quote:"Osama bin Laden has been arrested a long time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election," the radio report said.
NPR carried this, too, though I doubt any other American media sources will.
Regardless of whether or not you believe this, do you believe Osama bin Laden (and/or WMD in Iraq) is going to magically appear a few months before the election?
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Anyone think there will be record low voter turn-out this year for lack of good options for the conservatives?
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I hope so. Bush is the worst thing to ever happen to economic conservatives. Good grief that man is fiscally irresponsible.
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I'm serious. I'd been in Bush's camp before, but now I don't want to be partially responsible for putting either candidate in office.
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What's odd is the left is so blinded by their seething hatred of Bush they don't see that he's doing their bidding on the economy. He's so far to the left the only way Kerry can get farther to the left is to promise to raise taxes. Which he's done.
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Pix, I'm afraid you're wrong. It's only if you completely misunderstand what liberals actually want -- if you've been so blinded by partisanship that you think liberals want Big Government and Huge Deficits as ends in and of themselves -- that you'd think Bush is somehow pleasing liberals with his fiscal policies.
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quote: Larry Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman who traveled with Rumsfeld this week to Afghanistan, denied the report. "I don't have any reason to think it's true," he said Saturday.
Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, also said he had no information to suggest bin Laden had been caught.
"Things are going well, and we believe we will eventually catch all the leaders of al-Qaida, but I know nothing of that report," he said.
Note that they didn't say it wasn't true. They just say they don't know.
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My husband read the news on Pravda (Russian newspaper) about 4 days ago saying that Osama Bin Laden had been captured. After reading the article, he decided it was bogus.
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Wow, Pravda is still in print? This reminds me of the idea that the Jessica Lynch capture and rescue was all orchestrated. I'm sure the rescue was carefully planned. But if you want to judge something as having been planned by the prime beneficiaries, I guess John Kerry plotted the capture of Saddam Hussein.
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Yeah. It is an important newspaper there, like the New York Times or USA Today here. It has changed, like the country, but it still exists.
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I hate to say it, but no, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is some sort of "October surprise" involving Osama. Or, failing that, a sudden pullout of a large number of troops from Iraq just before the election.
I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong that the administration would play these kinds of games. But I just can't bring myself to completely discount that it could happen.
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Just to be devil's advocate, what would be so bad about the administration "playing such games"? If it wouldn't change the effectiveness of the capture, why would the public need to know now rather than months from now?
*takes a sip of my cynical tea, in case you couldn't tell
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Secrets like that are too hard and risky to keep just to gain a little political advantage.
There would be too many people who would have to know about Bin Laden being captured. It would cost taxpayer money. It would slow down the war on terrorism. It would leak. Bush would get all kinds of flak for covering it up until then. He would lose people who were supporters as well as ticking of those who already hate him. Whatever possible gain there could be is not worth the risk.
I think we'll see Bin Laden as soon as he is taken.
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