32 Comments

1. Lola:

There is this troll who’s been posting all over the place on Polipundit . . . he was warning that something was going to happen 10/28 and that Kerry would win. No posts from him today . . . apparently several bloggers have turned him to DHS. Here’s the link . . .

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:09 am 2. David Thomson:

Here is another story which should also not be ignored:

ìBAGHDAD ó Leaders and supporters of the anti-U.S. insurgency say their attacks in recent weeks have a clear objective: The greater the violence, the greater the chances that President Bush will be defeated on Tuesday and the Americans will go home.

††††“If the U.S. Army suffered numerous humiliating losses, [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John] Kerry would emerge as the superman of the American people,” said Mohammad Amin Bashar, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line clerical group that vocally supports the resistance.î

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041027-121030-7792r.htm

Common sense dictates that the Islamic nihilists desire the destruction of George W. Bush. Voting for John Kerry will please them. What is so difficult to understand?

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:20 am 3. ed:

What, you think terorrists can’t read the polls that show Bush does well after a threat?

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:26 am 4. Peter G.:

Do the terrorists ever mention specifics when they plan an attack? There were no warnings before 9/11. Were there warnings re Bali and Spain? There have been numerous terrorist threats via audio and videotape that targeted the US over the past couple years. Were these threats thwarted, or was the threat itself a scare tactic because the terrorists knew they couldn’t pull off an attack?

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:29 am 5. Rick Ballard:

We’ll have to see the tape of course, but he certainly seems to have the message for which the Kerry campaign/MSM/UN have been preparing. One might wonder if al Quaeda has properly registered as a 527. If they haven’t, they may very well be in violation of the McCain/Feingold act for giving what amounts to ’soft money’ help to the Kerry campaign.

I wonder if Kerry’s voice will be played at the end of the tape? “I’m John Kerry and I approve this ad.” might take some of the sting out of al Quaeda not having registered.

BTW – Avoid the rush – give blood today.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:30 am 6. Johan Amedeus Metesky:

This should not be surprising. Jewish history if full of apostates, renegades and others of Jewish descent who turned on their community.

It’s been said that if Jews don’t raise their children to be Jews, their grandchildren or great-grandchildren will be Jew-haters.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:31 am 7. Katherine:

Not that this is unexpectedÖ We all knew they would try. However, I wonder whether this is only a scare tactic: vote Kerry and you will be safe. Usually when they talk they do not follow with action. I worry more when they limit themselves to ìchatterî.

Hannity had an interview with Bush yesterday and the Prez said that they were on alert against any terrorist attempt, but they knew of nothing specific.

I’d like to know how long ABCNews had this tape before they chose to share it with the CIA.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:31 am 8. Peter G.:

Ed, the terrorists believe the attack before the elections in Spain helped defeat the incumbent. Whether it did or not, it was interpreted that way.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:34 am 9. Eric Akawie:

This is the kind of story that Rantburg.com is likely to be all over. Unfortunately, I can’t get there right now.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:42 am 10. Rick Ballard:

Peter G.,

I think that Ed has a good point. I think that this Kerry/al Queada ad is a bit of a risky tactic that may backfire. Certainly, the Arafat statement of support for Kerry didn’t seem to have much of a positive impact for him. I’ll grant that it didn’t get much play in the MSM but it was out there. It’s just unfortunate that Saddam isn’t allowed to voice his support for Kerry.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:49 am 11. Gerry:

Mr. Simon,

I think this is interesting.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:00 am 12. David Thomson:

ìEd, the terrorists believe the attack before the elections in Spain helped defeat the incumbent. Whether it did or not, it was interpreted that way.î

Yes indeed, there is little doubt thatís how the Islamic nihilists interpreted the removal of our coalitionís partners from power. If it worked once, why wonít it work again? They may very well be underestimating the American electorate—but itís a reasonable mistake on their part. Good God almighty, it is naive to believe that our enemies are not closely watching our election process. CNN is seen virtually everywhere on this planet.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:01 am 13. Knucklehead:

Given that CBS couldn’t pull off Rathergate with four years of effort and the NYT couldn’t pull off Nytrogate with 18 months of effort, can we blame ABC for sitting on this for a week? They need more time that that to find a way to blame this idiot on GWB.

BTW, far be it from me to defend any element of the MSM, but if ABC ran with this thing I suspect they’d have Acnegate on their hands pronto – both my daughters went to HS with several kids who looked an awful lot like those pictures. (We all know you’re listening, Mr. Ashcroft, so don’t bother sending the MIB around to my house; they were small classes – get the yearbooks and look ‘em up for yourself. I don’t know where they are.)

Is there any evidence this idiot is anything other than a noisemaker?

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:03 am 14. Piranha:

From LA City Beat http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1212&IssueNum=66

Adam Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman in Orange County. His father, acclaimed í60s underground psychedelic musician Phil Pearlman, was the one who chose the name Gadahn. Phil Pearlman founded the West Coast group Beat of the Earth, a band often compared by critics to their East Coast counterpart, the Velvet Underground.

Though this part of the story might have caused a few in middle America to pause, Californians are accustomed to living with leftover í60s culture, from the Heal the Bay movement to the Krishna festivals on Venice Beach. So itís not strange that a gifted í60s counterculture hero, the son of a Jewish urologist and a Christian housewife, would change his name to Gadahn shortly after getting married because (according to a former band mate) they wanted a name that ìmeant nothing.î Also not strange was that they moved to a farm in rural Riverside County and took up the profession of raising and ìhumanelyî slaughtering goats for market. Equally not strange is that Adam and his siblings were home-schooled and raised without running water and electricity. Eccentric, West Coast, out there in ìla la land,î but not strange.

At around age 15, Adam moved out, changed his name back to Pearlman, and stayed with his grandparents in Santa Ana, presumably ñ among other things ñ to watch television and not have to shower out in the woods in the dark. What kid wouldnít? He then became so obsessed by death metal that, as he writes in ìBecoming Muslim,î he ìdidnít clean his roomî for a year.

According to his sister, Los Angeles environmentalist Nancy Pearlman, their father was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War. She told CNN, ìOur family are strong believers in non-violence. We are strong believers in peace.î

The little available evidence supports this. If you go online to the Lama Workshop at lysergia.com, a source for all things folksy, retro, and psychedelic, you can read at length about Beat of the Earth. In an interview, former band member Karen Darby recalls her brief reunion with Pearlman in 1994, around the re-release of the bandís Relatively Clean Rivers album. (Itís one of those í60s albums: two songs, one per side, each seemingly about 60 minutes long.)

ìHe had married a wonderful woman who was totally supportive and involved in his choice of lifestyle Ö .The Ranch had NO electricity, they also used a well for water. He was raising goats, which according to him he slaughtered personally and humanely whenever preparing them for market Ö . For some reason I had a hard time envisioning Phil killing anything. One of the funnier situations he described about his family situation was his utter disgust with his in-laws for giving his kids a battery-operated television. He said he was having to act as the TV police, trying to limit the ways in which television might damage his children permanently.î

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:11 am 15. Jonathan Sabin:

Josh Marshall thinks it’s a fake. It’s pretty disturbing:

“I half expect that by tomorrow we’ll be watching a grainy video of Ken Mehlman, decked out in a phony beard a la Woody Allen in Bananas, bellowing that he and his boss OBL are about to take over America with one mammoth terror attack and institute compulsory gay marriage before forcibly converting everyone to Islam.

I can only hope that we’ve finally come to point where even the standard pushovers in the mainstream media are getting wise to this song and dance.”

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:19 am 16. Rick Ballard:

“Josh Marshall thinks it’s a fake.”

I can’t say anything about your home planet but here on earth that’s not considered to be dispositive.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:25 am 17. PeterUK:

“In the meantime, I had become obsessed with demonic Heavy Metal music, something the rest of my family (as I now realize, rightfully so) was not happy with. My entire life was focused on expanding my music collection. I eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray. My relationship with my parents became strained, although only intermittently so.”

What happened to the boy,up to there he was a normal teenager?

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:26 am 18. Charlie (Colorado):

Jonathan, if there’s anything that would worry me about this, it’s that Josh thinks it’s fake.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:32 am 19. Matt Evans:

Apparently, Karl Rove got to the Islamofacists in Iraq…

He’s a criminal genius, I tell you !

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:34 am 20. Jonathan Sabin:

What I find disturbing is not that he considers it a fake, after all, being skeptical is prudent. It’s his assumed source. His “half-expectation” of Ken Melhman decked out in a phony beard a la Woody Allen in Bananas, shows how over the edge he is. There is nothing at this point, other than the tapes existance, to suggest anything, much less who might have made it and why.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:44 am 21. Syl:

Lola

I’ve been hanging at Polipundit lately, I don’t think AKB is a troll or a terrorist. He actually has a sense of humor. He just thinks that celebrities will all be endorsing Kerry on Thursday and that will make Americans switch to Kerry.

If he’s wrong, he’ll deliver free pizzas…vegetarian only. He cracks me up.

Poor guy. He is muslim. He is from Turkey. He’ll probably lose his job.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:46 am 22. David Thomson:

ìIs there any evidence this idiot is anything other than a noisemaker?î

This is also the initial response of Ann Althouse: ìMaybe ABC is holding this story because it’s a piece of junk that it shouldn’t air under any circumstances.î

http://instapundit.com/archives/018692.php

I think, however, that “Adam Pearlman” is the real deal. This is someone who existentially loves to submit to authority. Eric Hoffer would describe Pearlman as ìa guilt-ridden hitchhiker who thumbs a ride on every cause from Christianity to Communism. Heís a fanatic, needing a Stalin (or a Christ) to worship and die for. Heís a mortal enemy of things-as-they-are, and he insists on sacrificing himself for a dream impossible to attain. He (The True Believer) is everywhere on the march.î No, this young man follows orders and is unlikely to act on his own.

Oct 27, 2004 - 11:46 am 23. Ben:

Adam Pearlman is the fruits of the Left’s fondest dreams. The Left wants to tear down the traditional building blocks of our society (e.g., Judeo-Christian tradition, liberal democracy, etc.) so that it can build whatever utopian society happens to be in vogue that day on the ashes. Thus, for the last 40+ years they have actively engaged in efforts to undermine our society and traditions. The problem is that when you tear down the old you can never be sure what the new will look like. Young Adam appears to have been reared in a nice, tolerant home where he was taught to be nice and tolerant (Ok so far). BUT, he was never taught WHY he should be nice and tolerant. As a consequence, he grew up without a firm set of spiritual and/or ethical beliefs — the perfect blank slate for the Islamic extremists.

Oct 27, 2004 - 12:07 pm 24. ed:

“Good God almighty, it is naive to believe that our enemies are not closely watching our election process. CNN is seen virtually everywhere on this planet.”

That’s exactly my point man! Every time there is a terror threat, Bush’s numbers go UP. Anyone with a television set or access to a computer knows that. It makes you almost think that those who make threats want Bush to win.

Oct 27, 2004 - 12:09 pm 25. David Thomson:

ìIt makes you almost think that those who make threats want Bush to win.î

Oh wow, you simply are not getting it. The terrorists were successful in Spain. Some of them may not quite grasp the possibility that Americans might react differently. They also suspect that John Kerry will wimp out at the first opportunity.

Oct 27, 2004 - 12:20 pm 26. Occam's Beard:

Re Islamofascists gaming the US election, let’s not impute diabolical perspicacity to them.

IIRC, they bagged a number of people to force their governments to withdraw their troops from Iraq, only to find that those governments didn’t have any troops in Iraq. Oops.

In keeping with my nom de Net, I suggest we adopt the simplest hypothesis consistent with the facts, namely, that Islamofascists would rather have the softer enemy than the harder one.

In any case, to think that they would prefer Bush to enhance their recruiting is silly. By that logic, Kucinich’s election would presumably demoralize Al Qaeda so much it would disband!

Oct 27, 2004 - 12:38 pm 27. Syl:

In Kerry’s new ad he complains that Bush left Iraq’s borders open and thus 1000’s of terrorists are pouring into Iraq.

As if that’s a bad thing.

Remember tens of thousands of these goons went through the training camps in Afghanistan. There was no problem recruiting before they’d ever heard of Bush.

Now we’re killing them.

Oct 27, 2004 - 1:13 pm 28. Charlie (Colorado):

It’s not all bad news today….

Oct 27, 2004 - 1:39 pm 29. jerry:

Since I have not seen the tape or read transcript I don’t know if this threat credible or not. I think at a minimum it is a clever gimmick to put people on edge before the election. It may be the real deal. Even if it is the assets required to execute plan may have already been terminated in some fashion.

As many people have observed, any terrorist activity probably helps Bush. However, Al Qaeda has been rather tone deaf when it comes to assessing US reaction. As any Israeli military officer will tell you, Arabs don’t change. They will tell that they face an upgunned 1948 threat. UBL has had his perceptions formed [or warped] by Clinton’s weak responses. I don’t think he truly understands what makes America tick. Yamamoto understood that having failed at Pearl Harbor the war was lost. Perhaps we can send copies of ìTora! Tora! Tora!î to UBLís mountain home.

This is probably my one and only post on this tape because I suspect that I will be reading the assessments in tomorrow mornings briefing book.

Also ABC will not run the tape if it is judged authentic. It could be a BBC-like trigger for action.

Oct 27, 2004 - 3:40 pm 30. Katherine:

jerry,

Ah, but Yamamoto was a member of a civilization, while Osama (or his shadow) is not. Takes one to understand one.

BTW, thank you for the insight.

Oct 27, 2004 - 4:50 pm 31. Terrye:

I think the terrorists probably do think they can threaten us and change the outcome of the election. And they think Kerry is a wuss and Bush is the enemy.

After all we are dealing with people that want to establish a world wide caliphate and bring back the middle ages. Reality is not their strong suit.

They think in terms of strong horse, weak horse.

Oct 27, 2004 - 6:16 pm 32. PJ:

Maybe the FBI is not really doubting the authenticity of the tape but is rolling up Adam’s known accomplices before they get wind of his tape.

Remember when Hadayet shot up LAX and the FBI said they couldn’t make an exact ID? The whole time, they were searching his apartment and carting away his computer and records, and finally announced his name as the press caught on. By that time, the FBI had secured the apartment and taken away what they needed.

Oct 27, 2004 - 10:32 pm

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