×
In the closing hours of the 2004 race, Osama bin Laden released a tape that seemed to endorse John Kerry. According to some analyses, this decisively swung the late polls in George Bush's favor. And according to the CIA's eventual analysis, that was the point: They concluded that Osama bin Laden had released the tape to aid Bush's reelection efforts. As bin Laden said in the tape, "[It is] easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there and cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses." A less easily provoked administration would probably prove less amenable to the ruse.As we reach the closing weeks of the 2008 election, we're getting reports of online al Qaeda chatter about the best ways to ensure a McCain victory:
Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency. The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."Now, that's not a reason to vote for one candidate or another. It's stupid to take the endorsements of terrorists seriously. But it means it's worth being mentally prepared for the possibility that the terrorist group will stage a late intervention in the election, either via a tape or something worse. Meanwhile, can you imagine the outcry if intelligence experts had broken into a locked al Qaeda site and found deep conversations asking how best to ensure Barack Obama's election?
