BIN LADEN SPEAKS

In one short video, Bin Laden threw into the American political machine a monkey wrench so large it gives Karl Rove wet dreams of power lust. May I suggest, Globalize This! readers, you read the transcript in full.

Bin Laden is crafty and no doubt the timing of his resurgence is part of his global agenda. He waited for just the last moment...so that when Americans went home from work on Friday, his timely reappearance on the political scene would stew in their minds all weekend, drive it home to the 24 hour news consumers all weekend long, brood in conversations among neighbors and family, and so on into the final blitz of remaining days til November 2.

(And if you don't by now know what's happening on November 2--if you don't have this date bound as a sign upon your head and your forearm--crawl back under your rock for another few years).

Unlike the political rhetoric of the American Presidential campaign, which for most Americans peaked out at the 150 seconds/pop max during the three presidential debates, Bin Laden's spin comes in much longer blips (which is necessary but not sufficient to craft a coherent argument); also, as you read here, Bin Laden's rhetoric invokes a great deal of compassion, that in many ways outshines the sincerity of both Bush AND Kerry's political speak. If you got nothing else out of reading this, you will see that Bin Laden broadcasts a rather charismatic and humble leadership to many people--people for whom his leadership compels them to run suicide missions.

But more than "knowing our enemy," Bin Laden's message is telling because, as is natural our enemies focus keenly on our weaknesses. What is remarkable about this speech is that Bin Laden lays out for Americans the weakness and corruption of the Bush administration's regime so much more clearly and effectively than the affiliated message machines of Democrats and the political Left have managed to do in the last four years:

"I say to you that security is an important pillar of human life, and that free people do not compromise their security.

Contrary to what [President George W.] Bush says and claims -- that we hate freedom --let him tell us then, "Why did we not attack Sweden?" It is known that those who hate freedom don't have souls with integrity...We fought with you because we are free, and we don't put up with transgressions. We want to reclaim our nation. As you spoil our security, we will do so to you.

I wonder about you. Although we are ushering the fourth year after 9/11, Bush is still exercising confusion and misleading you and not telling you the true reason. Therefore, the motivations are still there for what happened to be repeated.

...We found no difficulties in dealing with the Bush administration, because of the similarities of that administration and the regimes in our countries, half of which are run by the military and half of which are run by monarchs. And our experience is vast with them.

And those two kinds are full of arrogance and taking money illegally.

The resemblance started when [former President George H.W.] Bush, the father, visited the area, when some of our own were impressed by America and were hoping that the visits would affect and influence our countries.

Then, what happened was that he was impressed by the monarchies and the military regimes, and he was jealous of them staying in power for tens of years, embezzling the public money without any accountability. And he moved the tyranny and suppression of freedom to his own country, and they called it the Patriot Act, under the disguise of fighting terrorism. And Bush, the father, found it good to install his children as governors and leaders.

We agreed with the leader of the group, Mohammed Atta, to perform all attacks within 20 minutes before [President George W.] Bush and his administration were aware of what was going on. And we never knew that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his people in the two towers to face those events by themselves when they were in the most urgent need of their leader.

He was more interested in listening to the child's story about the goat rather than worry about what was happening to the towers. So, we had three times the time necessary to accomplish the events."

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Naturally, Bush and Kerry will inveigh that Bin Laden's message means one or the other is or is not fit to "win the war on terrorists," to "smoke out the terrorists," to "hunt them down and kill them...dead or alive." And we also know that almost no one will read the transcript independently; news reports will play a sound bite, and offer no underlying commentary or analysis beyond the lucidly honest political discourse noted above. (Repeat ad nauseaum for the next 96 hours).

We must address Bin Laden's text in the context of his global strategy against the US. Nonetheless, the subtext of his message is not of course that he prefers one side to the other. Heartfelt as it might appear, or even be, the goal of his message was to amplify the mayhem of political transition (our planned "mini-revolutions" in the Jeffersonian sense) at a time of when the divisions in America almost constitute low grade (and spontaneous) civil warring.