Dear Friend and Reader,
IN A STUNNING move surely meant to steal the thunder of Colin Powell’s ringing endorsement of Barack Obama for President, the McCain campaign received a ringing endorsement of their own, as revealed in this excerpt from an article by The Associated Press:
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.”
This feels like a move not unsimilar to Osama Bin Laden’s videotape to the American people on the eve of the 2004 election. Hint: It didn’t do Kerry any good.
What this will trigger is anyone’s guess.
Special thanks to Talking Points Memo for the tip.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan in San Francisco