I'm a big fan of out-of-the-box, attention-grabbing ads. These ones are running in the Farragut North metro stop here in DC (one of the busiest downtown stops and frequented a lot by DC organizational/lobbyist types) and I thought I would share.
"Close Guantanamo. End Torture. Investigate All Abuses."
"...it (torture) serves as a great propaganda tool for those who recruit people to fight against us."-Sen. John McCain talking about torture, FOX News, March 20, 2009
Osama bin Laden wearing an "I <3 Guantanamo" t-shirt
These are a sampling I took while waiting for a train. They're being run by Avaaz.org, which is doing a campaign to pressure Obama on the issue. More about it here.
Richard Clarke former head of the National Security Council's office of counter-terrorism, has predicted that based on Al Qaeda's long history of attempting to manipulate European and US elections, we could expect some kind of stepped-up campaign to begin soon. Also check out what Mark Green had to say about the prospect of a terrorist intervention in the presidential election, and what we should do about it.
CAIRO, Egypt - An American member of al-Qaida pointed to economic troubles in the United States as proof that "the enemies of Islam" face defeat, in an English-language video released Saturday.
In a half hour video message, California-native Adam Gadahn urged Pakistanis to unite against their government and U.S. forces, and taunted Americans over their economic crisis, relating it to their military interventions.
"The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing," said Gadahn, in a clip of the message distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, a Washington-based monitor of militant Web sites.
"A crisis whose primary cause, in addition to the abortive and unsustainable crusades they are waging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, is their turning their backs on Allah's revealed laws, which forbid interest-bearing transactions, exploitation, greed and injustice in all its forms."
Gadahn, 29, grew up in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana in 2005 and charged with one count of treason and two counts of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The FBI says Gadahn moved to Pakistan in 1998 and attended an al-Qaida training camp six years later, serving as a translator and consultant.
Gadahn also urged Pakistanis to unite and establish an Islamic state. Al-Qaida's media arm, al-Sahab, is increasingly using English-language videos to address Muslims in Pakistan who are unlikely to speak Arabic.
Question: You not only have had combat experience in Vietnam, but you were also a prisoner of war. When you look at terrorism right now, with people like Osama bin Laden, do you have any reservations about watching strikes like that?
Answer: You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before. And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? What do we do next? We sent our troops into Vietnam to protect the bases. Lyndon Johnson said, Only to protect the bases. Next thing you know.... Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. That's fine. But what's next? That's where there might be some comparison.
Richard Clarke, former National Security Council national coordinator for security and counterterrorism, writes on the history of Al Qaeda attempting to manipulate elections in Europe and the US with well-timed attacks and videos. He then concludes that for the current US election:
At the very least, expect another Halloween video from the scary man in the cave.
What would be the purpose of any attempted manipulation of the U.S. election? It could just be to use the election to magnify the media coverage of their terrorist activities, make al Qaeda look even more capable than it is, and remind everyone they are still around. Such a media-amplified attack might help them with recruitment and fundraising. Even more likely is the possibility that al Qaeda would hope the attack would benefit John McCain. Opinion polls, which, as noted above, al Qaeda reads closely, suggest that an attack would help McCain. Polls in Europe and the Middle East also suggest an overwhelming popular support there for Barack Obama. Al Qaeda would not like it if there were a popular American president again.
I was at work at my software company when the planes hit, reading a proto-blog at the financial site TheStreet.com. One of the participants in the blog was in the twin towers when the first plane crashed into the first tower, and the blog participants - hedge fund managers, traders, etc - were first-hand witnesses. The confusion and fear was palpable, but it only became clear this was an attack and not an accident when I heard on the news that a plane had also hit the Pentagon. There were rumors of an attack on the President, and I remember thinking at the time 'man Saddam Hussein is going down.' The feeling I got was similar to that in watching the impeachment of Clinton - wow, this stuff really does happen.
This time, Osama Bin Laden is telling insurgents in Iraq to cut the partisanship and come together to find centrist middle.
After all these years, I never suspected that Bin Laden was camped out in David Broder's office, but it sounds as if they've been drinking from the same Kool-Aid.
I literally laughed out loud when I saw the headline for this come up on Drudge. What a great story to finish the day!
