IMHO- OBL tapes are timed to take focus off

[randr]

explosives and issues of death count in Iraq.
I think Rove has been sitting on the tape until now.

[Geek_Girl]

1. You may be rigtht

This may have been planned all along or a last minute desperate attempt. But the timing is ver suspiscious.

:tinfoilhat:

[charleston1]

9. Message to foot soldiers

Osama Bin Laden has been quiet now for over a year. I wonder if the two tapes released so close together are linked in some way. Remember the story about the 25 Chechyn terrorists entering the U.S. from Mexico in Arizona? I am just a little worried that OBL gave the go ahead to attack us ala Spain. Why? Well he may figure that Bush has a good chance of winning because he is ahead in the polls and what the hell, if Bush is going to win why not attack the U.S. and see if it gets Amercians mad at Bush because we are not really safe after all. IOW Kerry is right? You never know how a mad man thinks but with Halloween coming up you have to wonder if the "Trick" in the videotape is that it was the order to attack.

[w4rma]

13. He won't attack. He won't attack because he wants to allow Bush to stay

in power so that he can keep amassing terrorists against America. Remember that Osama isn't a priority to Bush. Bush has us in Iraq.

[TimeToGo]

2. Well, I wouldn't put it past him

but they didn't release the tape.

Now, perhaps, they have some control over there, but probably not. I do feel confident they were happy when it came out because it deflects attention from the bad news all week and fear is once again unleashed. Rationally, it doesn't make sense. But rationally it doesn't make sense that something like 65% of Americans thought the hijackers were Iraqi.

(but it is great timing, you have to admit)

And if it supposedly clearly helps Bush, then . . . logically . . . who does OBL want in the White House??

[phish420]

3. Thats fine

Because it puts the focus on the fact that this adminstration failed in this war on terror. I think it fits PERFECTLY with Kerry's message - that is we DIDNT have the death count issue in Iraq, if we DIDNT divert our attention to Iraq instead of focusing on bin Laden, which * himself said he didnt think about anymore, this guy wouldnt be making videos to try to scare the shit out of us.

[Dookus]

4. that's like

hammering your own balls to take your mind off a headache.

[The Magistrate]

5. Indeed, My Friend

Many people give this slug Rove far too much credit, to put it mildly....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Dookus]

12. I know

it's amazing to me. There's clearly no unambiguous benefit for Bush in this matter, but people still reflexively think they engineered this.

The same thing happened when the beheadings of hostages began - they all thought Bush was behind something that showed the rapid deterioration of the security situation in Iraq.

This tape today SHOWS that Bin Laden is alive and mocking us, and gives Kerry three days to point that out.

Seriously - imagine sitting in a room with Rove et. al. and devising a way to help Bush - is this really the way to do it?

[The Magistrate]

14. Far From It, Sir

Unfortunately, two pernicious things are at work in many minds.

The first is sheer political naivite, and is not nearly so damaging, but the second, a conspiricist attitude to events, that imagines there is only one actor behind all occurences, that all players are but puppets of a "Hidden hand" that pulls all strings on all sides, can do us real harm.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[goodboy]

6. anything is possible with these bastards...nt

[DemocracyInaction]

7. I have a tremendous really important quetion

these tapes that surely will rock this election-----what the fuck are you talking aobut?? Whaaaat tapes?? What do they say?? No one knows or cares except places like DU. Still can't get an answer to what this earth shaking news is. But I have to tell y0u that nobody cares or is listening. So if anyone can come down off their spaz fit and explain, it's worth at least a few moments of amusement.

[Dookus]

8. there was a tape

of Bush fellating Osama bin Laden. During the final "money-shot", your President got a pearl necklace that put his mother's to shame.

Satisfied?

[Mr_Spock]

10. Well, sounds like OSB was satisfied :D - I bet Dumya liked it too

lol

[Generator]

11. My husband mocking my tinfoil theories said:

They had 10 different tapes with different Democratic candidate names ready. Of course, the real Osama was dead long, long, ago. Not that it matters.

Bin Laden:Bush operative. The real swing voter.

[AlinPA]

15. I believe Rove has been holding the tape. How long? No guess.

[meisje]

16. weeks... months

[The Magistrate]

17. As A Matter Of Curiousity, Sir

How did the tape reach Rove?

How much material does he feed to Al'Jazeera?

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sean Reynolds]

18. I don't agree and here is why.

If this were the truth I'm sure they would have released the tape earlier in the week. Releasing it on Friday makes me wonder if they didn't want many people to know about it. Think about it, this weekend most people aren't going to be watching the news...so it's a topic that won't be dominating the airwaves.

The explosives story broke Monday...it's been dominating all week. IF they wanted to stop the story, they'd of done this around Wednesday.

[Dookus]

19. Yup

you're exactly right. Bush has been getting hammered all week - if they had any control over it, AND they believed the tape would somehow help Bush, it would've come out earlier.

[yvr girl]

20. The tapes are given to Al Jazeera from OBL

The US Government gets a copy from them.

[dave502d]

21. I could be wrong.

I thought Hardball said the tape came from Cutter,than he said they our on our side aren't they.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Qatar....

It's one of the Emirates...

[randr]

23. You are right. Friday is rather suspect

However, I think they weighed the issues and decided that a friday release would probably still be in their favor. The average voter will not be engaged. However the talking heads pushed the explosive materials stories aside that they must have spent all day on to rave and rant about OBL all night and into the weekend.

[Sean Reynolds]

24. But you're missing the big thing here......

The explosives story had 4 days of air time. That means MOST Americans have heard of it. While MOST Americans probably will hear about the bin Laden tapes, MOST won't see it/know what he said.

THAT hurts Bush. If this was in fact a ploy by Rove and Co, it'd only be logical to do it at mid week because:

A)It knocks the explosives story OFF the front page well before the weekend.

B)The story has THREE days to sink into the public mentality before the weekend starts.

Getting the tape out on Friday evening is not going to impact a lot of voters. In fact I'm willing to bet this story dies down by Sunday because it won't have the benefit of a full week of traction.