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Bin laden tape seen as bid to sway vote { October 30 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Bin%20Laden%20Worldhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Bin%20Laden%20World
Saturday, October 30, 2004 · Last updated 4:22 a.m. PT
Bin Laden tape seen as bid to sway vote
By JILL LAWLESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- Staunch U.S. ally Australia responded to a new videotaped message from Osama bin Laden by underlining its resolve to "confront and defeat" terrorism, and international experts said the message was a clear attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election.
Around the world, observers debated what impact the dramatically timed message would have on the U.S. election, just days away.
"Whenever he says these things and whenever these Islamic extremists and fanatics say these things our message to them is a simple message, and that is: 'We will defy you and we will defeat you, and countries like Australia must not flinch in the face of these fanatics,'" said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Many saw the tape - in which the al-Qaida leader warned Americans not to "mess" with the security of Muslims - as an attempt to influence Tuesday's presidential vote.
"Bin Laden shocks U.S," was Saturday's headline in Britain's Financial Times newspaper. "Bin Laden to U.S. voters: your fate is in your hands," said the front page of The Daily Telegraph.
On Web sites devoted to extremist Muslim comment, contributors reacted with glee to the tape, saying it was proof bin Laden was alive and was a "slap" at America.
Montasser el-Zayat, a Cairo-based lawyer who defends Islamic radicals, said the video amounted to an "unprecedented attack on Bush at a very critical time, before the U.S. elections."
Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland, called the tape "a very crude but sinister attempt to try to influence the presidential election."
"The U.S. authorities must take the threat of violence seriously," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
On the video, an apparently healthy Bin Laden acknowledged for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and taunted Bush by suggesting he was slow to respond. The al-Qaida leader mentioned Bush continuing to read to children in Florida while the attacks were under way.
"That gave us three times the time we needed to carry out the operation, thanks be to God," bin Laden said on the tape.
Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on extremist Muslim militants, said bin Laden was trying to influence Americans "to give Kerry their votes, not Bush."
Many felt the tape would have the opposite result. "Bush supporters are confident the video will be widely seen as an attempt to blackmail the nation into changing course, something that can only play to the advantage of the incumbent," noted Britain's Daily Telegraph.
Wilkinson, the terrorism expert, said it was too early to predict whether it would help either candidate.
"It is certainly a more flagrant form of propaganda than we have seen before in relation to the American public, but it hasn't got a hope of influencing American foreign policy," he said.
In Afghanistan - where U.S. troops have sought Bin Laden's hideout along the rugged Pakistani frontier - a U.S. military spokesman insisted the al-Qaida leader would be caught.
"The tape is nothing more than propaganda," Maj. Scott Nelson told reporters. "If you look at al-Qaida, their organization is being taken down piece by piece."
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