CRONKITE: KARL ROVE BEHIND BIN LADEN TAPE (warning Drudge)

[truthpusher]

Sorry about posting something from Drudge, but I thought this was an interesting enough?

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm

CRONKITE: KARL ROVE BEHIND BIN LADEN TAPE
Sat Oct 30 2004 16:31:19 ET

Former CBSNEWS anchorman Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape.

Cronkite made the startling comments late Friday during an interview on CNN.

Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."

Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve accusation.

Developing...

[Mizmoon]

1. I saw Cronkite say it

They'll spin it as a doddering old man flapping his gums. Cronkite is like 80.

I would be interested in why he said that, though. Maybe he will elabortate at some point.

[truthpusher]

3. I'm wondering why Drudge is headlining this?...

...there is so much more out there? How can this help Bush.

[Scoopie]

26. I agree with you

I don't see how a man who Bush Wanted: Dead or Alive and is still out there alive, all right, but not captured, is good for the Shrub.

I think we should all be writing the media and asking this question. I've seen way to many talking head-up-their-asses claiming this helps Bush.

Seriously, how? It's yet another reminder of how miserably awful his foreign policy is. He stopped short of capturing OBL when it would have mattered (it won't now because al-Qaeda, now in 60 countries, is more powerful than just one man) and took our country into a needless war that has caused the deaths of nearly 1,100 U.S. soldiers and about 14,000 or more innocent Iraqi civilians. Bush? Pro-life? My ass.

[priapis]

35. Cronkite=CBS=Liberal Media :: US (Repukes) vs Them (CBS etc) rallies base

[truthpusher]

37. You know the Repukes are from hell when they say the most trusted...

...man in America is working against them.

[apnu]

17. I saw it too.

He maybe 80 but he's still sharp as a tack.

[wryter2000]

18. Cronkite is way older than that

I think he's over 90, and his mind is as sharp as ever. He was on Franken several months back.

[KharmaTrain]

24. He Said He's 87...

Honestly, I'm concerned about Walter...his speech is starting to slur a bit and he was stumbling a bit on his words. I saw this in my mother.

No matter, Walter spoke what a lot of people feel and I'm not surprised Sludge is running with this one, what else does he have???

[truthpusher]

33. Old photo of Walter from 1960

Short Cronkite History: http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/variety/cronkite.htm

With this guys history, he has to know more than just about anybody out there.

[KharmaTrain]

44. By 1960 Walter Was Already A Legend...

This man parachutted behind the lines in WWII and was the first real "on the scene" reporter of our times. I can't think of a major event from the 50's through the 80's that Walter didn't cover.

His power was best summed by LBJ in '68 when Cronkite came out against the war and that decision push Johnson to decide not to run again. "When we lost Walter, we lost the country".

He's one of the last of Murrow's boys...a great generation of journalists that is so sorely missing today.

[AmerDem]

34. I watched it and I took it this way

Cronkite was saying it sarcastically. Trying to show a comparison of how Rove will stop at nothing.

[medeak]

2. I love Walter but

did anyone noticed he had trouble speaking last night and gathering his thoughts?

[Lex]

6. He's been pretty sharp the times I've seen him

on tv recently. However, I didn't watch Larry King last night because I can hardly stomach that old fool.

[Quadrajet]

7. I noticed that as well...

...he had some long pauses in between words and seemed to forget his place a times. Oh well, if I live to be 80 I hope I'm as articulate as he is, pauses and all.

[medeak]

30. he's my hero

but I felt profoundly sad watching him...reminding me of my own mortality perhaps.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Yes, he was having a hard time

but he did say some very shocking things.

I don't know whether or not he's so old that he doesn't give a damn anymore and is going to say exactly what he thinks, or if he should lay off the tinfoil? It was very weird and disconcerting.

[DuctapeFatwa]

10. No, he seemed clear as a bell to me. His body is old, his mind is fine

He has plenty of money, he has no corporation to answer for, he's 80 years old, he is one of those dangerous folks who have no reason to prate on about how lovely the Emperor's clothes are.

[notadmblnd]

4. I think it's simpler than that..

they had the tape for a while and just sat on it. I envision Rove with a little velvet black bag he keeps his dirty tricks in. He probably just calls it his stash.

[captainjack]

9. i think it's right next to his stash of coke

and backissues of Bald, Penthouse and his stock of KY Jelly.

what a dirty, nasty, evil old greedy bastard man.

[truthpusher]

20. well put?

[sally343434]

12. Didn't Rove say himself a few days ago ...

Didn't Rove say himself a few days ago that he had "a couple of surprises" up his sleeve? Maybe it was these two tapes.

Oh yes, here it is:

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 5:49 p.m. EDT
Karl Rove: 'We've Got a Couple of Surprises' for Kerry

President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, said Wednesday that the Bush-Cheney campaign is planning some October "surprises" for challengers John Kerry and John Edwards.

"We've got a couple of surprises that we intend to spring," Rove told ABC radio host Sean Hannity while explaining that he intends to wage an aggressive campaign no matter what the polls show.

[George_S]

16. Exactly

Why would the news team give it to Al-Jazeera before letting the U.S. see it? How did they get it? Why would bin Laden trust them to give it to Al-Jazeera?

Looks like it backfired anyway.

[DemBones DemBones]

31. That little bag Rove keeps his dirty tricks in is

actually made of rat skin.

[AntiFascist]

5. Cronkite is very wise....

I wonder if some would be brave enough to suggest that OBL may still be working as a CIA asset? Maybe there were deals made with him in order not to have him blown up?

[truthpusher]

13. Maybe the deal was OBL we will let you live if you don't do anything...

...about our Saudi Connection. :tinfoilhat:

[A-Schwarzenegger]

11. Cronkite, wrong in '63, wrong in '04.

[highplainsdem]

14. Here's the quote & link for the CNN transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/29/lkl.01.html


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: OK, Walter. What do you make of this?

CRONKITE: Well, I make it out to be initially the reaction that it's a threat to us, that unless we make peace with him, in a sense, we can expect further attacks. He did not say that precisely, but it sounds like that when he says...

KING: The warning.

CRONKITE: What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.

[DrBB]

21. Well, he's damn right about the al Qaqaa part anyway n/t

[truthpusher]

29. Thanks for the transcript...

Cronkite is right. It did divert the al-Qaqaa thing. Didn't the tape come out right after the lame press conference about destroying the weapons? If Karl had the tape all along, then there could not have been a better time to release this.

Also, I heard the tape had subtitles, I wonder who subtitled this? OBL has never used subtitles.

[highplainsdem]

15. self-deleted - duplicate

[DrBB]

19. Jeebus Walter, just keep it zipped next time m'kay?

This situation is delicate as hell. Gotta love you, Cronkite, but man, don't try to help out, okay?

[eaprez]

22. I think that's going way over the top.

[madrchsod]

23. sorry to say this but

one of my personal heroes is in the spiral of Alzheimer's and he pretty much said so on franklin`s show. i`m sure he did`t mean it in the way it came out and king knew that a follow up would be demeaning. yes the guy who single handily ended Johnson`s presidency is slowly slipping away.....

[medeak]

38. thanks for explanation

terribly sad.. just KNEW something was wrong.. King kept giving him words to say.

Wrote him a letter as a kid and he answered it... about the environment. He's always been my big Daddy.

[Goldmund]

25. I don't think that Osama needed Karl Rove to remind him...

...what to do to help Bush.

[juliagoolia]

27. How much does it say that we even wonder????????? eom

[skip fox]

28. Cronkite might be off on details, but . . .

Bin Laden says now "we have started the 4th year after 9/11" which could be much more contemporary a
reference than has been read (that two-and-one-half months is still a "start").

Could bin Laden's message have been intercepted (CIA, NSA, ?) in Sept. and only dropped off on Thursday
in order to get the missing explosives off the front page??

[girl gone mad]

32. that's my feeling.

The timing is just too suspect.

BTW, how prescient does that eminem video with OBL on a soundstage and Rummy and Cheney hanging out behind him smiling and whispering to each other look now?

[The Magistrate]

36. You Raise An Interesting Possibility, Mr. Fox

Delusory ideas of collaboration between Rove and Bin Laden need not concern anyone at all, but your suggestion is an interesting one.

Bin Laden is clearly located in some remote fastness, and conducts his communication by couriers, doubtless with several cut-outs in a chain of transmission, which necessarily takes a good deal of time for any message to be delivered. Something recorded in mid-September, the start of the fourth year after the attacks, might well take several weeks to reach such a civilized place as Islamabad. But it does not strike me as inconceivable that a courier in the chain, most likely near its final stages, might have been intercepted, and the tape thus come into U.S. hands while in transit, with the timing of its eventual delivery to its intended destination thus being under the current administration's control.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[RememberTheCoup]

39. Is there a transcript for this?

I'd like to see it in context, and besides I never click on Drudge.

[truthpusher]

40. See entry #14

[RememberTheCoup]

42. thanks

Still don't know what to think. LK didn't have much of a response to it, and we don't know the intonation and body language. It might have been a joke. Of course, it's not at all far-fetched to think that Rove would manipulate the timing of the tape's release. I mean, they've done that in the past. I doubt Cronkite meant Rove actually conspired with OBL. If Cronkite was serious, I'm sure he was jsut referring to the timing - knocking the explosives story out of the news. Or maybe Rove tried to delay the tape as long as he could?

[Must_B_Free]

41. The timing to cover for al Qaqaa is unquestionably suspect

after the pentagon press conerence was a bomb, they had no choice but to lob the Hail Mary. They didn't didn't use it before because it, in itself is bad news for Bush, but as a distraction from the incredible damaga al Qaqaa was doing, it is at least an improvement. It atempts to change the subject back to terror against Americans.

[Malva Zebrina]

43. Would love to see Studs Terkel and Cronkite

together on some show. When you get that old, no holds barred. You can give the finger to the world and get away with it.