bin Laden with Nothing to Say Fans the Flames of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Osama bin Laden is the classic Middle Eastern rhetorical pimp who trots out the extremists’ highest earner when there’s absolutely nothing else to say – Israel.  Looking back over Sheikh Osama’s pronouncements through the years, the plight of the Palestinians was not on his radar until he began to use it like a slick American politician as a wedge issue.

From al-Jazeera today, reporting on bin Laden’s latest audio tape:

Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, has said in an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera that some Arab leaders were “complicit” with Israel during its offensive in Gaza.

Bin Laden said in the tape aired on Saturday that Arab leaders were “hypocrites”, and that “liberating Jerusalem needed honest Arab leadership” to fight and liberate the Arab people.

“It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the crusade zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate,” bin Laden said.

The Daily Graphic: Not All Pakistanis Support Terrorists

All we ever hear about Pakistan is how out of control the FATA region is, the Taleban are taking over and Osama bin Laden is viewed as Robin Hood.  The latest public opinion polling there by the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows most Pakistanis are not in the tank for terrorists.

From the abstract of the research:

…  headline-making assaults have, however, been perpetrated in a country where public support for extremism has declined sharply in recent years. Surveys by the Global Attitudes Project have found progressively lower levels of acceptance of suicide bombing as well as waning confidence in Osama bin Laden. There is only modest support among Pakistanis for al Qaeda or the Taliban. And few agree with their widely noted tactic of preventing education for girls.

Nonetheless, while the trends are positive, sizeable minorities still embrace extremism — for instance, one-in-three continue to express confidence in bin Laden, who many intelligence analysts believe is hiding somewhere in western Pakistan. And while most Pakistanis are worried about religious extremism, polling by the International Republican Institute suggests they are not convinced the Pakistani army should be used to fight radical groups. Instead, most would prefer making a peace deal with extremists.

Bin Laden Could Be Thinking – ‘Mission Accomplished’

The Bush Administration official in charge of reviewing practices at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has told the Washington Post that the U.S. tortured a Saudi national.

“We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani,” said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution.

Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

Earlier this week, an Obama transition official leaked that President-elect Barack Obama may issue an executive order to close the Guantanamo detention center.  A day later, the Pentagon, oblivious to the signal sent by the Obama team trotted out numbers alleging as many as 61 former inmates at Guantanamo had “returned” to their terrorist ways.

President George W. Bush and V.P. DICK Cheney have spent the last three weeks on a farewell tour of sorts doing interviews on their eight years in office.  Over the past five years, evidence has mounted that Bush Administration at the highest levels essentially sanctioned torture by CIA and military interrogators.  In the face of that evidence, neither the president or vice-president have admitted mistakes in their prosecution of the war on terror.  Today, a very credible member of their administration did so for them.

The Bushies are leaving office and trying their hardest to build a case for a positive legacy.  What many around the world will remember is torture, black sites and renditions.  In the wake of one of America’s most trying times – 9/11 – our leaders succumbed to their baser human instincts and turned their backs on the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.  They created a climate of fear rather than one of strength of purpose.  They tore at the unique American fabric in ways we may not even yet realize.  In some respects, Osama bin Laden must be thinking, “Mission Accomplished.”