THE ROVING
EYE Bush or Kerry, Osama's
unmoved By Pepe Escobar
"Your security does not lie in the hands of
Kerry, Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own
hands. Each and every state that does not tamper with
our security will have automatically assured its own
security." - Osama bin Laden,
October 30
Osama bin Laden's alleged cave in
Afghanistan comes complete with room service, dry
cleaning, a desk and satellite TV. But despite the
massive White House-spun version, this is not a caveman
on the run. The latest deluge of polls is virtually
unanimous in registering that bin Laden's Afghan Oval
Office cave address to America may not have swung the
election toward Bush - although it certainly helped
Machiavelli-in-charge Karl Rove's campaign by burying
"inconvenient" stories like the scandal over missing
explosives in Iraq and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's investigation into Halliburton, not to
mention distracting public opinion from key issues such as jobs,
education, health care, women's rights and of course the
deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, as reported
by the British medical paper The Lancet.
The timing of bin Laden's address was more effective than
a thousand bombs - especially because this is
a reconfigured al-Qaeda discourse, certainly under
the influence of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's
right-hand man. No more window-dressing with Islamic
phraseology: this is the sheikh as statesman, way above the
terrorist fray - that would be the territory of "Azzam
the American", his tape threatening new attacks in the
United States released only a few days before after being handed
in to the US ABC network in Pakistan. Bin Laden
instead has decided to assume the persona of a
benevolent Abrahamic prophet trying to patiently open the eyes
of the 1.3-billion-strong Islamic ummah (community).
Cosmic politics It may or may not be
true - because at the time bin Laden was deeply involved
in the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad - but to credit the
Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 1982 as the source of his
anger against the West plays extremely well all over the
Middle East, and draws a steely link between al-Qaeda
and the Palestine liberation struggle. When bin Laden
was in Peshawar in Pakistan in the early 1980s - way
before the birth of al-Qaeda in 1988 - establishing the
first local guesthouse for Arab jihadis, his partner,
former professor and mentor was Palestinian Abdullah
Azzam. At the time the jihadis were fighting the "Evil
Empire" in Afghanistan. It was Azzam the Palestinian who
taught bin Laden that jihad is everyone's obligation
when Muslim lands are occupied.
Al-Qaeda
has stated that
it is formally at war with the "Crusader and Zionist West"
because Islam has been humiliated for centuries: the
latest manifestation is Israel's policy on Palestine.
Now bin laden is saying this is not a religious war,
it is political. George W Bush and John Kerry may
justifiably have qualified bin Laden as a barbarian
during the campaign trail's home stretch, but that's not
the point: the point is his specific political
grievances - the occupation of the three holy cities
(Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem), the war in Palestine, and
the repression of Muslims in Kashmir and Chechnya. Much
more than political repression by local governments and
relative poverty in relation to the West, this
perception of being repeatedly humiliated is the key
cause of political Islam resorting to violence.
By re-establishing his preeminence, and
changing his rhetoric, bin Laden makes it clear that the
target is not the US election per se, but recruiting the
Muslim masses. No more talk of a caliphate: now the
theme is political freedom from Western-imposed or
Western-sanctioned dictatorships or puppet governments.
Intellectual jihadis like bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are
going one step ahead in appealing as much to young
jihadis - for whom jihad is a state of mind - as to
moderate Muslims. So nothing more sensible than toning
down the fiery rhetoric of cosmic struggle between good
and evil, believers and infidels, to the benefit of a
broader theme - legitimizing the fight against
injustice, everywhere.
Who profits? Bin Laden's relevance will be felt by minute shifts of
the independent, undecided vote on election day. Millions
of Americans are severely annoyed that he is still
alive more than three years after September 11, 2001,
and are more than ready to make the connection between
the image of bin Laden the statesman and the fact that
George W Bush took his eye off the ball while the Afghan
war was still developing to engage in his disastrous
adventure in Iraq.
Why Bush is viewed by at
least half of Americans as "strong and resolute" may be
baffling to people in other parts of the world. But not
when we consider the armies of American Christian
fundamentalists in the red (Republican) states - with their non-stop
litany of bloody apocalyptic tales of revenge. This is
Bushland, and bin Laden's message will only re-energize
them even more. So who profits from his address?
Without bin Laden, there is no "war on terror" -
which to begin with is a misguided tactic (war) against
a concept (terrorism). With no endless "war on terror",
there is no justification for Patriot Act/homeland
security/infringement of civil liberties, a central
theme on the election platforms of both Bush and Kerry.
Bin Laden's address is suspicious in many ways
- raising the possibility that it could be a psy-ops.
The speech was carefully scripted as an "Osama address
to the American people". For the first time it is awash
in references to September 11, including
such US-style catch phrases as "striking the towers" and "another
Manhattan". Another al-Qaeda first, sources in Peshawar
confirm, is that the video was delivered to the
al-Jazeera television channel complete with an
English-language translation and a transcript.
For the first time ever, bin Laden admits that
he personally ordered September 11. For the Bush
administration this is a windfall: more than three years
later, the man they have hastily tried in absentia is
entering a guilty plea. The windfall includes the very
handy theme of increased fear, as the tape reminds
Americans of the preeminent human face of terror.
Bin Laden officially has
not been located, and this fact also defies
any reasonable explanation. Either US intelligence knows it but it won't act
on it - because that would undermine the
whole long-term "war on terror" setup - or US intelligence is
a joke. Once again US corporate media are not asking these
questions.
Bush and Kerry, same-same No matter who wins on Tuesday, the inexorable and
worrying tendency in the US is toward even further
militarization of civilian life, and a sustained
atmosphere of fear. There's no evidence that the
grievances affecting the Muslim world will be addressed.
Meanwhile, in his speech bin Laden has completed the
transition of al-Qaeda from a vanguard to a network and
then a franchising of ideas and methods. It's as if bin
Laden was saying, "Go ahead, spread the word, work for
change any way you can."
On the surface, bin
Laden may have endorsed Bush. But most of all he seems
to know that four more years - or four more wars -
fueled by arrogance will be much more hurtful to the United
States and the West than "another Manhattan". Much in the same
way as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld mixes bin
Laden with Saddam Hussein, "George Kerry" or "John
Bush", it doesn't matter: Osama bin Laden, the bogeyman,
will still be there on the other side - as well as
millions of energized jihadis.
(Copyright 2004
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
