"Each state that does not harm our security will remain safe," bin
Laden promised, which was "why we did not attack Sweden, for example."

Osama Casts His Vote
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

Published: November 1, 2004

The big news in Osama bin Laden's message to American voters was not
his intercession in our election; that clumsy ploy was not as
successful as his pre-election panicking of Spain's voters.

Nor was the news his delight in the "pet goat" sequence in Michael
Moore's Bush-bashing film, and his admonition that "Bush is still
deceiving you and hiding the truth from you," echoing the central
Kerry theme. Nor was it the frustrating fact that our Global Enemy No.
1 is alive and well and still at large.

The unremarked news is that this mass murderer evidently seeks a kind
of truce. Although some coverage of his pre-election message noted an
unexpected "conciliatory tone," we have not fixed on the reason for
this change in his attitude.

"Each state that does not harm our security will remain safe," bin
Laden promised, which was "why we did not attack Sweden, for example."
His unmistakable import: if the U.S. were to stop our war on Qaeda
terror, which has killed or captured an estimated 75 percent of his
closest collaborators, that would be what he called "the ideal way to
avoid another Manhattan ..." Stop warring on terror and you will
"remain safe."

Generals do not call for a truce when they're winning. Only warriors
thrust on the defensive become conciliatory, hoping that negotiations
will give them time to regroup and resupply. Bin Laden's vain hope
seems to be that the defeat of Bush will give him time to buy or steal
a horrific weapon as an "equalizer."

Bin Laden was the second outsider to try to influence our election in
an "October surprise." I suspect the first was Mohamed ElBaradei, the
chief U.N. arms inspector, said to be miffed at the Bush
administration's refusal to support his bid for an unprecedented third
term.

He has long known about the presence of "nuclear trigger" explosives
(evidence of Saddam's nuclear ambitions?) in one of Iraq's thousands
of ammo dumps. But, The Wall Street Journal reports that with
exquisite political timing, on Oct. 1 ElBaradei sent a "reminder" to a
Baathist science minister renewing the U.N. interest in these
particular explosives. That produced a dutiful letter from the Iraqi
bureaucrat to the U.N. nine days later that was promptly leaked to CBS
News, which apparently turned to the more credible New York Times to
do most of the reporting.

CBS originally admitted intending to break its surprise accusations
about our troops' failure to secure the ammo on "60 Minutes" on Oct.
31, last night, only 36 hours before polls opened. Journalists call
that hyping device a "keeper" - holding a story for the moment when it
causes the most damage - which the victim cannot refute until after
Election Day, by which time it's too late. (Now CBS claims that the
network would never have done such a nefarious thing. Maybe, maybe
not; that plan should be part of the investigation by CBS's panel
looking into forged National Guard documents.)

The Times, to its ethical credit, refused to go along with CBS's
planned last-minute ambush and instead front-paged its article one
week ago. (Besides, competition was surfacing on the Internet.) That
time enabled other network news organizations to cast doubt on the
story. In addition, making our forces in the field look bad did not
sit well, and the Pentagon was able to show that the 400 tons possibly
missed by our advancing troops was one one-thousandth of the 400,000
tons found, secured or destroyed by the coalition.

What effect will these two manipulations by outsiders have on
America's election decision tomorrow?

Until it was partly discredited, the product of ElBaradei's shrewd
"reminder" damaged Bush by putting him on the defensive, giving
Democrats a final-week boost. If Kerry wins, the Egyptian should be
chief U.N. inspector for life.

But then came the Qaeda tape, followed by Bush's cool, nonpolitical
response, and then by Kerry's blunder in trying to capitalize on it.
Bin Laden's latest misreading of American public opinion plays to
Bush's antiterrorist strength.

For now, bin Laden's unwelcome intercession is taken to be anti-Bush
overkill. Coming from the fugitive terrorist, it will help ensure the
president's re-election. Later, we will understand bin Laden's phony
attempt at conciliation to be his first sign of weakness.


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"John Kerry gave the enemy for free what I and many of my comrades in
North Viet Nam prison camps took torture to avoid saying." -- Paul
Galanti POW Jan. 1966 - Feb. 1973

"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion

"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net