Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market’s downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America’s economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
“Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.
The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers. In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had “exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.” It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.
“It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda,” said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. “Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America.”
It was unclear how closely the commentary reflected the views of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has not issued a public statement since the spring. Some terrorism experts said the support for McCain could be mere bluster by a group that may have more to fear from a McCain presidency. In any event, the comments summarized what has emerged as a consensus view on extremist sites, said Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist Web pages. Site provided translations of the comments to The Washington Post.
“The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful ‘son of Bush’ – someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk,” Raisman said. “They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102477.html
Do you think jihadist forums have trolls? Do they use cutesy, funny forum images? Do they have off-topic sections and WoW guilds? Does al-Hesbah have a equivalent of Dirt?
Yeah, but what that story doesn’t tell you is that the immediate follow-up post was the Arabic equivalent of “in b4 the lock”.
Lum
5
This isn’t exactly news. “The One Percent Solution” detailed how the CIA concluded Bin Laden released his video in 2004 specifically to help re-elect Bush.
I don’t think many Americans are aware of that but it is news that they’re so openly and explicitly, at least at the grunt level, coming out in favor of McCain as being the worst thing for America. Bin Ladin hardly endorsed Bush as being good for his cause but, rather, acted in a way to ensure Bush got elected.
