Saudi Arabia to expel Iraq from Kuwait back in 1990. And bin Laden has not had a kind word to say about him since.
Such inconvenient facts don't fit within the Bush-Powell propaganda mill, so we're not supposed to focus on them, but there they are.
Bin Laden's tape makes perfect sense from his warped theological and political point of view. Pretending he is the pious defender of Allah, he has long wanted to expel the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. As he says in his letter, "the crusaders" are trying to "occupy the capital of Islam in the past and to usurp the wealth of Muslims and to put up a puppet government to control you."
The U.S. invasion of Iraq thus allows Saddam another rallying cry.
Bin Laden also sees Bush's Iraq war as an opportunity to try to topple "oppressive and infidel" regimes throughout the Muslim world. And, ironically, the war may have that effect.
In this sense, bin Laden and Bush are helping each other out. The United States appears to be acting to type, bullying its way into Muslim lands, or so bin Laden can easily argue. And bin Laden, by calling for a defense of Iraq, invites Bush to make the case, however specious, that Al Qaeda and Saddam have been hand-in-glove for quite a while now. It bears repeating that there is absolutely no proof whatsoever that Saddam had anything to do with September 11, and not a single Iraqi was among the hijackers.
Those of us who have opposed Bush's Iraq war have long warned that it would be a recruiting call for Al Qaeda and a green light for increased terrorism against the United States.
Bin Laden's tape promises both. And that's nothing for Powell or Fleischer or Tenet to crow about.