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| Home Front: Politix |
| Aznar warns US of terror during elections |
| 2004-05-18 |
| Spain’s former prime minister warned that terrorists will try to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election as they did in Madrid with the March 11 attacks. "It’s important to realize that the terrorists will do all they can to disrupt the upcoming U.S. election," Aznar said during his first visit US after he was voted out of office. He did not specify where the terrorists might strike. When the war in Iraq was launched Spain, then headed by Aznar, was among the staunchest allies of the Bush administration despite the strong opposition of the public. Aznar’s Popular Party lost general elections to the Socialists three days after the Madrid train bombings, which claimed the lives of 191 people. The newly elected government promptly started a withdrawal of the Spanish troops from Iraq. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #20 Re: Yvonne Ridley She is identifying with the aggressor (classic psychological to hostage/prison types of trauma). She took her nine-year-old daughter to Afghanistan with her (oh dear) . . . revisiting the place of trauma to gain a sense of control (post -trauma). Her willingness to endager her daughter evidences the high level of emotional/psychological impact her experience had on her. Rape victims will often revisit the site of the crime in order to try and come to terms with what happened to them. She is a hurting unit and is being played (to the hilt) by the Islamics as a convert "poster child". This is a known strategy of theirs in the war against the West (see #17 Anonymous 2U for other such examples of forward-planning). She can no longer be considered a legitimte journalist in any respect, and certainly not an ivestigative reporter. She needs serious therapy and "reality" education. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-05-18 2:55:02 PM |
| #19 Raptor is right. An attack on American soil right before the elections would have an influence on the outcome, but it would be the opposite of that in Spain. Bush would win easily and the gloves would come off. |
| Posted by: jn1 2004-05-18 2:25:49 PM |
| #18 re: Yvonne Ridley Yvonne Ridley, Al-Jazeera.net YVONNE RIDLEY, TALIBAN CAPTIVE, SOON-TO-BE MUSLIM The famous burka that led to Ridley's arrest "They tried to break me mentally by asking the same questions time and time again, day after day, sometimes until 9 o'clock at night," she recalls. Where was the Red Cross? Oh, the Cross was forbidden in pious Afghanistan. Muslim Convert Whilst in prison Yvonne tried to secure her release by offering to read the Koran or Qur'an. It was the start of her conversion to Islam. Check out her photo. Her past and future condensed into a single image. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-05-18 2:07:46 PM |
| #17 Some of you might have forgotten what the Norweigan Defense Research Establishment ran across link Bjorn Staerk 3/12: "The research group regularly gathers information which appears on Islamist website on the Internet, but doesn't have time to go through everything in detail. After the attack in Madrid yesterday, they did a search on "Spain" in the documents they have gathered, and made an interesting discovery. .. - What we found was a 42 page strategy document, where an anonymous author discusses what strategy to use to force the coalition lead by the US out of Iraq, says researcher Thomas Hegghammer. .. It concludes that one should go for a domino effect, where one first pressures one country to pull out, so the others may follow. The author points to Spain as that country in the coalition which it would be most convenient to attack. Of the 42 pages in the document, which is written in Arabic, and was probably made last autumn, there are six pages about Spain. "To make the Spanish government pull out of Iraq, the Muslim resistance forces must direct blows against the Spanish forces, and these must be joined by information about the situation in Iraq .. one must take maximum advantage of the approaching election in Spain in March next year .. we expect the Spanish government won't withstand more than two, maximum three, such attacks, because of pressure from public opinion. If they nevertheless should remain in Iraq, their continued presence will become an important issue for the Socialist Party." The information in the document indicates that the person who wrote it is familiar with Spain and Spanish politics. It contains a discussion on Spanish election results all the way back to 1982." --- But we've always expected booms here, just a matter of when. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-05-18 1:48:24 PM |
| #16 "I'm sure the Taliban would be courteous and respectful to a US soldier or to a western garbed female of any nationality." -are you 'mucking' w/us? If your being serious, then please, buy a one-way ticket to Kabul, pack your best set of army surplus duds and walk due east until picked up by friendly hospital diaper-headed talibanos and test your hypothesis for real. I'll be awaiting your made for internet video. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-18 12:26:00 PM |
| #15 I'm sure the Taliban would be courteous and respectful to a US soldier or to a western garbed female of any nationality. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4912 2004-05-18 12:19:46 PM |
| #14 While the jihadists may have read Spains reaction right,doing the same here would be a huge mistake. Just look at how America reacted after 9/11,2 countries struck fro the list. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-05-18 8:45:34 AM |
| #13 While the possibility of jihadist violence before the elections exists, I'm more concerned about pre-election violence from the leftists. That would have a much more corrosive effect on American life than another jihadist strike. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-18 7:06:50 AM |
| #12 Lucky, while AQ did threaten Spain prior to the bombing. You are right there is no direct evidence that the timing was intended to influence the elections. I consider it a reasonable presumption and even if it was entirely coincidental, I am sure the lesson has been learned that elections can be influenced by terrorism to produce governments that are less hawkish on the WoT. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-18 4:08:07 AM |
| #11 Phil B, was that officially stated? By whom? Or was that an educated guess? Of course if al jizz, The Madrid Trib, or El Mundo say so, well must be true, no? My point is that jihadies pull the trigger when they are ready. Rafael has a good point and I don't discount it. But I'm not sold on the idea that jihadies had/have a wrench ready to turn to flip Spain's or our election. Easy rhetoric but lets not be easily lead. As I'm so easily lead to be. But okay, two weeks before the election lets go code red. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-18 3:22:17 AM |
| #10 Lucky, the timing of the Madrid booms was deliberately just before the elections. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-18 3:02:18 AM |
| #9 Super Hose, I did see the flick. I enjoyed it too. Karls action were profound. His actions can be argued both ways. But I found his reasoning, if not right, well reasoned. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-18 2:54:20 AM |
| #7 Allow me to quote an applicable sections of Karl's wisdom: Karl: [on the phone] Yes, Ma'am. I've killed Doyle Hargraves with a lawnmower blade. I hit him two good whacks in the head with it. That second one just plum near cut his head in two... It's a lil' ol' white house on the corner of Vine Street and some other street. There's a pick-up truck out front that says "Doyle Hargraves Construction" on it. Doyle said besides sending the police, you might wanna send an ambulance or a "hearst". I'll be sitting here, waiting on ye. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-18 2:41:29 AM |
| #6 Rafael, they may. But if not, will they not pull the trigger when they are ready, election or not? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-18 2:39:14 AM |
| #5 what was I wrong about? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-18 2:36:59 AM |
| #4 I'm not totally convinced that the jihadies had the Spanish election even on their minds They do now. The Spaniards gave them a morale boost such that they have never seen. A slogan for every future election: "Will they? Or won't they?" |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-05-18 2:32:30 AM |
| #3 Sorry Lucky you are wrong, although the Jihadis were probably surprised how well it worked in Spain, but the lesson has been learned. Booms in the USA before the Nov election are a cast iron certainty. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-18 2:27:52 AM |
| #2 If they attack innocent people in America again, I expect that our country will be moved to follow the teachings of Karl Childers. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-18 2:22:45 AM |
| #1 I'm not totally convinced that the jihadies had the Spanish election even on their minds. May have just tried to pull a trigger when all the pieces were in place. Jihadies, is their nothing they don't know? I wonder, but lets not just go for whatever is the reason dur jour. The jihadies will do whatever to lash out and kill. Thats their deal. "We'll kill you. It is our rightous duty! Our promise to the brotheren who have gone before, our fathers and grandfathers, Abu, I swoon". Lets not be fools. If they go boom before the election and pull the vote for....? Will they not still look for anything to lash out at. This isn't some chess game for these guys, it's a blood libel. For fun, I think these clowns are useing the Missouri blast as a root cause. Just for fun. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-18 2:18:22 AM |