36 Comments

1. Terrye:

This is not the first time that WaPo has shown more care and concern on their stories. I don’t always agree with them but they are definitely more even handed than NYT. I just hope that does not change.

Oct 29, 2004 - 12:20 pm 2. lindenen:

The return of OBL? Interesting. The real October surprise?

Oct 29, 2004 - 12:32 pm 3. notthisgirl:

To bad Allah isn’t around. He could Photo-shop a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on the backside of Osama’s camel.

Oct 29, 2004 - 12:55 pm 4. Jay - MN:

HEADLINE:

NY TIMES MISSING 340 TONS OF INTEGRITY.

CBS: ìWE DONíT HAVE ITî

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:13 pm 5. Jay - MN:

JOHN KERRY: “I SURE DON’T HAVE IT”

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:18 pm 6. Katherine:

Looks like Rick was on the money. Osama is about to tell us how to vote. Presumably, we will be hit if we not obey. Or more likely we will be hit regardless.

I admit to be scared shitless.

I am voting for Bush.

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:38 pm 7. Lem:

Kinda OT, maybe.

Tom Brokaw: Senator, if things are so wrong in Iraq and in America, why is this election still so close, just the weekend before Election Day?

Sen. John Kerry: Because it’s polarized. And because the Bush campaign has mostly run a very negative campaign to push the hot buttons of polarization. So it’s very hard. Particularly when you’re a nation at war.

When YOU are a nation at war? Is Kerry saying HE is not at war?

He could have said; Particularly when our nation is at war. Or; Particularly because we are a nation at war.

He could have said this any number of ways, but in the end his instinct is to distance himself from conflict. Our enemy knows this about Kerry with particularity.

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:45 pm 8. wmartin:

Although the WaPo is a bit more honest within the stories (how could it not be?), as recently as yesterday the story above the fold and the text on the front page was about how the story had become important to the race. Nothing about how the story was false.

They’re better than NYT, but not by a lot.

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:49 pm 9. Lem:

BTW, The interview is on MSNBC

There are a few more nugets in it.

Oct 29, 2004 - 1:50 pm 10. RogerA:

Katherine: take heart; assuming the tape is genuine, what it does indicate that AQ is not able to hit us–otherwise he would not have used a lame tape when he could have used bombs.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:00 pm 11. Terrye:

I was wrong.

That mother fucker is alive.

And he is chanelling Micahel Moore. He actually made a reference to the pet goat thingee.

Way to go Michael.

I have no idea how this will effect the election, if at all.

But if Kerry starts the I could of got him crap somebody shoud remind him that OBL was building his nasty little empire while Kerry and Clinton and Biden were screwing around and in general ignoring his ass.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:07 pm 12. Katherine:

RogerA,

I am afraid of the ìcoded messageî in the tape. Thatís how they used it before, didnít they.

Of course, it was forgone conclusion that they will try to hit us. I am still hoping that we will be lucky. But I am scared.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:08 pm 13. jerry:

Katherine:

Take heart, I am at ground zero and I am not afraid. If my uncle could survive a year of European combat I think my chances are pretty good to survive any attack short of a nuke. I don’t think you have anything to worry about. San Francisco is not on A list.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:14 pm 14. Katherine:

Guys,

Thank you! But I am not scared for myself personally (well, maybe a little). I am scared for all of us here in America.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:24 pm 15. Terrye:

A guy at LGF had an interestinng comment. He said the outfit [lovely doncha think?] that Mr. Bin Laden, [aka murdering son of a whore] is wearing is the same as he wore in a wedding video. He says this is a hoax. You can’t read lips for all the effing facial hair and the voice is too low to hear, all we really hear is the translator.

Could this be true? I heard the tape is real.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:41 pm 16. Mark Poling:

Well, I would have lost money on the “Osama: Alive or Dead” bet. (Assuming it is Osama; safest to assume it is.)

I truly loathe the prospect of the Sunday talk shows.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:42 pm 17. rumblestrip:

Roger:

Forgive me, this is way OT but I want you to go The Daily Recycler for one of the funniest videos you will ever see.

Oct 29, 2004 - 2:59 pm 18. Joe:

I’ve been saying for the last several years that the WaPo is maturing into a more serious, thoughtful and responsible paper than the New York Times. Their coverage of the early phase of the war was first-rate (no doubt because of the inside access Bob Woodward had while he was writing his two books) and their editorial page has consistently supported Bush on core issues of the war (their endorsement of Kerry was remarkably tepid and one gets the impression that, unlike the NYT editorial board, the WaPo editorial board wouldn’t rush out and commit mass seppuku if Bush wins) and has been sharply critical of the more hysterical Bush-hating moonbattery. Their editorial on Qaqaagate the other day, unlike a lot of other MSM outlets I could name, actually talked at length about the suspicious role of the IAEA in broadcasting this “story”. Now, if only I didn’t have to read Meyerson, Dionne, Cohen, etc. on the op-ed page…

Oct 29, 2004 - 3:20 pm 19. Rick Ballard:

Katherine,

The possibility of an election affecting strike falls by the hour. At this time tomorrow it will be close to zero. Bin Laden’s feeble endorsement of Kerry isn’t going to have any effect in either direction.

It may be that al Queda realizes that Kerry has no hope and that an attack at this time will just shorten their already attenuated life expectancey. It may also be that they find it impossible to mount an operation large enough to impress us.

Oct 29, 2004 - 3:32 pm 20. Barrett:

I also share Katherine’s concern. It worked in Spain. To OBL and company, what do they have to lose? They are fighting a guerilla war. If they hit us and it throws the election to Kerry (and I am not saying it would), they know they will have time to regroup and rearm while Kerry pursues his Global Test. If Bush wins, he’s going to keep coming after them as he should.

Regarding the WaPo, is isn’t that hard to be more even handed than the NYT. What is the comparison? Some versus none?

Iraq was an ammo dump under Saddam. As a percentage of the total, we are discussing somewhere between .035% and .05% regarding Al-Qaqaa. Given all of the issues surrounding the validity of the report, I would say this is immaterial.

Oct 29, 2004 - 3:53 pm 21. Thom:

Getting back to the NYT vs. Post, could the White House (and Republicans in Congress) simply freeze out the NYT (and the Boston Globe) after the election (assuming Bush wins)? I mean, really freeze them out, no comment on anything to a reporter for the Times. The Post, and other papers would have normal access, but for the Times, noting.

Where would people go to get the news, from the Post, NY Post, Newsday, Daily News, etc.

Is that feasible, what would happen?

Oct 29, 2004 - 3:55 pm 22. Katherine:

ìThe possibility of an election affecting strike falls by the hour. At this time tomorrow it will be close to zero. Bin Laden’s feeble endorsement of Kerry isn’t going to have any effect in either direction.î

Rick,

Why do you think so? It worked in Spain ( I know, we are not Spanish, but we all human ñ with the exception of Mike Moore, perhaps). And if the attack occured on the Election Day itself, donít you think that would move voters one way or the other?

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:06 pm 23. Old Grouch:

Katherine and TerryeIf I was auditioning for the part of an Evil Overlord, I’d be sure to make up some spare tapes in advance– just in case. (To mess my opponents’ minds, if nothing else!) After all, the renomination of Bush is what you might call a high-probability event.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:11 pm 24. Rick Ballard:

Katherine,

It’s a matter of tempo and temperment. The reaction of the Spanish government – trying to tie the train bombing to the Basques – may have had as big an impact as the bombings themselves. The Jakarta attack had minimal and perhaps negative effect on the Australian election as far as al Queada is concerned. In order for an attack here to affect the election would take (IMO) a minimum of three days. I don’t think that the DNC/MSM would dare use it against the President in the first 48 hours. In order to have maximum effect (again IMO) a strike would have had to occur yesterday or today. I certainly don’t mind being wrong about a strike occuring and we still have tomorrow to get through but, as I said above, the chances diminish by the hour.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:19 pm 25. Mike:

Today’s WAPO also carried a quote today from Anthony Cordesman, one of the foremost western experts on Iraqi military capabilities:

“There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons of rather ordinary explosives, regardless of what actually happened at al Qaqaa,” Anthony H. Cordesman, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an assessment yesterday. “The munitions at al Qaqaa were at most around 0.06 percent of the total.”

Cordesman sums up this story rather succinctly with the terms ” truly absurd,” and ” rather ordinary explosives.”

By the way, I also stumbled across a story online from January 2003, dealing with Britain selling HMX pellets to Iran (yeah….., Iran, and on the eve of regime change bext door no less). The HMX was to be for civilian applications only, and Britain was confident Iran wouldn’t convert the stuff to military use, despite some opposition to the sale domestically and in Israel. What was really noteworthy, was there seems to be no indication the IAEA gave a flying f%#$ about the sale. All those seeking to use this story to topple Bush have been playing up the destructiveness of this stuff, to the point where you’d think a piece of HMX the size of a smartie would flatten Chicago. Now I see Britain was selling the same stuff to Iran, last year, and no one cared.

Finally, hasn’t the mainstream media done a wonderful job suppressing Charles Duelfer reporting this week that he personally, as a member of UNSCOM, asked the IAEA in 1995 to destroy precisely these same explosives that form today’s tempest in a tea cup? The IAEA, by the way, said ” Don’t worry, be happy, the Iraqis only want it for civilian applications like mining.”

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:22 pm 26. Katherine:

Thanks, Rick.

I think I need to adjust my meds. Two weeks of perfect diving relaxation gone in smoke.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:33 pm 27. Syl:

I also feel the WaPo is worthy of less condemnation than the Times. But then this is the first time I’ve ever been on the ‘other’ side and I have been, quite frankly, shocked by the bias I see. Shocked, saddened, angered, outraged. I had no idea.

So my viewpoint is probably more emotional than anything else right now.

As to the OBL tape, I agree with RogerA. They’re just not able to do it now so scare tactics have to suffice.

An American al Qaeda…shocking and frightening.

OBL showing up FINALLY after almost three years. Shocking and frightening.

I believe al Qaeda had decided not to attack inside America after Bush’s forceful response.

But now they’ve changed their minds. Zawahiri seemed to have said as much by telling his people to go ahead because America will fight back either way. (This was a couple of months ago.)

They simply haven’t had the time to develop their attack yet. I do expect another attempt…hopefully we’ll be able to stop it…and it would be something worse than 9/11 but I don’t think it could happen for another year or two. They have to be perfect.

Something to look forward to.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:42 pm 28. Katherine:

Old Grouch,

I was 99% sure that Osama was dead.

I am currently 99% sure that the evil m**f**er is alive.

But at this point this is almost inconsequential; it is the Death Cult that matters. Without Osama, the Islamist barbarians would still want us dead. They were chanting ìDeath to Americaî and taking American hostages since 1979 without any help from the Osama.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:44 pm 29. RogerA:

Rick–concur with your assessment–I might also add to the mix that AQ does not normally broadcast threats in advance; had they the weaponry to affect us in the continental United States they would have continued to do that I believe and not have waited–and I am talking about relatively simple things like backpack bombs in bus terminals; they could not even affect the vote in Afghanistan which is considerably nearer their base of operations than is the US; and finally, our efforts against AQ infrastructure are bearing fruit (recall all the arrests after the computer hard drive surfaced last summer in Pakistan). In short this tape is a feeble PR stunt, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. It will give the sunday talk shows new grist for their chattering mills and keep the issue of terrorism focused as a front page issue.

The only possible thing I can see that is “useful” about it is that it gives the public a chance to see how the candidates react to the tape. I frankly find it a bit disgusting that the concern among the chattering classes is not the issue of terrorism, but how a tape by terrorist leader will affect the American election, and who “benefits” or loses.” The issue to me is, does he (OBL) still have any capability, and if a tape is all that can be produced, the administration has pretty effectively isolated the sorry SOB.

PS: Terrye! you language is rapidly approaching my cavalry vocabulary.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:48 pm 30. Syl:

On the qaqaagate stuff, I liked Rick Leventhal’s commentary over at Foxnews.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,136803,00.html

If only everybody could read this.

Oct 29, 2004 - 4:54 pm 31. Katherine:

All right.

Lucid explanations from Rick and RogerA and half a bottle of McCallan later I feel somehow better.

Brung ish on, you blooody Oshama!

Oct 29, 2004 - 5:24 pm 32. Rick Ballard:

“the administration has pretty effectively isolated the sorry SOB.”

If we get through tomorrow without an attack I’m going to have to revise my thinking a bit concerning the “effectively” bit. I now think I may have given too much credit to the “every time we kill one another springs up” theory. This (and yesterday’s) tape are not effective recruiting tools without deeds to match the words.

Oct 29, 2004 - 5:39 pm 33. Kevin P:

Thom:

The process story is a staple of most of the MSM and it is the classic tactic to spread the original slander without having to claim authorship or expose oneself to accusations of partisinship. Most of these stories start of with a recap of the original story, often without the explanation that many of the key accusations have been debunked or are questionable at best. This allows the pundit to spread the rumour without doing the real reporting job of verifying the accurracy of the story or debunking the story. the print press has been corrupted by the TV punditry sideline that sells more of their books and gives them more fame. They get more positive reaction from the process stories then their real job of reporting the facts. It also gives them them the illusion of gravitas when all they are doing is dime store gossip.

Oct 29, 2004 - 6:47 pm 34. RogerA:

Katherine: Rick and RogerA tip hats–”glad to be of service ma’am” and ride off in the sunset–Actually RogerA is heading for his bottle of Myers dark rum.

Oct 29, 2004 - 7:21 pm 35. Rick Ballard:

Not me, I got a tip on where Priivew is hiding and I’m goin’ after ‘im.

Oct 29, 2004 - 10:35 pm 36. Katherine:

Right, Rick, letís take care of the Priiwev bastard, even if we cannot get Osama.

Oct 29, 2004 - 10:55 pm

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