April 28, 2006, Sez WHO?
Hard exactly what to make of the third major A.Q. figure to recently release a videotape, today, on an "extremist website", in this case a video by Al Qaeda overall "number two" and the man widely viewed as its "operational" head supervillain, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
This taunting videotape arrives shortly after similar tapes from OBL himself and Al Qaeda in Iraq (TM) leader Zarqawi... coming as it does in a bloody April for American troops, as well as a particularly bloody political period for the Bush Administration as the lethal combination of high oil prices, GOP corruption, legislative malaise... and that Iraq thing... take their toll. (Who knows... maybe Americans are even upset at the insane prospect of aggressive nuclear war against Iran... anything is possible, after all...)
Ironically, just as Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld are constantly saying that American troops have "broken the back of the insurgency" in Iraq, Zawahiri now says that the seemingly never ending series of suicide bombings and other attacks on Americans, British coalition partners and Iraqi troops has... broken the back of the American operation in Iraq. Think of all this as the Global Schoolyard Taunt.
The troubling question is, simply, "why now"? A.Q. hasn't blown up anything outside of the Arab world lately (though it seems to have been pretty lethal in Egypt of late)... is it planning something big soon in that department? Could it be seeking to undermine the savior of Iraq (and possibly the mid-terms) Iraqi PM designate Al-Maliki? Just wtf is with A.Q.?
Let me not mince words: A.Q. has made these sorts of announcements in the past at times that have conveniently inured for the benefit of the Bush Administration (such as right before the 2004 election.) One can observe that helping to stir up American voters' fears and emotions in such a way as to play in to Karl Rove's documented strategy of "all terror all the time" has resulted in a very sick symbiotic relationship between Al Qaeda and our Imperium Government. (There are those who suspect there is an even closer relationship going back to the President's well-documented business dealings with the bin Laden family.)
It doesn't matter, really. Something is up. Frankly, we're over six months before the mid-terms... as such, the timing signifies something... but what exactly?
One wonders (well, you may wonder; I'm reasonably certain of it) as to whether all this sudden A.Q. chattiness has anything to do with this guy. Stick around, as they say...
