Thursday, January 19, 2006

Bush and the Political Uses of bin Laden

Master criminal and ultimate scumbag Osama bin Laden is once again making threats against the United States. Personally, I'm not sure he's credible any more (he did, after all, offer a "truce", which sounds more like weakness than anything else). Still, I can't help but wonder why in the hell bin Laden is still alive and able to make threats in the year 2006. Let's look again at some quotes made about bin Laden by President Bozo, courtesy of our friends at Buzzflash:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'"
- G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

"...Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a county [sic]. Now he's maybe in control of a cave. He's on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we're going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that's what's happening. He's on the run, if he's running at all. So we don't know whether he's in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open -- we just don't know...."
- Bush, in remarks in a Press Availablity with the Press Travel Pool,
The Prairie Chapel Ranch, Crawford TX, 12/28/01, as reported on
official White House site

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)
And why should Bush focus on destroying bin Laden? The Saudi-born terrorist has been a political gold mine for El Presidente and the right-wing thugs that run this country.
Fear of bin Laden was used to propel Republicans to their narrow victory in 2002. At the start of that year, White House Traitor/Smear Artist/Professional Con Man/Trusted Bush Advisor Karl Rove was openly speculating about how Republicans could use the terrorism issue to their political advantage. During the campaign, the White House directed lying attacks against Senate Democrats, questioning their commitment to fighting terror. Rove and Ralph Reed helped slander triple amputee Vietnam vet Max Cleland by (absurdly) associating him with bin Laden. Cleland's crime? He had dared to question Dear Leader's conduct of the terrorism war. It worked.
Bush issued one phony terror alert after another during the 2004 campaign, including an outrageously fraudulent one right after the Democratic Convention that year. Have you noticed that the terror alerts have UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY stopped? Every one of the 2004 terror alerts was pure Republican bullshit, designed to distract attention from the Kerry campaign. And bin Laden himself popped up on videotape the week before the election, when Kerry was starting to pull ahead. Walter Cronkite suspected Rove timed the release of the tape; I have no reason to doubt it. Its release was one more Republican effort to campaign on top of the corpses of the 9/11 victims.
And now, with Republican scandal rocking the nation, bin Laden pops up again. If I didn't know better, it would almost seem like he's trying to help the Republicans out.
After all, it's more than four years after 9/11 and bin Laden is still a free man, the U.S. is bogged down in a useless war in Iraq, and huge numbers of Muslims hate America more than ever.
Isn't it clear? Bin Laden regards Bush as a gift from Allah.

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