http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...17/wl_nm/security_spain_truce_dc&e=2&ncid=721 Purported Al Qaeda Letter Calls Truce in Spain 1 hour, 52 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Opheera McDoom CAIRO (Reuters) - A group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said on Wednesday it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq (news - web sites), a pan-Arab newspaper said. In a statement sent to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201 people, also urged its European units to stop all operations. "Because of this decision, the leadership has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories... until we know the intentions of the new government that has promised to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq," the statement said. "And we repeat this to all the brigades present in European lands: Stop all operations." Skepticism has greeted previous claims of responsibility by the group for attacks in Turkey and Iraq. U.S. officials say its links with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network are unclear. An unrelated videotape of a man describing himself as al Qaeda's European military spokesman also claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombing, saying it was in retaliation for outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's domestically-unpopular support for the U.S.-led Iraq war. In a shock election result three days after the Madrid bombs, Spain voted in the Socialist party, which has since said it will probably withdraw its troops from Iraq. "The Spanish people... chose peace by choosing the party that was against the alliance with America," the statement said. WE WANT BUSH TO WIN The statement said it supported President Bush (news - web sites) in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry (news - web sites), as it was not possible to find a leader "more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom." In comments addressed to Bush, the group said: "Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization." "Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected." The group said its cells were ready for another attack and time was running out for allies of the United States. "Whose turn is it next? Will it be Japan or America, or Italy, Britain or Oslo or Australia?" the statement said, adding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were also targets. The group is named after Muhammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs, a close bin Laden aide killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
Doesn't sound like they really want to stop the battle does it? Thier reduction in forces is huge compared to ours. Fight on ... if necessary.
So b & b, I'm confused, what does it mean when terrorist groups start to root for W? Is it time to vote W then too?
The logic is completely consistent- We're running a huge surplus- Let's cut taxes on the wealthy. We're running a huge deficit- Let's cut taxes on the wealthy. Our economy is booming- Let's cut taxes on the wealthy. Our economy is in recession- Let's cut taxes on the wealthy. It certainly makes it easier to keep your talking points straight.
I get the feeling the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades must read this BBS. They probably saw basso's post and thought it'd be funny to mock them too. Besides that, this is a particularly lame attempt at some reverse-psychology.
Why is it reverse psychology? Nothing has been more effective in stoking rage in the muslim world than Bush' policies. That is pretty much indisputable. He's a polarizing figure; of course that helps terrorist recrutiing and sympathy Look at these charts from the latest Pew center surveys, Bush is less popular, by a long shot, among muslims than mass-murderer Osama: Radical muslim extremists want a long term West vs. muslim jihad; George Bush seems to be willing to give it to them; their interests are aligned in this respect. Like Mubarek said, each errant bomb will create a 100 more bin ladens...that's good for Al Qaeda, not so good for us.
I hadn't really thought of it that way. Figured they wanted Bush because dude is such a freaking idiot. Your reasoning is much scarier, though. (cue neo-con) NEO-CON: But Al Queda is endorsing Bush to get people to vote for Kerry! They really want Kerry!
Al Queda is doing what is called a "false flag," meaning that they actually want the opposite of what they claim to support. In other words, they want the good old days of Democrats when they were allowed to run roughshod without a worry of being brought to account via Predator drones or US special forces. By supporting Bush, they hope to convince dopes in the U.S. to vote for Kerry, whom they actually want. Simple logic.
Wrong, backtracking rationalization. Listen to yourself sometime. How do you think you would have reacted if I wrote that Jacques Chirac wants Bush but he is using reverse psychhology by saying nice things about Kerry? I'd sound pretty stupid if I said that. Radical islamists want somebody who sees the war on terror as a crusade, just like they do: "We will rid the world of evil- doers. "This crusade, this war on terrorism,is going to take awhile. And American people must be patient" -- George W. Bush They have the same manichean good vs. evil worldview as the president, it's just that the roles are reversed. That's simple logic.
Completely immaterial to this discussion. May I consider that a full surrender? What makes an email "fake?" They all look real to me.
Immaterial? As are your and bamaslammers silly rationalizations about reverse psychology. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that muslim anger towards the US helps terrorists in the long run, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Bush has helped create that, whether intentional or not.
If this were a crusade, why are we not killing Muslims here and everywhere and why are Aggies and others helping to re-build Iraq? That's not the work of crusaders.
It doesn't matter what you think. That's not the story al jazeera puts out and its not what people in muslim countries believe.
It's not what I think; it's a fact. Are we supposed to conduct our foreign policy on the basis of hateful pre- and mis-conceptions?
It doesn't matter if its a fact or not. (although whether or not it's a crusade or not is a very subjective item; of course, Bush himself called it a crusade) What matters is what people in Cairo and Islamabad believe that it is. The Iraq war has made them believe bad things about Bush and the US in general, and that is pounded hiome every day with images and pictures. Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations feed off these feelings. Do you honestly dispute that they do? I'm not saying anything specifically about foreign policy, but the fact remains that Bush's foreign policy has been good at stirring up anti American, pro-Osama sentiment around the world. Look at the charts above.
