Bin Laden mouths off
Frankly, I have a hard time getting very exercised about Osama bin Laden's new videotape. Like Mark Steyn, I have thought all along that OBL has been pushing up several million tons of Afghan mountain since Operation Anaconda in the spring of 2002. But if this tape is authentic, as indications seem to confirm, then it would seem OBL dodged the bullet, or bombs. MSNBC reports,

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a Middle East specialist and former military official at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, said the tape appeared to have been made very recently. He noted that bin Laden refers to Kerry and to the possibility of election problems next week in Florida.

I would imagine that the FBI and CIA are trying to discern whether there are cuts, edits or voiceovers laid atop the video. But let me for the nonce assume that the tape is truly authentic in every regard.

So what? It's a yawner.

Apparently an attempt to influence American voters, the tape is the best al Qaeda can do. A videotape is their pre-election surprise. Last March, just before the Spanish elections, al Qaeda killed 200 Spaniards and wounded thousands more. But for the far more important American elections, all al Q. can do is pimp a couple of videotapes (recall the so-called "Azzam the American" tape this week).

Please don't misunderstand. I am not claiming victory over al Qaeda has been won and I am not saying we should let down our guard. Al Qaeda is still dangerous - but everything of recent months (well, the last two years) I know about the situation affirms that they are dangerous outside, not inside, the territory of the United States.

It's true there are still significant weaknesses in domestic security, especially ports and American life-support infrastructure such as water supplies. But al Qaeda can't get to them because we've attacked it so hard overseas. And not just militarily. One reason President Bush has refrained from criticizing the French is because while Chirac's government is no ally in Iraq, it is an important ally in Francophone Africa, where French intelligence is very active and effective. Africa, you may recall, is the coming thing in al Qaeda's operational base.

I pray no more catastrophes befall an American city and pray likewise for a swift end to the war on terrorism. But the new OBL tape should encourage us that we are winning. Before 9/11, bin Laden acted, not blustered. Now bluster is about all he's got against America, though al Qaeda sadly still kills abroad.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Wendell Phillips.

"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men"-- Edmund Burke

Update: Belmont Club says that this tape is "Osama Bin Laden's Surrender Proposal."

Captain's Quarters says that OBL "has been watching too many Michael Moore videos."

by Donald Sensing, 10/29/2004 05:26:04 PM. Permalink |