McCain Says Al-Qaeda Preparing to Strike Before Election

[Tab]

Source: Bloomberg

Republican presidential candidate John McCain warned that al-Qaeda will step up terrorist attacks in Iraq leading up to the November election in the U.S.

"Al-Qaeda is on their heels but not defeated," McCain said today at a town hall meeting with General Motors workers in Warren, Michigan. ``I also predict that they will make an attempt, as we get into election season, to make more of these spectacular kinds of attacks'' by suicide bombers to destabilize the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

McCain, an Arizona senator, has spent much of this week touting his foreign policy and war experience while Democratic rival Barack Obama prepared for a trip to the Middle East. McCain has criticized Obama, an Illinois senator, for vowing to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. McCain said the deployment of extra U.S. troops to Iraq last year has worked.

``Senator Obama said the surge would fail. He still fails to admit that it has succeeded,'' McCain said in response to a question from the audience. ``I am confident we will win.''

Earlier this year, McCain adviser Charlie Black caused a controversy when he was quoted in a Fortune magazine interview that the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before the New Hampshire primary ``helped us'' by highlighting that McCain ``is the guy who's ready to be commander in chief.'' Black added that a ``fresh terrorist attack certainly would be a big advantage'' politically.

Black later said he ``deeply'' regretted making the statement and McCain distanced himself from the comments.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah2...

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um, so did we succeed or did we not?

[liberal N proud]

1. Heres the set up

Wait for the follow through

He must know something that he shouldn't be telling us.

[Tab]

7. I don't like it

it follows a well-trodden path.

Although, theoretically, if the Republicans are keeping us safe, this shouldn't happen, right?

WAIT - HOLD ON - WHAT DO I HEAR?

Wolf!

OMG, There it is again!!

Wolf! Wolf!

[Nickster]

12. The follow through is that he's going to start saying the terra-ists are fighting because they want

an Obama win. This playbook is getting stale.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

39. 'See, I told you so!'

Two statements within the same speech:

"Al-Qaeda ... will make an attempt, as we get into election season, to make more of these spectacular kinds of attacks"

"Senator Obama said the surge would fail. He still fails to admit that it has succeeded."

McSame has set it up so he wins either way:

1. No attacks occur: "The surge is working"

2. Attacks occur: "I predicted this would happen."

The question I'd love to hear asked and answered, "Senator, you say the surge is working but to expect major attacks during the election. How do you reconcile these contradictory statements?"

[BearSquirrel2]

48. You beat me to it ...

These creeps have no intellectual integrity. They talk about how "they" protect America but they say nothing about how the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the nation happened on THEIR WATCH by a handful of guys with ceramic box cutters.

"Ok you covered your ass, now get the hell out!!!"

[nightrain]

2. more likely that McSame is preparing to strike. More fear-mongering by neocons.

[lark]

37. Brought to you by the same folks who planned 9/11

Just hoping this time someone has the sanity to stop it before it happens. Don't trust the neo-con pigs one oz.

[zanne]

49. The Republican playbook is very obvious to us...

But once there is a terrorist attack on US soil, nobody dares to say that it happened on purpose. I can see them trying to pull this off if they see they're losing badly right before the election.

[nightrain]

50. I think that the connections between these "attacks" and

US imperialism are pretty clear. I mean, think about it... what decent country wants to be occupied by the US or any other country!?! for the purposes of the US extracting something from the occupied country.

That bumpersticker applies--"Be nice to America or we'll bring democracy to your country." That's "democracy", not the real thing, it's just a cover for the US to extract what it wants from others.

The US "leaders" are just infants emotionally--"gimme, gimme, gimme".

[gateley]

3. So does that mean if he's got such good intel to know this,

that same intel will help Bushco prevent a strike?

So, when nothing happens (since there was never really any plan), the Repubs can say they saved us from another horror?

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Neah neah-neah neah neah. . .booga booga booga !!

[Andy823]

5. I wonder

Where McCain gets his information on this? Karl Rove maybe? McCain is going to us every low down tactic that Bush used to get re-elected, and even if they are all lies, they hope Americans are all to dumb to see what they are doing. Bush and McCain are two peas in a pod, and the both know how to lie through there teeth!

[marmar]

6. There they go again.....

Like a smudged CD....Terra! Terra! Terra!

[Richardo]

8. Your title implies an attack in the U.S. - he said in Iraq, which is a pretty safe bet.

[Tab]

25. Rules of LBN

I have to give the article title.

It's fearmongering nonetheless.

[Richardo]

29. Point taken - I should have said 'The' title - and yes, it makes the fear-mongering worse.

Because it's intentionally misleading.

[tbyg52]

9. He wishes. (Or is arranging.....) nt

[World Citizen]

10. even if for 1 second i believed that

1. wouldn't it mean that 8 years of neocon policy has NOT served to be a deterent?

2. is it possible to believe that a random announcement by a presidential candidate demonstrates tactical vigilance for combating such an attack?

[krispos42]

11. Hmmmm... the terrorists and insurgents know the following...

Conventional wisdom says that increased terrorism threat swings Americans Republican because Republicans are perceived as stronger on the issue

Conventional wisdom also says that decreased terrorism thread swings Americans Democratic because Democrats are perceived as weaker on the issue


IF the terrorists and insurgents are planning to act up before the election, then that would indicate that they perfer a Republican in office because it benefits them somehow!



Seems to me that if the terrorists really wanted to face a wussy, weak, cowardly, and ineffective Democratic administration instead of a aggressive, stong, brave, and effective Republican administration, wouldn't the terrorists wait until AFTER the election to act up?

[Epiphany4z]

13. der

Republican presidential candidate John McCain warned that al-Qaeda will step up terrorist attacks in Iraq leading up to the November election in the U.S.

are we starting to move surge soldiers out of Iraq and send more to Afghanistan?
Haven't we been saying once the surge draws down the violence will pick up?

could it be because the surge really didn't work?

lmao you just have to love republicans....voilence will increasing because the surge was successful and Obama won't admit it...gawd I can't vote soon enough.

PS> 1000th post!!! WOOOT!

[Tab]

26. Congrats on your 1000! Welcome to the club!

[AzDar]

14. Am I to understand that even with the illegal wiretapping , and torture; along with all those

super-effective security measures at the airports (my moisturizer COULD be explosive, y'know), these STUPID MOTHERFUCKING REPUBLICANS still cannot keep us safe?

Why, they are utterly, UTTERLY worthless, aren't they ??

ASSHOLES.

[lark]

38. Well, duh

Can you think of one single good thing that's been done by the Repugs since BFEE stole control of our country? I sure can't. I used to say there was no such thing as a totally evil person, but after Cheney, I'm beginning to thing I was wrong about that.

[Virginia Dare]

15. McCain out peddling death and destruction..

my my, what a surprise that is. In his desperation to stay on the press corp's radar screen while Obama takes the world by storm, I just hope he puts his foot so dip in his shit-filled mouth that his entire campaign implodes.

[olddad56]

16. The Bushco planned the last one, they can always plan another one.

[Phred42]

17. Did he mean Blackwater or Al Caeda ( aplumber from Jersy.

[bowens43]

18. So basically

he's saying that the current administration and it's republican lap dogs in congress have done nothing to hinder Al Qaeda'a ability to attack. Why does he think tios works in his favor?

Al qaeda was created by a republican administration, 911 happened when republicans controlled both congress and the oval office, Bin Laden is still free, Afghanistan is more violent then any time since the beginning of the war and Irag is still a mess.

Why should we elecet republicans?

[mitchum]

19. So, he's sharing pillow talk now?

[hatrack]

20. So, the "War On Terror" isn't working? If it were, there wouldn't be this threat . . .

. . . would there, Senator?

[yellowcanine]

21. Sounds as if McCain is trying to have it both ways - he "distanced himself" from Black's statement

but it is ok for him to wave the bloody terra shirt?

[Tempest]

22. McSame flip-flops in less than one day

Today:
"Al-Qaeda is on their heels but not defeated,"

Yesterday:
“I am happy to stand in front of you to tell you that this strategy has succeeded. It has succeeded. It has succeeded,”

[Indenturedebtor]

31. You can have both realities exist simultaneously in a barely functioning brain

THis will resonate well with GOOPER morons. Who needs reason when you have faith?

[superconnected]

23. Another repuke runs on putting Fear into the masses.

And I don't doubt it. Bet the sicko-murderer-world-class-thief et. all George W. Bush and or Prick Cheney called him up and let him know it'd happen.

[Bette Noir]

24. Normally, I don't like conspiracy theories,

But this kind of statement from the Republican nominee makes a certain kind of sense...

If Osama had been caught and brought to justice, the Repubs couldn't keep using this kind of threat. It's like Al Qaeda is the Repubs pet bogeyman: "Do as we say, or Al Qaeda will get you." If Osama were safely behind bars, and Al Qaeda definitively defeated, the Repubs would lose their chief talking-point.

[Tab]

27. 'Zactly

Whether the USSR or Cuba or AQ, we need a bogeyman.

There's no focused profit in peace.

(actually, there's a lot of profit in peace, but nothing they can easily invest in, according to their reptilian brains)

[arikara]

32. Would that be the fat Osama, or the skinny Osama

What was the name of that old TV show where the panel had to guess which person was real?

Al Qaeda is a construct of the sick minds who perpetrated 911. And they were never in Iraq to begin with. Unfortunately the media, being the propaganda arm of those sick minds keeps pushing the lie.

[Winston.]

33. Is he still alive ?

There were many reports of Bin Laden dying in December of 2001, reports confirmed by leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and a few European leaders, shortly after that we got to see him again in a video, he did not look the same, was fatter, wrote with his right hand, when he is known to be left handed, but the main thing is that he admitted responsibility for the 911 attacks. Also the military just happened to find this video tape in an abandoned house...

[bdamomma]

28. just totally obsessed with death and destruction

[atjrpsych]

30. I think fear is the repugs only tactic!!

Lets try to scare everyone into electing McCain, it worked for 8 years.

[kay1864]

34. BWAH! Not only is this scare tactics, it's STUPID scare tactics!

ie how can McFudd tell an Al Qaeda IED from a plain old Iraqi insurgent IED?

And do all the official Al Qaeda suicide bombers wear the secret Al Qaeda decoder ring?

What a maroon.

[scarface2004]

35. which will be a big advantage to the GOP!!!

since they are such macho assholes!!!

[TrogL]

36. get ready for another MIHOP or LIHOP

[katty]

40. Right on 'cue'- right McSame?! Fearmongering-Same old mcSame

[damntexdem]

41. Hey, you dumb shit McCain, you're not supposed to spill this before the fix is in.

and your adviser Black is not supposed to highlight the "operation" before it occurs, either.

[Warren Stupidity]

42. Rudy, is that you?

[Maestro]

43. The neocon playbook is getting old.

[and-justice-for-all]

44. Fearmongering and lying...

fuck McBush.

[badgervan]

45. Two Days Ago.....

.... mcsame said, four times, that we had "won" in Iraq. The same day, he said that "victory" was "still possible" in Iraq. Now he pulls this goofy stunt/statement.
This jerk is spinning so hard and fast that even he can't keep his stories straight. Does the MSMedia report this? We know the answer.

[6000eliot]

46. And what are the chances of Bin Laden releasing a "message" the weekend before the election?

[ohio2007]

47. What does he know and when did he know it ?

French search for stolen Semtex

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28kg (61 lb) of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. France's interior ministry confirmed an investigation was underway, saying the manager of the site had been suspended.

snip
Police said detonators were also missing and that they are treating the theft "very seriously".

snip
Police said the discovery that the Semtex was missing was made on Friday but admitted the explosives could have been taken up to a week ago. In a statement released late on Friday the interior ministry said there had been "security failings" which had made the theft possible.

Police sources have declined to confirm a newspaper website report which said that the store had been unguarded.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7514858.stm


inquiring minds want to know


Pitfalls for Obama on world tour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7512959.stm

[Riddler]

51. And I bet he doesn't need Viagra to get a woody thinking about it.

[AlphaCentauri]

52. He may be having some briefings in the situation like he did in Colombia

when the hostages were released