I’ve been serving as an election judge for more than sixteen years now and I have to admit I’m not looking forward to the election this time around. I originally began this gig to do my civic duty and to meet my neighbors and I still enjoy that part well enough. But my sense is that there are some pretty angry people out there and some of that anger is bound to be turned against me just because I’m there. The strategy of the news media these days in perseverating on allegations of people being disenfranchised and voting fraud seems to be to introduce a relationship of antagonism between voters and the election process.
The tape appears to be from al-Qaeda’s media liaison organization. It has a banner crediting the Sahab Production Committee. The speaker refers to Bin Ladin and Zawahiri as “our leaders” and praises the 11 September attacks.
Intelligence officials believe:
Videotape message likely produced in late summer ’04 due to references to current events such as the 9/11 Commission.
Individual is college educated, either American born or raised in the U.S.
The U.S. is actively seeking to identify the individual. Adam Gadhan – aka Adam Pearlman of Southern California – remains the chief candidate but another still unknown individual may be possible.
Pearlman was highlighted by the FBI in May as an individual most likely to be involved in or have knowledge of the next al Qaeda attacks.
US intelligence officials say the danger is that if this individual is an American citizen, he will be immersed in the culture and customs and have the ability to travel in America freely and unnoticed.
Developing…
UPDATE: Rev. Donald Sensing (back at least temporarily from hiatus) has a good analysis of why the tape is in all probability an empty threat.
The Intifada may have hurt Israel, but it consumed Palestine, leaving it with only the counterfeit of a functioning society. Terrorism leaves nothing but ash. And when Arafat dies, as all men must, his legacy, no less than his corpse will be contested by a swarm of pretenders — a power struggle, of possibly surpassing savagery among men nurtured — at the European taxpayer’s dime — for their skill at terror.
The person on the tape that may-or-may-not be a story has been suggested to be someone called “Assam the American”. Here’s what Drudge says in the link I cited below:
US intelligence officials believe the man on tape may be Adam Gadhan – aka Adam Pearlman, a California native who was highlighted by the FBI in May as an individual most likely to be involved in or have knowledge of the next al Qaeda attacks.
According to the FBI, Gadahn, 25, attended al-Qaida training camps and served as an al-Qaida translator.
The disturbing tape runs an hour — the man simply identifies himself as ‘Assam the American.
Matt Drudge has been reporting all day that ABC is in possession of a tape warning of an impending terror attack on the United States:
In the last week before the election, ABCNEWS is holding a videotaped message from a purported al Qaeda terrorist warning of a new attack on America, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11. “The streets will run with blood,” and “America will mourn in silence” because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. Further claims: America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush who has made war on Islam by destroying the Taliban and making war on Al Qaeda.
ABCNEWS strongly denies holding the tape back from broadcast over political concerns during the last days of the election.
It’s beginning to look as though there’s something to the story after all: [continue reading…]
Zenpundit has posted his next two examinations of Dr. Thomas Barnett’s deleted Scene on System Perturbation, Section III here and Section IV here.
I continue to find Dr. Barnett’s notion of an integrated Core and a non-integrating Gap perplexing. How long has there been a Core? What is its history? If it existed a hundred years ago, what were the then-Core’s rule-sets? How have the rule-sets changed over time? [continue reading…]
Following my Instalanche last week I’ve enjoyed The Glittering Eye’s week as as an Adorable Rodent in the N. Z. Bear Ecosystem. Now I’m back to my normal Flappy Bird status. The Glittering Eye will be back up there someday.
Carnival of the Liberated, a weekly sampler of the best work of Iraqi bloggers, is up on Dean’s World. If you don’t care to read all of the 100 or so Iraqi bloggers for the last week, I’ve done it for you and given you an index to the best of what they’ve been saying over the last week.
It’s one week until the 2004 presidential election and, except for the pain, work, and fatigue that I’ll have on the actual election day, I wish it were today.
Is it too late to ask for a mulligan on the primaries?
The person on the tape that may-or-may-not be a story has been suggested to be someone called “Assam the American”. Here’s what Drudge says in the link I cited below:
