AP: Al-Qaida supporters hoping to help McCain win w/ pre-election terror attack

[jAZ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_el_pr/al_qaida_us_election_2

Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs McCain as president

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer – Tue Oct 21, 11:41 pm ET

WASHINGTON – 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."

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.

"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."

Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser, said he had heard about the Web site chatter but had no immediate comment.

The message is credited to a frequent and apparently respected contributor named Muhammad Haafid. However, Haafid is not believed to have a direct affiliation with al-Qaida plans or knowledge of its operations, according to SITE.

SITE senior analyst Adam Raisman said this message caught SITE's attention because there has been little other chatter on the forums about the U.S. election.

SITE was struck by the message's detailed analysis — and apparent jubilation — about American financial woes.

"What we try to do is get the pulse of the jihadist community," Raisman said. "And it's about the financial crisis."

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a videotape just four days before the 2004 U.S. presidential election directly addressing the American people.

[jAZ]

http://washingtonindependent.com/14218/mccain-advisers-freaked-out-by-al-qaeda-preference-for-mccain

McCain Advisers Freaked Out by Al Qaeda Preference for McCain
By Spencer Ackerman 10/22/08 12:35 PM

I just got off a conference call held by the McCain campaign to deny that Al Qaeda, contrary to reports in the AP and the Washington Post, is rooting for their man. To describe the call as panicked would be an understatement.

Jim Woolsey, the former CIA director who publicly connected Iraq to the 9/11 attacks without any evidence in 2001, and senior foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann spent more time whining about the Washington Post’s standards of fairness than on the logic of why Al Qaeda might prefer Sen. John McCain. “An amazing piece of journalism, and I use journalism in quotation marks,” Scheunemann said, going on to list barely approving quotes of Sen. Barack Obama from Hamas, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, which he said he wasn’t going “to characterize.” Woolsey, for his part, peered into the mind of what he called “one individual Islamist blogger from one terrorist Islamist blog” and determined that he was “clearly trying to damage John McCain” and “not speaking from his heart.”

What was absent from the call, oddly enough, was any discussion about why Al Qaeda might want McCain to win. And there the case is simple enough. Al Qaeda prefers an indefinite U.S. occupation of Iraq and a bellicose U.S. all across the Muslim world to radicalize Muslims to its terrorist cause and drain the U.S. of its financial wealth — what Osama bin Laden calls his “bleed to bankruptcy” strategy. Hence, the reason why, as the CIA eventually concluded, Bin Laden tried to help George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004 by releasing a late-October tape. McCain pledges basic continuity with Bush on the Iraq war. As Scheunemann put it, “John McCain will spend what it takes to win.”

Yet the idea of Al Qaeda preferring a U.S. strategy that strengthens it confounded the McCain camp. “It is ridiculous to believe that in its heart of hearts, Al Qaeda wants John McCain to be the president,” Woolsey said. “It’s ludicrous.” But the only thing that’s ludicrous is Woolsey’s expectation that the American public will keep falling for this sort of misdirection by the same blinkered analysts who blundered the U.S. into Iraq in the first place.

[jAZ]

ROFL @ Bolded

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_call_post.php

McCain Campaign Attacks Washington Post, Insinuates Terrorists Want Obama Victory

By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - October 22, 2008, 12:22PM
The McCain campaign is now charging that the terrorists want Obama to win, while pretending they're not really saying that.

The McCain campaign just held a curious conference call with reporters in which McCain advisers made the insinuation. It's a claim that's at odds with folks who know what they're talking about, such as journalist Ron Suskind and counter-terror big Richard Clarke, who have both written that Al Qaeda actually prefers pro-war GOP rule.

[...]

On the call, McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann seized on an article in today's WaPo reporting that some members of al Qaeda are pulling for McCain to win.

"If we're gonna talk about who has got support from terrorist groups in this election, I'm gonna read some quotes," Scheunemann said. "I'm not going to characterize them. I will let others judge whether they amount to expressions of support or opposition."

Scheunemann proceeded to read a recent quote from a Hamas adviser, in which he said that Palestinians would do better under an Obama administration's foreign policy. [...]

One especially fun moment on the call came when McCain adviser Jim Woolsey badly undercut the campaign call's message. Woolsey said that Al Qaeda supporters who praise McCain are actually doing it to hurt him, because praise from Al Qaeda is the "kiss of death."

At that point, a reporter quite naturally asked whether the same could be said of Hamas advisers who praise Obama, prompting Woolsey to pull a homina homina homina and dodge the question.

[triple]

AP, i mean Obama's public relations department, never misses a chance to poison the well

[jAZ]

AP, i mean Obama's public relations department, never misses a chance to poison the well

ROFL

This comment shows how robotic your approach to politics is.

You obviously had no idea that the AP's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier almost joined John McCain's staff... that he's been overwhelmingly criticized for having a pro-McCain and anti-Obama bias in his reporting and that it was recently discovered he emailed Karl Rove telling him to "keep up the good fight".

[VAChief]

ROFL

This comment shows how robotic your approach to politics is.

You obviously had no idea that the AP's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier almost joined John McCain's staff... that he's been overwhelmingly criticized for having a pro-McCain and anti-Obama bias in his reporting and that it was recently discovered he emailed Karl Rove telling him to "keep up the good fight".

But Rush wouldn't lie to me would he? I mean with the exception of his draft record (boil on his butt deferrment), drug addiction and a few other minor fibs he's a straight shooter!

[triple]

ROFL

This comment shows how robotic your approach to politics is.

You obviously had no idea that the AP's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier almost joined John McCain's staff... that he's been overwhelmingly criticized for having a pro-McCain and anti-Obama bias in his reporting and that it was recently discovered he emailed Karl Rove telling him to "keep up the good fight".

I guess you've never read the AP before. I envy your approach to media consumption then.

[RINGLEADER]

Anything that reinforces the existing public sentiment that Obama would be a weak leader must be diminished. It's the Obama campaign's M.O. And it's smart to do it.

[Frankie]

AP, i mean Obama's public relations department, never misses a chance to poison the well

Remember Bin Ladin's video 4 years ago? Two days before the Election? Who do you think IT helped? Kerry?

Wow! Just this morning I was talking to a friend predicting some sort of similar attempt to help McCain. This really hits close.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Anything that reinforces the existing public sentiment that Obama would be a weak leader must be diminished. It's the Obama campaign's M.O. And it's smart to do it.Isn't that what you all attempt to do for McCain?

[triple]

Remember Bin Ladin's video 4 years ago? Two days before the Election? Who do you think IT helped? Kerry?

Wow! Just this morning I was talking to a friend predicting some sort of similar attempt to help McCain. This really hits close.

Kerry was a loser from the start.

Rather than try to poison the well, shouldn't the left be addressing the perceived notion that an attack helps McCain, because Obama is seen by the public as someone who would be weak on terrorism?

[Frankie]

Kerry was a loser from the start.

Rather than try to poison the well, shouldn't the left be addressing the perceived notion that an attack helps McCain, because Obama is seen by the public as someone who would be weak on terrorism?

"Perceived" is the key word. Actually it also covers the first sentence in your post. But that's not the point. It's not that the public believes Obama is weak on terrorism, it's the unfortunate myth that the Republicans (and therefore McCain) are stronger on it. Hopefully some education will bust that myth for good.

[triple]

"Perceived" is the key word. Actually it also covers the first sentence in your post. But that's not the point. It's not that the public believes Obama is weak on terrorism, it's the unfortunate myth that the Republicans (and therefore McCain) are stronger on it. Hopefully some education will bust that myth for good.

We're talking about a popularity contest. Perception is reality.

[jAZ]

I guess you've never read the AP before. I envy your approach to media consumption then.
Translation: "Yeah, facts don't matter... my claims of bias trup allllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[memyselfI]

Psych Ops.

[jAZ]

We're talking about a popularity contest. Perception is reality.

What you appear to be saying is that you expect yourself to believe your own BS?

Seems to me that we can discuss the impact of political tactics without pretending that the garbage being spewed is somehow reality.

Most all of us here are smarter than that, just seems no one is willing to acknowledge the difference in person here.

[HolmeZz]

I definitely don't think they want to see Obama win. For one, the policies McCain's going to pursue have pretty much killed us economically, which is ultimately their number one goal. Two, the U.S. is going to see a rather large spike in popularity around the world(at least in the short term) if Obama is elected. That's not good for business for them. They need the U.S. to be perceived negatively. They might be able to manipulate us on our own, but they're not going to have much luck if we strengthen our relationships with our allies and can get most of the world back on our side.