9/11 and Bush's Law of Bin Laden
By Jon Perr Wednesday Sep 10, 2008 1:00pm
With the anniversary of the September 11 attacks once again upon us, Bush's Law of Bin Laden is also again on display. That is, in the Bush playbook, the threat posed by Osama Bin Laden is directly proportional to the threat to the President's own political standing.
At the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Dana Perino played down the Bin Laden danger to her lame-duck boss' flatline political standing, if not to the American people:
Q: But Osama bin Laden is the one that - you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11 -
PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he's sitting in jail right now.
But back in January 2006, President Bush was singing a much different tune. Trying to fight back against the growing public outcry over his illegal domestic wiretapping program, President Bush used the Bin Laden bogeyman during remarks at the National Security Agency. Bush lashed out at his critics:
All I would ask them to do is listen to the words of Osama bin Laden and take him seriously. When he says he's going to hurt the American people again, or try to, he means it. I take it seriously, and the people of NSA take it seriously.
By May 2007, Bush turned to the specter of Bin Laden to justify both his regime of surveillance at home and his war without end in Iraq. During a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy, the President outlined a plot that connected Osama bin Laden and the head of al Qaeda in Iraq to terror plans intended to hit U.S. interests and the United States itself. A serious Bush intoned:
In January of last year, Osama bin Laden warned the American people: "Operations are under preparation and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished."
Of course, George W. Bush did not take Bin Laden seriously five years earlier. Questioned about his silence regarding Bin Laden in the months following the American failure to capture the Al Qaeda chieftain in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, a nonchalant Bush on March 13, 2002 downplayed his significance:
So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you...I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.
Bush may have been embarrassed by his failure to capture Bin Laden in 2002, but by the fall of 2004, he faced the prospect of American voters who seemed to recall the murder of 3,000 of their countrymen. In the third presidential debate with John Kerry, a childlike Bush on October 13, 2004 tried for a "do over" of his statement two and a half years earlier:
Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations. Of course we're worried about Osama bin Laden.
Which brings us full circle. In the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush used the specter of Osama Bin Laden to rally what had been a faltering presidency. In a show of frontier bravado, Bush talked tough about Bin Laden just days after the 9/11 attacks:
There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."
Seven years later, it is the Bush presidency itself which is dead. Bin Laden remains at large even as Bush's calamitous tenure winds down. In his waning days in office, George W. Bush is simply immune to further declines in popularity.
Which, according to Bush's Law, must mean Osama Bin Laden doesn't matter much anymore.
(This piece is crossposted at Perrspectives.)
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When are enough people going to call them on their bullshit. My god. Thanks Jon!!
Nothing illustrates the impotence and incompetence of this neocon administration like the continued freedom of Osama bin Laden.
Cheney killed those people. He was in command of the largest military in world history and he could not stop
4 of our own planes over our own air space. Why does no one every say that? Forget the conspiracy theories.
Bottom line, who was calling the shots when we were under attack. Cheney. Who failed to protect us. Cheney.
Who totally got what he wanted in the aftermath of the attacks? Cheney.
9/11 was used as pretext for ramping up war profits and ramping up 'war' authority of the 'Commander in
Chimp' err 'Chief'.Those are the facts.
NEWS FLASH:
America elected to office a cokehead, drunk, AWOL chickenhawk, coward, fratboy/cowboy loser. Eight years later, they want us to do it AGAIN!
Eight years...and he's still dumb as a rock.
Just imagine a conversation between Palin and Bush...every ear in the room would be bleeding.
Well, it's hard to find a corpse, especially one that wasn't actually involved in planning 9/11.
Check the FBI bin Laden page - no charge for 9/11 for him.
Of course, if they wanted to find the real mastermind who murdered those 3000 Americans, they won't be so successful. After all, HIS location is not even on Google Earth:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/07/what-is-google.html
Now that his father is in decline...Chimpy will become patriarch of the Bush family.
I guess there'll be an ambulance on call when he carves the Thanksgiving turkey.
My god these fucking people can't even keep their story straight about who was responsible for "masterminding" 9/11.
No wonder there is a 9/11 Truth movement. This government gives people very little reason to trust them.
He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
Herman Melville: Moby Dick
Liberal AND Proud @ 6:
LMAO!!!!
Damn that's funny as hell!
Of course, he's still completely oblivious to all of this:
www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
Or perhaps "willfully ignorant" is a better word. They are his bestest oil buddies in the Middle East, after all.
"I'm just a patsy" - Lee Harvey Oswald
What's it matter? The US voters don't have memories that long anyway. As far as they know the Democratic Congress caused 9/11.
It is rumored that the Oct. surprise is Osama’s capture. Obviously, the moronic Neo-Cons don’t know the meaning of the word Martyr.
Is it just me or does Ben Laden look like boosh with a beard?
No wonder I've never seen them photographed together.
Albatross @ 2:
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
– George W. Bush (August 5, 2004)
Roket @ 14:
I hope the disguise is gonna be a bit better than the fake nose and beard they put on the last guy.
Roket @ 14:
Bob Woodward: Bin Laden Capture Could Be October Surprise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvIomvGrzE
Leadership @ 3:
Fine prove that Cheney did it and then GW can be off the hook. Better yet give Cheney immunity so he can testify, then he'll take the heat and GW can go free.
Bottom line they are both evil and should both be taken down. Even after they are out of office impeach the bastards!
liberalNmoderation @ 10:
Of course, the MSM would report that they were speaking in tongues and three evangelicals would be on FOX claiming it was one of the signs of the Rapture.
And you know who'll get some of the credit for capturing Osama?
Bush's Boy: New CentCom Chief David Petreaus
How convenient.
Back in 1998 when Bush was governor Texas, I was living in Austin and I was married to an immigrant from the Middle East. At the time, A&E used to run programs about the first Gulf War. And this man would sit positively spellbound and transfixed and totally glued to his seat when they showed American jets taking off and landing on aircraft carriers. I mean his behavior was so noticeable, you might have thought he was a terrorist or something.
A dear friend Afghanistan who was studying here in the states on a Fulbright shared that the government of Afghanistan asked the Bush administration for proof that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. The Bush administration has never sent any proof that confirms or proves Osama Bin Laden's involvement. Jessie Ventura brought this up at the Ron Paul convention in Minnesota
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6La8rqA7Fo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-nT-luFIw
Here is Professor Juan cole's article on Osama and Al Queda
http://www.juancole.com/
Thursday, September 11, 2008
On the Seventh Anniversary of September 11: Time to Declare the original al-Qaeda Defeated
The original al-Qaeda is defeated.
It is a dangerous thing for an analyst to say, because obviously radical Muslim extremists may at some point set off some more bombs and then everyone will point fingers and say how wrong I was.
So let me be very clear that I do not mean that radical Muslim extremism has ceased to exist or that there will never be another bombing at their hands.
I mean the original al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda as a historical, concrete movement centered on Usama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, with the mujahideen who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s at their core. Al-Qaeda, the 55th Brigade of the Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban. That al-Qaeda. The 5,000 fighters and operatives or whatever number they amounted to.
That original al-Qaeda has been defeated.
This is like the FBI being after the capo of a crime family who ordered a hit and then when they capture the hitman say the job is done.
Do you think I'm an idiot? Oh yeah, you do!
But I'm not and neither is the rest of the country. Either you're after bin Laden or you're sleeping with him. Which is it Mr. Bush?
Heard at McCain/Palin rally..."can you smell bacon? oink oink oink"!
Oh, and for the record...this is supposed to be, for all intents and purposes a day of mourning and recollection.
I'm not suggesting it should be made a holiday, but the fact is...businesses should be closed today and a TOTAL moratorium on ANY type of political statement....and that includes the President.
The freakin' memorial isn't even built yet, and the big scar is still there. I thinki it should be a day of mourning at least till the tenth anniversary...or until they actually get SOMETHING permanent built as a memorial.
Dumbya,
You couldn't capture OBL if you were laying next to him in the White House master bedroom [Deleted. Let's not be so graphic, OK? We don't like seeing screenshots of over the top comments on right wing websites as an example of how the left expresses itself. What I left up says it all, pretty much, anyway. Thanks-Sitemonitor]
Left&Left @ 29:
There's an image.
Isn't Perino's statement a factual one (on both counts)? I don't question that this administration has played politics with terror in the past. But I don't see how her correcting a reporter on who the 9/11 mastermind was -- and stating that he's now imprisoned -- is a form of political manipulation.
Just days before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto told a British interviewer (it looks like David Frost) that she believed Osama was dead. She said she had talked with the man she said was his assassin.
I disagree. Why should Bush get credit for a new holiday?
That leaves the butler as the likely suspect.
Question:
What happens when you can't catch the bad guy?
You just decide he isn't the bad guy anymore, since you already caught the bad guy.
Everybody wins!
*Breaking*
From Bush:
"It was the butler in the pantry with the candlestick..."
The Bush Administration themselves know this is a crock. Why else would their chief liar lie another lie so off-handedly? This is just so they can have someone to quote about the mastermind of 9-11 being caught, even if they are the source of the quote. That and Bush's "legacy." It's like he has a list of things he's checking off before leaving office: Mastermind caught? - Check. Oil companies paid back? - Check. Rich getting richer? - Check.
Liberal AND Proud @ 22:
HA! On fire today L&P!!!
Since it's Patriot Day and all, I thought I'd shill my contributions today on the subject of patriotism, on The Pond.
And while I'm pimping my sites, check out my new blog, Have a GREAT Day!!!
Assassin @ 31:
Um....yeah....concern troll much?
Liberal AND Proud @ 6:
I don't get the "Palin is dumb" idea being tossed around. Her politics are horrendous, but she's not a dope. When the McCain campaign's got all it can out of keeping her away from the media, she'll wipe the floor with most of the mainstream media idiots. And she'll definitely give Biden a run at the VP debate. She's a liar and a fraud with nauseating political views, but she sure ain't dumb. McCain, on the other hand, has always been pretty stupid.
Bush is trying to wash the blood off Osama bin Laden's 9/11 legacy....
& the press is in lock step with this altered spin of who's responsible...
Deconstructing Bush or any of the criminal neocons is an exercise in absurdity and a waste of time. Satirists and comics possess the strongest tools to denigrate these deluded, duplicitous corporatists. About the only thing that a rational primate can do when confronted with these goofs is to take out some teeth but that has ethical implications.
Bin Laden's son says there is something funny about those pictures of his father. Sometimes they look like him and sometimes they don't.
As to the Holiday, kiss Labor Day good bye...By 2011--probably in 2011--it'll be replaced by this sham fucking Patriot Day.
dirker @ 39:
there's a difference in being a 'dope' and being an intellect/knowledgable....i can't prove or be sure my gut/intutition says she's not an intellect and/or knowledgable
What Ms. Perino was saying was "we are at war with Eurasia and we've always been at war with Eurasia." She says that all the time.
Centrocitta @ 42:
I worry that some Bin Laden body double corpse may be used for a "October surprise" fest if the GOP gets desperate....
Left&Left @ 29:
Sorry.....thanks to this Administration I think I need anger management classes.
liberalNmoderation @ 38:
Check this out Assassin...maybe you're not a concern troll...but read this anyway..
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/10/seventh-anniversary-white-house/?fail
Well.. bin Laden was on the agenda since Clinton, for those who remember.
Of course, those who remember also remember that Bush didn't do shit about it until after 9/11, and also knew that the Iraq war was bullshit, and basically know Bush has been a total failure on National Security.
So I guess it's a moot point.
Someone should provide John McCain with the memo. He's prepared to follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of Hell.
On a brighter note, I sent one of my Republican friends the Daily Show clip that decries the hypocracy of Rove, O'Reilly, Morris and McCain's little lobbyist butt-girl. His immediate reply was "is that for real". I told him was for real, those were actual before and after clips of the MSM talking heads. He asked "how could this happen; why aren't these people accountable to the public". Exactly. Next, I sent him the Obama lipstick on pigs video and Obama's response from yesterday. He said he is thoroughly disgusted with the MSM and agreed that this was a phony scandal that they somehow want to perpetuate. Again, exactly.
Tommy Gunn @ 7:
It should also be pointed out that two weeks after the terrorist attacks, Bush called upon the Taliban in Afghanistan to hand over bin Laden over to the U.S. The Taliban asked Bush for proof that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks. When Bush gave the representatives of the Taliban no response, the Taliban then asked why they should hand over bin Laden to the U.S. when Bush was unable or unwilling to provide proof of bin Laden's complicity in these attacks.
Left&Left @ 47:
Hmmm...maybe I do too...I've been...."self medicating"...as it were...and it seems to be less effective holding back the molten lava that wants to erupt every time I hear a GOP lie in public...
woody, tokin librul @ 43:
Yeah, well.. Labor Day is a fucking sham too. A successful attempt to isolate the American Workers' movement from the broader international one. (You know, back between the world wars, when the US was still open to foreign ideas, and the rest of the world liked us.)
Me, I'll continue observing May 1. The date everyone else in the world uses.
This pathetic excuse of a human we know as Bush
is the biggest lying, incompetent son of a bitch I've ever
seen in my entire life. And those are the nicest words
I can come up with. Don't get me started on the harsher ones.
46 Is Coast Clear says: I worry that some Bin Laden body double corpse may be used for a “October surprise” fest if the GOP gets desperate….....
Oh, you mean like another Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fiasco?
Alexdem @ 53:
Word.
Alexdem @ 53:
Continuing my own rant.. the memory (and hope) obviously isn't dead yet.. I've seen urban-art stickers in Europe with Joe Hill on 'em.
everyone remembers former treasury secretary paul o'neal......he said the plans were in place to attack
saddam 8-10 ahead of 9-11. o'neal was the former
ceo of alcola(sp) before joining the cabinet. he couldn't stand bush........he could plainly see that bush was NOT
an intellect.
personally i feel sometimes the bin laden theme was to
prolong the occupation but i could be wrong
Centrocitta @ 55:
Pretty much...
& the news cycle after the election if it ever does conveniently
recants the story....
kit wilson @ 5:
It's easier the second time....sadly.
Left&Left @ 60:
You need to add...
Old...doddering...insipid fool...to your list...
Left&Left @ 60:
evangelical and NEOCON chant....thank you can i have another
59 Is Coast Clear says: ........Oh, you mean like another Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fiasco?
Pretty much…......
Whew, those Jordanians really know how to lie, don't they?
lucid fiction @ 54:
Incompetent? He's succeeded in stealing two elections, shredded the Constitution, murdered over a million people and delivered his country on a big silver platter to the Corporations.
He has succeeded where Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito and Stalin failed.
Incompetent?
How about evil? Maybe devoid of any virtue...
Mick Piobr @ 56:
The US Chjamber of Commerce has decreed you cannot have two (paid) holidays in the same month.
That's why we now have "Presidents' Day," and do not celebrate Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays (feb 12 and 22) as distinct festival days.
Likewise, we won't see BOTH Labor Day (which cannot move to May 1, as long as Memorial Day is May 31, for the same reason) and a paid, national PAID Holiday in Sept.
another enjoyable habit of the bosses: giving you a choice of what holidays you want, e.g., you can have MLK Day, but you gotta work Thanksgiving, etc...
time for the NEOCONs to pull bin laden out of the freezer
and plant him in karachi suburb
that sums it up completely. and drag out a bin Laden picture every couple of months and maybe issue a "new" bin Laden tape (because VHS is much more convincing?) every few months to remind us of "ttttteeeerrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!!" bin laden has been a great political hammer to use on the american people.
Hello, Democratic Party Media People - now we must ask John McCain: "The President now claims that Kalid Sheikh Mohamed was the mastermind of 9/11. Do you agree with him, and will you continue to pursue Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell?" Whatever McCain answers is bound to be interesting...
Do they think we are all effin stupid. Kahlid may have organized the attack but Bin Laden ordered it. What an idiot Perino is. This is why I hate politicians. They treat you like you're a moron. Funny thing is a lot of people will be sitting there going, "aaahhh, I see".
I should have expected that they'd blame the greatest tragedy of the 21st century on the first guy who caved into a jolt of electricity through his vas deferens.
Cravin @ 69:
Yes, they think you/we're stupid. You/we either "elected" the Chimp twice, or stood idly and impotently by and allowed ourselves to be defrauded.
so, yeah. You/we are dumber than dog-shit...
Mick Piobr @ 64:
Ah, but he has the virtue of a Nazi. no?
Roket @ 15:
I've seen this in several places----elect McSame I suppose? It should condemn them even more however, if thousands died for a pre-election boost, just on time. Didn't this happen somewhat like this in Iran to Carter?
lucid fiction @ 72:
Yeah, but he'd probably trip if he tried to goose step, the incompetent lout;}
kathleen @ 25:
Oh no... you can't kill the Boogeyman!
If Osama Bin Laden didn't exist then this administration would have had to create him and create him they would have too!
Bush and Cheney took a page right out of the Goebbels-Goring play book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Diary
The week of the 2004 election Bin Laden released a tape where he said "it only costs me $500,000 to bring the WTC down" and went on to explain that the US would spend a million dollars chasing him for every dollar that he spent and that his real goal was to bankrupt the US. He said he did it to the Soviet Union and he could do it to us.
Was he taking credit for something he didn't do to bolster his organization?
Is the current BS from the White House just and attempt to rewrite history now that they are in "legacy mode?"
Is this an attempt to bolster McCain's campaign because Bin Laden has become an issue and Bush wants to try to spin one of his failures into a success?
Does it really matter what drivel comes out of the White House now?
68 Albatross
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_u7VGiMO0U
bin Laden Family = Carlisle Group = Bush Family
Which explains everything.
PEACE
Liberal AND Proud @ 6:
Pat Robertson and James Dodson would cream in their pants.
lucid fiction @ 72:
The reichwing would have us go from the incompetent to the incontinent.
Oh fuck! here we go again... more spin, more lies, more bullshit from Bu$h and his buddies
I'm fed up with this!
Centrocitta @ 63:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/53140/cheney_lies_to_high_school_kids/
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/10/phase-ii-report-conclusion/
Leadership @ 3:
Right on!
Mick Piobr @ 74:
Also.. most of the warmongering Nazi leaders had actually been in a war.
this is a mantra that must be repeated again and again by the Obama campaiign until ignorant middle amerika finally gets it. That is: initially the blame was put on bin laden for 9-ll. gw swore up and down that he would smoke him out, go after him with everything he had. This transposed to "I really don't think about him too much anymore." Is this how you win over the hearts and "minds" of the heartland. Apparently so.
Lastly, tie bush's failed , criminal policies to McCain. no more nice-nice. They don't play nice. They suck you in pretending to be civilized and then hit you with contrived lies. Obama should never deny that the reference to lipstick on a pig was to sarah. Mccain brought up a similar reference months ago and pallin herself refered to the only difference between herself and a pitbull, lipstick. don't let them slide an inch or they will swiftboat you again.
Pandering.............
Nearly six years after President Bush pledged to capture him "dead or alive," Osama bin Laden is not only still at large.
Mastermind or not.
According to a March 2, 2006, Zogby International Poll, "90% of American troops in Iraq believe that they are fighting to avenge Saddam Hussein's role in 9/11."
"In his rhetoric," President George W. Bush "used the terrorist attacks to justify his assault against Iraq. But Osama Bin Laden, the alleged ringleader of the 9-11 attacks, was not in Iraq. The rebel leader, in fact shunned and denounced the leadership of Saddam Hussein as a betrayal of fundamental Islam,"
<blockquote>"[Y]ou can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror". --George W. Bush, September 25, 2002