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2004-11-02 Fifth Column

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Posted by dennisw 2004-11-02 5:16:15 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Any chance this could be "Beat-me" Bob's downfall?

Posted by Steve from Relto 2004-11-02 9:58:55 AM|| 2004-11-02 9:58:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Nah. For most of Fisk's fans, props from Osama are a plus.

Posted by docob 2004-11-02 10:13:10 AM|| 2004-11-02 10:13:10 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Vermin like Fisk, Pilger, and MOAB Vagina-Bomb (Charlotte Raven of Al Guardian) have sown the wind, let them reap the whirlwind. Gideon-Phoenix NOW!

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-11-02 11:13:31 AM|| 2004-11-02 11:13:31 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 I don't believe for a second that this was prepared by an arab, let alone by Osama. This one stinks even more than Rathergate. As Tim B points out, there are "telling pop culture reference[s]" scattered throughout this piece: "Black gold"?
"playing on the same team"?

This paragraph, especially, is so banal and lifeless that I cannot believe Osama wrote it:

"It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced."

This doesn't sound at all like Osama the Terrible. Or for that matter, any jihadist. Do jihadists really make distinctions between yoru average $30B corporation and "mega-corporations"? The participial modifier (administration-linked) also sounds distinctly western. In any case, Osama's prose used to be considered elegant and classical, by arab standards; why does he suddenly sound like your averagea US editorial writer?

"And it all shows that the real loser is ... you"
This is the most suspect of all. When did Osama discover the smart-ass US college student's trope of using ellipses?

Posted by lex 2004-11-02 2:18:17 PM|| 2004-11-02 2:18:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 lex has put his finger squarely on what's wrong about this thing. Waay too many vernacular and idiomatic references. OBL is known for his arcance religious references in elaborate prose, not his hipness nor his interest in current events and name-dropping. I would love to hear the unvarnished version of the various intel agencies' analysis. Surely some people are in serious head-scratching mode, if not something much more outspoken.

It stinks of an elaborate sham. How I dunno. Why is obvious.

Posted by .com 2004-11-02 2:30:46 PM|| 2004-11-02 2:30:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 This phrase could have been lifted from a Rock the Vote ad: "And it all shows that the real loser is ... you"

The only thing missing is the epithet, "DUDE!!!"

Also bizarre is the sudden interest in economics and economic warfare, with "bankruptcy" a central trope.

Huh? We've never seen the slightest attention devoted by any jihadist to economics. They have no economic program, and any delight at causing economic damage could not even begin to compete with the rapture that comes from slaughtering people and knocking down iconic symbols of the west. Osama's not an accountant. He doesn't read Krugman's column. Since when is the apocalyptic struggle between the House of Faith and the House of Unbelief all about ledger balances?

This thing was definitely not written by a true jihadist, let alone Osama.

Posted by lex 2004-11-02 3:22:55 PM|| 2004-11-02 3:22:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 This script could not have been written by the same man who spoke eloquently of people's reactions to "the strong horse" and "the weak horse", the man who taunted DefSec William Perry in a direct letter.

This tape is jokey, adolescent, rambling, irrelevant. Can't be from Osama. It's as if Victor Davis Hanson suddenly started using the language and tropes of Seinfeld or Dr Phil.

Posted by lex 2004-11-02 4:07:08 PM|| 2004-11-02 4:07:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Maybe Michael Moore wrote it for him.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-11-02 4:19:16 PM|| 2004-11-02 4:19:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Surprise!

Hey, I told ya the guy was dead.

Posted by mojo 2004-11-02 4:28:35 PM|| 2004-11-02 4:28:35 PM|| Front Page Top

23:44 Jabba the Nutt
23:40 Cyber Sarge
23:20 Phil Fraering
23:12 RWV
23:08 Carl in N.H.
22:54 djh_usmc
22:42 Darth VAda
22:25 Grunter
22:24 Don
22:18 Mark Espinola
21:49 trailing wife
21:40 Bulldog
21:24 anymouse
21:11 Asedwich
21:06 Asedwich
20:45 Tom
20:39 4 more years! of kerry!
20:36 Chris W.
20:33 Shipman
20:31 4 more years! of kerry!
20:29 mhw
20:23 Seafarious
20:17 muck4doo
20:15 muck4doo