WARNING: Bin Laden About To Weigh In?

Analysts: OBL Could Speak Out in an Effort to Prove His Relevance

OH, Bull Shit! If he "speaks out," it will be for the same reason he spoke out before; To help the Goopers, which helps him.

Does anyone really believe this guy is still alive?

By PIERRE THOMAS

Oct. 30, 2008—

Multiple senior government officials tell ABC News the intelligence community is anticipating a message from Osama bin Laden before or just after the presidential election.

As we race toward Election Day, sources say a number of intelligence analysts have concluded it is critical for al Qaeda's top leader to be seen or heard, if only for public relations purposes. Those analysts believe that if bin Laden is not heard from, he runs the risk of being considered irrelevant or impotent. (Or Dead!) The U.S. intelligence community has some indication that there is some confusion among Islamic radicals about their leadership.

According to sources, the full weight of the intelligence electronic eavesdropping and human sourcing is right now desperately looking for any hint of a bin Laden statement. So far there is only rumor, no hard evidence a message is coming, officials said.

Why are they so desperately looking? Why do we care what OBL has to say, even if he is still alive?

Interestingly, the U.S. government may be the reason why bin Laden could have some problems getting a message out, officials suggested to ABC News.

The United States is engaged in an intensive effort to disrupt the use of the Internet by Islamic radicals. Message boards and Web sites have been targeted. Some officials believe that if bin Laden is not heard from, some will conclude he may be dead.

Another source cautioned against such speculation, suggesting that bin Laden is most concerned about his own safety at the moment, and might increasingly fear for his life.

The sources tell ABC News the U.S. government is quietly engaged in a high-tempo moment attacking al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where U.S. officials fear the terrorists have found a safe haven from which to stage plots against Afghanistan, Pakistan and throughout the world, including the West.

A review of published reports about drone attacks in the tribal region suggests the United States may have more than tripled the number this year, compared to 2007, especially in recent months. One official tells ABC News, "We have killed a lot of senior leaders. They [radicals] are having a really bad month."

Another source agreed, noting that in recent weeks the No. 4 ranking leader in all of al Qaeda had been killed in a drone attack. The source said the hit, which was reported in The New York Times, was a huge deal and was surprised it had not gotten more play. The game plan is simple, the officials said. Keep al Qaeda off balance and scrambling.

There had been growing fears, not based on any specific intelligence, that al Qaeda has been likely plotting to attack the United States before the election, or during the transition to a new presidency. Homeland security officials are calling it a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, which ABC News first reported in last summer.

Sources confirm that there is an intensive effort all across the U.S. government to play offense. As of now, there is still no specific, credible evidence pointing to an imminent attack on the U.S. homeland. But that's clearly not stopping the government from being incredibly active at what it sees as a critical moment.

In 2004, bin Laden released a message in the days just before the election. Though some believe that the message affected the outcome in favor of President Bush, exit poll data do not support that notion. Among voters who called the tape "very important" in their vote, Kerry won, 53-47 percent. Among those who called it either very or somewhat important, the vote was 50-50. It was among those who called it unimportant that Bush won, by 56-43 percent.

ABC News' Gary Langer contributed to this report.

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(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Obama Holds Leads in Key Swing States as Election Nears

Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

By Michael Duffy / Washington

With less than a week of campaigning left, Democrat Barack Obama is holding stable or growing leads over Republican John McCain in Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio, according to a new set of TIME/CNN battleground-state polls conducted by Opinion Research Corp.

Obama leads McCain among likely voters by 51% to 47% in Ohio, a 4-point margin that has not budged since last week's TIME's survey. But he now leads McCain by 52% to 45% in Nevada and by 52% to 46% in North Carolina, margins which are both slightly larger than those reported by TIME in its surveys a week earlier.

The new statewide surveys also show Obama leading McCain in Pennsylvania, the key blue state in which McCain is making a last-ditch, major push to score an upset, by a comfortable 12-point margin of 55% to 43%. But Obama still trails his Republican rival in McCain's home state of Arizona by a 7-point margin of 46% to 53%.

Clinging to a narrow lead in Ohio, perhaps the most closely contested state in the nation, Obama continues to perform best with women of all races, who back him over McCain by a narrow but crucial 55% to 43% margin, a slight improvement from a week before.

But while Obama's performance among women in Ohio was firming, his support among men was weakening. Men in Ohio now favor McCain and Sarah Palin over Obama and Joe Biden by a margin of 51% to 47%, compared to a gap of 49% to 47% a week before.

Among Ohio's white males, meanwhile, Obama appears to be falling faster: they now favor McCain by a 14-point margin of 56% to 42%. Just a week earlier, Obama was 10 points behind with this group. Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who has come to represent something like a mascot or a rallying cry for the McCain campaign, hails from a suburb of Toledo, Ohio.

White men in Pennsylvania, by comparison, favor McCain too, but by a narrower 50%-46% margin, the TIME/CNN poll found. Women in Pennsylvania are more comfortable with the Democratic nominee than their counterparts in the Buckeye State to the west, though the difference is less dramatic. Keystone State women back Obama by a margin of 57% to 42%.

But the differences among key groups in Ohio and Pennsylvania are minor when compared with the demographic breakdowns in North Carolina. Though Obama leads in North Carolina by 6 points overall, McCain leads Obama among white women by an overwhelming margin of 62% to 32%, a ratio that is virtually identical to the margin reported by white men, who favor McCain 64% to 34%.

In Nevada, by contrast, Obama has seen his lead overall grow from a 4-point margin in late August to a 7-point margin in the latest TIME/CNN poll. Most of that growth, the data shows, comes from independents, white men and voters making less than $50,000 a year. McCain's overall support in the state — 45% – is only 1 point higher than it was two months ago.

The polls were conducted over the phone from Oct. 23-28. In Arizona, 807 likely voters were surveyed; in Nevada, 684; in North Carolina, 667; in Ohio, 779; and in Pennsylvania, 768. Arizona, Ohio and Pennsylvania had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, while Nevada and North Carolina had a margin of 4 percentage points.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Abu Nidal, Notorious Palestinian Mercenary, 'Was A US Spy'

Why Does This Not Surprise Me In The Least?

Secret papers claim the feared assassin was hired to find links between Saddam and al-Qa'ida.

By Robert Fisk

October 25, 2008 "The Independent" -- -Iraqi secret police believed that the notorious Palestinian assassin Abu Nidal was working for the Americans as well as Egypt and Kuwait when they interrogated him in Baghdad only months before the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Hitherto secret documents which are now in the hands of The Independent – written by Saddam Hussein's brutal security services for Saddam's eyes only – state that he had been "colluding" with the Americans and, with the help of the Egyptians and Kuwaitis, was trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qa'ida.

President George Bush was to use claims of a relationship with al-Qa'ida as one of the reasons for his 2003 invasion, along with Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction. Western reports were to dismiss Iraq's claim that Abu Nidal committed suicide in August 2002, suggesting that Saddam's own security services murdered him when his presence became an embarrassment for them. The secret papers from Iraq suggest that he did indeed kill himself after confessing to the "treacherous crime of spying against this righteous country".

The final hours of Abu Nidal, the mercenary whose assassinations and murderous attacks in 20 countries over more than a quarter of a century killed or wounded more than 900 civilians, are revealed in the set of intelligence reports drawn up for Saddam's "presidency intelligence office" in September of 2002. The documents state that Egyptian and Kuwaiti intelligence officers had asked Abu Nidal, whose real name was Khalil al-Banna, to spy for them "with the knowledge of their American counterparts". Five days after his death, Iraq's head of intelligence, Taher Jalil Habbush, told a press conference in Baghdad that Abu Nidal had committed suicide after Iraqi agents arrived at the apartment where he was hiding in the city, but the secret reports make it clear that the notorious Palestinian had undergone a long series of interrogations prior to his violent demise. The records of these sessions were never intended to be made public and were written by Iraqi "Special Intelligence Unit M4" for Saddam. While Abu Nidal may have lied to his interrogators – torture is not mentioned in the reports – the documents appear to be a frank internal account of what the Iraqis believed his mission in Iraq to be. The papers name a Kuwaiti major, a member of the ruling Kuwaiti al-Sabbah family, as his "handler" and state that he was also tasked to "perform terrorist acts inside and outside Iraq". His presence in the country "would provide the Americans with the pretext that Iraq was harbouring terrorist organisations," the reports say.

"Coded messages indicate that the Kuwaitis asked him indirectly to find out whether al-Qa'ida elements were present in Iraq. Our conclusions were confirmed when he [Abu Nidal] started to mitigate his actions with irrational answers when asked about the data against him. He attempted to sidetrack his answers by not being specific and referring to historical matters. It was noted by the investigators that he went from short, ambiguous and unclear replies to generalities ... he seemed perturbed ... But once he became convinced of the weight of the evidence against him concerning his collusion with both the American and Kuwaiti intelligence apparatuses in co-ordination with Egyptian intelligence, he realised that his treacherous crime of spying against this righteous country had been exposed ..."

Abu Nidal was no stranger to Iraq. He had operated from Baghdad, Damascus and the Libyan capital of Tripoli when the regimes wanted to use him as a "gun for hire". It was Iraq which paid him to organise the attack on the Israeli ambassador to London, Shlomo Argov, in 1982, an attempted assassination which prompted Israel to accuse Yasser Arafat of responsibility and to begin its disastrous invasion of Lebanon, and Colonel Muammur Gaddafi later established a close relationship with Abu Nidal. In 1985, his crazed gunmen attacked Israeli-bound passengers at Rome and Vienna airports, killing a total of 18 people. His biographer Patrick Seale, who suggests that for some time Abu Nidal even worked for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, has written of how, when he feared treachery in his own ranks, a suspected spy would be buried alive, fed through a tube for days and then – if Abu Nidal's "court" deemed death appropriate – a bullet would be fired down the tube.

His own interrogation at the hands of Saddam's secret police, will therefore appear equally appropriate punishment for so cruel a man. Among the other crimes of which he was accused in the Iraqi intelligence report was the preparation of 14 booby-trapped suitcase bombs to be used on foreigners – Swiss and Austrian, according to the intelligence file – in the northern Kurdish area of Iraq, at the time a US-supported "safe haven", and an attempt to recruit new members for his so-called Fatah Revolutionary Council among Palestinians wounded by the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza who were recovering in Baghdad hospitals.

There are some oddities in the report and some unanswered questions. It says, for example, that Abu Nidal originally infiltrated Iraq from Iran on a false Yemeni passport years earlier, but that this was facilitated by his own representative in Kuwait, named as Nabil Uthman. Abu Nidal was said to have communicated to Kuwait via coded messages sent through Lebanon and Dubai. The papers give his date of birth as 1939 – he is believed to have been born in Jaffa in what was then Palestine in 1937 – and state that he resided in Libya in 1984 but "had no links with the Libyan authorities". He is also stated to have been imprisoned by the Egyptian security services for two months. The man who is said to have provided Abu Nidal with a "safe house" in Baghdad was interrogated in 2002 alongside the Palestinian and is named as Abdulkareem Mohammed Mustapha.

Could Abu Nidal really have entered Iraq from Iran, whose own intelligence services, would surely have questioned him? Could Abu Nidal have lived in secret in the Baathist state of Iraq without Saddam's own mukhabarat finding him? And for how long was he interrogated? The documents give us no answers to these questions.

His end is, however, recorded bleakly. "Upon being asked to accompany those charged with guarding him to a more secure location to continue the interrogation procedures, he requested that he be allowed to change his clothes. On entering his bedroom, he committed suicide. Unsuccessful attempts were made to resuscitate him ..." Nothing is known of the fate of Abdulkareem Mustapha, only that he was "submitted to court". But we do know where Abu Nidal now lies.

"The corpse of Sabri al-Banna", the final report concludes, "was buried on 29/8/2002 in al-Karakh's Islamic cemetery [in Baghdad]. Until a final resting place is found, a marker designates the place of burial and it was documented on video as well as on still photographs as 'M7'." No "final resting place" for this savage man appears ever to have been found.

Years of terror: A man as feared as Bin Laden

Abu Nidal, was once as feared as Osama bin Laden. His most notorious attacks included:

*1978 His "Black June" movement blamed for murdering PLO members in London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Kuwait and Rome.

*1982 Israeli ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov, shot in Mayfair, leaving him permanently paralysed.

*1984 Jordanian airliner attacked by rocket on take-off from Athens. Assassinations included the British cultural attaché in Athens and the British deputy high commissioner in Mumbai.

*1985 Egyptian airliner hijacked – six passengers murdered and 60 killed when the plane is stormed by Egyptian commandos

*1985 Gunmen massacre 18 and wound 120 in attacks on El Al ticket desks at Vienna and Romeairports, bottom left.

*1986 Machine-gun attack kills 22 in a synagogue inIstanbul; at least 20 passengers and crew are killed when Pan Am jet hijacked in Karachi, bottom right.

*1988 Nine killed and 98 wounded when gunmenattack the Greek cruise ship the City of Poros.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

OPEC Cuts Oil Output

Surprise, surprise!

All the more reason to get off our addiction to oil!!!!


CNN) -- The Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange began the week Saturday with its largest decline in four years, a reaction to the world's tumbling markets and oil prices, an economist said.

Gulf Cooperation Council financial officials met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

The index for all stocks finished the day down 536 points, or 8.7 percent, and several sectors dropped almost 10 percent, according to the Web site for the exchange, known as Tadawul. Saturday is the first day of the week according to the Saudi Arabian calendar.

But there's little reason to worry about the drop, according to John Sfakianakis, chief economist for the Saudi British Bank. The precipitous drop in stock values is probably related to the tumbling U.S., European and Asian markets, as well as the falling price of oil, the economist said.

"It shouldn't be a benchmark for the well-being of the economy," Sfakianakis said.

After the markets closed, the state-run news service reported that King Abdullah announced that he would deposit 10 billion riyals ($2.67 billion) into the Saudi Bank of Credit and Saving. The "royal gift" will be used for loans to citizens, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Under Saudi law, no company or sector can lose or gain more than 10 percent of its value in one day, Sfakianakis said.

Don't Miss

• Stocks bomb as dire warnings shake markets
• OPEC cuts oil output to halt price collapse

Saudi stocks fell as financial officials from Gulf Cooperation Council states met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss the international economic crisis. King Abdullah also met Saturday with U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt and U.S. Ambassador Ford Fraker.

Insurance agencies, banks and oil refineries were among the Saudi companies to hit the 10-percent threshold in Saturday trading, according to the Tadawul site.

Trading was cut off for companies whose values dropped 10 percent, in accordance with Saudi law, Sfakianakis said. Any purchases or sales of those companies' shares made after the cutoff will be represented in Sunday's transactions, he said.

Also, several sectors came within fractions of a point of hitting the threshold, including hotel and tourism (9.93 percent), real estate development (9.9), media and publishing (9.89) and retail (9.86).

Although all indices fell, according to the Tadawul Web site, the energy and utilities sector fared the best, losing only 6.4 percent of its value in Saturday trading.

Despite the stock plunge, Sfakianakis said, the Saudi economy remains strong and is showing signs of real growth in its gross domestic product.

Oil prices -- a staple of the Saudi economy -- will probably rise again, and the Saudi banking system is healthy and "one of the best capitalized financial sectors in the world," he said.

Light crude closed Friday at $64.15 a barrel, down $3.69. It was trading at more than $130 a barrel over the summer.

Investors are expected to jump back into the Saudi markets as the declining stock prices yield more and more bargains, he said.

"The news is not that bad," Sfakianakis said. "I'm very optimistic about the Saudi economy."

Gulf Cooperation Council financial officials released a statement Saturday saying they had taken precautionary measures to stem the effects of the world financial crisis and stood ready to confront further developments, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The group also announced that it would sign a free-trade agreement with the European Union by year's end, the agency reported.

"The growth of the economies of the GCC countries is expected to continue with good rates," the agency reported.

The GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

More Gooper Outrages of The Week............

What the hell is wrong with these people?

They have run the country into a ditch at about 150 mph. They are screaming about socialists while their fascism is what has brought about this catastrophe for the American people. If there is socialism in this country it seems it is for the CEOs and other "deciders" at the top of the multinationals and American corporations, who are are benefiting from the government bailout.

Socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the rest of us. I don't think that's going to work very well.


On the heels of Michele Bachmann channeling McCarthy when she called Barack Obama anti-American, another Republican has decided to say something truly offensive and outrageous. Enter Republican Robin Hayes of North Carolina at a McCain rally...



And after he said it – taking a cue from GOP'ers before him, he did what any desperate Republican might do – lie and deny he said it!

Problem is, just like Bachmann, he was caught on tape.

This is GOP outrage #2 of the week and it has never been clearer that in these last 13 days Republicans will do or say ANYTHING to hold onto their power. Democrat Larry Kissell – who fell just 329 votes shy of beating Rep. Hayes two years ago – is up right now in the polls and on the verge of winning this seat. We all know it's time for Republican Robin Hayes to go.

However, we could lose in this seat if we aren't prepared to fight back. Kissell is being hit from all sides with dishonest attacks from Hayes and national Republicans. We need urgent resources to expose their lies and continue our hard-hitting ad campaigns in these districts. We can't yield an inch or back down. Contribute now.

A gift from you today could make the difference in too-close-to-call races.

Contribute $20, $35, or more to get urgent money into these districts and others like them to fight the lies.

We have to make an immediate decision if we are all in to defeat these two Republicans and others like them. With your support, we can commit to defeating Bachmann and Hayes right now and removing them from Congress.

Thanks,


Brian Wolff
Executive Director, DCCC

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.