By Bonnie Goldstein
Posted Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, at 5:49 PM ET Osama Bin Laden, in his recent rant to the "People of America" (transcript below and on the following five pages), objects to the bad rap he and his fellows have gotten "for a long time now by your politicians." In his 26-minute videotape, Bin Laden cautions against believing the "biased campaign" directed at Americans "by way of your media, especially Hollywood" (Page 2). Ya knock down two measly skyscrapers (plus, OK, a good-sized chunk of the Pentagon) and they never let ya forget it. ...
Americans' problem, Bin Laden wants you to know, is the capitalist system, the "greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans." Capitalism has turned "the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations." Lest you mistake Bin Laden for a left-winger, please note that he also harbors contempt for "insane taxes" (Page 4). This last raises the tantalizing possibility that Bin Laden is prepared to sign Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Bin Laden's video, produced by al-Qaida media arm al-Sahab, first appeared with an English translation on the Web site of SITE Institute, a private Washington, D.C., group set up to "search for international terrorist entities." The group's paid subscribers include "[l]arge, high-profile corporations" that wish to monitor threats to their "assets and employees." TiVo alert: Al-Sahab says that Bin Laden will appear in another videotape to be made public on the sixth anniversary of 9/11.
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By Bonnie Goldstein
Posted Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, at 5:49 PM ET Bonnie Goldstein is a former special investigator to the U.S. Senate and investigative producer for ABC News.
Remarks from the Fray:
Thanks to Slate for giving us another chance to at least encounter other opinions - whether we agree with them or not.
I would certainly tend to AGREE with BL in his assessment that the US administration uses its ideals as mere lipservice to cover its real motives, that the US administration (dominated in almost all key positions by 'ex-' big corporate cronies) is really simply a voice for Big Business interests and that these interests subvert and use the ideals simply to further their own interests. In a rare display of honesty, John Bolton recently stated quite openly that the US is and will continue to pursue its OWN interests and agenda in the Middle East and Iraq, and the sooner the Iraqis realised it and came to terms with it, the sooner a settlement could be reached.
Where we might differ with BL is that he looks to a palpably FAILED system as his answer. There were times when the Moslem culture was more open and tolerant than the West but anyone who has read the history of the Ottoman and Seljuk Turks at their height (let alone the recent rule of the 'Faithful' in Afghanistan) would hardly look to Moslem theocratic rule as the answer to this world's problems.
It is certainly true that BL has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in affecting and changing the world but his main success has been in allowing the extremists of the other side to use it as an excuse to further their own selfish interests and agenda, and to enrich the oil and armaments industries as they could never have hoped to do without his activities. The victor has been extremism and greed on both sides. So what we need to do is to try to make the PURPORTED ideals of the US into the REAL SYSTEM and apply it equitably - instead of milking the poor third world for the benefit of US and western society, and rich corporations in particular, we need to find ways spread the wealth and prosperity, the freedom and democracy, and regrettably I cannot see BL's theocratic society or ANY theocratic society (with their long long history of intolerance and cruelty) becoming the means to achieving this.
--distantvoice
(To reply, click here.)
(9/14)
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Remarks from the Fray:
Thanks to Slate for giving us another chance to at least encounter other opinions - whether we agree with them or not.
I would certainly tend to AGREE with BL in his assessment that the US administration uses its ideals as mere lipservice to cover its real motives, that the US administration (dominated in almost all key positions by 'ex-' big corporate cronies) is really simply a voice for Big Business interests and that these interests subvert and use the ideals simply to further their own interests. In a rare display of honesty, John Bolton recently stated quite openly that the US is and will continue to pursue its OWN interests and agenda in the Middle East and Iraq, and the sooner the Iraqis realised it and came to terms with it, the sooner a settlement could be reached.
Where we might differ with BL is that he looks to a palpably FAILED system as his answer. There were times when the Moslem culture was more open and tolerant than the West but anyone who has read the history of the Ottoman and Seljuk Turks at their height (let alone the recent rule of the 'Faithful' in Afghanistan) would hardly look to Moslem theocratic rule as the answer to this world's problems.
It is certainly true that BL has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in affecting and changing the world but his main success has been in allowing the extremists of the other side to use it as an excuse to further their own selfish interests and agenda, and to enrich the oil and armaments industries as they could never have hoped to do without his activities. The victor has been extremism and greed on both sides. So what we need to do is to try to make the PURPORTED ideals of the US into the REAL SYSTEM and apply it equitably - instead of milking the poor third world for the benefit of US and western society, and rich corporations in particular, we need to find ways spread the wealth and prosperity, the freedom and democracy, and regrettably I cannot see BL's theocratic society or ANY theocratic society (with their long long history of intolerance and cruelty) becoming the means to achieving this.
--distantvoice
(To reply, click here.)
(9/14)